Business Leaders See Collaboration through Social and Business ...

In today?s global business environment, smart companies are learning to collaborate more efficiently, connecting and interacting with ever-expanding communities of customers, suppliers and peers. And they are, in the process, unleashing a new model for operating that is helping to improve their productivity, profits and ultimately, their advantage in an ultra-competitive marketplace.

How are they doing it? According to?Collaborate to Win, a new report produced by CFO Research in collaboration with?Ariba, Inc.?(Nasdaq: ARBA), the world?s business commerce network, they are capitalizing on the convergence of recent technology trends, including cloud computing, mobility, social and business networks.

Much as consumers tap into social networks to manage their personal connections, companies are with increasing frequency connecting to business networks to manage their trading relationships. Through more than a dozen in-depth interviews with executives, academics, consultants, and others, CFO Research sought to analyze how companies are leveraging these networks gain a competitive edge.

How are companies leveraging business networks to gain a competitive advantage?

Research findings revealed in the Collaborate to Win report that by communicating more freely with their employees, suppliers, and customers, companies can draw on previously untapped capabilities to address existing challenges and spot new opportunities. Doing so enables them to deliver value to every aspect of the business, from generating innovative product ideas to gaining valuable market insight. They can also incrementally increase profits.

?Mega-shifts in how technology is delivered, accessed, and used are heralding in a new era of knowledge sharing and collaboration,? says Tim Minahan, Chief Marketing Officer, Ariba. ?Empowered by social tools and business networks, companies are now able to coordinate a virtual extraprise of partners into a shared community and execute processes in a more collaborative and informed way than in the past.?

This emerging form of collaboration, according to Josh Hyatt, author of the report, has the potential to reshape the competitive landscape. ?Network-based collaborative tools have just begun to change how employees work together and how enterprises manage their outside relationships,? he writes.? But in an ultracompetitive era populated by lean businesses, collaboration can drive productivity and lift financial performance.?

Business networks have certainly opened the door to a new way of collaborating. And as Hyatt notes in Collaborate to Win, ?They may be what differentiate the modern day?competitor from competitors of the past.?

Ariba to host global events

On October 2, Ariba will host the first in a series of global events at which industry thought leaders and executives will share their insights on how companies of all sizes can plug in to today?s?Networked Economy?and leverage social tools and business networks to boost their productivity and profits.

Click here to view the entire Ariba press release.

PayStream has reported for nearly a decade that collaboration through business networks is the key to productivity.? Solutions like that of Ariba work to connect buyers and suppliers and add visibility to the entire network of trading partners.? The advent of web-based solutions now allows companies large and small to cash in on this productivity and manage cash more efficiently and effectively.

To learn more about automation solutions like Ariba?s product offering, go to PayStream?s Research Library and download complimentary research reports that cover a wide range of topics on automation solutions in AP, AR and the P2P process.

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Source: http://www.paystreamvoices.com/2012/08/22/business-leaders-see-collaboration-through-social-and-business-networks-as-key-to-productivity-competitive-advantage/

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