The Insider's Guide to Business and IT Agility
By Ken Kenjale, Syntel , 02/11/2002
Print this article
Email this article
Talk Back!
Write to Editor
The landscape is littered with the hundreds of B2B exchanges that have failed in recent months. Even for the survivors, demonstrating success has been far from automatic. Yet several B2B exchanges, such as SkillBay and TexYard, are still operating after several years. In this article, we'll discuss how to take advantage of the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls of this dynamic marketing channel. We'll demonstrate that B2B exchanges or marketplaces provide dramatic opportunities to automate collaborative business processes with customers and suppliers, generate internal efficiencies and reach new markets at minimal cost.
B2B exchanges are online marketplaces for businesses to buy and sell goods and services from other businesses. Automated business-to-business transactions are not an entirely new concept. Even as far back as the early 1990s, large organizations have been using automated systems to exchange transactions with business partners. General Electric's Aircraft Engines division, for example, had a system by which a customer could order a part, initiate the shipping process, be invoiced and pay for the part, all without a single piece of paper and within a span of 45 minutes.
These automated systems, however, needed dedicated, expensive data communication facilities and required significant investments in large, complex software that had to be developed from the ground up before they even started working. It took the Internet to bring down the cost and technological barriers. The Internet is widely and easily accessible, and it requires a communication protocol that can be supported by a wide variety of computers--from the smallest desktop to the largest mainframe.
The simpler business-to-consumer (B2C) model beat B2B to the punch in both availability and visibility. By now, business based on the B2C model, in which the customer browses through an electronic catalog to select items for purchase, is well established. Yet the potential in terms of dollar volume and number of transactions is far higher for B2B than for B2C. This is because behind every product that reaches the consumer there lies a chain of transactions involving material suppliers and service providers. These B2B transactions typically involve long, complex processes, including the search for vendors, requests for quotation (RFQs), evaluation of different proposals, negotiation, supply chain planning, shared product design, document exchange, billing, payment and extensive data analysis.
1
ROUNDTABLE: Stretch Your Budget with smart SOA Governance-A Look at Successful Case Studies
ROUNDTABLE: Open Source Market Update
Insurance: Explore how SOA & BPM are driving down expenses and improving ROI
ebizQ is very interested in what you have to say. To contribute an article, an opinion, or to become a blogger, please contact Peter Schooff.
You need Adobe Flash Player 9 to view this widget.
June 3, 2009
One of the most compelling trends in the enterprise business technology space over the past year has been the emergence of cloud computing. In ebizQ’s upcoming Qcamp virtual un-conference, leading industry experts and practitioners will explore the role of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) in supporting cloud-computing initiatives. Additionally, the new skills that developers and IT managers need for successful cloud development will be discussed.Register
Date: Aug 26, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date: Sep 30, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date:Aug 26, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date:Sep 30, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Adopting an open source SOA allows better allocation of IT resources, away from solving internal infrastructure and systems issues, to solving...
Download Now
In part two of Joe McKendrick's recent podcast with Miko Matsumura, chief strategist for Software AG, they talk about how SOA and IT systems need to change and grow and adapt with the organization around it.
Listen Now
Phil Wainewright interviews David Vap, VP of products at RightNow Technologies, and finds out how sharing best practices can help businesses understand how best to engage with online communities.
Listen Now
Scott Hebner, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for IBM Rational, discusses a topic on the top of every company's mind today: getting the most from IT investments.
Listen Now
In BI, this tough economy and the increasing role of Web 2.0 and MDM are certainly topics on people's minds today. WiseAnalytics' Lyndsay Wise addresses each of them in this informative podcast.
Listen Now
Deepak Singh, President and CTO of Adeptia, joins ebizQ's Dennis Byron in a podcast that gets its hand around the trend of industry-specific BPM.
Listen Now
From Dennis Byron: For BPM to fit at the top of the stack, it can't merely support workflow or integration. It needs to integrate the BI aspects of the stack, too. Learn More
In the insurance industry, companies have accepted that systems, strategies and data all developed in silos are making it difficult for them to grow and adjust to today’s market demands. The obstacles imposed by siloed approaches are painfully obvious to companies as they try to gain a better understanding of their customers and meet the growing constraints imposed by compliance and regulatory requirements. Leveraging industry standards with full data integration is one was to tackle this challenge. Learn More
From Dennis Byron: Is it better to choose one strain of BPM over another? The answer is unique to your organization. Learn More
Can decision management really deliver costs savings, agility and happy customers on a consistent basis? Learn More
From Dennis Byron: BPM products optimized for case management might be the products that bridge the extremes in my view of the BPM spectrum. Learn More
Integrating BPM and CEP gives you intelligent business processes that can react to rapidly changing business conditions with continuous visibility. Learn More
Insurers need to think about creating "true linkage," which means linking business strategy to process to IT investments and thereby setting the foundation for true change. Learn More
To be effective, business intelligence technology must work behind the scenes to deliver relevant information when, where, and how it's needed. Learn More
A lot of people are talking about Enterprise 2.0 as being the business application of Web 2.0 technology. However, there's still some debate on exactly what this technology entails, how it applies to today's business models, and which components bring true value. Some use the term Enterprise 2.0 exclusively to describe the use of social networking technologies in the enterprise, while others use it to describe a web economy platform, or the technological framework behind such a platform. Still others say that Enterprise 2.0 is all of these things. Learn More
Smart event processing can help your company run smarter and faster. This comprehensive guide helps you research the basics of complex event processing (CEP) and learn how to get started on the right foot with your CEP project using EDA, RFID, SOA, SCADA and other relevant technologies. Learn More
To Michael: To select what has to be improved (e.g. automated), a...
Hi Johan,
thank you for such prompt response.
I...
Phil,
It appears that Google is looking at the world...
I believe work has been done in this area privately for some time....
I wonder if BPM has become more popular because many solutions...
We are looking for a FileNET admin/developer in Houston, TX. The...
As we see more companies consider the cloud we should be...
Scott,
I agree that process management is good way for...
|
|
|
|
