iTeam E-Commerce
One of the last and greatest promises during the Internet boom of the late 1990s was the impact of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce on the traditional business landscape. Industry experts along with marketing "gurus" hyped B2B e-commerce so much that near panic often ensued, with business leaders demanding B2B solutions to be investigated at all costs. Thousands of online marketplaces (e-marketplaces) began to appear to satisfy the apparent need, but the Internet bubble soon burst and these e-marketplaces disappeared as fast as they had once materialized. B2B e-commerce quickly fell out of favour with the same lack of informed decision-making that had once started the whole process.As with e-business in general, B2B e-commerce has quietly begun to mature out of the spotlight of speculation and hyperbole and is poised to truly redefine business processes in the new millennium. This document will introduce you to the basics of B2B e-commerce from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), separating fact from fiction, with a dose of common sense thrown in for good measure.
