Whenever you sign up for B2B integration projects, you also sign up for the risks associated with them. Glitches and hitches are only natural occurrences, since you can’t predict the unpredictable and you can’t possibly have it all right from one go, especially if it’s your first project of such amplitude.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that you will need to make up some sort of a support system that can pinpoint all the variables in the equation and thus predict the aspects that may behave differently than initially anticipated. This is the reason why so many companies actually turn to specialists for their B2B integration, who can remotely manage their services.

These specialists have the expertise to provide you with the best practices needed to efficiently develop your network by on-boarding new partners and operating with maximum technical efficiency. Just like a parent would do with their child, a B2B-managed-services company will keep you from venturing in unsafe and uncertain territory. Here are a few examples of what such a company can keep you away from:

Lack of a strategic structure

Whenever an organization doesn’t have a proper strategic structure to work out of, the consequences can bleed into other aspects of the company, such as its communication with other business partners or the lack of visibility. A B2B chain needs to have equally strong links, because if one is weak it just determines how the entire chain feels like and behaves.

As always, it’s always better to prevent than to correct, this is why it is recommendable that you worked on these lacks or differences before they blow up down the road. A managed services provider will enable your team to maintain its productivity, as it carries on with the process of integration, by streamlining vital tasks and simplifying processes. Eventually, this intervention translates into greater visibility in the process of integration, an achievement that any company aspires to in its development.

Cyber-security threats and data breaches

In this day and time, it is only natural to fret over data security and possible breaches. Every now and then, large companies post announcements that warn their customers that their personal and financial information has been broken into and stolen. Exchanging data is serious business and it does pose tremendous risks that can attack your company’s reputation irrevocably. This is why companies shouldn’t just lay still and hope nothing bad is going to happen to them – they should invest instead in everything that will boost their processes and improve their business relationships.

Collaboration potential is not equal

If you look around your business network, you will most likely see many discrepancies regarding the collaboration potential of your business partners. And it makes sense, since each of them are at a different stage of their development. You may find yourself wondering if you are even speaking the same language, since it’s clear to you that you don’t see eye to eye.

It can eat up all your resources to try and smooth over these differences, be they small or major ones on how things should be approached. This is why so many companies choose to deal with these issues by opting for a managed services solution for their B2B integration: it comes with compliance management solutions and it makes good use of cutting-edge-technologies that give companies the competitive edge they need to stay ahead of the market.

Having said this, it is good to be wary of the risks that can come your way with a B2B integration, but it is all the better to leave all the hard work up to managed services providers, such as ourselves.