B2B – Business To Business Electronic Commerce
Business to Business (B2B) applications comprise about 85% of electronic commerce (EC) volume.[i] B2B applications enable an organization to improve supply chains and partner relations through electronic relationships with its suppliers, distributors, customers and other partners. There are several ways that businesses use electronic commerce to develop these relationships.
The following list gives a brief explanation of the major B2B e-commerce methods:
· Sell-side corporate marketplace – the organization sells products or services to other organizations via their own e-marketplace or from a third party site. This model offers the seller great latitude in allowing the buyer to customize the product.
· Buy-side corporate marketplace – the organization buys needed products or services from sellers. This model is well suited for specific purchases where the company wants to evaluate offers from multiple vendors.
· Public exchange – brings many buyers and sellers (normally both businesses) together to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. The trading platform is usually owned and operated by a third party.
Electronic commerce offers cost saving opportunities by simply improving market efficiency. Each B2B method has advantages for specific types of business. For instance, a public exchange is an efficient way to procure raw materials for manufacturing, but it is not an efficient way to sell office supplies to retailers. The following explanation gives examples of the most applicable use for each EC method.
Sell-side Marketplace
The sell-side model is a powerful sales tool suited for companies with a good reputation and name-brand recognition (e.g. IBM). It is an excellent sales channel for a manufacturer (e.g. Dell), a distributor (e.g. www.avnet.com ) or a retailer (e.g. www.bigbox.com ). The seller can customize electronic catalogues for buyers at different levels, hold forward auctions ( www.dellauction.com ) or use third party auction sites such as Overstock.com to liquidate excess inventory. The sell-side model is also well suited to customization. Vendors can easily allow buyers to specify or self-configure products to meet their needs with fewer misunderstandings and faster order fulfillment.
Buy-side Marketplace
The predominant method of commerce in the buy-side model is a reverse auction. A company purchasing items places a request for proposal (RFQ) on its website or in a third party bidding marketplace. Then sellers, usually pre-approved suppliers, submit bids electronically which are evaluated internally and successful bidders are notified. E-procurement is a type of buy-side marketing which uses reverse auctions, group purchasing and desktop purchasing.
Group purchasing combines many smaller orders from multiple buyers into a larger order. Especially popular in the health-care industry and in education, orders of smaller buyers are often aggregated by third party vendors which merits greater consideration and discounts from sellers.
Desktop purchasing refers to the aggregation of multiple vendors’ catalogues into an internal master catalogue which resides on the buyer’s server. This facilitates efficiency in purchasing when a company has many suppliers, but the quantities purchased from each are relatively small (e.g. office supplies). The U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (www.defra.gov.uk ) implemented a desktop purchasing system and realized a savings of approximately $1.2 million due to improved efficiency.
Public Exchanges
An e-marketplace where many buyers and sellers (usually businesses) come together is called a public exchange or exchange. This type of EC is typically owned and operated by a third party and open to all businesses with product offerings or needs. Vertical e-marketplaces offer services particularly suited to the industry served. There are four basic types of exchanges[ii]:
· Vertical distributors for direct materials – materials used as inputs in manufacturing are traded in large quantities (systematic sourcing) with established business partners.
· Vertical exchanges for indirect materials – indirect materials in one industry are purchased on an as needed basis in an auction format where supply and demand are matched by the service provider.
· Horizontal distributors – a many-to-many e-marketplace where prices can be fixed or negotiated. Examples are EcEurope.com, Globalsources.com and www.alibaba.com .
· Functional exchange – services such as temporary help or storage space are traded on an as needed basis. Prices are dynamic and vary based on supply and demand.
These exchanges tend to function best under the following conditions:
· Products are commodities or near-commodities.
· Trading volumes are massive, relative to transaction costs.
· Products are relatively standardized and can be traded sight-unseen.
· Buyers and sellers are sophisticated enough to deal with dynamic pricing.
· Purchasing is often done on a spot/transactional basis.
· Logistics and fulfillment can be conducted by third-parties, often without revealing the identity of the seller or buyer.
· Demand and prices are volatile.
Business-to business electronic commerce is a tool to improve efficiency and profitability by increasing sales, improving delivery time, reducing mistakes, selling and advertising costs and administrative costs.
The following link, http://www.tradekey.com/index.html?action=aboutus_howtosell&w=780&h=525 , provides an excellent explanation of services offered on its B2B website.
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[i] Turban, Leidner, Mclean and Wetherbe. Information Technology for Management . Danvers, Ma.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007.
[ii] Kaplan, Steven and Sawney, Mohanbir. "B2B E-Commerce Hubs: Towards a Taxonomy of Business Models." 1999.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Overcoming Barriers To Intranet Usability
Overcoming Barriers To Intranet Usability
Organizations have invested millions in creating effective websites but the corporate intranet has suffered from chronic under-capitalization. In his article in the Knowledge Management Review, Mar/Apr 2007, p. 6-7, Dave Wallace proposes that senior management has a lot to learn about the use of an intranet as a strategic tool. An intranet is a network designed to serve the informational needs of an organization. This network would support communication and collaboration within the company and connect to the internet to facilitate e-commerce activities and it could connect to an extranet to share secure business information with suppliers, partners and customers.
Company intranets are being used extensively by employees for communication and resource gathering but the technology could be used much more effectively. Senior managers within most companies simply don’t know how many people are using the intranet, what they are using it for or how they are using it. The channel should provide better internal communication, employee engagement and improved efficiency through greater support for day-to-day work. The first step to improvement is to conduct a detailed study with users to better understand how, when and why they use the intranet.
Information overload is a problem on most systems. Some large intranet systems may have over a million pages. The principles of good design, use of white space, clear headings and content and keep it simple make a more effective portal. Ease of navigation and user-friendly pages that keep the user focused on content rather than distractions is important to achieving objectives.
It is helpful to establish a cross-functional steering group composed of senior managers and system engineers to oversee the design of key components of the intranet. One-on-one interviews sitting across from users should be conducted. Sitemaps of the information architecture must be developed to verify that user journeys represent the quickest possible path to accomplishing the task. Good access to company communication via the intranet is a powerful tool that is often under-utilized. Senior management can achieve more with less effort through the effective use of intranet communications. Ideally the intranet connects organizational strategic objectives with user needs.
Organizations have invested millions in creating effective websites but the corporate intranet has suffered from chronic under-capitalization. In his article in the Knowledge Management Review, Mar/Apr 2007, p. 6-7, Dave Wallace proposes that senior management has a lot to learn about the use of an intranet as a strategic tool. An intranet is a network designed to serve the informational needs of an organization. This network would support communication and collaboration within the company and connect to the internet to facilitate e-commerce activities and it could connect to an extranet to share secure business information with suppliers, partners and customers.
Company intranets are being used extensively by employees for communication and resource gathering but the technology could be used much more effectively. Senior managers within most companies simply don’t know how many people are using the intranet, what they are using it for or how they are using it. The channel should provide better internal communication, employee engagement and improved efficiency through greater support for day-to-day work. The first step to improvement is to conduct a detailed study with users to better understand how, when and why they use the intranet.
Information overload is a problem on most systems. Some large intranet systems may have over a million pages. The principles of good design, use of white space, clear headings and content and keep it simple make a more effective portal. Ease of navigation and user-friendly pages that keep the user focused on content rather than distractions is important to achieving objectives.
It is helpful to establish a cross-functional steering group composed of senior managers and system engineers to oversee the design of key components of the intranet. One-on-one interviews sitting across from users should be conducted. Sitemaps of the information architecture must be developed to verify that user journeys represent the quickest possible path to accomplishing the task. Good access to company communication via the intranet is a powerful tool that is often under-utilized. Senior management can achieve more with less effort through the effective use of intranet communications. Ideally the intranet connects organizational strategic objectives with user needs.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Information Systems Support Bayer's Mission and Goals
A2-1 Information Systems to Support Bayer’s Mission and Goals
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer’s stated mission is “to create products and services designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life.” This mission statement underscores its willingness as an inventor company to help shape the future and to come up with innovations that benefit humankind. Bayer’s goals are to create an enterprise that is keenly focused on its customers, its strengths, its potential and the markets of the future.
Strategic Activities: Bayer has carried out a strategic realignment, placing its businesses into three subgroups that operate virtually independently and are fully aligned to their respective markets. Each group is supported by competent service companies. The company intends to focus on the areas of health care, nutrition, high-tech materials. Of special importance are new products emerging from active substance research, the consumer health business, the growth markets of Asia and new areas such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Bayer has an extensive network of external partners and long-term alliances, such as those with biotechnology companies which strengthens its research platform and offers attractive business opportunities in the markets of the future. Its research and development are directed toward therapeutic areas where there is particular scope for innovation and where it already has successful products and/or promising product developments. It believes that biotechnologically derived active ingredients have considerable growth potential. It also plans to further expand the successful business in products for the companion animals market. Bayer plans to systematically exploit opportunities for both internal and external growth.
Operational Activities: Bayer’s operations revolve around its core principles as an inventor company. Each of the three subgroups operates as independent entities working toward a common goal: to create products that benefits people and improves quality of life. The company is an established international supplier of IT-based administrative, commercial and scientific services. Bayer Business Services has bundled all the related services in its core area of IT Infrastructure and Applications. The experts at IT Infrastructure and Applications ( http://www.bayerbbs.de/english/solutions-services/it-infrastructure-and-applications.html ) provide comprehensive and qualified consulting on all aspects of corporate processes. They implement applications for all major core business processes and provide application service for more than 60 IT systems (most based on SAP) with more than 60,000 users. The unit also maintains a global data network with data centers on three continents, provides PCs and devices for landline and mobile telephony, and sets up telephone and computer networks. Based on the IP telephony infrastructure, global communications solutions are installed and maintained. All services include comprehensive support.
Managerial Activities: The mission of providing benefit to people and improving the quality of life also guides management activities. A core element of its corporate strategy is rigorous value management. Performance-related compensation systems reward and incentivize the achievement of value-creation targets. Customers remain the focus of activities but employees are also highly valued. Common values and leadership principles form the basis for day-to-day activities. The organizational structure encourages individual responsibility and entrepreneurship. The company “places paramount importance on living our values in our work. The leadership principles on which we assess our managers are therefore based on these values.”
Bayer is using Information Technology (IT) in virtually all aspects of business operations. It is operating innovative host and web technologies as well as business systems based on SAP, supporting business processes in the areas of research & development, health, environment, occupational safety and quality (HSEQ), collaborative work processes, document and content management, performing contract and license management as well as scientific data searches and implementation and operation of scientific information systems for end users (currently 12,000 users worldwide). It is operating a “Customer Interaction Center” (CIC) from Bayer Business Services which collects data from a wide variety of source systems and presents it on screen. It is using virtualization technology enabling the resources of IT systems to be divided up creating high system availability, server load optimization and cost-effective server structures. Bayer Business Services is developing solutions for information integration, collaboration and activity management as well as research into how to best utilize RFID technology. Bayer is an example of a company that is truly focused on its mission: to create products and services designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life.
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer’s stated mission is “to create products and services designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life.” This mission statement underscores its willingness as an inventor company to help shape the future and to come up with innovations that benefit humankind. Bayer’s goals are to create an enterprise that is keenly focused on its customers, its strengths, its potential and the markets of the future.
Strategic Activities: Bayer has carried out a strategic realignment, placing its businesses into three subgroups that operate virtually independently and are fully aligned to their respective markets. Each group is supported by competent service companies. The company intends to focus on the areas of health care, nutrition, high-tech materials. Of special importance are new products emerging from active substance research, the consumer health business, the growth markets of Asia and new areas such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Bayer has an extensive network of external partners and long-term alliances, such as those with biotechnology companies which strengthens its research platform and offers attractive business opportunities in the markets of the future. Its research and development are directed toward therapeutic areas where there is particular scope for innovation and where it already has successful products and/or promising product developments. It believes that biotechnologically derived active ingredients have considerable growth potential. It also plans to further expand the successful business in products for the companion animals market. Bayer plans to systematically exploit opportunities for both internal and external growth.
Operational Activities: Bayer’s operations revolve around its core principles as an inventor company. Each of the three subgroups operates as independent entities working toward a common goal: to create products that benefits people and improves quality of life. The company is an established international supplier of IT-based administrative, commercial and scientific services. Bayer Business Services has bundled all the related services in its core area of IT Infrastructure and Applications. The experts at IT Infrastructure and Applications ( http://www.bayerbbs.de/english/solutions-services/it-infrastructure-and-applications.html ) provide comprehensive and qualified consulting on all aspects of corporate processes. They implement applications for all major core business processes and provide application service for more than 60 IT systems (most based on SAP) with more than 60,000 users. The unit also maintains a global data network with data centers on three continents, provides PCs and devices for landline and mobile telephony, and sets up telephone and computer networks. Based on the IP telephony infrastructure, global communications solutions are installed and maintained. All services include comprehensive support.
Managerial Activities: The mission of providing benefit to people and improving the quality of life also guides management activities. A core element of its corporate strategy is rigorous value management. Performance-related compensation systems reward and incentivize the achievement of value-creation targets. Customers remain the focus of activities but employees are also highly valued. Common values and leadership principles form the basis for day-to-day activities. The organizational structure encourages individual responsibility and entrepreneurship. The company “places paramount importance on living our values in our work. The leadership principles on which we assess our managers are therefore based on these values.”
Bayer is using Information Technology (IT) in virtually all aspects of business operations. It is operating innovative host and web technologies as well as business systems based on SAP, supporting business processes in the areas of research & development, health, environment, occupational safety and quality (HSEQ), collaborative work processes, document and content management, performing contract and license management as well as scientific data searches and implementation and operation of scientific information systems for end users (currently 12,000 users worldwide). It is operating a “Customer Interaction Center” (CIC) from Bayer Business Services which collects data from a wide variety of source systems and presents it on screen. It is using virtualization technology enabling the resources of IT systems to be divided up creating high system availability, server load optimization and cost-effective server structures. Bayer Business Services is developing solutions for information integration, collaboration and activity management as well as research into how to best utilize RFID technology. Bayer is an example of a company that is truly focused on its mission: to create products and services designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
SOA Makes The Modern Consumer Economy Possible
SOA Makes The Modern Consumer Economy Possible
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) illustrates how Information Technology (IT) challenges are being met with new and innovative solutions. The problem is that many companies are constrained by their current IT infrastructure which is incapable of supporting the level of flexibility needed in rapidly changing business environments. Much of the intellectual capital and other corporate resources are tied up in these older inflexible systems. There is also a huge amount of IT resources (manpower) used to shuffle data around in these older systems rather than on newer Web-based technologies.
The concept of SOA is to reuse and reconnect existing IT assets and make resources available to participants via a network. The network links the Web service consumer to the Web service provider through a service broker. One advantage is that organizations can offer independent services in a standardized way using SOA. Another benefit is that implementation of new products and services can be accomplished quickly and at a lower cost than older technologies.
Web-based credit service companies operate in a very competitive environment. Opportunities to create competitive advantage are often linked to its ability to immediately respond to market demands as well as meet existing customers’ expectations. It is easy to understand the implications of SOA when viewed in relation to a successful Web-based company.
TrueCredit is one of those companies. It is a subsidiary of TransUnion, an international credit bureau (http://www.transunion.com/corporate/aboutUs/aboutUs.page). The company was founded in 1968, is headquartered in Chicago, provides solutions to more than 50,000 businesses worldwide, reaches businesses and consumers in 25 countries on 5 continents and maintains secure credit histories on an estimated 500 million consumers around the globe.
TransUnion solutions comprise four distinct areas of expertise. Those are information services, real estate services, international services and consumer services.
It provides information services with enterprise-wide decisioning technologies, advanced analytics and specialized market expertise, leveraged data capabilities to help clients meet their objectives and make better decisions. Services offered are marketing, fraud and identity management, risk management and collections management. Key markets include automotive, collections, communications, financial services, healthcare, insurance and retail.
Real Estate Services are offered to mortgage lenders to simplify each step of the residential lending process by working with them to understand their operations and integrate automated Web solutions allowing them to acquire more qualified applicants and reduce processing delays.
International Services focuses on domestic companies expanding overseas and international companies in need of powerful information resources. Consulting services for developing credit reporting infrastructures, debt collection and direct marketing analysis are its key components.
The consumer services division develops and markets interactive credit-based products and services to consumers and the nation's largest financial institutions. It offers credit monitoring and identity theft protection products for consumers, private-label, online and offline credit management solutions for financial institutions, marketing analysis and comprehensive direct marketing agency services.
The existence of an individual's updated credit file makes it possible for businesses to make nearly instantaneous, objective credit and insurance decisions. Processes that formerly took days or weeks may now be completed in minutes without question of personal prejudice or subjective judgment. The credit database also makes it possible for credit card issuers and other businesses to target their offers to consumers.
SOA allows TransUnion to provide timely information to its 50,000 business customers while operating various other services focused on different market segments using essentially the same data. It is important to be able to serve all of these users simultaneously since the subscribers to this service, primarily banks and lending institutions, require instantaneous credit reporting. The global information system required by TransUnion would be costly and virtually impossible to implement without SOA. SOA gives TransUnion a definite competitive advantage.
Immediate access to current credit information makes the modern consumer economy possible.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) illustrates how Information Technology (IT) challenges are being met with new and innovative solutions. The problem is that many companies are constrained by their current IT infrastructure which is incapable of supporting the level of flexibility needed in rapidly changing business environments. Much of the intellectual capital and other corporate resources are tied up in these older inflexible systems. There is also a huge amount of IT resources (manpower) used to shuffle data around in these older systems rather than on newer Web-based technologies.
The concept of SOA is to reuse and reconnect existing IT assets and make resources available to participants via a network. The network links the Web service consumer to the Web service provider through a service broker. One advantage is that organizations can offer independent services in a standardized way using SOA. Another benefit is that implementation of new products and services can be accomplished quickly and at a lower cost than older technologies.
Web-based credit service companies operate in a very competitive environment. Opportunities to create competitive advantage are often linked to its ability to immediately respond to market demands as well as meet existing customers’ expectations. It is easy to understand the implications of SOA when viewed in relation to a successful Web-based company.
TrueCredit is one of those companies. It is a subsidiary of TransUnion, an international credit bureau (http://www.transunion.com/corporate/aboutUs/aboutUs.page). The company was founded in 1968, is headquartered in Chicago, provides solutions to more than 50,000 businesses worldwide, reaches businesses and consumers in 25 countries on 5 continents and maintains secure credit histories on an estimated 500 million consumers around the globe.
TransUnion solutions comprise four distinct areas of expertise. Those are information services, real estate services, international services and consumer services.
It provides information services with enterprise-wide decisioning technologies, advanced analytics and specialized market expertise, leveraged data capabilities to help clients meet their objectives and make better decisions. Services offered are marketing, fraud and identity management, risk management and collections management. Key markets include automotive, collections, communications, financial services, healthcare, insurance and retail.
Real Estate Services are offered to mortgage lenders to simplify each step of the residential lending process by working with them to understand their operations and integrate automated Web solutions allowing them to acquire more qualified applicants and reduce processing delays.
International Services focuses on domestic companies expanding overseas and international companies in need of powerful information resources. Consulting services for developing credit reporting infrastructures, debt collection and direct marketing analysis are its key components.
The consumer services division develops and markets interactive credit-based products and services to consumers and the nation's largest financial institutions. It offers credit monitoring and identity theft protection products for consumers, private-label, online and offline credit management solutions for financial institutions, marketing analysis and comprehensive direct marketing agency services.
The existence of an individual's updated credit file makes it possible for businesses to make nearly instantaneous, objective credit and insurance decisions. Processes that formerly took days or weeks may now be completed in minutes without question of personal prejudice or subjective judgment. The credit database also makes it possible for credit card issuers and other businesses to target their offers to consumers.
SOA allows TransUnion to provide timely information to its 50,000 business customers while operating various other services focused on different market segments using essentially the same data. It is important to be able to serve all of these users simultaneously since the subscribers to this service, primarily banks and lending institutions, require instantaneous credit reporting. The global information system required by TransUnion would be costly and virtually impossible to implement without SOA. SOA gives TransUnion a definite competitive advantage.
Immediate access to current credit information makes the modern consumer economy possible.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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