OIT Times: Internet Trading Exchanges--Dot-com Failures Obscuring a Revolution in e-Commerce
March 21, 2001
Business to business e-commerce has only just begun according to our panelraig Iseli (moderator) of Deloitte Touche; Austin Whitehead, Research Director for the Gartner Group; Andy DuPont, Director of E-Market Channels with Dow Chemical Co. and Roger Nagel of the Enterprise Systems Center at Lehigh University.
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E-marketplaces defined. Whitehead defined e-marketplaces as exchanges that bring together multiple sellers and buyers, provide a variety of services for participants, and generate revenue. ublic e-marketplaces include buying services, auctions, and reverse auctions. Emerging private e-marketplaces involve one buyer transacting with many sellers (e-procurement) or one seller trading with many buyers (Web storefront). Recently, public and private have begun to merge, as on the Enron site, which sells Enron power, but offers other products on a public marketplace,he said.
Whitehead warned that although e-trading ill access value that has gone untapped for years,it involves more than posting a Web site. Strategy is everything, and there is no ne-size-fits-allapproach.
t not about technology. It about providing choices for our customers./b> Andy DuPont discussed lessons learned in the e-marketplace. One early chemical marketplace failed because he chemical industry wants to know who buying its products. They want to get closer to the consumer,he said. A successful new chemical e-marketplace, Elemic, ensures relationships and provides customized services, auctions, and catalogs.
Nagel reiterated that passive Web site building is not enough. He pointed to the value of search engines, databases, and information. Web marketplaces must serve their niche markets. very site on the Internet is not for everyone.He identified a few success stories, such as 3re.com, which sells returned items for suppliers; Freemarkets, which specializes in reverse auctions; and Altra Energy, for real-time energy trading.