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Graduand

Barbara Meneghel
Francesco Dalla Libera

University of Ca’ Foscari of Venice
Technical Report Series in Computer Science
“Computer Science Department”

The Electronic Commerce Business-to-Business models, actors and data.

Summary

1. Introduction

The Electronic Commerce is introduced mainly through two modality of interactions to second that the adressee of the offer is an other company (Business-to-Business, B2B) or the final consumer (Business-to-Consumer, B2C).
If the B2C is the known shape of eCommerce more and substantially indicates the supply of goods and services directly to the final customer, the Electronic Commerce Business-to-Business comprises the transactions that they see been involved like controparti two or more companies: it indicates all those stiff initiatives to integrate the business activity them of a company with that one of the own customers or the own suppliers.
The information is the entity centers them of this approach and must move in parallel with the logistic flow and in both the directions ” just the movimentazione of the information to often reveal the critical point in the supply of a service: it has been in fact calculated that the amount of demanded documentation in order to move of the goodses from a part to the other of the globe frequently demands longer times of the same physical movimentazione. From this point of view, Internet can make to achieve to the companies great advantages, rendering possible the transmission of information, gives and documents to you in real time ” [ Pianola 2000, Tripodi 2001, Meneghel 2004 ].

Commerce B2B puts into effect rests them on the had ventennale experience with EDI (Given Electronic Interchange), that it is very far away from the being set aside from the great actors of the electronic commerce Business-toBusiness. EDI inefficiencies however have become the points of force of new standards B2B, faces to the automatization and integration of the processes and base to you exclusively on use of Internet.
The differences between the two tipologie of eCommerce (B2C, B2B) are translate are in interactions between the diametrically opposite economic actors who in deeply various strategies of sale. In the first case two praxes are found to comparison trade distinguished them completely.

  • B2C, based on the relation with the customer, privileges the aspect of front-end of the business, realizing spontaneous interactions with the customer, little formalized and not structured. The final customer does not need the use of standard in how much he is the final ring of the chain of life of the good and only the its worry is to consume acquired how much.
  • B2B, instead, privileges the aspect of the back-end: it is concentrated in fact on the interactions, structured and often standardized, between the economic actors and on integration of their systems informed to you. The spontaneità of the relations with the final, typical customer of the B2C, is replaced from the formalizzazione of the relations between the been involved economic parts, or rather between their Systems Informed to you Business. Not being more been involved the final consumer, they are found to interact between they of the entities that must plan all a series of operations in order to realize in satisfactory way theirs business, need therefore of formalizzazioni.

In according to case B2B and B2C they differ for the prices applies to you and their distribution, for politics of the reductions in price, the volumes of purchase you concur yourself and, often, for the products offers.

2. Models of Business of the B2B

The activity of an enterprise comes defined through Business Models, that they describe the way in which it generates yield and draws gain. The Business Model defines is strategic aspects that implemented to you of the business activity, riconducibili to the following points:

  • the architecture that defines the flows informed to you, of products and services, with one description of several the actors of business and their roles;
  • the definition and differentiation of the offer;
  • the modality of selection of the customers;
  • the modality of acquisition and maintenance of the customers;
  • the way in which usefullness for the customer is created;
  • the strategies of entrance on the market (strategies of promotion and distribution);
  • the description of the gain sources;
  • the computer science technologies available and usable.

From an analysis of the more careful literature it seems than to be able to identify a series of models that are applied with happening to field B2B [ From 2002, Mouthfuls 2003, AIP 2004, Rappa 2004 ]:

  1. eShop
  2. eProcurement
  3. eAuction
  4. eMall
  5. eMarketplace
  6. Virtual Community
  7. Value Chain Service Provider
  8. Value Chain Integrator
  9. Collaboration Platform
  10. Information Brokerage
  11. eSupply Chain

Figure 1 classifies the models second two parameters: the degree of innovation and the degree of integration of the functions. As it is looked at, the model eShop, version electronic of a traditional store, introduces the degree more low than innovation and integration of the functions.
To the ends it is found instead the model Value Chain Integration, than it does not have corrispettivi in the business traditional and introduces the level higher than integration and innovation.

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Figure 1 – Models of eBusiness

We examine therefore several the models in detail.
1. eShop : it is a model of type ‘ ‘ one-to-one ” with the objective to promote the company and its products or services through a channel of alternative and innovative marketing, often previewing the possibility to order and to pay online. The benefits find to you from the adoption of this model are:

for the company:

  • increment of the question;
  • reduction is of the costs generates them that of those relati you to the promotion and the sale;

for the consumer:

  • reduction of the cost of the products regarding the traditional channels;
  • chosen more width;
  • better information;
  • accessibility 24 hours on 24.

2. eProcurement : it is a model of type ” one-to-many ” the whose main objective is to replace the normal strategies of supplying employed from the company in order to acquire the products and services of which it needs for just the production process. The purchasers deal preventively with the preferential vendors to the aim to integrate theirs catalogue in one only.
Such catalogue includes the description of the products, the times of delivery and the price negotiate of every article and come used from every assigned the purchases.
Instead waiting for that the authorized persons approve of the order and that the office purchases forwards the demand to the suppliers (a process that can demand also weeks), employs to it to you can directly formulate from their emplacement of job the order, from one list previously approved of.
The order passes through an inner process of approval, in order then to be sent electronically to the supplier, leaving in its wake one clear trace for the verifications.
That concurs with the professionals of being able itself to concentrate on the more strategic aspects of supplying, like the negotiation of contracts and the management of the suppliers. These transactions can be integrated in the management and accounting methods of the been involved enterprises.
The activity of eProcurement can be managed inner from the company or be entrusted in outsourcing to specialized external structures. The advantages are:

  • chosen width of offerers, with consequent smaller costs, greater quality, improved delivery and minor supplying cost;
  • attainment of purchase economies;
  • automatization of the processes of demand for offer;
  • greater control on the purchases, in fact is guaranteed the correspondence of the purchases with the political of procurement of the company;
  • reduction of the operating activities in the area of the purchases.

3 eAuction : the conduct electronic auctions on Internet are the transposition on the net of the traditional auctions. Normally it comes supplied a multimediale presentation of the products offers and the offer process comes integrated with the phase of dealing, payment and delivery.
The source of gain for the manager of the auction derives from the sale of the technological platform, from the commission on the transactions and the publicity. Varying is the inverse auction in which they are the vendors to compete in order to earn the sale to the customer.
In such system, the purchaser inserts its demands and eventually the top price for departure and will be task of the suppliers to make the offered ones the decrease in order to buy up the sale. The benefits for the producers and the consumers are:

  • greater efficiency;
  • time saving;
  • lower costs that allow therefore to offer for the sale also lotteries of smaller value;
  • the producers can use this model in order to reduce the exceeding stock;
  • the consumers benefit of the cost reduction of purchase.

4. eMall : it is a type model ”many-to-many” and it can be equiparare to a center trades them online. A model relatively dated and consists in a collection of eShop accorpati to the inside of an only structure trades them. The mall it is limited to offer the space to the vendors and it does not enter directly therefore to the inside of the transaction with the final customer. The adoption of such model door to an increment of the number of visitors, thanks to one campaign of total marketing for all the storees and to one immense offer of products pertaining to the merceologiche categories more disparate. Often sight to the development of one virtual community through forum, chat, etc with the scope to maintain on situated the greater number of visitors and to make to journey the same ones in the virtual display windows of the suppliers. The companies can adopt this model in two different ways:

  • like fruitrici of the service put to disposition;
  • like supplier of the eMall same.

In the first case the company, joining to the community, obtains the following benefits:

reduction of the investments, in fact does not have to be made cargo of all the organizational activities which the technical and technological management of the virtual store and enjoys a system of hosting sophisticated;
advantage thanks to the traffic adds generated them from the present others eShop in the eMall.

The company, adopting this road, must adapt the own structure trades them to the new channel of sale. In according to case the company it invests and it realizes one able technological platform to receive the storees of the companies participants. For the manager of eMall the advantages they derive give:

  • increment of the sale of the technological support;
  • sale of the own services to the companies participants to the eMall;
  • sale of advertising spaces.

The eMall they have not obtained the hoped happened one and they have been in part replaced from more evoluti eMarketplace.

5. eMarketplace (Third Party Marketplace): it is a type model ” many to many “, used in the case in which the companies they want to leave to third parts the management of their marketing on the Web. A Marketplace is one virtual public square, a point of encounter between companies of type sellside and companies of type buyside [ Furini2002 ]. The Marketplace integrates the functionalities offered from the model of eProcurement with one technical and organizational structure highly specialized. E’ a virtual platform to the inside of which transactions happen trades them. It can be developed is in horizontal that in vertical (figure 2).

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Figure 2 – Marketplace horizontal and vertical

For horizontal Marketplace a market turned to a target agrees of enterprises pertaining to various fields. As an example supplies for office, you space advertising, logistic MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations), services, etc. Draft of goods and services that, of norm, do not enter in the directed cycle of transformation, however can represent important voices of expense to the inside of one company (so-called indirect materials).
For vertical Marketplace one refers to us, to the contrary, a market that focus just target on an industrial field very defined or on part of it. Goods and services exchange to you on this market enter in the cycle of transformation of the product (so-called direct materials).

Based on the offered functions, they can themselves be distinguished in:

  • Electronic Pinboard (or showcases): they are the type simpler than virtual public squares than market. They classify groups or categories of products and gives the possibility to insert announcements of sale or purchase. The transaction entire carries out between supplier and purchaser: the pinboard the announcements facilitate the encounter between the parts classifying, but they can also as an example offer additional functions like the notification via email or SMS. The virtual insertions are many effective and convenient: they offer searches for category and the river basin of utilizzatori is the much largest one than that raggiungibile from the cartacee banns.
  • It catalogues: the characteristic of these virtual public squares of market is to operate with a catalogue aggregate of products composed from catalogues of different vendors. The purchasers can choose from this selection, confront the conditions and for carrying out the order. This type of marketplace offers to high added value: they group the question of a great number of purchasers, strengthen their power of market and, from the moment that produced identical or similar can easy be confronts to you, they assure the transparency of the market.
  • RFP/RFQ: Shape RFP (Request for Proposal) takes advantage of the ability to contact all the supplying presents on the market in order to obtain an offer that the suppliers compose independently trying to satisfy the detailed lists of the petitioner. In the shape of RFQ (Request for Quotation) it upgrades them purchaser makes the demand the marketplace, which he supplies to more shunt it towards two or it upgrades them supplying; these will emit the estimates to the marketplace, than it will forward the customer.
  • Ags: they are one evolution of the Pinboard. They differ for the fact that the mechanism that ago to meet the purchaser and the vendor is controlled from the manager of the marketplace. In this scene many buyer and many seller make an offer simultaneous and therefore it is attempted ” matching ” of the two offering.
  • Auctions: like approval previously, the services of auctions are much similar to the ags, but they have a different objective and an organization. The price of the product or service is the determining element of the offer. The auctions can be opened, where an identity of the participants and the level of the offer are known from all, or completely anonymous and sluices.

Like for the eMall, the companies can decide to adopt the model eMarketplace as participants to the Marketplace or of managers of a Marketplace.
In the first case, the companies can enjoy all the advantages of the outsourcing and all the services added to you that they come supplied from the company that proposes the model (services informed to you, services of insurance cover, advisings financial institutions, trades them and of marketing, financings facilitate to you, supply of temporary labor, to improve the relationship with the customers).
In according to case, the company is taken care of the realization of an adapted technological infrastructure, is striven in the search of the venditrici companies promuovendo uses it of just marketplace between the companies. It finances thanks to the quotas participation of the adherent companies to the service (proporziona them to the turnover), to one small commission on the total of the orders gone to good aim and the sale of the advertising spaces.

6. Virtual Community: The main added value that the virtual communities characterize comes from its participants who bring information to a common atmosphere of base.
The communities are constituted from individuals that gather in a virtual place where they communicate between they various types of necessity. They exist you vary types of virtual communities, but those inherent ones to commerce B2B are the communities trade them of field, purposely dedicated to a data economic field [ DeNardo 2001 ].
They facilitate the encounter of supply and demand of goods and services and supply useful information for the transactions. The participants are companies or enterprises that are invite to you to interact in order to conclude transactions.
In fact to the inside of the community they come predisposed sure places, transparent and controls to you, used it is to the exchange of field goods and services, is to the exchange and the sharing of immaterial resources, like ideas, professional plans and experiences passages.
The virtual communities can exist, beyond that like being entity to if, also as integrations to other operations of marketing in order to increase the fidelity of the consumers and in order to pull down the propensione of the navigators on Internet to ‘ ‘ you bite and you escape ‘ ‘.
Just thanks to the virtual communities, the enterprises participants exceed the concept of the competition in favor of new shapes of collaboration, thanks to the sharing of resources.
The services that the enterprises find again in the virtual communities are:

  • Content, that is information;
  • Community, that is you space for the communication;
  • Commerce, that is you space used after the economic transactions.

7. Value Chain Service Provider : supply of one given activity of the chain of the value, which the electronic payment or the logistics. The gain derives from the payment of one commission or one percentage.

8. Value Chain Integrator : the companies that choose this model of business do not concentrate their activity on a specific branch of the chain of the value but they try to integrate more activity succeeding to take advantage of the flow of information elapsing between the various passages.

9. Collaboration Platform : offer of a set of instruments and an informative atmosphere for the interaziendale collaboration. The support can be on specific functions, as an example the collaboration in the design and the planning or more general, putting to disposition a virtual team of advisers to several the plans. The gain derives from the management of the platform, with the relative commission of registration and of I use, and from the sale of professional instruments.

10. Information Brokerage, Trust and other services: new services informed, in order to add value to you to the amount of give to you available on the net or coming from from operations of business. In this family of models, the infomediario is found that it collects give you of the consumers and their habits of purchase. A particular category is that one of the Service Trust that supplies credibility through the use of certificatrici authorities or third thought parts reliable.
The profits derive from the payment of commission of subscription of the service or from its I use, and the sale of software and advising.
A model exists that is common to those approvals up to now, and is the model of business based on the publicity. It often comes integrated with others and not used in its pure shape.
When it is not arranged with other models, it is characterized for the fact that the enterprise does not demand to the customer some payment to forehead of the services offers, drawing instead profits from the sale of advertising spaces.
The portali belong to this family of models, that is those situated ones think in order to obtain a wide public to you which to propose advertising messages.
This result comes obtained trying to make to become situated the homepage for many customers, offering services which information, search engines, access to virtual storees, etc. For fidelizzare the user, to the generic portale preferred that one personalized often comes, is in the interface that above all in the contents.
An other type of portale exists and is that specialistic one, that is oriented to a specific category of customers. It concentrates itself on a specific range of contents; it attracts a smaller number of customers, than but they turn out more faithful.

11. eSupply chain: integrated management of the logistic chain is a system constituted from one; an extensive system that it comprises is inner the productive units to the company that the external suppliers, the terzisti and the distributors [ Clanius 2002 ]. All these entities, been involved directly in the creation of the value for the final customer, come exactly managed in an only process of planning and control, indicated Supply Chain Management.
Not draft only of the management of a physical flow, but also informative and financial. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is therefore with of approaches used in order integrating in efficient way the suppliers, the producers, the distributors and the points sale, so that the goods is produced and distributed in the just amount, to the just points and the just moment, with the objective to diminish the costs of the entire system guaranteeing an optimal level of service.
The increase of the business borders is come true moreover until comprising suppliers and customers, establishing with they collaborations strategic and operating with the objective to catch up minor the all in cost of the so-called system of the extensive company (figure 3).nuovo-3

Figure 3 – The concept of extensive company – Source: Unitec

The market offers two tipologie of eSupply chain:

A chain completely integrated and optimized, where an only organization controls and governs the resources of the entire productive row, from the planning of the distribution to the schedulazione of the activities of the single members. It is divided in two ambles applied to you to you:
the processes operated to you (eSupply Chain Execution), comprising the orders, the delivery, the invoicing, are made logistic, administrative and book keeping, but also the processes of presale and postsale, with the objective to automate and to integrate this makes (figure 4).

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Figure 4 – The functionalities of the solutions of eSupply Chain Execution

the processes collaborated to you (eSupply Chain Collaboration) that forecast of the question, management of the supplyes, monitoring and control of the supply chain, etc), the planning of the development of new products and the management of the quality regard the operating planning. The objective is to improve the effectiveness of the processes thanks to the sharing of information and acquaintances and thanks also to the collaboration in figure 5 is made decisional and executive.

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Figure 5 – The functionalities of the solutions of eSupply Chain Collaboration

The communities online of suppliers and customers, composed from companies that operate in the same market. This according to model it is limited regarding the previous one.

In order to succeed to realize and to optimize eSupply the Chain it is necessary in the first place to decide of information complete and modernized on resources and materials near every node of the productive net.
This philosophy already is put into effect in the great companies while it it is much less for the medium enterprises that are accustomed to collaborate with partner independent in the decisions and systems informed to you independent.
Many entrepreneurs confess in fact strong fears for the emergency of the own strategic information that they would come shared with the partner trades them in order to realize the concept of extensive company. Such strategy arrives to the supported succeeded one if from clear, timely information and of quality.

3. Some examples

In this section they come introduces some examples to you of the business model as soon as it analyzes to you, is Italians who international.

eSHOP VERTICAL + PORTAL
FerramentaOnline (http://www.ferramentaonline.com) is a eShop been born in 1999. First specialized store Italian B2B in the field of blacksmith shop articles can be considered.
The site is born with the scope to often inform the purchaser disclosing the contents reserves you to the single “attache’s to the jobs” and therefore, often, of difficult reperibilità.
In order to guarantee the availability of these information they have been establishes realizes particularly active relationships to you of collaboration with partner in this field, in particolar way with various sector journalistic heads. With the added one in a successive moment of the “unit they” to the “informative unit” trades, is born FerramentaOnlineSHOP.

eSHOP
After the experience matured with the site B2C, Nsbstore (http://www.nsbstore.com/b2b) it has dedicated a situated one only to the retailers. ‘ Not only Store Byte ‘, this is its extended name for, is an ambitious plan, with which the site wants to become a point of reference for shopping on linens of all the products that regard the Backup of gives to you. In order to exceed the competition, agguerrita in this field, the site proposes:

  • Wholesale prices for the sale by piece;
  • Attendance on linens 24/24 (through mail);
  • Green Number;
  • Maximum transparency and clarity in the description and the photos of the products;
  • Numerous systems of payment in order to come encounter to the requirements of all;
  • Guarantee of the delivery in maximum 48 hours;
  • Seriousness and veridicità on the availability of the products in warehouse;
  • Products always high-quality, and book reviews of the tests on they in order to guarantee their effective quality.

ePROCUREMENT + eAUCTION + eMARKETPLACE
The site Biztob (www.biztob.com) promoted from the Finmatica group, is proposed to offer services innovated you for the Business-to-Business.
The service of eProcurement supplies a transazionale atmosphere personalized and turned to public companies and private of middle/big dimensions for the management via Internet of the relations with just the park supplying (one to many).

The advantages are multiple:

  • Reduction of the times of the Demanded Process of Purchase/of offer, in fact the petitioners send the demand for purchase or the demand for offer through the system and the answer of the supplier is immediately visible. The acceptance makes to leave the purchase process that immediately arrives to the approvatore (responsible director/acquires). The approved of demand part immediately and is near the supplier nel.giro.di little second ones.
  • Saving In the purchase process online not is cartacei passages between supplying responsible petitioner//. That does not remove that all the passages can be print you for the classic recording. Moreover solutions ASP (Application Serveur Provider) proposed from Biztob for the e-procurement, render the accessible application with an investment truly reduced.
  • The quality of the control Is possible to exactly trace the state of approval of the demands for purchase. This implies an ulterior saving of time for the human resources calls to manage the process control.
    The purchase order comes notified in real time the supplier, in this way the purchaser has the assurance that the process of escape of the order has been taken in cargo from the supplier.

Comprised E’ also a service of e-Sourcing for the search, the signalling and the qualification of upgrades them supplying, the conduction of negotiations account thirds party, the market analyses and the plans of advising in within acquire.
The service of eMarketplace offers a platform electronic to the inside of which transactions happen trade them: supply and demand of goods and services, between suppliers and customers, they you notice or disowned.
In the marketplace it is possible to acquire and to sell produced and services, to determine the prices in dynamic way, to manage and to consult catalogues online.
Purchasers and Suppliers, thanks to the Net, have the possibility to contact in real-Time the greater possible number of Fornitori/Clienti and being able to always acquistare/vendere to the better price that the market is in a position to expressing at the moment. The service of eAuction allows to negotiate the purchases with the own suppliers accustoms them or with other suppliers it invites to you from Biztob. I use of this solution involves of the problematic ones:

  • Necessary a complete inner restructure of the business processes acquiring a managerial software adapted to the own requirements and implementazione in company.
  • E’ necessary to entrust the entire process or one its part to specialized external companies.
  • E’ necessary to invest in human resources and course of formation in order to create professionalities adapted to the renewed managerial system.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
Italbiz (http://www.italbiz.com) represents the greatest community where Italian companies and alien corporations that operate with Italy meet.
The mission of Italbiz is to promote the opportunities of total commerce actively and of collaboration creating a virtual Public square in which the small and averages companies that carry out business activity them with Italy or is interested $R-al.mercato Italian can be met and make transactions.
By means of the creation of a total community online, than work based on customs it trades them and common cultural ties, Italbiz is in a position to representing a “bridge” in the market, and to put in contact the companies oriented towards the community trades them Italian in order to forge new international alliances and to explore new opportunity of transactions.
Based on this premise, Italbiz have been created in order to offer to the small and averages interested companies $R-al.mercato Italian that important solutions “$R-chiavi.in.mano” and information operate a partner in a position to supplying they all over the world available online, helping them to generate new economic activities and trade them to international level.
With the support of its main ones sponsors, between which SEAT Yellow Pages and the Bank of Rome, Italbiz.com has become a Public square total in which the Italian companies and the alien corporations they are met in order to make business.

VALUE CHAIN SERVICE PROVIDER
Founded in 1907 like company of fattorini in the United States, UPS (http://www.ups.com) has become one company from 30 billions of dollars clearly focused on the objective to concur the commerce in the world. Today UPS, or United Parcel Service Inc., is one total company with one of the products mainly recognized and appreciated the world. Like greater company of express courier and delivery packages to the world, UPS is moreover a primary supplier of services specializes you of transport, logistics, understood them and e-commerce.
Every day, manages the flow of assets, deep and information in more than 200 countries and territories all over the world. UPS offers to the companies services bases on its Business Technology to you in order to supply a service of shipment, monitoring and advanced support.

eSUPPLY CHAIN
The Electrolux group, world-wide leader in the field of the household-electric ones, from 1998 has equipped a dozen of its distributors of an application clientserver that it supports the exchange of orders, gives you of the lyings, bubbles, invoices and statistics, with the objective to implement a collaborativo process.
Later on, in order to optimize the production processes ulteriorly and to reduce the costs consequently, Electrolux has chosen to still tighten more the ties with the net of the partner: draft in fact of suppliers and conveyors of tried experience and reliability, with collaboration relationships consolidates to you in the time.
Therefore it is determined, by means of a situated one dedicated, to allow they approached it to precise information and modernized on the production and the state of the orders of the customers, so that they can improve logistics and times of the necessary supplies, optimizing you respect warehouses to you. The company from 1999 has developed to a portale Web and of the markets online.
In such a way it offers own to the partner the possibility to control in real time the status of give to you relati to you to orders, deliveries and invoices.
From the portale it is possible to insert orders, to follow of the tracking, to consult statistics and to unload and to print labels and codes to bars for pack to it. Today therefore every supplier can go on the site and, after the login, to verify the programming of the every production of single plant, is in along that in the short period: from the comparison with the status of the supplies and pieces and from the relative inner schedulazioni which it has approached can organize its same production, for sure being of being able to supplire just in Time to the orders in arrival.
In the same way the conveyors can see the agenda of shipments and reserve, as an example, with precise advance payment a specific cargo area of the port. The plan, a lot to delineate in the theory, introduced in truth of problematic the operating complex: the differentiated tipologie of give a lot to you are for the sources that for the format and the limits you set up from the usable band; the indispensable guarantees of emergency for the criticità of the dealt information.
As far as the eBusiness towards mount, it is important to emphasize that nearly 100% of the acquired one from the suppliers of first level of the group are managed through traditional EDI.
Recently Electrolux has undertaken the OpenXDI plan, platform for the exchange gives to you based on the Internet technologies and language XML, with the objective to reduce the costs and to increase to the standardization in the communication towards suppliers and customers [ AIP 2004 ].

4. Data and perspective of B2C and B2B

The commerce on Internet, if it is watched to the volume of the transactions, continues to be dominated from the exchanges between companies, from the B2B therefore; this for one series of good reasons: acquaintance and certification of the supplier, ripetitività of the purchases, insertion of the transaction in the within of automated procedures in part, management of the Supply Chain.
According to esteem EITO – IDC [ SMAU 2004 ], in western Europe the eCommercio would have generated in all in the 2003 476,7 billions of euro: for 86.7%, (413,6 billions) generated from the companies, while only 13.2%, (63.1 billions of euro) moved from the final customers.
Rates of growth are previewed equal for the two members also for the next years, par to 50% annual mean, arriving therefore to a total of 2.423 billions of euro in 2007.

In the world
In the 2003 world-wide B2B on-linens it has caught up the figure of 1.3 trillions of dollars exchanges to you between companies; the USA alone have totaled more of the half of the turnover total, (eMarketer 2004).
According to this search, moreover, Germany, Sweden, USA and Finland are the countries more are left over to you in the field of the technology for the eBusiness. More of 70% of the companies in these countries the purchase has experimented on-linens.
The figure 6 (Laudon 2003) represents the increase of world-wide commerce B2B from 2001 to 2006. It analyzes is the course of commerce B2B on-linens, is of that traditional one.
According to they give to you of forecast, transactions B2B on-linens they will pile in 2004 to approximately 2.7 trillions of dollars and will increase until catching up, in 2006, nearly 5,5 trillions of dollars. The esteem, therefore, previews that the volume of transactions generated will double within 2006.

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Figure 6 – Increase of electronic commerce B2B

The fields pulling ahead in the B2B turn out to be, figure 7 (Laudon 2003):

  • the chemical industry;
  • the metalliferous and extractive industry;
  • the automotive field;
  • the aerospace field and of the defense;
  • the field of the telecommunicationses and the computers.

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fig. 7 – Fields of Commerce B2B

In Italy
The Italian B2B turns out in increase, with a passage from nearly the 24 billions of euro in 2001 to the 360 previewed billions of euro for 2005, like in figure 8 second the esteem of Jupiter Research (Jupiter 2004).

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Figure 8 – Increase of the B2B in Italy, Source: Jupiter

One study lead from the Polytechnic Association Enterprise, of the Polytechnic of Milan [ AIP 2004 ] filler gives you relati you to 2003: the Italian B2B is involved a turnover of the amount of approximately 84 billions of euro, 5% of the traditional transactions between the enterprises and 10 times a lot regarding electronic commerce B2C. The search has selected two ambles applied you to you of the B2B:

  • eProcurement, divided in activity of eSourcing and eCatalog.
  • eSupply Chain, uniform in eSupply Chain Execution and eSupply Chain Collaboration.

The study has evidenced like 54% of the total turnover makes reference to executive activities of eSupply Chain (orders, deliveries, invoicings), while 34.5% to those collaborative of eSupply Chain.
Therefore the activities of eSupply Chain have catalyzed the greater part of the eCommerce in Italy: nearly 90% for approximately 73 billions of euro. Remaining 11% of the turnover of the eCommerce regard instead the eSourcing for the search of new suppliers and activity of negotiation through auctions. Remaining 0.5% derive instead from the purchases base to you on catalogue, (figure 9).

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Figure 9 – Distribution of eCommerce the B2B in macro-processes
Source: Polytechnic Association Enterprise

The fields that they have obtained greater happening in the eCommerce are, according to the same study:

  • the automotive field with 34%;
  • the druggist field with 16%;
  • the alimentary field with 11%;
  • the field of the tourism with 10%.

The same study examines also the used technologies (figure 10). In detail:

  • to the first place platforms EDI and other platforms owners with 70%;
  • to according to place we see that 21% of the exchanges transa instead on Internet nets;
  • to the third party place the hybrid solutions are placed deriving from the migration of systems EDI on Internet with 9%.

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Figure 10 – Technological platforms for eCommerce B2B
Source: Polytechnic Association Enterprise

How much saying allows to delineate in preciser way the Italian panorama puts into effect them that it is characterized from the presence of little but consisting large network bases to you on traditional EDI, that they support the activities of eSupply Chain Execution. That happens above all in the automotive, druggist field and of the household-electric ones, in which they are defined of the universal standards for the format of give to you. They are in increase the plans of integration of nets EDI with the Internet technologies, in order to extend the activities of eSupply Chain Execution also to small and averages companies with volumes of acquisto/venduto smaller.
Numerous tipologie of simpler collaborations exist moreover (that they extend, as an example, the visibility of the plans of production to the suppliers) based on traditional EDI; shapes of wider collaboration, like Co-design or collaborativa planning of the production, based on Internet are still little diffuse, like pure the applications of eCatalog.
The activities of eSourcing are being diffused in substantial way put into effect through it use of technological platforms and services supplied from third parts. They are just these operating B2B to carry out a predominant role in the Italian panorama, like is looked at in figure 11. Draft of suppliers specializes you of services for the support of the relations between the suppliers and the customers: VAN (Value Added consortili, operating Network) EDI, Marketplace specializes to you in the eSourcing and/or the eCatalog, Supply Chain Service Provider. They catalyze nearly 50% of the total eCommerce, with wide predominanza of traditional VAN EDI.

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Figure 11 – The role of the operating B2B
Source: Polytechnic Association Enterprise

Possible E’ to this point to make of the forecasts for the future, trying to characterize main trend the evolutionary ones (you see figure 12).

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Figure 12 – Trend waited for in the next few years
Source: Polytechnic Association Enterprise

One is estimated strongly increase of eCommerce the B2B based on Internet technologies, above all for the applications of eProcurement and in particular of eSourcing. It comes reorganized the development of traditional systems EDI, that it continues limitedly to the fields in which recognized and consolidated standard represents one. It grows in meaningful way, instead, the employment of hybrid systems of EDI on Internet, that they allow a lowering of the costs and I use it also from part of the small and averages enterprises. Beyond to the activities of eSupply Chain Execution, it increases the role of the applications of eSupply Chain Collaboration based on EDI and InternetEDI. A relief place remains to the operating B2B thirds party, in particular to those it bases to you on Internet nets that support the eSourcing and eSupply the Chain Collaboration.

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