Collaboration and Integration

Business-to-business (B2B

Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between the businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting terms are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G). B2B (Business to Business) Branding is a term used in marketing. The volume of B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub components, or raw materials and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.

B2B is also used in the context of communication and collaboration. Many businesses are now using social media to connect with their consumers (B2C); however, they are now using similar tools within the business so employees can connect with one another. When communication is taking place amongst employees, this can be referred to as "B2B" communication.

The term was originally coined to describe the electronic communications between businesses or enterprises in order to distinguish it from the communications between businesses and consumers "business-to-consumer". It eventually came to be used in marketing as well, initially describing only industrial or capital goods marketing. Today it is widely used to describe all products and services used by enterprises. Many professional institutions and the trade publications focus much more on B2C than B2B, although most sales and marketing personnel are in the B2B sector.

Buying B2B products is much riskier. Usually, the investment sums are much higher. Purchasing the wrong product or service, the wrong quantity, the wrong quality or agreeing to unfavorable payment terms may put an entire business at risk. Additionally, the purchasing office / manager may have to justify a purchasing decision. If the decision proves to be harmful to the organization, disciplinary measures may be taken or the person may even face termination of employment.

In international trade, delivery risks, exchange rate risks and political risks exist and may affect the business relationship between buyer and seller.

Strong brands imply lower risk of using them. Some of them in detail:

Buying unfamiliar brands implies financial risks. Products may not meet the requirements and may need to be replaced at high cost.

There exists a performance risk as there might be something wrong with an unfamiliar brand.

When buying machinery or supplies for a company, peers may not approve the purchase of an unknown brand, thus posing a social risk

One of the characteristics of a B2B product is that in many cases it is bought by a committee of buyers. It is important to understand what a brand means to these buyers. (Note: Temporal) Buyers are usually well-versed with costing levels and specifications. Also, due to constant monitoring of the market, these buyers would have excellent knowledge of the products too. In many cases the purchases are specification driven. As a result of this, it is vital that brands are clearly defined and target the appropriate segment.

Business-to-B2E

B2E is business-to-employee, an approach in which the focus of business is the employee, rather than the consumer (as it is in business-to-consumer, or B2C) or other businesses (as it is in business-to-business, or B2B). The B2E approach grew out of the ongoing shortage of information technology (IT) workers. In a broad sense, B2E encompasses everything that businesses do to attract and retain well-qualified staff in a competitive market, such as aggressive recruiting tactics, benefits, education opportunities, flexible hours, bonuses, and employee empowerment strategies.

More specifically, the term "B2E" is frequently used to refer to the B2E portal (sometimes called a people portal, which is a customized home page or desktop for everyone within an organization. The B2E portal is sometimes considered to be synonymous with an intranet, but it differs in its focus on the employee's desires. The intranet's focus is the organization; the B2E portal focus is the individual. The B2E portal is designed to include not only everything that an employee might hope to find on an intranet (such as a corporate directory, or customer support information), but also any personal information and links that the employee might want (such as stocks information, or even games). The intention is to increase not only efficiency, but also employee satisfaction and a sense of community within the organization.

A B2E portal has three distinguishing characteristics:

A single point of entry: one URL for everyone within an organization.

A mixture of organization-specific and employee-defined components.

The potential to be highly customized and easily altered to suit the particular employee.

Corporations may develop their own portals or they may rely on the services of any of the large and growing number of B2E portal developers.

B2C

Business that sells products or provides services to end-user consumers.

While business-to-consumer activity exists both online and offline, the acronym B2C has primarily been used to describe the online variety.

B2C businesses played a large role in the rapid development of the commercial Internet in the 1990s. Large sums of venture capital flowed to consumers in the form of free online services and discounted shopping, spurring adoption of the new medium.

When the capital markets turned sour, however, the B2C companies were among the first to fall, and they fell fast. Many companies tried to follow the herd of investors by undergoing a B2C to B2B makeover.

For awhile after the .com bubble, B2C was used infrequently except when it was followed by "…is dead." However, some analysts still predicted that consumer businesses would thrive online, just not in the way everyone initially predicted.

Business-to-government (B2G)

Business-to-government (B2G) is a derivative of B2B marketing and often referred to as a market definition of "public sector marketing" which encompasses marketing products and services to various government levels - including federal, state and local - through integrated marketing communications techniques such as strategic public relations, branding, advertising, and web-based communications.

B2G networks provide a platform for businesses to bid on government opportunities which are presented as solicitations in the form of RFPs in a reverse auction fashion. Public sector organizations (PSOs) post tenders in the form of RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, Sources Sought, etc. and suppliers respond to them.

Government agencies typically have pre-negotiated standing contracts vetting the vendors/suppliers and their products and services for set prices. These can be state, local or federal contracts and some may be grandfathered in by other entities.

There are multiple social platforms dedicated to this vertical market and they have risen in popularity with the onset of a Program and increased government funds available to commercial entities for both grants and contracts.

E-commerce hosting and issue:

Speed - The speed of the server is definitely one of the larger issues that need to be covered for e-commerce.  The server speed must be able to accommodate large numbers of users while providing adequate speed for e-commerce dealings that occur on the website.  A slow server can cause problems with orders and can easily cause more problems if the server continuously times out for customers which may then leave the website and lose sales.

Operating System - The operating system is important for two main reasons being cost and ease of use.  Although Windows is very simple to use, it costs a lot to use on a server.  Linux is relatively free and is available with most hosting services for a much lower price but it is difficult to learn for a completely new user.

Flexibility - Flexibility on how the server can be set up is also important.  Being able to choose the options which allow for the highest performance is important when hosting an e-commerce website through a server.  Flexibility must be able to meet the requirements for your website to ensure the best match with the site.

Security - E-commerce websites are known to be well protected.  If the hosting service cannot protect the website or a portion of the backend to prevent hackers and damaging software such as viruses or malware from getting in, customer information through the e-commerce website can be compromised and cause damages.  The importance of security is not a simple issue to dismiss and must be done correctly by choosing the most secure options for the website while making the necessary changes that will help to provide the best safety for the website.

Solutions/Support - Support and solutions for problems with the website need to be handled as soon as possible.  Websites that are down or have problems will lose customers.  Customers are essential to e-commerce type websites so that they can earn revenue and continue to function.  Support can be done through the hosting service to help fix issues with the server and other possible issues that can cause loss of sales and other serious problems for the e-commerce website.

Choosing the correct server for an e-commerce hosting plan can be done by weighing out the options that are available and choosing one that offers the most benefits.  An e-commerce website needs to have a near perfect uptime and would more than likely need a dedicated server to help ensure that access is not cut off very often.  The server needs to have the highest forms of security and the flexibility that allows it to be put together and working in the best way possible for e-commerce.

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 Tampon, Mirasol