B2B. You’ve all heard the buzzword for the latest phase in the Internet world that promises to revolutionize doing business. The business world is evolving at a high speed with the help of technology. But have you forgotten about the basic premise behind success in business—the human factor? Do you remember when business transactions were secured with a handshake? To move forward, you need to look at B2B as not only business to business, but also as back to basics.
Technology is a tool to help people become more efficient and effective, thus elevating them to higher levels of thinking. Therein lies progress. In the past, technology has been used primarily to automate the mundane. Just about every aspect of the transaction has been automated to the point that many businesses are strictly dot-coms. But, the promise of B2B goes beyond merely automating transactions. Future success lies in enhancing creativity and innovation by changing the way businesses interact with each other.
People Need People
B2B is essentially an application of the concept of e-business. IBM’s definition of e- business is leveraging traditional IT and Internet technology to transform key business processes. This transformation is done by linking core business systems to key constituencies (e.g., suppliers, customers, trading partners, employees) using intranets, extranets, and the Internet.
B2B, simply defined, is electronic commerce and process integration between businesses. It involves unique challenges, different from commerce directly involving the end user, B2C. Purchases are largely geared toward maintenance, repair, and operations and thus tend to be scheduled or repetitive and often involve open requisitions. Purchase agreements typically involve negotiated terms and conditions and payment is usually handled via a purchase order process rather than a credit card. Transactions are of a larger scale, and the impact of a business customer dissatisfaction issue is much greater than a single consumer complaint.
B2B can take the form of a network of hubs and spokes in which each organization uses business logic and Internet technology to form the buy side or sell side of the electronic business relationship. The primary drivers are increased market reach and
customer satisfaction and loyalty. Organizations are beginning to participate in e- marketplaces (buying consortiums) to drive cost and expense out of the supply chain and speed product time to market. And trading partner agreements, the next generation of electronic data interchange (EDI), have the potential to automate the processes for negotiating and enforcing contracts between businesses.
But for all the advanced technology in the world, there is no substitute for the right conversations with the right people at the right time. Let’s face it—you buy from people you like and who make it easy to do business. Customer service is very important in the buying decision, whether the customer is the end consumer or a large organization. And the larger the purchase, the more personal negotiation is involved. In short, collaboration is an important part of a B2B e-business scenario. And, sadly, it seems to be the most overlooked. Lotus Domino for AS/400 can provide the answer.
E-collaboration
When you think about it, e-business is really not much different from the traditional paradigm of doing business, except that it is enabled with Internet technology. E-commerce is focused on the transaction—the structured data. And e-collaboration is focused on the relationship—the unstructured data. This is where Lotus Domino comes in.
For high-volume situations, collaboration and workflow complement and surround the transaction. In this capacity, Domino works together with WebSphere and Java. In organizations with a smaller transaction volume, Domino can provide the basis for e- commerce as well as e-collaboration. For example, BinaryTree.com’s ezMerchant and REAL Web Commerce from REAL Information Systems are two e-commerce solutions that use Domino for AS/400 as the engine.
Workflow and a series of approvals are the core of any business purchase. Even something as simple as employee travel expenses requires approvals. IBM employees fill out expense reports using a Domino application that routes the documents via email to management and then to the accounting department. Completion of the approval cycle triggers an automatic payment through a B2B connection to the company that issued the employee’s corporate credit card. This shows how B2B encompasses not only the buy side and sell side, but also the inside of e-business.
The sourcing, negotation, and procurement process in the buy side of B2B purchasing is streamlined and simplified by including suppliers in the workflow process. The U.S. government’s General Services Administration uses a Domino-based e- commerce site to match federal clients with vendors of IT products and services. Registered clients place orders through the Web, and a customer service rep is automatically notified via email. The rep performs a search to identify appropriate industry partners and submits a request for a quote to the vendors via an email message that also contains a link to the order details in the system.
Since Domino handles unstructured data, vendors submit quotes online in their own formats that are accessible by the customer service rep for market analysis. Once the winning bid is selected, the order is routed to the finance department for funding approval and then to the contracting department for creation of the purchase order, available online to both vendor and customer.
Commercial organizations are also using Domino on the AS/400 platform for B2B applications such as product design collaboration and support for retailers and dealers.
More Real-world Examples
Group Dekko is a major supplier of wiring products to the office furniture, appliance, and automotive industries. Like many organizations, Group Dekko initially implemented Domino for AS/400 for electronic mail and quickly incorporated intranet groupware applications. Today, Group Dekko is beginning to use it to streamline collaboration with customers on joint product development. Posting a design specification kicks off a
workflow that sends an email notification to the customer. The message includes a link to the location on the Web site for electronic review and approval.
Group Dekko also plans to use Domino to coordinate corrective actions to product design issues with one of its major customers. Chris Edwards, vice president of information services at Group Dekko, says, “We’ve been doing B2B for a long time in terms of traditional EDI. But today we’re talking about B2B beyond standard business transactions—and to me, Domino and groupware is where real B2B is going to occur.”
Climax Manufacturing, a leading producer of paperboard and packaging products, capitalizes on Domino for AS/400 as a Web application server with capability to serve as a front-end to enterprise data. Climax Manufacturing uses a B2B application called ServicePort/400 from Corning Data Services to provide a Web-based customer service center allowing retailers to check order and account status online.
The Domino portal of ServicePort/400 is personalized for the needs of each customer and integrates with an RPG business application that retrieves data from the AS/400 J.D. Edwards enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in real time. This Web self-service application improves retailer satisfaction through immediate 24/7 access to routine status information and by freeing up time for customer service reps to expedite orders and resolve issues on their behalf.
Froeschl, a Munich-based distributor of household goods and appliances, uses Domino for AS/400 to support the sell-side of B2B. Domino is a component of an offering called Leo.Retail from Networks Unlimited AG, an integrated e-business solution that links employees, customers, and vendors to a distributor’s core applications—combining supply chain management, customer relationship management, e-commerce, and messaging with AS/400-based ERP.
Leo.Retail supports Java-based offline as well as online shopping and uses Domino for AS/400 to provide the authentication service for secure order submission, composed in disconnected mode. The retailer receives an electronic order confirmation and orders are immediately referred for fulfillment by a Froeschl subsidiary located near the retailer to ensure same-day delivery.
Domino can be used to support B2B relationships between manufacturers or distributors and their retailers and dealerships in additional ways to benefit both types of organizations. Streamlined communication of product consumption and forecasts allow intercompany collaboration on inventory and order management. Dealers have an opportunity to improve customer service by offering made-to-order products in response to specific customer requirements.
The Heart of the Matter
During his keynote address at the June 2000 Lotus Developers’ Conference, Lotus Chief Executive Officer Al Zollar stated, “Lotus technologies allow organizations to leverage their current systems to create collaborative commerce with built-in self-service and real-time support. These changes in technology will increase sales and customer loyalty.” iSeries and its predecessor AS/400 offer additional value to both Domino and B2B. For Domino, platform differentiators include unique integration features, record-breaking scalability, and high availability through partitioning and clustering within a single system. For B2B, consider AS/400’s track record in the ERP marketplace. iSeries and AS/400 offer many tools, including Domino, to extend these core systems to the Internet and create new standards-based applications designed specifically for e-business.
B2B is to the future what BICARSA (Billing, Inventory Control, Accounts Receivable, Sales Analysis) was to the past. Nowadays, you don’t run a business without automating your financial systems. In the future, businesses will not survive without embracing B2B solutions in the e-marketplace. When AS/400 was first announced, the value proposition of simplicity through integration allowed you to run your business, not your computer. In today’s world, iSeries allows you to connect your business by
integrating many of the pieces that are external on other platforms—so you can continue to focus on your business and not technology.
The examples I have discussed show the role of Lotus Domino for AS/400 as a component of B2B. Domino helps incorporate the human element into the transaction. In some cases, it is the underlying e-commerce and Web application server. In either sense of the word, Lotus Domino, in my opinion, is the heart of B2B, and iSeries keeps it beating.
REFERENCES AND RELATED MATERIALS
• AS/400 Lotus Notes/Domino Case Studies Web site: www.ibm.com/as400/casestudies/lotus
• Lotus’s Industry Solutions Web site: www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/industrycc
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