New Survey Reveals Manufacturers Have a Million-Dollar Integration Problem

Cleo, the global leader in ecosystem integration software and provider of the Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC) platform used by more than 2,000 manufacturing firms, today released a new Industry Report on critical integration trends affecting the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The report, "Outsmarting Market Volatility," reveals an industry in crisis because so many companies are struggling to achieve the degree of supply chain agility and visibility needed to effectively manage today's eCommerce-driven market disruption. Cleo's research finds B2B integration is so broken it has become a million-dollar issue for one in five manufacturing firms.

Key findings from the survey include:

• 99% of manufacturers had supply chain issues over the last year and a half
• 89% continue to struggle with integration issues
• 42% lost over $500,000 in 2020
• 18% lost more than $1 million in revenue in 2020
• As a result, 61% of organizations are updating their integration solutions

Download the full report and infographic.

What are business leaders doing about it? Literally all -- 100% -- of manufacturing companies surveyed say they have committed to a digital transformation strategy; 99% believe digitalization can help ensure business continuity, and 70% have at least ten important integration initiatives going on.

"Challenges with onboarding new partners, insufficient business process visibility, and revenue losses due to poor integration technology are all hampering manufacturing companies today," said Tushar Patel, chief marketing officer with Cleo. "Our latest survey of more than 200 C-level and integration experts shows that B2B integration is broken across the manufacturing supply chain, prompting companies to reevaluate their digital transformation strategy and adopt a more modern integration approach as they adjust to today's volatile market conditions."

Given the tough lessons of 2020, and the eCommerce-driven ripple effects the pandemic has wrought on manufacturing supply chains, it's not surprising that market reception and adoption of ecosystem integration technology is accelerating rapidly.

Ecosystem integration is a modern approach to connect and integrate the core revenue producing business processes between a manufacturing company and its ecosystem entities, such as partners, customers, carriers, marketplaces, and applications.

According to the report, a high percentage of manufacturing leaders see clear benefits from an ecosystem integration approach:

• 56% -- Faster order processing
• 51% -- Happier customers
• 46% -- Greater process automation
• 45% -- Cost savings
• 40% -- E-commerce enablement

"Ecosystem integration has emerged as both a business discipline and a new software category because it helps companies quickly build automated processes that can respond dynamically and intelligently to business disruptions caused by market volatility," said Ryan Turner, an EDI Problem Solver with DCS, an integration services firm who has helped over 500 organizations transform their B2B processes.

Cleo's Response: Cleo Connect for Manufacturing taking place on July 15^th
Cleo is supporting the manufacturing community with a free, virtual conference on how to combat these challenges by leveraging ecosystem integration technology on Thursday, July 15, 2021, 11:00 a.m. ? 4:00 pm Central Time (U.S.). View the agenda and register

The conference will feature industry experts discussing modern integration challenges businesses have overcome, as well as product demos, an Opening Address with Cleo CEO Mahesh Rajasekharan, and a deep dive into the biggest trends impacting the global manufacturing industry. Featuring a mix of live and pre-recorded sessions, with open Q&A and plenty of networking opportunities, the event will be broken into three tracks:

• Modernization and Innovation: The Impact to Operations and Development
• The Center of Your Ecosystem Is Not Your ERP
• 3PL & 4PL Mature and React to Disruption

"We're hosting this conference to show how our Cleo Integration Cloud for Manufacturing solution helps companies combat supply chain volatility through secure, cloud-based integration technology. Manufacturing organizations need visibility and control to capitalize on today's eCommerce boom and drive lasting business value," Patel added. "2020 raised everyone's awareness of the weak spots in B2B supply chains; now is the time to address these problems once and for all, and Cleo's ecosystem integration approach can help."

About the Report
The survey was conducted for Cleo by Dimensional Research in Q2 2021. The primary research goal was to understand the business impact of market disruptions, challenges, technology adoption, and supply chain effectiveness for the manufacturing industry. Additionally, the research also sought to understand integration issues, solutions, and mitigation tactics. A total of 209 qualified participants completed the survey. All participants had direct responsibility for supply chain and system integrations. Participants were from North America. The survey was administered electronically, and participants were offered a token compensation for their participation.

About Dimensional Research
Dimensional Research provides practical marketing research to help technology companies make smarter business decisions. Our researchers are experts in technology and understand how corporate IT organizations operate. Our qualitative research services deliver a clear understanding of customer and market dynamics. For more information, visit www.dimensionalresearch.com.

About Cleo Integration Cloud
Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC) is a cloud-based integration platform, purpose-built to design, build, operate and optimize critical ecosystem integration processes. The CIC platform brings end-to-end integration visibility across API, EDI and non-EDI integrations that gives technical and business users the confidence to rapidly onboard trading partners, enable integration between applications, and accelerate revenue-generating business processes. On the platform, businesses have the choice of self-service, managed services, or a blended approach ? ensuring complete flexibility and control over their B2B integration strategy.

About Cleo
Cleo is an ecosystem integration software company focused on business outcomes, ensuring each customer's potential is realized by delivering solutions that make it easy to discover and create value through the movement and integration of B2B enterprise data. Cleo gives customers strategic, "outside-in" visibility into the critical end-to-end business flows happening across their ecosystems of partners and customers, marketplaces, and internal cloud and on-premise applications. Our solutions empower teams to drive business agility, accelerate onboarding, facilitate modernization of key business processes, and capture new revenue streams by reimagining and remastering their digital ecosystem through robust application, B2B, and data integration technologies. For more information visit our website, www.cleo.com, or call +1.815.282.7695.