SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando: Business Networks Power a Revolution
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a revolution taking place in business today. It’s powered by technologies and fueled by communities of people with shared interests and a desire to redefine the way business is conducted. At Ariba, we call it the Networked Economy. And its disrupting business the way we (used to) know it and enabling people to create new marketplaces virtually overnight.
- As profiled by USA Today, Craigslist, the original disruptor of classified newspaper lists, is being circumvented by niche marketplaces like Airbnb.
- Financing for small businesses is now being delivered through a variety of crowdfunding resources, including Kickstarter, CircleUp, SoMoLend and Smallknot.
- The car rental business has been redefined … from large car-sharing players like Zipcar (which is being acquired by Avis) to online marketplaces that enable individual car owners to generate cash by renting out their personal vehicles, such as RelayRides.
How are large enterprises putting the power of business networks to work for them?
That’s the focus of our sessions at the Business Networks campus. As the SAPPHIRE NOW Social Ambassador for Business Networks, consider me your guide to this exciting and dynamic revolution. During the weeks leading up to SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando, I’ll profile various facets of how business networks are enabling collaboration, supply chain visibility, commerce, cash management, efficiency and cost savings. I’ll also share insights and strategies from the speakers you’ll meet at our Business Networks campus.
Here’s a sample of the session you can attend:
Explore the New World of the Networked Business
Examine ways that businesses are connecting to digital communities of existing and potential partners. There’s a new world where sellers can quickly find opportunity and buyers can efficiently find new sources of supply, all in real time. Investigate the world of networked business, and identify steps you can take to flourish.
Gain New Levels of Collaboration and Efficiency Through Business Networks
Experience the ways companies are tapping into business networks to connect and collaborate with employees, customers, and trading partners more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Learn how networks are being used for more than just managing personal connections.
Achieve True Win-Win Results: Buyers, Sellers, and Cash Flow Collaboration
Learn more about how the networked economy offers cash flow opportunities to both sides of a transaction. Discover how buyers and sellers alike are able to collaborate to improve working capital metrics to achieve faster cash flow and increased savings. Hear from buyers and sellers that are doing just that.
Check out the full list of sessions, demonstrations and discussions offered at the Business Networks campus. See you in Orlando!
Photo credit: © iQoncept – Fotolia.com
Very interesting spin on using networks in enterprise scenarios that you typically don't naturally associate with networks. At the end of the day, all of the systems you describe above are about capturing and distributing information and using the masses to fuel this cycle.
One of the challenges that they will hopefully discuss in these sessions is how to gain support and generate a critical mass to jumpstart a network. We are doing something similar, on a micro scale at SAPPHIRE NOW this year with my PrizeFinder experiment. We collect information from exhibitors and distribute to the masses in a viral format using simple mobile experience and indoor mapping. Free prizes and giveaways is hardly a serious subject but it faces the same challenges as any new network.
Should be interesting to see if we reach that critical mass to create a network within the limited time and space of SAPPHIRE NOW!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ryan. It will be interesting to see the traction that your experiment with PrizeFinder gains with the SAPPHIRE NOW audience.I hope you'll have a chance to stop by the Business Networks campus. There are 2 sessions in particular you may enjoy:
Get Stories from the Front Line: The Business Network in Action (May 14 at 2 pm)
Prepare Your Organization for Network Adoption (May 16 at 3 pm)