6. B2B is a multi-dimensional
marketplace – establish & use standards
Of course, a business normally
has many suppliers and many customers. Business
are simultaneously buying and selling from many
others, which is generally referred to as a ‘marketplace’.
Marketplaces have historically been defined by geography
(from your local town to the entire European Economic
Area) or an industry sector such as aerospace, agriculture
or petrochemical. Internet-based trading enables
new ways for businesses to form marketplaces independently
of location.
Most businesses have features
in common at several levels with many others, not
just their immediate trading partners. This may
also include businesses that they normally consider
competitors, since they may share the same prospect
and customer profiles.
Therefore there may be opportunities
to share risk and rewards (lower costs, greater
sales and satisfaction) via B2B interchange standards
and business communities.
If, for example, a group of
companies can agree on a set of definitions for
how information can be exchanged when buying or
selling, then a set of common processes can be implemented.
Even if the processes are developed and run on separate
systems within each business, they can transfer
transaction information more easily and efficiently
between each other.
A long-term option may be to
‘outsource’ some or all of the standardised
functions to a trading partner whose purpose is
to host the B2B systems for the businesses that
are participating in the marketplace.
This may be a profit or not-for-profit
organisation, which is funded by subscriptions from
the member companies and/or a proportion of the
transaction values it manages on behalf of the marketplace.
This type of ‘intermediary’ service
provider will become more common as the real impact
of technology enabling B2B systems grows.
