[ebxml-dev] Comprehensive generalization of CRM

[Todd Boyle <tboyle@rosehill.net>]

At 12:33 PM 6/14/02, Rainer Volz wrote:
 >I just wanted to support what Scott Beach wrote:
 >>
 >>From: Beach, Scott [mailto:Scott.Beach@goodrich.com]
 >>ebXML simply lacks an "elevator speech" that is compelling to
 >>IT executives. Web services doesn't suffer from this same marketing 
paralysis.

I think there are some substantial issues, as well as marketing issues,
(and I think they apply to web services as well as ebXML.)

Both ebXML and web services are weak at the thing businesses
need most:  helping businesses find customers, evaluate what they are
susceptible to buying, and closing sales.  Or helping businesses figure
out what are all their possible products and services, they have an
opportunity to buy or resell.  Or helping identify/qualify suppliers.

The RegRep as well as UDDI have some discovery mechanisms,
but can hardly hope to increase my sales or reduce my costs in the
near term!  Far more likely, there will be years of SPAM, and the
directory listings might be incomplete and populated only with
below-average business offerings, considering the history of other,
earlier directories.  Experienced users also, will fear anything that
looks or smells like a Directory capture.

ebXML is then asking the trading partners to completely align
their commitments, in order to make the fulfillment and settlement
cycle computable.   That approach will manage your recurring
or high volume, interactions between companies --- but I don't
understand whether this is going to get incremental sales or
structural changes in supplier or procurement.   A problem is that
every time you try to make a Sale excruciatingly clear, you
will lose a certain percentage of customers.  Businesses want
sales to be only the absolutely minimum info necessary and
they are willing to have back office full of people to schmooze
and coax the Customer Relationship to fulfillment.

Basically much of America gets out of bed every morning and
makes contracts that are incomplete, that have both parties
never agreeing on the facts, and/or do something like substitute
different goods-- then insanely they fulfill (or pay for) activities
and shipments that they never agreed with!

The most troubling thing to me, is that if ebXML doesn't reach
early in the relationship, embracing CRM, BI, *RM etc. then
the 6 billion people on Earth will increasingly, close sales
in various portals and platforms and applications that *do*
increase their sales, provide supplies, etc.

Whoever controls the data at the earlier stage, might not hand it
over to an open framework like ebXML, any more than they have
been handing it over to the banking industry or the owners of the
data, or anybody else in the past.

Instead, they will just continue to sweat out their own
fulfillment and back office, privately, for the next 100 years,
you'll never have a chance to drive a wedge between those
vendors and their whole community until ebXML has powerful
search, business intelligence, and customer lifecycle. I do
not believe there is any pre-existing standards community or
academic community to invite assistance, towards a
comprehensive generalization of CRM.

Todd