BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

The Internet is the most important business tool of the new century. In the few short years Web-based technology has already had an enormous impact on consumers and business around the world. E-business accomplishes three stages: e-commerce, e-business and e-partnering. The early stages of a company’s e-business activity are almost always focused on reaching the customer, the later stages on streamlining value-chain activities to deliver more value to the customer. E-commerce is the process of buying and selling goods and services electronically involving transactions using the Internet, networks and other digital technologies. E-commerce allows these purchases and sales transactions to occur with minimal disruption to organizational culture and business processes. E-commerce includes the e-storefront and e-catalog, e-billing and e-payment, and rudimentary forms of e-procurement. There are various types of e-commerce, depending on the transaction: Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Business (C2B) and Consumer to Consumer (C2C). In addition, there are Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Consumer (G2C) e-commerce. Many believe that the most promising area of e-commerce is not retailing to individuals but the automation of purchase and sale transactions from business to business. Figure 1 depicts e-commerce information flows. Individuals can purchase goods and services electronically from online retailers, who can use e-commerce technologies to link directly to their suppliers or distributors. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is one technology that has enabled B2B e-commerce for many years. For a number of years, companies have used proprietary EDI systems and e-mail for this purpose. EDI lets businesses exchange critical information on payments, products, services, or logistics over special telephone lines or leased data lines. The cost of EDI connections is high, so only the largest businesses can afford this system.