SAP continues to act on our vision of enabling companies to create transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains across a massive amount of trading partners. We’re being recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment.
Why SAP Is a Leader
In an increasingly digitalized world, it is imperative that companies stay connected via a business network. I believe SAP was selected as a Leader because SAP Business Network – our entry into the Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network space – can successfully drive buyer-supplier collaboration across procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management by providing a digital platform for trading partners to collaborate externally and exchange data just as, if not more, efficiently as their own internal processes.
The IDC MarketScape report notes these competitive strengths of SAP Business Network:
- Depth and breadth of product features and functionalities, as well as a future road map covering all major B2B collaboration categories (indirect, direct material, MRO logistics, financial, services, and sustainability) and scenarios in an end user, persona-based manner.
- Integration and extensibility capabilities include integration between SAP ERP, SAP procurement modules, other applications like ERP, SCAM, and customer applications, and technologies such as machine learning, AI, and blockchain through SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
- Global adoption and breadth of collaboration makes SAP among the industry’s largest, highly adopted B2B collaboration platforms enabling trading partners to collaborate in real time. Ongoing efforts to harmonize commerce, asset intelligence, and logistics continue to enhance the power of the connected economy.
The IDC MarketScape report notes, “Manufacturers and retailers looking for a vendor of both a multi-enterprise network and supply chain procurement application should consider SAP,” citing the “breadth and depth of [its] business network capabilities, strategic road map vision, and unmatched integration with core SAP and non-SAP supply chain and procurement applications,” making SAP a strong choice.
Charting the Evolution of SAP Business Network
I’m so pleased that as a pioneer in business networks, we continue to be recognized for our commitment to executing our vision. As we’ve continued to evolve our road map, I’m reflecting on how far we’ve come and paved the way for the future of intelligent business networks. From the founding of Ariba Supplier Network in 1996 to what we’ve become today, SAP Business Network touches US$4.9 trillion in commerce annually across many business processes and industries and has over 2 million active users on the network.
Recent years have shown us that intelligent, digital business networks are essential to supporting an agile supply chain. SAP Business Network is a comprehensive platform that helps connect people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises, ultimately creating transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains that can span the globe and be tailored to each line of business, helping to drive partner collaboration beyond a company’s own four walls and spanning the entire value chain.
I’m proud to say that SAP Business Network can provide best-in-class supply chain collaboration, helping companies adhere to legal mandates, scale with confidence, and automate repetitive tasks, leaving more time for strategic decision-making informed by patterns gleaned from vast amounts of data. Our vision – what so many talented people at SAP are working towards every day – is to create the world’s best and largest B2B marketplace to help our customers meet their business goals.
Recent Advancements Continue to Revolutionize B2B Collaboration
If you know SAP, you know about our commitment to continuous innovation. In 2023, we announced many exciting innovations around SAP Business Network, including:
- Build on artificial intelligence in SAP Business Network. My colleague Muhammad Alam announced our plans to further integrate generative AI in spend management at SAP Spend Connect Live. Customers can look forward to enriched supplier responses to SAP Business Network Discovery postings, helping to facilitate more transparent communication between buyers and suppliers. Generative AI improvements can give suppliers the ability to generate clear, concise catalog descriptions, as well as summarize common errors for users so buyers can find exactly what they’re looking for.
- Tackle industry-specific challenges with SAP Business Network for Industry. We’ve combined our more than 50 years of industry knowledge with the power of business networks to help customers address industry-specific supply chain challenges. Take a look at how companies across industries use SAP Business Network to help predict and respond to disruptions, comply with industry regulations, and meet sustainability goals.
- Learn more with trading partner insights. Account managers struggle with obtaining comparative measures to assess the performance of trading partners. New KPIs and benchmarks, presented in a streamlined dashboard, can allow suppliers to evaluate customer transaction performance of orders, invoices, and payments with automatically generated KPIs and SAP Business Network community benchmarks. These insights can support collaborative dialogues with customers to help reduce transaction costs and mitigate business risk. Watch the demo to learn more.
- Draw insights from data with component planning collaboration. With component planning collaboration, buyers and suppliers can view the forecast planning data for a finished good together with its components. Armed with this visibility, buyers and suppliers can respond to material shortages and adjust production accordingly, making supply more predictable. Learn more in this demo.
Stay tuned for more exciting innovations this year. Stay up-to-date about recent and upcoming innovations and explore road maps here.
Transforming the Future of Business Networks
I am proud that SAP is being recognized as a leader in delivering solutions that connect people, processes, and systems, enabling trading partners to collaborate effectively. I can’t wait to see our road map continue to come to life as we collaborate with our customers to develop innovations that help them achieve their business objectives by automating tasks, scaling efficiently, and operating sustainably.
To learn more, visit the SAP Business Network product page and read the full IDC MarketScape report here.
Tony Harris is senior vice president and chief marketing and solutions officer for SAP Business Network.
*IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the circles. Vendor year-over-year growth rate relative to the given market is indicated by a plus, neutral or minus next to the vendor name.
