In personal and family relationships, neighbor and neighborhood matters, religious matters maybe at your place of worship, and certainly in politics, people's perspectives on issues differ and sometimes greatly!
They say "perception is reality" which is why you will find people vehemently defend their positions on a topic, and on occasion with the right argument be swayed to another point of view.
And why would it be any different in business...
B2B integration perspectives often differ between business and IT managers. While they both feel that integration is important, they see the importance from different angles. Business managers, understandably, place more importance on business related impacts such as relationship, compliance, and increased revenue. IT managers on the other hand put more importance on infrastructure and automation. These differing viewpoints define the need for collaboration between business and IT.
B2B networks continue to grow in complexity, it’s important that these two teams can find their common ground. One topic does come to the front of the line for both groups. Automation! When we talk about bridging the gap between IT and Business, they both find common ground when it comes to automating the B2B network. I read recently that of companies surveyed; only 24% considered themselves “Fully Automated”. So why is automation so difficult?
When it came to top operational challenges, 46% of business managers rely on IT to troubleshoot and resolve problems, this can quickly overwhelm IT teams. Finding a balance between supporting and innovation is very difficult, especially if your EDI/B2B/MFT staff does not have the experience/expertise or is constantly fixing errors and resolving process breakdowns. The same business managers also site IT as the biggest reason they do not have fully automated B2B integration. IT departments are routinely faced with the struggle to support the volume of the B2B community as well as difficult technical requirements.
Whether you’re on the business side or the IT side, you have likely faced these challenges. I recently ran across a great Infographic titled “Bridging the IT & Business Gap” and thought I would pass it along to you. Improving the relationship between business and IT and bridging that gap to enable growth and B2B automation is imperative to any business. Bridging that gap is difficult when the business side sees IT as a speed bump and IT is struggling under pressure possibly without enough resources or the best tools for automation objectives.
We've also recently added some new B2B and MFT resources to our website, don't forget to check them out!
If your IT team is struggling with resources or integration/automation tools, let REMEDI help. REMEDI has 20 years of B2B Integration, MFT, and EDI experience to share and sometimes it just takes that helping hand or training to give your IT team the boost it needs. Give us a call for help with the speed bumps that lie before you...
