Resolving the Most Common B2B Data Integration Challenges through Self-Service

Growth doesn’t happen in isolation. The impact of this thought can be understood well in the world of business. Wherein, to grow, companies need to interact, transact, and do business with their trading partners on a constant basis. That is to say, they need to connect with multiple business partners, communicate and do business with them, delight them, and deliver the value they’ve been promised sooner. However, all this could prove immensely costly, complex, and time-consuming when traditional data integration methods are used. 

Traditional B2B data integration methods require IT teams to implement data connections with business partners and exchange data with those partners. That takes six to 12 weeks of calendar time. Now, when IT manages the business connections, business users wait to connect with customers which inhibits them to deliver the value promised to those customers. As a result, customers feel frustrated and such unhappy customers refrain from buying more products or services from the company. This weakens the companies’ upselling efforts and ultimately revenue generation. 

This problem can be managed when modern, automated B2B integration solutions are used. These solutions enable business users to implement data connections and drive data exchange between trading partners - at the speed of business. 

But before we talk about the modern B2B integration solutions, let’s understand B2B integration and its challenges in detail. And then, we’ll find out how self-service can help companies overcome these challenges and drive the business forward. 

What is B2B Integration?

B2B integration is a process that enables organizations to digitalize and optimize business processes across trading partner ecosystems for performing business transactions. 

A typical B2B integration system comes with multiple challenges especially when traditional data integration methods are used. Here are some challenges:

Slower Onboarding: When traditional methods are used, the entire onus of implementing onboarding connections falls on the shoulders of IT. IT needs to write complex custom codes and create extensive data mappings, which takes almost weeks or months of calendar time. In other words, IT takes weeks or months of calendar time to onboard new business customers. Meanwhile, customers are forced to wait to receive the value promised to them, which frustrates them. And such unhappy customers are more likely to spread negative word of mouth recommendations and less likely to buy more products or services from the company - thus delaying revenue and value generation. 

Inefficient Data Mapping: In the current times, customer has turned out to be more complex. And mapping such complex, multi-dimensional customer data is quite challenging. And when manual methods are used, it becomes even more difficult. Bringing AI and machine learning technologies into the picture can resolve this problem. Not only can these solutions enable users to map customer data quickly but also far more accurately. 

Burdened IT Teams: When companies use traditional B2B data integration solutions, they require their IT teams to perform onboarding and subsequent data integration steps all by themselves. Now, companies do not have enough IT professionals to do the job. Either they will have to hire more technical staff to perform the operations or delays or potential risk of inaccuracies - both ways, costs will go up. Also, these already burdened IT teams won’t be able to focus on other priority tasks or projects. 

Increased Customer Satisfaction and Delayed Revenue: When business users take weeks or months of calendar time to connect with customers, they fail to delight them. To add, it takes a lot of time to deliver the value promised to customers, and all of this makes customers unhappy and unsatisfied. Such unhappy customers are difficult to be retained. And so, it will become difficult for companies to create new revenue streams in business. 

How Can Self-Service Help Companies Resolve B2B Integration Challenges? 

Self-service-powered B2B data integration technologies enable non-technical business users to implement data connections and facilitate faster transactions - at speed and scale. Business users can click and point through easy screens to create data onboarding connections by up to 80 percent and deliver the promised value to customers sooner. This means it will take minutes to onboard customers instead of months.

With pre-built application connectors, shared templates, dashboards and intuitive screens, AI-data mapping, and more, business users can easily create business connections in minutes. Recent advances in AI and ML further enable users to map complex customer data - at speed and scale. At the same time, IT is freed to focus on more important tasks and other priority tasks. 

In short, self-service data integration solutions can enable non-technical business users to resolve these challenges and drive value while freeing IT to focus on more high-value tasks.