Software developer, RightWorks, and online services company, Pivotal have announced separate initiatives to make it easier for firms to enter business-to-business marketplaces online and integrate them with supply chains.
RightWorks is advocating a step-by-step approach to integration, designed to remove the confusion in IT departments about the way e-business should fit with existing business processes. RightWorks suggests that the first step should be to improve the supply chain to allow goods and services to be purchased electronically from suppliers on approved lists.
"There is confusion about e-marketplaces," said Lou Unkeless, vice president of product marketing at RightWorks. "Companies think they will have to throw out old technology investments. There is more to e-business than joining an e-marketplace -Ã, using the Net to streamline internal and external processes is fundamental too."
RightWorks' eBusiness Application Suite is designed to let firms take an iterative approach. RightWorks has partnered with Tivoli to integrate the eBusiness Application Suite with Tivoli's e-Marketplace Manager, giving RightWorks' customers Tivoli's single sign-on capabilities and membership services.
Unkeless said that when the right processes for procurement have been established, firms can more easily take the second step, of either joining an e-marketplace, or creating a private trading exchange, consisting of suppliers with which they already do business.
Pivotal, a specialist in integrating supply chains with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, plans to offer information services that can complement and enhance existing e-marketplaces. It is currently identifying content partners in the UK and hopes to offer services here within the next three months.
Pivotal said that successful e-marketplaces will offer additional information services, such as inventory tracking and delivery times, to encourage customer loyalty, based on advantages other than just price.
Bob Runge, chief marketing officer at Pivotal, said, "Suppliers are resisting entering e-marketplaces because they don't want their products to become commodities. E-marketplaces will only work where a product really is a commodity. Otherwise, to be successful an e-marketplace needs to wrap itself with value-added services."
