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What is B2B
E-Commerce?
Business-to-Business
Electronic Commerce, also known as E-Business, is experiencing an
explosive growth rate on the Internet. Companies of all sizes and
types are now mutually buying and selling products and services on
the Internet.
The
original first stage of commerce on the Internet was that of
E-Commerce, which is business to consumer activities. Business to
business goes well beyond that popular form of consumer purchasing.
It is intended to bring "Just In Time" concept to a
greater height which allow businesses to coordinate with its
business associate for real time transaction and improving
efficiency and productivity for both organizations. Because Time is
money; people are money, good management of both means more money
for the business and less expenditure on others.
B2B
also offers unique benefits such as less human intervention, less
overhead expenses, fewer inadvertent errors, more efficiency, more
advertising exposure, new markets and new physical territories
equate to an intelligent method of mutual business. It is a win-win
situation for both buyer and seller.
These
are just a few of the benefits that B2B E-commerce can offer. It is
already well accepted in the business community, that the potential
return of doing business on the Internet is far greater than the
investment. The bottom line is greater profits for the business.
Currently
there are 2 main issues to deal with when conducting a B2B
E-commerce
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Supply
Chain Management
- to co-ordinate The fields of competition turned to efficiency
in manufacturing. In the 80's, concepts like Lean Manufacturing,
Design for Manufacturability, Just-in-Time, and Stockless
Production emerged. If properly managed, the operating costs of
such systems can be substantially reduced. Reduction in costs
can be in the form of reduced inventory cost, obsolescence,
transportation and other logistics costs, overhead and direct
labor costs. All have pointed out potential savings in costs
that could amount to billions when companies can engage in
supply chain integration efforts.
- Electronic
Procurement System
- using Internet technologies to handle product distribution to
the the buyer and from supplier while at the same time removing
the complexity of multi-level paper and processing which are
labour intensive. This allows the business to run more
efficiently and allows purchasing professionals to have more
time to focus on complex acquisitions and supplier negotiation.
Besides reducing cost and hassle, it must be designed expressly
for casual use by untrained employees and it must also provide
extensive management controls, reporting, and integration with
existing systems.
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