New Report from SCM World and OpenText Shows Outsourcing B2B Integration Delivers Measurable Business Value

Study Finds 62% of Leading Organizations Enhance B2B Integration Programs with Partial or Complete Outsourcing

WATERLOO, Ontario, Aug. 3, 2016 /CNW/ -- OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC), a global leader in Enterprise Information Management (EIM), today announced a joint study with SCM World titled, "The B2B Integration Path: A Roadmap for Business Value Generation." The study guides supply chain, operations and customer service executives on the journey to integrating and automating B2B processes. The research identifies that 62% of leading organizations currently outsource some or all of their B2B integration programs to enhance their business performance.

The study benchmarked where companies and entire industries currently rate themselves on their B2B integration journey against five steps of advancing integration maturity. While 60% of companies fall into average maturity at stage three, only 14% of companies are above average at stage four and 2% at the highest maturity level of five stage 5, leaving significant room for advancement. Noting the key B2B program elements as people, technology and process, the survey shows companies significantly lag in process. 

"No matter where they currently fall on the maturity scale today, all businesses are seeking to enhance their B2B integration programs to improve agility, grow their business and increase profitability," said Adam Howatson, chief marketing officer at OpenText. "With only 16% of respondents having relational business networks capable of real-time sensing and responding, there is a real gap in the industry. Suppliers of B2B integration software and services, such as OpenText Business Network, provide expertise, cloud-based technologies and process experience to rapidly increase B2B integration capabilities and close that gap."

According to the survey, the majority (62%) of organizations with above average maturity outsource at least part of their B2B integration operations in order to expand their partner networks and generate new business value. At stage four, leaders realized the following benefits:

• 2-3x improvement in the cash conversion cycle rate
• 72% reduced transaction processing cost by 20% or more
• 68% sped inventory turns to more than 2x per month from less than once a month
• 78% decreased days sales outstanding (DSO) to less than 60 days
• Expediting less than 5% of orders, from over 10% previously

"Even after decades of continued multi-enterprise integration, there is still a very real need to invest if you want to be a leader," said Kevin O'Marah, Chief Content Officer at SCM World. "A well-planned B2B integration deployment concurrently addresses issues such as working capital and efficiency by aligning people, technology and process to create tangible business value. The survey findings demonstrate that respondents are only partially along their journey to B2B maturity."

Findings are based on a survey of 115 users in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, representing industries including automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG) high tech, industrial and life sciences.

For more details on the study, please click here.

About SCM World
SCM World is the cross-industry learning community powered by the world's most influential supply chain practitioners from including companies such as Unilever, Nike, Caterpillar, Cisco, Chevron, Dell, Nestlé and General Mills. Founded in 2009 and listed in the 2015 Sunday Times Fast Track, SCM World strives to shape the future of supply chain and advance the supply chain management profession.

Membership of the SCM World community provides access to predictive, groundbreaking research as guided by an advisory board of top supply chain leaders and business schools. SCM World also delivers world-leading events, cross-industry expertise, practitioner-driven content and exclusive peer-to-peer connections.

SCM World is committed to providing insights into important industry trends and firmly believes that supply chain can have a lasting, positive impact on the world's critical issues, including universal access to healthcare, the global distribution of food and environmental sustainability. More information is available at http://www.scmworld.com.

About OpenText
OpenText enables the digital world, creating a better way for organizations to work with information, on premises or in the cloud. For more information about OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC) visit opentext.com.

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SOURCE Open Text Corporation

Further information: Tim Brook, OpenText, [phone], [email protected]; Sonya Mehan, Investor Relations, OpenText, 519-888-7111 x2446, [email protected]; Katie Carbone, Weber Shandwick, 1 617-520-7135, [email protected], http://www.OpenText.com