31 Dec 2011 We need to talk about OB10
A few weeks ago in a blog post, I teased Christian Lanng, CEO of e-invoicing firm Tradeshift. “I get the feeling that Christian doesn’t like OB10”, I wrote. “Is it just me?”
Tradeshift and OB10 are competitors so I would expect they would have different views but I get the feeling that Christian’s feelings about one of his competitors is a little more than professional. So when he offered to explain his views to me, I was more than interested.
For those who don’t know Christian, and he won’t mind me saying this, he’s an opinionated Dane. But he isn’t just opinionated. He can back it up. He has a strong track record in e-invoicing and understands the business as well as the technology. Personally, I have a lot of time for him, but no less than I have for the guys who set up OB10.
It’s not the first time I’ve made this point. No one invents stuff nowadays but there are pioneers. People who form the body of simultaneous thought leaders who can make a credible claim to have been amongst the first. And if you can call these people the “inventors”, then OB10 – amongst others – “invented” e-invoicing in its modern sense.
Tradeshift appear to have a love/hate relationship with OB10 – although I think they may be in denial about the love part. And this is why I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Next week, we’ll publish an interview with Christian Lanng, who will declare, in forthright terms, what he thinks about OB10. But I want to be very clear on one thing. The publication of an interview with Christian Lanng is entirely unrelated to their sponsorship of Purchasing Insight, evident by the banner ad you see to the right. If they stopped being a sponsor tomorrow, it wouldn’t change my life. Purchasing Insight isn’t platform for sponsors to get their messages across. It is, however, a platform to get business issues aired.
We like a bit of controversy. It makes reading about dry business issues a bit more interesting and controversy can be useful in getting things said that all too often remain dormant.
So expect some controversy and have a happy new year.
