The early vision of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce booming in a vast, unregulated, virtual marketplace in which businesses of all sizes trade freely with anyone, anywhere, was too idealistic - and unrealistic - to succeed in the short term.
So says Janice Kallmeyer, GM of GoZone, who points out that instead of a global free-for-all, B2B e-commerce is rapidly forging ahead in strictly controlled marketplaces - trading environments which are variously called "enterprise portals", "secure extranets" or "value networks".
"Certainly, dynamic, unregulated B2B e-commerce has its place for the supply and distribution of simple or mass-customised products or where customer-loyalty is based on basic measures such as lowest price or standard service.
"But as e-commerce guru Paul Timmer stresses In his book `Electric Commerce: Strategies and Models for Business to Business Trading`, value networks are critical in B2B environments dealing with complex products as well as in niche markets," she says.
Timmer also regards the `value network` as important in situations where complex services are involved; where customers require personalised interaction; where the customer interface is critical, especially if trust is an issue; and where the aim is to create exclusivity in commercial relations by "locking-in" customers - and thereby lock out competitors.
Kallmeyer says the recent launch of the ANX Portal in the US, an extranet service for the US motor vehicle industry which utilises the secure, available connectivity of ANX`s private network, is an example of the trend towards the development of closed, niche, online business communities.
The new portal allows vehicle manufacturers and their top suppliers to exchange computer aided design (CAD) files on more than 300 vehicles in design in the US at any one time. In addition, the ANX network serves hundreds of subscribers across multiple industries in the US which supply either products or services to the motor industry. These include rubber manufacturers, steel companies, transport organisations and even health care companies.
A similar initiative is underway in SA with the establishment of Motoronline, an automotive e-business portal being set up by the Retail Motor Industry (RMI), Dimension Data and Wesbank. It will enable all players from the major manufacturers to the smallest dealers and business offering the industry support services, to transact in a secure, on-line environment.
"However, allowing different users to enter the online trading environment of a particular community can be a complex undertaking as it must have mechanisms to filter not only who can access the environment, but also the type of information each individual visitor may access.
"In addition, because the trading environment may also be used for the exchange of mission-critical information such as in a just-in-time supply-chain management scenario, or in a collaborative product development initiative like those taking place within the ANX Portal, it has to be supported by a reliable, robust underlying infrastructure," Kallmeyer adds. "That`s why technical considerations were paramount in the development of the GoZone, a 24-hour trusted online trading environment set up to serve as an electronic business gateway for companies to connect with one another, gain access to business relevant information and to their business applications.
"It is based on proven, widely-deployed, industry-standard products with extensive scalability and total security a no-compromise given.
"In effect, the GoZone is an e-business infrastructure platform which allows only authorised companies and their personnel to interconnect and transact with one another in complete confidentiality across different infrastructural entry points ranging from the corporate Intranet and Extranet to the Internet," Kallmeyer concludes.
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