Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Upside of Being Ignored

You might have noticed at the bottom of my blog page that I provide a link to the TRE website. On that website is TRE’s own Blog, which is well written, topical and interesting.

It is a “moderated” blog, meaning that someone reads all comments made to the TRE posts and vets them for appropriateness and quality before they are actually posted on the site. You can’t blame TRE for wanting to maintain a minimum level of professionalism on its own site!

I noticed the other day that the “comment” function seemed to have been removed from the TRE blog and I had a concern that the exchange might have decided to exercise more than just a prudent level of quality-control. I hoped that the decision did not reflect a lack of desire for conversation or an aversion to criticism. So I made inquiries.

I’m happy to report that, even though I’d really like to be able to respond to the TRE posts from time to time, and (selfishly, I admit) to use that medium for a little promotion of my own thoughts and this blog, the exchange’s reason for the decision is the best one possible, in my view.

It’s a matter of priorities. And the priority for TRE at this time has to be generating growth in the volume of quality receivables brought to the exchange for sale. On that issue there can be no argument.

So dedicating the time of someone qualified to review and make decisions on blog-post comments has got to be fairly far down the priority list.

I couldn’t agree more.

TRE announced a few days ago a program to recruit representatives in all 50 states whose function is to bring potential new Sellers to the exchange. That, for example, is a far more important activity at this point than providing for two-way blog communication.

I also understand that there is a series of webinars underway to introduce members of the Ariba Network to the benefits and mechanics of using the TRE platform to accelerate supplier receipts.

Many thanks to Drew Hofler of Arbia for taking the time to educate me a bit on the Ariba Network. For those buyers of receivables who are not aware of Ariba, some research might be profitable. Enough said…

TRE is in the 3rd quarter of its first full year of operation. It has ambitious goals whose achievement will depend on an unwavering focus on the issues that are critical to its success. Moderating a blog is not among those critical issues.

I’m happy to understand that the reason for putting that activity aside is to allow increased attention on what matters most: meeting the TRE growth objectives.

Meanwhile, let me suggest that if anyone does want to comment on a TRE Blog post, feel free to comment here. I'll be happy to provide a forum for conversation until TRE itself is able to return to that activity.

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