Growth Strategies
Strategic Budget Planning for Manufacturers During Economic Downturns: The Importance of B2B E-Commerce New Post
Last week, I had what turned out to be the last conversation in a six month long dialogue with the IT Director of a $4B US based Manufacturer of Packaging Materials. He informed me that the SAP Integrated B2B eCommerce project that we were being considered for was awarded to someone else. I was stunned since we were such a perfect fit. I thought that his sister division’s delayed 18 months long, money sucking hybri$ implementation served as the perfect foil to our many client referenceable, 90 day money back guaranteed, real-time SAP B2B solution.
Who could have stolen this project from us? It had to be a new entrant into the market. One that I’ve never heard of. No one else could do what we proposed to do in the time frame and price that we quoted.
I. Was. Heartbroken.
Until he told me how they decided to solve their B2B eCommerce challenge.
So, in August of the year 2016, this is the three part solution that this $4B company has committed to provide to (not for) their customers:
Personally, I get wanting to abolish fax orders in 2016. It is 2016 after all and Napoleon first transmitted faxes in 1860 for god’s sake! I think technology has advanced somewhat in the last 156 years. But telling your customers that you’re not going to accept faxes at all seems a little customer un-friendly…to say the least. But hey, maybe when you are the 900 pound gorilla in your market you can get away with it. Correction, their business declined by 7% last year. I guess that makes them an 837 pound gorilla :-).
That’s it folks. That’s the solution that Corevist lost to.
Oh wait! I forgot to tell you one thing. They won’t be able to deliver this Dark Ages solution until April of 2017.
So, I’m not heartbroken anymore. In fact, I’m quite excited because while this story seems like an outlier, I have a CRM system full of SAP Manufacturers who aren’t that far ahead of these folks on their respective “digital journeys”.
All that means is that I have something to look forward to in 2018-2023 :-). That’ll be the Renaissance period for all those manufacturers that will be awakening to the threat of their imminent extinction.
Onward!
Sam