Key Features of B2B (Business to Business)
Key Features of B2B
By using B2B EC, business can reengineer their supply chain and partnership. B2B will offer access to following types of information.
· Product – price, sales history etc.
· Customers – sales history and forecast.
· Suppliers - Product line and lead-time, sales terms and conditions.
· Product process – capacity, product plan.
· Competitors – market share product offerings.
· Sales and marketing – promotions.
· Supply chain process – quality, delivery time etc.
The following are the ways in the world that are being adopted with the help of B2B EC.
Electronic Marketing
B2B platform can be used to sell the company’s product and services to business customers on the Internet. This model can be called seller oriented marketing because customers visit the web site that the supplier has prepared. Certain group’s items, such as industrial equipment are purchased only by businesses.
Procurement Management
From the purchasing company’s point of view, B2B is a medium of facilitating procurement management such as reduced prices and reduced cycle time. To implement B2B from the procurement management point of view the buyer-oriented market place can be used where the buyer announces the RFQ to the potential suppliers for competitive purchasing. To the suppliers, participating to the customers oriented marketplace and winning the bid is the major concern.
Electronic intermediaries
Individual consumers and business purchases a group of items such as books, stationery and personal computers, in such cases the consumers and business buyers can share the intermediary. Certain items such as industrial equipments and parts are purchases only by business. Since the purchasing party is a business who has to deal with many suppliers and intermediaries, an integrated and tailored buyer’s directory linked suppliers and intermediaries is needed.
Just in time
JIT delivery of parts to manufacturing buyers is crucial to realize JIT manufacturing. Direct marketing requires an internal JIT manufacturing system; the JIT delivery and advanced confirmation of supplier’s inventory are essential elements for B2B.
Electronic Data Interchange
EDI is the electronic exchange of specially formatted standard business documents such as orders, bills approval of credit, shipping details and confirmation sent between business partners. The EDI translator is necessary to convert the proprietary data into standard format. Internet based EDI is an important technology for B2B EC.
