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- Focus on Poland
B2B Integration Challenges Facing the Automotive Supplier Community
by Mark Morley
In 2007, Poland was the second largest producer of cars in Eastern Europe, manufacturing nearly 700,000 vehicles.
- The State of the Central and Eastern European Automotive Market
by Mark Morley
In recent years the automotive industry has been going through a significant globalisation process with once relatively short supply chains being stretched to every corner of the globe.
- Focus on Poland
- Resources
GXS Insights: Navigating Cross Border Business Boundaries
Navigating Cross Border Business Boundaries
GXS Insights
GXS industry and technology experts are thought leaders in their fields. They conduct research, determine best practices and share their expertise. GXS maintains INSIGHTS as a service to customers and prospective customers to provide insight on critical business issues and technology.
Strategy & Execution
Webinar

Quocirca Webinar:
Pan-European B2B Trading
Opportunities and Issues
Clive Longbottom
Service Director, Quocirca Ltd
The New Europe
by Clive Longbottom, a Quocirca Insights Report
Creating a viable plan for trading across a dynamic geography
As the EU continues to expand, European businesses must look to how they can trade across increasing numbers of regional boundaries, languages, cultures and laws, both within the EU and across the greater Europe. The opportunities are huge – but the problems will daunt many who wish to enter into a Pan-European trading environment. Learn more
- Introduction
So – you have an item to sell, and there’s someone who wants to buy it. Sounds like good news, but is it? Continue - Europe and EU
Organisations should not confuse Europe with the EU – there are many trading pacts that cover the greater Europe. The EU is the largest financial trading bloc in the world. Continue - The Opportunities
The EU has over 25 million businesses within it – yet less than 3% of European organisations trade outside of their home country. Continue - Issues
Europe is not a single trading entity – each country still clings to divisive trade and legal differences. Harmonisation is likely to happen mainly at a government level, leaving corporate standards muddled and multi-versioned. Continue - How to plan for Pan-European B2B trading
- Outsourcing
Outsourcing the problem can free up an organisation to make the most of a Pan-European approach, yet enable them to focus on core competencies. Continue - Conclusions and Recommendations
Pan-European B2B trading holds much promise – but also has its complexities. Looking to outside B2B service providers offers the capability to participate across Europe, yet concentrate on core competencies. Continue
Solving Electronic Mandate Headaches
by Malcolm Wheatley
Meeting the data interchange requirements of larger customers can be stressful and costly. It doesn’t have to be like that.
For smaller companies, winning business from a large organisation is a prize that offers the opportunity of significant growth. But it’s a prize that comes with an awkward catch. Larger companies usually have their own, very specific, ways of doing business—and increasingly, that involves requiring suppliers to interact with them electronically.
For the larger companies in question, the logic is clear. Trading electronically imposes efficiency-boosting standard procedures and processes, and is more productive—and cheaper—than exchanging and processing pieces of paper.
Learn more
Global Business
Reverse Globalisation
by Mark Morley
One minute companies are rushing to globalise their businesses in order to take advantage of manufacturing goods in low cost regions of the world. The next minute companies are reducing their global manufacturing footprint due to the economic downturn in various markets around the world. “Reverse Globalisation” is now the term widely used to describe this effect. Read more
Trade Within Europe has Grown Rapidly, Thanks to the Single Market. But Where is it Heading?
John Lamb weighs the prospects.
Europe is the world’s largest single market thanks to a lengthy and sometime tortuous process of political integration, but those who run Europe’s supply chains still face big challenges. Read more
The Single European Payments Area and Cross Border Trade
by Steve Keifer
Much of today’s focus on cross-border trade centers upon the growing volumes of inter-continental trade between Europe and Asia. However, a far larger amount of trade occurs between buyers and suppliers within Europe itself. Europe is the world’s largest trade region with $3.65 Trillion in annual trade in 2007 or 31.4% of the worldwide total. Read more
Innovation
Opportunity Knocks
For businesses prepared to think outside the box, the credit crunch has a silver lining
These are difficult economic conditions. Scan the business pages and it’s almost impossible to escape phrases such as ‘credit crunch’ and ‘downturn’. Nor is this hyperbole: according to accountants Ernst & Young, the number of profit warnings from UK-listed companies in the first three months of 2008 was the highest since 2001.
Yet in contrast to 2001, businesses have a new weapon to help protect them from the impact of those adverse economic conditions. The question is—do they realise it? Learn More
Fiscal Dematerialisation—Riddled with Regulations, But Enormous Rewards
The widespread adoption of the Internet as a B2B tool has lowered the barriers to entry for electronic trading between buyer and supplier and in parallel, led by member states of the European Union, many countries have developed regulations that will allow companies to completely remove paper from the invoicing process. This is the essence of fiscal dematerialization which is inherently riddled with regulations, but abounds with enormous rewards.Learn More
Ten Forces Transforming Corporate Banking Connectivity
A GXS Market Perspective
The past five years have witnessed the emergence of a number of new operational models, regulatory changes and technology paradigms in the corporate treasury and banking sector. The result is radical changes to the structure of treasury functions within multi-national corporations. The changes are also impacting the relationships between corporations and banks banks—both the way in which banking products are selected and the service level expectations treasury organizations hold for financial institutions are evolving. There is also a significant paradigm shift in the technical approaches used to exchange information between corporations and their cash management banks. GXS has compiled a list of the ten primary forces transforming the way in which corporations and banks communicate electronically. Learn more
Executive Dialogue Blogs
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Sourcing from China
Volumes of cross-border trade between exporters in China and importers in the US and Europe have been growing consistently over the past 20 years. But a series of potential supply chain disruptions are forcing procurement organizations to rethink their sourcing strategies. Should you diversify your supplier base to other low cost geographies? Read more on the challenges faced exporting goods from China in 2008.
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The International Food Supply Chain
For decades the food supply chain has been growing increasingly global with seafood, poultry, beef, fruits and vegetable products being sourced from countries around the world. But a new market dynamic may soon lead to a complete reversal in supply chain trends. Read about the eight factors driving consumers desire to buy local food products and what the implications for the grocery supply chain are.

