E-commerce platforms are playing an increasingly pivotal role in B2B, as demonstrated at the Sybit Expert Forum on Customer Portals & E-Commerce held on June 29, 2023, with nearly 140 participants.
Current e-business trends were actively discussed at SAP in Walldorf, where the latest developments in SAP Commerce were showcased — both live and online audiences enjoyed dynamic insights into the industry’s future.
The event began with Susanne Diehm, Chief Partner Revenue Officer MEE at SAP Germany, who offered insights into SAP's cloud strategy, explaining the role that forward-thinking technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning play within it. She elaborated on how customers can transform their business processes in collaboration with SAP and its partners.
Next, Roland Boes, Director of Innovation & Portfolio at Sybit, highlighted the future of e-commerce in the years to come. He vividly illustrated the rapid shifts in user behavior over recent years, the current challenges businesses face in digital commerce, and the core pillars supporting successful buyer enablement. His talk covered essential topics such as SAP Composable Commerce as a potential solution, trends like Chat GPT, pay-per-use business models, and hyper-personalization, with real-life customer examples illustrating the look and feel of modern portals and shops.
Dirk Harzer, Presales CX Architect at Sybit, provided insights into how each phase of the customer journey can be optimally supported with high-quality, well-prepared product data. He particularly emphasized the impact of always available, visually appealing product information, especially for spare parts purchases, on purchasing decisions, and shared key aspects to consider in data preparation.
Fabian Huber, Head of Competence Center Business Consulting, discussed customer expectations in B2B alongside the audience and explored how customer portals can address needs at each touchpoint along the customer journey. He outlined the different levels and success factors involved, from a simple information portal, basic web shops, and self-service portals to fully developed, intelligent customer experience portals. He also highlighted the importance of US and new business models like subscription billing.
The day's highlight was a best practice presentation by Katharina Berdnik, Stream Lead Digital Customer Experience, and Franziska Gäßler, Product Owner of Customer Experience at Tridonic, a member of the Zumtobel Group. They shared their experiences launching their Customer Experience Platform, based on the SAP Commerce Cloud, just a few months prior. They discussed their project vision, the challenges they encountered while developing and implementing the concept, and the key lessons they learned.
At the end of the event, a select group of speakers gathered for an expert roundtable to reflect on the day’s themes, discussions, and presentations. This was followed by lively networking sessions, with participants diving deeper into case studies such as Tridonic's customer platform, Emarsys, and Sybit’s own use case, SyGusto, making for a well-rounded, successful event in the eyes of all attendees.
