How B2B suppliers can increase market share: a scalable strategy

Our report, Procure-to-Pay platforms: Maximising market coverage, explores this topic in detail. It covers how EDI can be leveraged as middleware to automate the exchange of all communications between customers, P2P platforms and suppliers.

In this blog, you’ll learn how EDI middleware enhances this strategy further to ensure B2B suppliers make the most of Procure-to-Pay platform marketplaces.

Procure-to-Pay platform marketplaces are attractive to B2B suppliers as they overcome one of the challenges of being able to secure new customer contracts; market visibility.

Many organisations have adopted these platforms to improve the management of their procurement processes. Suppliers are able to list their product catalogues on these platforms in a marketplace that buyer organisations can view and decide on the right products/services. Organisations that follow this B2B supplier strategy should consider listings on multiple Procure-to-Pay (P2P) platforms. This is because each Procure-to-Pay platform serves a different audience (could be industry specific or general). For this reason, B2B suppliers that serve many different business types and industry verticals should list their product catalogues on all relevant P2P platform marketplaces.

However, managing various P2P platform listings, new customer contracts, alongside internal processes in back-office systems is a challenge. Examples include high order volumes, consolidating P2P data, and ongoing communications with the end customers. This often leads to time-consuming manual processes that also run the risk of errors. Therefore, finding a solution to reduce this complexity whilst keeping costs low and allowing for scale is essential.

This is where harnessing EDI as one-to-many middleware for P2P platforms comes in. We are able to offer expert insight on this subject following a large-scale project for a client. Our tailored approach to the client’s needs ensured rapid onboarding of P2P platforms to achieve maximum market coverage.

The critical success factors of this project lay in the approach to onboarding and leveraging a wider set of EDI message types. We cover both of these topics in the following sections.

So, the first challenge is how to onboard all the P2P platforms you wish to connect with, at speed.

P2P platforms represent a great opportunity to generate new revenue at a lower Cost of Acquisition (COA). Using digital automation solutions to manage these complex trading connections is also a natural first port of call. However, it is so commonplace for these kinds of onboarding projects to overrun outside deadlines, or worse, never even go live!

This can be avoided by entrusting a provider to harness EDI as a “one-to-many” middleware layer. This approach allows for an onboarding framework that can configure, test and push live these complex projects in short time frames. It also offers further operational cost savings as opposed to setting up individual connections for each P2P platform.

Transalis use the following framework for any onboarding project:

Effective communication is central to all good business relations. For suppliers, this is especially critical.

For example, delivery delays can have knock-on effects, potentially even leading to the cancellation of a contract. This is why it is important to automate as much of the communication process as possible. EDI has a broad range of call-off-type messages. Our recommendation is to adopt standard EDI messages and include them in the message exchange via integration with P2P platforms. Adding these supplier-side messages via P2P platforms is essential for operational efficiency and, importantly, to meet buyer SLAs.

Below is just a small sample of the most commonly used EDIFACT-type supplier messages within the P2P message suite:

Additional P2P message types include:

We have successfully executed a project, as mentioned above, for a B2B supplier that was already using P2P platform marketplaces.

This client had a vast network of customers (over 300) across 15 P2P platforms, which was a lucrative sales channel. The client came to us to help them replace and improve upon their P2P middleware solution, as the incumbent was being withdrawn from service. This was a very time-sensitive project, with a 4-month hard deadline. If this was not actioned in time, customers would not have been able to order, which would have a long-term impact on our client’s brand reputation.

To guarantee the client would meet the required ‘go-live’ date, Transalis deployed their rapid onboarding strategy, which proved pivotal to the project’s success. This meant that all connections were delivered within 9 weeks. Furthermore, the client has also been able to expand their client base and scale this area of the business, by adding an extra 100 customers within 4 weeks. A result which, during such an unstable economic period, is highly sought after to future-proof business.

Procure-to-Pay (P2P) sites offer potential access to new markets. Businesses can maximise their exposure to potential buyers, and, more importantly, win new business at a lower cost of acquisition.

Making this a successful B2B supplier strategy, however, requires broad reach across as many P2P platforms as possible. To avoid complexity and additional costs, B2B suppliers need to leverage existing EDI capability to do the heavy lifting and remove error-prone and time-consuming manual processes. Businesses embarking on a project like this must ensure the onboarding plan is robust and takes into consideration the full scope of messages needed.

With opportunities for greater supply chain efficiency and business growth, the benefits of rapidly connecting to P2P platforms is obvious. Transalis fully understands the importance of resourcing these projects correctly. That is why our eDI Connect+ bundle includes a choice of platform integration and onboarding support as standard. Take a look at the selection of popular P2P platforms on our integrations page.