The term ‘electronic commerce’ is often associated with business to consumer (B2C) applications such as on online stores but internet technology is also making its presence felt in the business-to-business (B2B) arena. Three application areas of particular importance to the supply chain are: electronic procurement, B2B information exchange, and online catalogue management.
1. eProcurement - this covers the ability to purchase all your organisation's needs via a centralised portal that presents pre-negotiated products and pricing to users across an enterprise. This one-stop-shop offers time and money savings benefits from ordering to automated fulfilment and payment.
The larger e-procurement web sites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers who may specify prices or invite bids.
Such sites are designed to streamline a company's purchasing process by standardising processes regardless of the supplier.
2. B2B Information Exchange | EDI Electronic data interchange (EDI) - significant transaction cost savings underpin EDI between established trading partners, particularly when trading with high volumes of orders such as in the hardware or grocery sectors.
EDI reduces reliance on translating PDFs when processing documents such as invoices or purchase orders by enabling direct computer-to-computer processing and standardised document formats such as EDIFACT or PEPPOL. Any business which receives a large number of standard documents that require re-keying of data should consider EDI. This can be achieved in several ways: using the integration components on core transaction systems (i.e. APIs between applications), using in-house middleware to transact with partners, or using third-party cloud based B2B messaging specialists or 'VANs' (Value Added Networks).
3. Online Catalogue Management - most organisations have an inventory containing a list of goods, parts and products and services on offer, along with a description, model and order numbers. Converting that information into an electronic format online can represent a major shift forward in efficiency, cost savings and customer service. Having your product specs and inventory on-line means you can keep it up to date in real time as changes occur, accommodating price increases or discounts, new product ranges, and, importantly, enable integration with in-house or external e-commerce engines and out to distributors or retail e-procurement systems.
