Chapter 5 Company-Centric B2B and Collaborative Commerce

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Chapter 5Company-Centric B2B and Collaborative
Commerce
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Learning Objectives

• Describe the B2B field
• Describe the major types of B2B models
• Describe the characteristics of the sell-side
  marketplace
• Describe the sell-side intermediary models
• Describe the characteristics of the buy-side
  marketplace and e-procurement

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Learning Objectives (cont.)

• Explain how forward and backward auctions work in
  B2B
• Describe B2B aggregation and group purchasing
  models
• Describe collaborative e-commerce and
  interorganizational systems
• Describe infrastructure and standards
  requirements for B2B

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General Motors B2B Initiatives

• The Problem
• EC initiativesbuild-to-order project to be in
  place by 2005 reducing inventory of finished cars
• What to do with manufacturing machines that are
  no longer sufficiently productive (assets
  problem)
• Resource problem relating to procurement of
  commodity products

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General Motors (cont.)

• The Solution
• TradeXchange (now part of Covisint) online
  auctions of items like used machines for
  manufacturing
• Significantly decreases time for sales
• Increases dollar amount of the sales
• EC initiatives at TradeXchange
• Capital assets problemimplemented its own
  electronic market to conduct forward auctions
• Procurement problemautomated the bidding,
  creating online reverse auctions on its
  e-procurement site

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General Motors (cont.)

• The Results
• Within just 89 minutes after the first forward
  auction opened, eight presses were sold for 1.8
  million
• In the first online reverse auction, GM purchased
  a large volume of rubber sealing packages for
  vehicle production at a significantly lower than
  the price GM had been paying through negotiated
  by manual tendering

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC

• Basic B2B Concepts
• Business-to-business e-commerce (B2B
  EC)transactions between businesses conducted
  electronically over the Internet, extranets,
  intranets, or private networks also known as
  eB2B (electronic B2B) or just B2B
• Market Size and Content
• Expected to grow from 1.1 trillion in 2003 to
  10 trillion by 2005, the percentage of
  Internet-based B2B from 2.1 in 2000 to 10 in
  2005

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• B2B EC Characteristics
• Parties to the transaction
• Online intermediaryan online third-party that
  brokers a transaction between a buyer and a
  seller can be virtual or click-and-mortar
  buyers sellers
• Types of transactions
• Spot buyingthe purchase of goods and services as
  they are needed, usually at prevailing market
  prices
• Strategic sourcingpurchases involving long-term
  contracts that are usually based on private
  negotiations between sellers and buyers

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• Types of materials
• Direct materialsmaterials used in the production
  of a product (e.g., steel in a car or paper in a
  book)
• Indirect materialsmaterials used to support
  production (e.g., office supplies or light bulbs)
• MROs (maintenance, repairs, and
  operations)indirect materials used in activities
  that support production

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• Direction of trade
• Vertical marketplacesmarkets that deal with one
  industry or industry segment (e.g., steel,
  chemicals).
• Horizontal marketplacesmarkets that concentrate
  on a service or a product that is used in all
  types of industries (e.g., office supplies, PCs)

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• The Basic B2B Transaction Types
• Sell sideone seller to many buyers
• Buy sideone buyer from many sellers
• Exchangesmany sellers to many buyers
• Collaborative commercecommunication and sharing
  of information, design, and planning among
  business partners

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Exhibit 5.1Types of B2B E-Commerce
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One-to-Many and Many-to-One Company-Centric
Transactions

• Company-centric ECe-commerce that focuses on a
  single companys buying needs (many-to-one, or
  buy-side) or selling needs (one-to-many, or
  sell-side)
• Private e-marketplacesmarkets in which the
  individual sell-side or buy-side company has
  complete control over participation in the
  selling or buying transaction

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Many-to-Many Exchanges

• Exchangesmany-to-many e-marketplaces, usually
  owned and run by a third party or a consortium,
  in which many buyers and many sellers meet
  electronically to trade with each other also
  called trading communities, or trading exchanges
• Public e-marketplacesthird-party markets that
  are open to all interested parties (sellers and
  buyers)

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• Supply chain relationships in B2B
• Interrelated subprocesses and roles
• B2B applications offer competitive advantages for
  supply chain management (SCM)
• Virtual service industries in B2B
• Travel and tourism services
• Real estate Online stock trading
• Electronic payments Online financing

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Concepts, Characteristics, and Models of B2 EC
(cont.)

• Benefits of B2B
• Eliminates paper and reduces administrative costs
• Expedites cycle time
• Lowers search costs and time for buyers
• Increases productivity of employees dealing with
  buying and/or selling
• Reduces errors and/or improves quality of
  services
• Reduces inventory levels and costs
• Increases production flexibility, permitting
  just-in-time delivery
• Facilitates mass customization
• Increases opportunities for collaboration

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Sell-Side MarketplacesOne-to-Many

• Sell-side e-marketplacea Web-based marketplace
  in which one company sells to many business
  buyers, frequently over an extranet
• 3 major methods for direct sale in the
  one-to-many model
• Selling from electronic catalogs
• Selling via forward auctions
• One-to-one selling under a negotiated, long-term
  contract

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Sell-Side Marketplaces (cont.)

• Virtual sellerssellers in the sell-side
  marketplace can be click-and-mortar manufacturers
  or intermediaries, usually distributors or
  wholesalers
• Customer service
• Milacron, Inc.
• Site contains 55,000 products, easy to use,
  securely handles selection, purchase, application
• Technical serviceexpanded to provide a higher
  level of service

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Buying from Virtual Seller Bigboxx.com

• Bigboxx.com.hk of Hong Kong
• B2B office supply retailer services
• Goalsell products in various SE Asian countries
• Offers more than 10,000 items
• Uses more than 300 suppliers
• Company portal attractive, easy to use
• Browse online catalogs
• Use search engines
• Paymentscash or check upon delivery, automatic
  payments, credit card, purchasing card

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Bigboxx.com (cont.)

• Delivery
• Owns trucks and warehouses
• Delivery scheduled online
• Ordering system integrated with SAP-based
  back-office system
• Value-added services
• Track status of order
• Check stock availability
• Promotions
• Customized prices
• Group accounts and central approval
• Standing orders automatically activated
• Large number of reports and data available

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Exhibit 5.2Sell-Side B2B Marketplace Architecture
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Direct Sales from Catalogs

• Companies may
• Offer one catalog for all customers
• Customized catalog for each customer
• Facilitate the B2B direct sale by providing the
  buyer with a buyer customized shopping cart
• Configuration and customization
• Efficient customization for direct sales
• Business customers customize products, receive
  price quote, submit order

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Direct Sales from Catalogs (cont.)

• Benefits
• Lower order-processing costs
• Faster ordering cycle
• Fewer errors in ordering and product
  configuration
• Lower search costs for buyers
• Lower search costs for sellers
• Lower logistics costs

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Direct Sales from Catalogs (cont.)

• Benefits (cont.)
• Ability to offer different catalogs and prices to
  different customers and to customize products and
  services efficiently
• Limitations
• Channel conflicts with distribution systems
• High cost when traditional EDI used
• Large number of business partners is needed to
  justify system

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Selling Via Auctions

• Using auctions on the sell-side
• Revenue generation
• Increased page views
• Stickinesscharacteristic of customer loyalty to
  a Web site, demonstrated by the number and length
  of visits to a site
• Member acquisition and retentionbidding
  transactions result in additional registered
  members

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Selling Via Auctions (cont.)

• Selling from own site when
• Large companies that conduct auctions frequently
  dont benefit from using intermediaries
• E-marketplace already in use, cost of adding
  auction not too high
• Intermediary-oriented e-marketplacean
  e-marketplace in which intermediaries operate

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Selling Via Auctions (cont.)

• Using intermediaries when
• No resources required
• Own and control auction information
• Fast time to market
• Searching and reporting
• Search and report all auction activities
• Standard reports available
• Additional analysis of complex information

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Selling Via Auctions (cont.)

• Billing and collection
• Automatic calculation of shipping weights and
  charges
• Paymentencrypted credit card data
• Billing informationeasily downloaded into
  existing systems
• Successful if
• Sufficient number of loyal customers
• Products well known
• Price not major purchasing criteria

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CISCO Connection Online (CCO)

• Benefitssaves the company 363 million per year
  in technical support, human resources, software
  distribution, marketing material
• Customer serviceCisco Connection online
• Online orderingInternet Product Center builds
  virtually all products to order
• Order statuscustomer tools for finding answers
  to order status inquiries

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Cisco Connection Online (CCO) (cont.)

• Benefits to Cisco
• Reduced operating costs for order taking
• Enhanced technical support and customer service
• Reduced technical support staff cost
• Reduced software distribution costs
• Lead times reduced fro 4-10 days to 2-3 days
• Benefits to customers
• Quick order configuration
• Immediate cost determination
• Collaboration with Cisco staff

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Marshall Industries

• Marshall Industries(a subsidiary of
  AvnetMarshallavnet.com) multinational
  distributor of electronic components known for
  its innovative uses of IT and the Web
• Products and services
• MarshallNet
• Marshall on the Internet (portal)
• Strategic European Internet
• Electronic Design Center
• PartnerNet
• NetSeminar
• Education and News Portal

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Marshall Industries (cont.)

• Survival strategy
• Continuous improvement programs and innovations
• Team-based organization, flat hierarchy,
  decentralized decision making
• Profit sharing compensation for salespeople
• CRM highly promoted
• Web-based services create value between suppliers
  and customers
• EC initiatives supported by
• Changing internal organization
• Changing internal procedures

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Boeings PART Marketplace

• Acts as an intermediary between the airlines and
  parts suppliers
• Provides a single point of online access for
  airlines and parts providers to access the data
  needed
• Goal provide its customers with one-stop
  shopping for online parts and maintenance
  information and ordering capability

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Boeings PART Marketplace (cont.)

• Spare parts business using traditional EDI
• Mechanic tells purchasing department parts are
  needed, purchase is approved, purchase is made
• Large airlines connect to Boeing's VAN
• Boeing finds parts and delivers
• Debut of PART on the Internet
• Encourages customers to order parts
  electronicallycheap, easy, fast
• 50 of customers using Internet within first year

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Boeings PART Marketplace(cont.)

• Benefits of PART online
• Improved customer service
• Significant operating savings
• New sales opportunities
• Customer service online reduced
• Portable access to technical drawings/support
• Portable Maintenance Aid (PMA)solves maintenance
  problems

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Boeings PART Marketplace (cont.)

• Benefits to Boeings customers
• Increased productivityless time searching for
  information
• Reduced costsdelays at gate reduced because all
  information is available
• Increased revenuesfaster service provides time
  savings

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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many

• Procurement methods
• Buy from manufacturers, wholesalers, or retailers
  at their storefronts, from catalogs,and by
  negotiation
• Buy from the catalog of an intermediary
• Buy from an internal-buyers catalog
• Conduct a bidding or tendering system
• Buy at private or public auction sites
• Join a group-purchasing system

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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many (cont.)

• Procurement managementthe coordination of all
  the activities relating to purchasing goods and
  services needed to accomplish the mission of an
  organization
• Inefficiencies in procurement management
• Purchasing personnel spend time and effort on
  procurement activities
• Qualifying suppliers
• Negotiating prices and terms
• Building rapport with strategic suppliers
• Carrying out supplier evaluation and
  certification

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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many (cont.)

• Buyers are sometimes too busy with the details of
  the smaller items
• Organizations address this imbalance by
  implementing new purchasing models
• Potential inefficiencies
• Delays
• Paying too much for rush orders
• Maverick buyingunplanned purchases of items
  needed quickly, often from non-approved vendors
  or at higher prices

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Exhibit 5.4Traditional Procurement Process
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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many (cont.)

• Goals of e-procurement
• Increase purchasing agent productivity
• Lower purchasing prices of items
• Improve information flow and management
• Minimize maverick (unplanned) buying
• Improve payment process
• Streamline purchasing process to make it simple
  and fast

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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many (cont.)

• Goals of e-procurement (cont.)
• Reduce administrative processing cost per order
• Find new suppliers and vendors to provide
  faster/cheaper goods and services
• Integrate procurement process with budgetary
  control in an efficient and effective way
• Minimize human errors in buying or shipping
  process

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Buy Side MarketplacesOne-from-Many (cont.)

• Implementing e-procurement
• Fit e-procurement into company EC strategy
• Review and change procurement process itself
• Provide interfaces between e-procurement with
  integrated EIS
• Coordinate buyers information system with the
  sellers

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Buy Side E-MarketplacesReverse Auctions

• Buy-side e-marketplacea Web-based marketplace
  in which a buyer opens an electronic market on
  its own server and invites potential suppliers to
  bid on the items the buyer needs also called the
  reverse auction, tendering, or bidding model
• Request for quote (RFQ)the invitation to a
  buy-side marketplace (reverse auction)

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Exhibit 5.6Buy-Side B2B Market Architecture
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Conducting Reverse Auctions

• Reverse auctions administered from a companys
  Web site
• Bidding process lasts a day or more
• Bidders may bid only once or view the lowest bid
  and rebid several times
• Increasing number of reverse auction sites makes
  it impossible for suppliers to monitor all of
  them
• Online directories list open RFQs
• Use software search-and-match agents to reduce
  the human burden in the bidding process

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Bidding Through a Third-Party Auctioneer
Freemarkets.com

• United Technologies Corp. needs suppliers to make
  24 million worth of circuit boards
• 2,500 suppliers are identified as possible
  contractors
• List is submitted to FreeMarkets (freemarkets.com)

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Freemarkets.com (cont.)

• FreeMarkets reduced the list to 50, based on
  considerations including
• Plant location
• Size of supplier
• Plant capacity
• Customer feedback
• Detailed evaluation of the candidates

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Freemarkets.com (cont.)

• 3-hour auction conducted of online competitive
  bidding
• First bid was seen by all bidders
• Using reverse auction approach, the bidders
  reduced their bids
• Comprehensive analysis of several of the lowest
  bidders
• Then recommended the winners and collected its
  commission fees

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Procurement Revolution at GE

• TPN (now part of gxs.com)
• Purchasing was inefficienttoo many
  administrative transactions
• Process for each requisition took 7 days
• Complex and time-consuming
• Could only send out bids for 2 or 3 suppliers
• Trading Process Network (TPN)electronic bids
• Entire process takes 7 days (for suppliers to
  bid)
• 2 hours to send information to suppliers
• Evaluate and award bids same day

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Procurement Revolution at GE (cont.)

• Benefits to GE
• Labor declined 30 and material costs declined
  5-50--wider base of suppliers online
• Redeployment of 50 of the staff
• Takes half the time to identify suppliers,
  prepare a request for bid, negotiate a price, and
  award the contract
• Invoices automatically reconciled reflecting
  modifications

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Procurement Revolution at GE (cont.)

• Benefits to buyers
• Worldwide supplier partnerships
• Current business partners
• Strengthen relationships
• Streamline sourcing process
• Rapid distribution of information
• Transmit electronic drawings to multiple
  suppliers
• Decrease sourcing cycle time
• Quick receipt and comparison of pricing bids

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Procurement Revolution at GE (cont.)

• Benefits to suppliers
• Increased sales volume
• Expanded market reach, finding new buyers
• Lowered administration costs for sales and
  marketing activities
• Shortened requisition cycle time
• Improved sales staff productivity
• Streamlined bidding process

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Aggregating Catalogs

• Aggregating suppliers catalogs an internal
  marketplace
• Maverick buying to save time leads to high prices
• Aggregating all approved suppliers catalogs in
  one place
• Reduced number of suppliers
• Buyers at multiple corporate locations
• Fewer and remote suppliers
• Larger quantity/lower costs

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Buying from MasterCardInternationals Internal
Catalog

• Online buying program at MasterCard
• Allows corporate buyers to select goods and
  services from companys electronic catalog
• Goal is to consolidate buying activities from
  multiple corporate sites, improve processing
  costs, reduce the supplier base
• Procurement department defines
• Scope of products or projects to buy
• Invites vendors to bid or negotiate prices

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MasterCard International (cont.)

• Contract prices are stored in the internal
  electronic catalog
• Final buyer at MasterCard compares available
  alternatives
• Organizational purchasing decision coupled with
  an internal workflow management system
• Internal electronic catalog is updated manually
  or by software agents
• Payments are made with MasterCards corporate
  procurement card
• By 2002, the system was being used by more than
  2,500 buyers

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Group Purchasing

• Group purchasingaggregation several buyers into
  volume purchases, so that better prices can be
  negotiated
• Internal aggregation
• Economy of scale
• Reduced transaction processing cost
• External aggregation
• Aggregating demand online
• Putting together orders from multiple buyers to
  make large volumes/lower costs

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Exhibit 5.7Group Purchasing Process
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Electronic Bartering

• Bartering exchangean intermediary that links
  parties in a barter a company submits its
  surplus to the exchange and receives points of
  credit, which can be used to buy the items that
  the company needs from other exchange
  participants
• Exchange of goods or services without the use of
  money
• Exchange a surplus for other need
• Benefits
• Faster than manually
• Easier to match

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Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce)

• Collaborative commerce (c-commerce)commerce
  consisting of activities between business
  partners in jointly planning, designing,
  developing, managing,and researching products and
  services
• Web-based systems used between and among
  suppliers for
• Communication Design
• Planning Information sharing
• Information discovery

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Collaborative Commerce (cont.)

• Varieties of c-commerce
• Joint design efforts
• Forecasting
• Between and within organizations
• Aids communication and collaboration between
  headquarters and subsidiaries, franchisers and
  franchisees
• C-commerce platform provides e-mail, message
  boards, chat rooms, online corporate data access
  around the globe, no matter what the time zone

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Webcor Construction Goes Online with Its Partners

• Webcor suffered from too much paperwork and poor
  communication with its
• Architects
• Designers
• Building owners
• Subcontractors
• Webcors goal to turn its computer-aided design
  (CAD) drawings, memos, and other information into
  shared digital information

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Webcor (cont.)

• Webcor uses ASP that hosts its projects on a
  secured extranet
• Major problem was getting everyone to accept
  software
• Complex
• User training is necessary
• Webcor was in a strong enough position to choose
  not to partner with anyone who would not use
  ProjectNet

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Webcor (cont.)

• Webcors business partners can post send, or edit
  CAD drawings, digital photos, memos, status
  reports, project histories
• Partners have instant access to new building
  drawings
• Central meeting place where users can both
  download and transmit information to all parties,
  all with a PC

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RetailerSupplier Collaboration Target
Corporation

• Target Corporation is a large retail
  conglomerate
• Conducts EC activities with about 20,000 trading
  partners
• 1998established an extranet-based system for
  those partners that were not connected to its
  VAN-based EDI.

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Target Corporation (cont.)

• The extranet enabled the company to
• Reach many more partners,
• Use many applications not available on the
  traditional EDI
• Streamline its communications and collaboration
  with suppliers
• Business customers to create personalized Web
  pages

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Continuous Replenishment Warner-Lambert

• Warner-Lambert (WL) served as a pilot site for a
  program called Collaborative Planning,
  Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR)
• Shared strategic plans, performance data, and
  market insight with Wal-Mart
• Trading partners collaborate on making demand
  forecasts
• WL increased its products shelf-fill rate from
  87 percent to 98 percent

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Warner-Lambert (cont.)

• WL is involved in another collaborative retail
  industry projectSupply-Chain Operations
  Reference (SCOR)
• Divides supply chain operations into parts
• Gives a framework with which to evaluate the
  effectiveness of their processes along the same
  supply chains to
• Manufacturers
• Suppliers
• Distributors
• Retailers

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Reduction of Design Cycle Time Adaptec, Inc.

• Microchip manufacturer supplying electronic
  equipment makers
• Outsourced manufacturing tasks
• Delivery times exceeded their competitors
• Solution to the problem
• Extranet and enterprise-level supply chain
  integrated software
• Significantly reduced order-to-product delivery
  time

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Reduction of Product Development Time
Caterpillar, Inc.

• Heavy machinery manufacturer uses extranet
• Request for customized component directly to
  designers and suppliers ship to buyers
• Connect engineering and manufacturing division
  with worldwide
• Suppliers Factories
• Distributors Customers
• Overseas

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Barriers to C-Commerce

• C-commerce is moving ahead fairly slowly because
• Technical reasons involving integration,
  standards, and networks
• Security and privacy concerns over who has access
  control of information stored in a partners
  database
• Internal resistance to new models and approaches
• Lack of internal skills to conduct c-commerce

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Interorganizational Collaboration at Nygard of
Canada

• Nygard has become a leader in adopting IT and
  e-commerce in the apparel industry
• Company stays competitive by using EC to control
  costs of labor and manufacturing
• Developed an ERP and supply chain management
  that controls all internal operations,
  purchasing, product development, accounting,
  production planning, sales
• This enabled the company to develop tight
  integration with its trading partners

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Nygard of Canada (cont.)

• The moment that a customer buys a pair of pants
  at a partners retail store
• Information moves from the POS terminal
• Automatically generates a reorder at Nygard
• SCM
• Matches customers orders with the right fabrics
• Searches the market pool for the most efficient
  combinations of other material for use with those
  fabrics

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Nygard of Canada (cont.)

• Sales trigger orders
• Manufacturing automatically industries, and
  global manufacturers are willing to operate with
  razor-thin margins as fabrics, zippers, and
  buttons
• The moment that raw material is used, an
  automatic reorder of the material is generated
• Allows just-in-time production
• Quick order delivery (sometimes same day)

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Nygard of Canada (cont.)

• Web-based control system enables the company to
• Conduct detailed profitability studies
• Decisions are evaluated by impacts on the bottom
  line
• Decision support systems (DSS) models are used
  for this purpose

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Infrastructure for B2B

• Server to host database and applications
• Software for executing sell-side (catalogs)
• Software for conducting auctions and reverse
  auctions
• Software for e-procurement (buy-side)
• Software for CRM
• Security hardware and software
• Software for building a storefront
• Software for building exchanges
• Telecommunications networks and protocols

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Extranet and EDI

• Value-added networks (VANs)private,
  third-party-managed networks that add
  communications services and security to existing
  common carriers used to implement traditional
  EDI systems
• Internet-based EDIEDI that runs on the Internet
  and so is widely accessible to most companies,
  including SMEs

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Extranet and EDI

• Extranetssecured networks (by VPN), usually
  Internet-based, that allow business partners to
  access portions of each others intranets
  extended intranets.

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Integration

• Integration with existing information systems
  issues
• Intranet-based work flow
• Database management systems (DMBS)
• Application packages
• ERP
• Back-end sell-side integration works for sellers
  but not buyers and vice versa

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Integration (cont.)

• Integration with business partners
• Easy integration with one company-centric side
• Not easy to integrate for many buyers or sellers
• Need buyer owned shopping cart that can interface
  with back-end information systems

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The Role of XML in B2B Integration

• Companies interact easily and effectively by
  connecting to their servers, applications,
  databases
• Standard protocols and data-representation
  schemes are needed
• Web is based on the standard communication
  protocols useful only for displaying static
  visual Web pages
• TCP/IP
• HTTP
• HTML

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The Role of XML in B2B Integration (cont.)

• XML (eXtensible Markup Language)standard (and
  its variants) used to improve compatibility
  between the disparate systems of business
  partners by defining the meaning of data in
  business documents
• Used to increase
• Interactivity
• Accessibility with speech recognition systems

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XML Unifies Air Cargo Tracking System

• B2B intermediary, TradeVan Information Services
  of Taiwan provides information services about the
  cargo flights of different airlines
• Different information systems have different
  query results
• XML facilitates data exchange between
  heterogeneous databases
• Information can be presented on wireless
  application protocol (WAP)-based cell phones

84
Air Cargo Tracking System (cont.)

• System is expected to
• Reduce delays significantly
• Benefit of all members of the supply chain
• Returns a standardized yet personalized
  presentation for different airlines
• Enables customs brokers to reduce the cycle time
  by preparing declarations of imports faster

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Air Cargo Tracking System (cont.)

• Buyers and other supply chain partners can
  schedule production lines with precision and in
  advance
• Quality of door-to-door delivery companies is
  improved through fast communication
• Answers to queries can be derived much faster
• Improves the supply chain by reducing
• Delivery lead times
• Inventory levels

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The Role of Software Agentsin B2B EC

• Agents role in the sell-side marketplace
• B2C comparison-shopping
• B2B agents collect information from sellers
  sites for buyers
• Agents role in the buy-side marketplace
• Assisting large number of buyers requesting
  quotes from multiple potential suppliers in
  buy-side

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Managerial Issues

• Can we justify the cost?
• Which vendor(s) should we select?
• Which model(s) should we use?
• Do we need B2B marketing?
• Should we reengineer our procurement system?
• What restructuring will be required for the shift
  to e-procurement?
• What integration would be useful?
• What are the ethical issues in B2B?

88
Summary

• The B2B field
• The major B2B models
• The characteristics of sell-side marketplaces
• Sell-side intermediaries
• The characteristics of buy-side marketplaces
• Forward and reverse auctions
• B2B aggregation and group purchasing
• Collaborative EC
• Characteristics of Internet-based EDI and the
  role of XML