For some time, there has been considerable focus by the media and the advocates of Internet Electronic Commerce on the potential of its retail aspects. However, there has been a less evident but potentially more influential development in the way in which organisations conduct business with each other.

Small businesses rely on an array of services and products just to enable them to conduct their business: banks, accountants, insurers, travel agents, telecommunications suppliers, utilities as well as tax and excise authorities. Most of the potential interchange in this environment is predictable, the bulk being relatively simple transactions such as invoicing and payments. In addition to these "banal" relationships, there are the essential ones between customers and suppliers, as well broader mechanisms of collaboration, distribution, representation etc. These relationships go far beyond the mere transactional and constitute an important part of the assets of the smaller enterprise.

Flexible Business Structures

Even within SMEs, the development of more flexible business structures often relies on supporting manufacturing and services from other organisations. These suppliers in their turn need to be both rapid and reliable in the new business climate.

The broadening of the Internet as a common network environment has given business to business activities opportunities to flourish beyond its traditional geographic constraints.

Forester Research Inc. forecasts that intercompany commerce across the Internet will grow by a factor of 40, from $8 billion dollars to $327 by the year 2002.

In this new environment, we can see that product decisions can be taken based upon on-line catalogues, which can be customised to the needs of the viewing client. Currently such catalogues are customised based on recognising a signon and secure password, so that the purchaser has access to customised catalogues reflecting his needs and purchasing discounts. Some sales organisations are now investigating implanting web-stores within customer Intranets, enabling internal departments to place orders without having to enter to broader Internet. One can see how this would be of benefit to suppliers of consumables and commodities. In an environment which will tend to cut margins to the bone, giving higher levels of service to valued customers, such as priority help-desk, will be contribute to competitive edge.

Significant Reductions In Costs

Orders can be accepted, confirmed, processed, monitored, invoiced, and increasingly paid for within an electronic environment. Companies effecting this work via Internet web sites are reporting significant reductions in costs over traditional telephone, fax or paper based transactions.

Equally, we can see the growth of outsourced designers and developers working collaborating to provide industry with a broader range of design options. Although outsourcing is an attractive option, it has potential drawbacks especially when talking of collaboration with individuals who may be half a world away. In an increasingly automated world collaborative working assumes an even greater importance.

Despite the advent of improved electronic tools, successful collaboration can be seen as much as "state of the mind" as "state of the art".

Accepted business tools, such as the telephone and fax, are rapidly being supplemented by electronic mail and file transfer. Despite this, there are excellent examples demonstrating how even traditional tools can be used to effect a dramatic change in business thinking.

These case studies in most senses has little to do with common perceptions of electronic commerce, except that they exemplify the way in which smaller organisations can co-operate in a new environment to combat an all powerful competitor or other rivals.

Case Studies