LG Electronics Selects GXS to Support Global ERP and B2B Consolidation

SEOUL, Korea and GAITHERSBURG, Md. — GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced that LG Electronics, a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, has chosen GXS Trading Grid(R) to consolidate and centralize its interactions with more than 200 global trading partners. The move is part of a broader LG strategy to reduce complexity in its supply chain operations by centralizing its geographically- dispersed enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia-Pacific at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea and to centralize its B2B e-commerce functions onto a unified global platform.

LG reported revenues of $44B in 2007 from four business units — Mobile Communications, Digital Appliances, Digital Display and Digital Media. As a leader in the highly competitive consumer electronics sector, LG’s success depends upon its ability to coordinate supply chain activities and share real- time information with a network of contract manufacturers, third party logistics providers and consumer electronics retailers around the world. GXS Trading Grid supports a broad range of e-commerce standards (e.g., EDI, XML, KEDIFACT, RosettaNet and AS2) and extensive global reach throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Consolidation of B2B transactions onto a single vendor, GXS, provides LG’s IT organization with centralized operations in Korea to support its trading partners based in more than 70 countries.

“Since 2001 GXS has consistently provided LG Electronics with reliable and effective B2B integration services,” said SunYoung (Sarah) Oh, assistant manager, Information Strategy Team of LG Electronics. “As we’ve grown as a company in the last 50 years, so has the complexity of our supply chain. Reducing that complexity was as important to our company as ensuring global integration capabilities and increasing real-time visibility into our trading partner network. GXS is the only B2B integration vendor we have found that can easily support all three of these initiatives.”

Prior to consolidating with GXS, LG Electronics used multiple B2B e- commerce providers that were managed independently by local B2B centers distributed around the world. The use of multiple vendors led to duplicate processes and inconsistent capabilities, complicating LG’s efforts to manage its trading partner network. Furthermore, the company was slow to respond to trading partner needs and incurred higher costs because of duplicate traffic and an inability to leverage its total transaction volume to reduce its overall B2B e-commerce costs.

“Through its move to consolidate its ERP systems and B2B networks, LG is standing as an example of how a truly global company can operate efficiently and effectively,” said Raymond Teh, vice president of Asia Pacific for GXS, “Many companies operate in geographic silos when it comes to their trading partner networks and as a result, they have no idea of the scope of their networks and cannot gain real-time visibility into activities. The consolidation of LG’s ERP systems will give the company a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As a global B2B provider with a local presence in Korea and throughout Asia Pacific, GXS is well positioned to help other multi-national corporations based in Asia, and anywhere in the world, consolidate their B2B e-commerce networks.”

GXS Trading Grid is a global B2B e-commerce and integration platform that supports the creation and adoption of on-demand supply chain management solutions for companies of any size. As the world’s largest electronic business community, GXS Trading Grid is used by more than 30,000 customers to exchange goods and services, gain visibility into global logistics operations and to synchronize product data. Trading Grid helps customers automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative processes and enabling the highest levels of B2B integration and collaboration.

About LG Electronics

Established in 1958, LG Electronics, Inc. (LG) is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, employing more than 82,000 people working in over 114 operations including 82 subsidiaries around the world. With 2007 global sales of USD 44 billion, LG is comprised of four business units – Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display and Digital Media. LG is the world’s leading producer of Mobile handsets, air conditioners, front- loading washing machines, optical storage products, DVD players, flat panel TVs and home theater systems.

About GXS

GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration among trading partners. Organizations worldwide, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500, leverage the on-demand services on GXS Trading Grid(R) to extend supply chain networks, optimize product launches, automate warehouse receiving, manage electronic payments and gain supply chain visibility. GXS Managed Services, GXS’ B2B outsourcing solution, empowers customers with the expertise, technical infrastructure and program support to conduct B2B e- commerce with trading partners globally.

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS has an extensive global network and has local offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. GXS can be found on the Web at www.gxs.com.

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SOURCE GXS

 

EDI Still Dominant in B2B

Despite the advances in B2B integration technologies such as XML, a recent Forrester report by Ken Vollmer showed that EDI still accounts for 85-90% of B2B transactions. However, the growth projections of other forms of B2B including stateful and stateless XML is expected to grow faster than EDI. Surprisingly, the survey indicated that 61% of respondent trade electronically with less than 10% of their customers. This is due to the fact that cost of EDI prohibited it being implemented with the smaller partners, suppliers and customers. However, time and resources for remediating errors of manual transactions is motivating companies to take a more comprehensive approach to their B2B solutions. Generally speaking, manual transactions are an order of magnitude more expensive to process than automated transactions.

I spoke to Ryan Kraudel, Director of B2B Managed Services for GXS about the survey. GXS has 35,000 customers, including 70% of the Fortune 500. Kraudel indicated that one of the biggest areas of growth he is seeing is an outsourced B2B offering. The GXS service includes a subscription to a multi-tenant SaaS platform along with services to enable trading partner on-boarding, which can include a portal, web interfaces, as well as direct system to system integration. The offering includes process automation and provides end-to-end transaction visibility, including all the related documents to each transaction.

Kraudel indicated GXS is seeing a lot of interest in this offering from companies going through an ERP upgrade or implementation which requires redoing all the B2B integration maps. Outsourcing the B2B mapping lets the company focus on the internal aspects of the ERP project. It also enables companies to upgrade to new standards and technologies without having to implement all new technology. Kraudel claims that GXS customers who outsource their B2B implementation average 30-40% cost savings, and report up to a 60% increase in customer satisfaction. GXS also has 80% of the world’s logistics providers connected into the trading grid. GXS adds a layer of visibility across the logistics, and enables elimination of the manual processes in the supply chain and trading partner interactions.

As companies move toward more SOA environments, they can more easily integrate directly into their system of record, which are generally ERP systems. The hosted offering also provides a high level of security, which is an essential component for engendering trust between partners. The platform offers certificate management and brokering of certificates, as well as process certification required for compliance.

GXS also provides dashboards and SLA visibility. The online interface allows subscribers to see if some transactions are slowing down, as well as where in the process the slowdown is occurring. There are both reactive and proactive support levels. The standard reactive level is a support desk. Proactive support includes transaction monitoring and management of all alerts and exceptions. Future plans include the ability to enable customers to create their own dashboards based on KPIs that could be different across different parts of the business, and the ability to provide predictive capabilities within the dashboards.

While EDI continues to dominate B2B today, moving forward customers are demanding more Web 2.0 functionality, as well as the ability to connect more trading partners and increase the percentage of automated transactions to dramatically decrease costs. Especially in the B2B space the SaaS delivery model seems a very logical choice to enable an evolutionary approach.

 

ForeignTRADEX Connects U.S. and Australian Industrial Suppliers and Buyers

The International Industrial Supply Trade Portal ForeignTRADEX has launched a Web site focusing on helping American and Australian manufacturers, exporters and importers develop trading partnership.

Sydney, Australia, ForeignTRADEX, a division of the US-based Industrial Leaders Group, and co-publisher of the Free Industrial & Construction Marketplace at http://www.industrialsaver.com/classifieds, announced today the release of a special report designed to promote American products and manufacturers in Australia at http://www.foreigntradeexchange.com/countries/australia.html. According to Ivana Vesina, spokeswoman for the company’s European and Australian market, the report is designed to help U.S. manufacturers find international business contacts, trading opportunities and import export resources in Australia.

Mark Hamilton, Business Director of ForeignTRADEX said U.S. manufacturers of industrial supplies, equipment and machinery serious about entering or expanding into Australia will find the company’s Industrial Supply Marketing Report to be very useful. “Whether you want to locate trading partners in Perth, Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane or other cities in Australia, ForeignTRADEX can help you find the companies and resources you’re looking for to help your business grow.”

Previously ForeignTRADEX.com launched a new version of its World Trade Forum at http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com/forum which presents some of the most useful Web sites in the world focusing on international trade. According to Hamilton Nearly 1,000 global business Web sites have been reviewed by independent editors of ForeignTRADEX and all are accessible on the site’s Import Export Directory at http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com/trade_directory.html

Ms. Vesina, from her office in Sydney said American and Australian manufacturers are able to promote their products on the Industrial Leaders Group network of industrial supply trade portals, forums, directories, B2B blogs and marketplaces free of charge at http://www.WorldwideIndustrialMarketplace.com/freelisting.html

About ForeignTRADEX

ForeignTRADEX.com is a US-European Industrial Trade Directory and Marketplace connecting manufacturers, distributors, exporters and importers of industrial products throughout Europe and the United States, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand at http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com

 

New Marketplace for Languages and Design Launches at iZimundi.com

iZimundi, a marketplace dedicated to languages, communication and design, opens its project and missions module to providers and service users worldwide.

iZimundi allows freelancers, agencies and buyers worldwide to find each other and work together easily in a broad range of service categories. iZimundi aims to service the needs of large companies and organisations, SMEs, government agencies and associations worldwide. The website has interfaces both in English and in French.

A free service for buyers worldwide
iZimundi’s new service enables buyers to post details of projects (for remote work) and missions (for on-site work) for free. Members of the iZimundi community can bit on these projects and missions in the space of hours.

Buyers can specify, in addition to the service category, the legal structure (freelancer or agency), the geographical location, and the mother tongue of the desired providers. These selection criteria guarantee the pertinence of the results and a better targeting of the required providers.

By publishing their projects or missions on iZimundi, buyers enjoy free use of decision making tools. Functionality is also provided to enable buyers and providers to contact each other and exchange information without the barriers of distance and time zones.

Qualified service providers
With demands from buyers are becoming more specific, iZimundi’s marketplace categories have been refined so that buyers and providers can get in touch with specific needs and services in mind without wasting unnecessary time.

The defined categories have a special focus on communication (Marketing, Advertising, Events, Writing, Editing, DTP/Pre-press), design (Audio/multimedia/Sound/Video, Design, Graphic design, Illustration, Photography, Films/radio/TV), and languages (Translation, Interpretation, Voice/Voiceover).

Freelancers and agencies can refine their profiles in the iZimundi directories in order to ensure optimal visibility and marketplace presence.

Access to all services on iZimundi is free for the time being in order to showcase its functionality to all users. In the future, subscription will be required for service providers.

Premium and standard membership services will be available at a later date. But unlike many other marketplaces, iZimundi does not charge commission for its services.

About iZimundi
iZimundi (izimundi.com) provides a comprehensive web-based marketplace and management tools to facilitate and optimise B2B service procurement for the needs of private companies, government agencies and associations.

At the time of its creation iZimundi counts over 2500 members across 17 service categories. The iZimundi marketplace is among a range of services on the iZimundi portal, which caters to the needs of the language, communication and design industries. In addition to marketplace services, iZimundi also offers a job board, a training directory and bespoke consultancy services.