2010 Holds Opportunity in Supplier Enablement - Part 1

Happy Holidays.

As we close 2009 I've been catching up on some reading and stumbled across some Aberdeen Group research. The piece on supplier enablement across the world, was shocking. North America (34%) lags both Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) (36%) and Asia/Pacific (41%) in electronically processed purchase orders. Paper requisitioning versus EDI requisitioning is as follows across the regions...EMEA $42.90/paper order and $34.05/EDI order, North America $37.45/paper order and $23.83/EDI order, Asia/Pacific $23.90/paper order and $14.78/EDI order.

There are a bunch of conclusions one can draw from the body of the research but two things were obvious to me from the above. With 34% of North American supplier orders being processed electronically, we still have the opportunity to squeeze a lot of costs from the supply chain with EDI and integration. Also, the multi country/culture/currency complexities of the EMEA region definitely increases the cost of procurement, and I would say doing business in general.

Those are my observations from doing business in North America, any thoughts from those familiar with the EMEA and Asia/Pacific regions?

Part 2 - 2010 Holds Opportunity in Supplier Enablement.

Aberdeen research source: http://www.aberdeen.com/c/report/sector_insights/5097-SI-supplier-enablement-enterprise.pdf