According to a report on B2B Marketing Online today, over 70 per cent of European firms plan to adopt cloud-based B2B integration services in the next year as a means of reducing costs and infrastructure.

The study of over 300 senior IT managers by Sterling Commerce, an AT&T company, found that more than a third of those surveyed said cloud computing will reduce errors resulting from manual processes, adding that manual processing created the largest obstacle in their current B2B integration capabilities. Over 50 per cent of respondents also said they hope to drive down operating costs through better use of IT staff and better cost predictability.

Interesting the above key competitive advantages associated with the newly adopted cloud-based integration, mirror those of Vision Critical’s OSMO® software, highlighting a strong alignment with the most advanced thinking on B2B strategy.

“In today’s economy, companies are becoming acutely aware they need to optimise their B2B integration capability to reduce costs today and become more agile for competitive growth tomorrow”, comments David Carmichael, senior product marketing manager at Sterling Commerce.

“Achieving this at a time when few boards are prepared to entertain a project without a guarantee of an ROI, typically within a 12-month window, the ability to move from a capital expense to an operational one makes cloud-based B2B integration compelling.”

Gartner estimates that worldwide cloud services revenue will increase from $46.4bn (£28.7bn) in 2008, to $150.1bn (£93bn) in 2013. More specifically for integration as a service (IaaS), Gartner estimates that companies worldwide spent more than $1.5bn (£0.9bn) on IaaS and B2B integration outsourcing in 2009.