Month: October 2007

eBusiness expertise on display in Seattle

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Had the opportunity to attend a great couple of presentations the other day thanks to an invite from Tom Westbrook and the Open Network for Commerce Exchange (ONCE) at the Fairmont Hotel here in Seattle.  Great presentations by Clay Siemson, Director of E-business from OfficeMax, and Chris Vike, Director of Information Management from Weyerhauser, on the topics of B2B traction and 3rd party B2B services, respectively.  The conversation was more about industry trends and best practices than anything else.  Here’s a couple of points I took away from the gathering:

  1. 100% trading partner enablement remains elusive especially for those with non-standard connection requirements or that don’t transact significant volumes.
  2. eBusiness is a corporate priority that includes both the business and IT sides of the house.
  3. There are significant opportunities for process improvement related to what happens when an order fails or when an invoice does not get delivered as intended.
  4. Improvements in these processes have significant cash flow impact as it relates to reducing days sales outstanding (DS0) via invoice acceleration or time to cash with order validation among other opportunities.

All in all a great gathering and I appreciate Tom inviting us to attend.

New gig

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

For those of you that don’t know, I have recently taken a new position here in Seattle.  I’m staying in the messaging & collaboration space although headed "down stack" a bit into business-to-business information exchange.  I have taken the VP Marketing role at Hubspan and am really excited to be working with a great team in an exciting space.  My coverage will continue to include personal messaging but will expand to incorporate items related to supply/demand chains and how companies are using technology for real-time information sharing.

Top challenges facing CEOs

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Selling to the enterprise?  Here’s what is on the mind of the CEO according to a recent survey from The Conference Board.  You’ll notice IT doesn’t make the top 10 but some of the benefits certainly do (via CIO Insight):

1. Sustained and steady top-line growth   41.3%
2. Excellence in execution   39.6%
3. Consistent execution of strategy by top management   38.5%
4. Profit growth   29.9%
5. Customer loyalty/retention   25.6%
6. Finding qualified managerial talent   20.9%
7. Top management succession   20.1%
8. Corporate reputation   19.7%
9. Stimulating innovation/creativity/enabling entrepreneurship   19.2%
10. Speed, flexibility, adaptability to change   18.2%

Eat the anxiety

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I like this post from Andy Sack (via a mentor of his).  Here’s the link but essentially he’s talking about using the anxiety you feel as fuel to drive and motivate you.  Good guidance.  I had the chance to meet Andy briefly at the first Seattle Open Coffee.  I have been unable to make another one due to recurring conflicts but they continue to gather at Louisa’s on Tuesday am.