In many sales channels those at the dealer level have struggled to achieve the economies from solid systems integration with their trading partners (distributors). Many times the dealer is left with unfavorable product pricing due to surcharges that accrue from using outdated systems. Those same dealers find it difficult to do the simple ROI on the savings they would achieve if they spend small amounts to update the technology. This comes from not knowing their true costs of doing business. Penny-wise and pound-foolish comes to mind; or, they know the price of everything and the value of nothing!
To be fair, these dealers have sometimes been "victimized" by distributors who can't or won't make up their minds about the best technologies for application integration. They jump from some proprietary file transfers to EDI to proprietary on-line systems to the Internet forcing their customers - the dealers - to jump with them. No one has successfully and consistently solved this puzzle for the truly small business. Can Microsoft?
Microsoft boosts RosettaNet support. Version 2.0 of BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet sports new tools [InfoWorld: Top News]
