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Ecommerce
Methods of Procurement: The Merits and Drawbacks of e-Marketplaces
In basic terms, e-marketplaces bring together sellers as well as business-to-business buyers in a more efficient platform. It is important to note that as is the case with other procurement methods, e-marketplaces have their drawbacks and merits. To begin with, with regard to merits, e-marketplaces effectively reduce purchase and administrative costs. In the past, procurement has been associated with complex activities that involve a lot of paperwork and documentation. The e-marketplace promotes paperless transactions; meaning that staff can be relieved of some administrative burdens -- resulting in administrative cost savings. Consequently, the low administrative cost benefits also accrue to suppliers -- meaning that they are likely to give discounts, effectively reducing purchase costs. Other key advantages of e-marketplaces include, but they are not limited to, reduced purchase cycle time and order error rate, as item selection is done from catalogues.
E-marketplaces also have some drawbacks. One of these is security. As with any kind business conducted online, there is always the likelihood that critical information or even money could be lost to cyber crooks. It should also be noted that the costs involved in switching from...
integration and set-up costs.
B2B Portal: Benefits of Setting up an Information Portal
Business to business (B2B) has got to do with the exchange of products, information, as well as services between business entities. It is important to note that thanks to the internet, it has become easier for buyers as well as sellers of goods and services to not only meet, but also transact in virtual cyber markets. A B2B portal, in basic terms, "provides access for B2B customers to do online ordering, check order status, payment status, and product information" (Tatnall, 2007, P. 280). It could, therefore, be viewed as "an additional portal if a B2B relationship exists in the e-commerce portal" (Tatnall, 2007, p. 280).
The relevance of setting up an information portal cannot be overstated. To begin with, an information portal, as Barber (2006, p. 23) points out acts as "a single authoritative source of information." As the author further points out, one of the problems faced by the organizations today is the availability of similar information in various places. The said information could, although similar, present different (and hence distorted) information -- resulting in some level of confusion. By utilizing "the portal as a single authoritative…
References
Barber, D. (2006). Portal Building: Implementing an Enterprise Portal. North Carolina: Lulu
Tatnall, A. (Ed.). (2007). Encyclopedia of Portal Technologies and Applications. New York: Information Science Reference.
E-Commerce Communications Electronic commerce or e-commerce is the term used to describe all forms of information exchange and business transactions based on information and communication technologies. There are different types of formal definitions of e-commerce, but the wide scope involved has resulted in many definitions focusing on only certain aspects. A fairly comprehensive definition covers e-commerce from four different perspectives (Kalakota and Whinston, 1997, p.38) - communications, business process, service and
Big, You Can Be Your Own B2B E-Marketplace Advantages of developing own e-market place Disadvantages of developing own e-market place Vertical e-marketplaces Horizontal e-market places Drawbacks for crating two different marketplaces Business intelligence in e-marketplaces Business intelligence provided by iPad Further business intelligence through iPad Workflow management by iPad Volkswagen operates its own proprietary B2B e-marketplaces in which its suppliers participate. What are the disadvantages to Volkswagen of not using a generic B2B e-marketplace with even more suppliers? What
Internet e-Systems to Support Purchasing Supply Chain Management Activities Although the fundamental goals of effective supply chain management have not changed in recent years, companies of all types and sizes now have the ability to streamline their supply chain management activities in general and their purchasing function in particular through the use of Internet-based e-systems. Such e-systems include corporate intranets and business-to-business exchanges that can satisfy the entire spectrum of
The signal-jumping algorithm necessary for the being able to deliver the signals to specific mobile devices as they move through an entire network is also critical. In summary, location-based wireless services would provide the necessary means to stay continually informed as a mobile device travels through a network of servers (Junglas, Watson, 2008). The more critical question however is how the data is tracked of a person's movements, and if
These three strengths of their content methodology, depth of expertise in the Asian manufacturing sector, and commitment to being a leader in electronic enablement and IT form a defensible competitive position. As a result, the company is well positioned to attract investors. In supporting the contention that Global Sources is well positioned to attract investors based on the three unique strengths of a scalable content collection and management methodology, expertise
EBay and the Early e-Business Categories The early e-business categories represented a novel approach to conducting business no matter the method, whether business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) as eBay was. As a C2C e-business, eBay created a platform whereby consumers could cut out the middle man and engaged directly with sellers (which were typically other consumers, as eBay represented itself as a giant yard sale, where everyone was invited