Digital Exchanges
Digital exchanges are
independently-owned marketplaces
that allow multiple suppliers and
purchasers to trade in real time.
Most operate in vertical markets,
and earn commissions on
transactions. They are particularly
employed for spot-purchasing by
large companies in the IT, food and
industrial equipment sectors.
eProcurement Systems
Third party software enables
companies and their business facilities
to communicate directly with suppliers,
and effectively manage all interactions
between them. Such interactions
include correspondence, bids,
questions and answers, previous
pricing, multiple emails sent to
multiple participants, and customized
catalogs where purchases will
encompass handling, shipping and
insurance charges, and financial data
can be imported directly into company
financial systems.
Industrial Consortia
An industry consortium is an
industry-owned vertical market that
enables buyers to purchase direct
inputs (both goods and services)
from a limited number of invited
participants
Private Industrial Networks
As the name suggests, private
industrial networks are web-enabled
networks that coordinate transactions
between specific companies — in all
aspects and all divisions: suppliers,
distributors, retail, procurement,
delivery and so on. Such systems are
also called collaborative, as they
facilitate efficiencies throughout the
network. Many large companies (Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nike, HewlettPackard, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco Systems,
Dell and General Electric) operate
private industrial networks, which
indeed form the largest part of B2B
ecommerce today.