E2open, which builds cloud-based solutions for collaboration across global trading networks, has launched the latest version of E2 Cloud Connectivity, the foundational layer of the E2open Business Network platform.

Designed with "a next-generation open cloud interoperability model" the company stated changes how transactions and data are mapped between trading partners, E2 Cloud Connectivity is meant to reduce both the time and cost of ownership of trading partner connectivity. According to E2open, connecting trading partners is generally an expensive and time-consuming process, and the task of mapping data and transactions between companies creates a huge bottleneck E2 Cloud Connectivity is meant to make things simpler, faster, cheaper and easier to work with.

"E2 Cloud Connectivity changes the economics of trading partner on-boarding," said Lorenzo Martinelli, senior vice president of corporate strategy at E2open, in a prepared statement. "One of the biggest challenges to rapid and cost-effective trading partner connectivity is the traditional practice of one-off, custom, point-to-point maps for transactions and data. Working with some of the most complex supply chains, and hundreds of customer deployments, we have created a next-generation model that enriches our network content using open canonicals and cross-standard maps."

E2 Cloud Connectivity contains "industry-first productized maps" for speeding up data transformation across industry standards like X12, EDIFACT, OAGIS and others.

The new version of the open standards-based cloud platform also includes other capabilities, such as:

That's a lot of technical talk, but the end result, at least according to E2open, is a more cost-effective and efficient trading partner collaboration platform. The E2open Business Network supports more than 33,00 trading partners in 69 countries.