B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Company A
fe3
Application
Application
Application
E-Marketplaces and Collaborative Networks 463
Application
B2B Collaborative
Network
Application
E-marketplace X
Figure 15.14.
Company B
Application
Application
Application
Company C
Application
Application
E-marketplace Y
B2B collaborative network
suppliers and e-marketplaces (see Figure 15.14). They provide open
interfaces to tie together all the participants' applications into an
integrated network, thereby creating a single, collaborative and responsive
B2B e-commerce solution. By participating in such a network, a company
transacts business with all its trading partners using a single connection,
a single format (see Figure 15.15) and only a single method of security.
According to The C-Commerce Framework report by the Gartner
Group, companies that employ a collaborative commerce framework
can expect a 40% gain in profitability by 2003.
Some of the services of the networks include (see Figure 15.16):
• Integration — Provides full integration with the internal systems of
the companies and thereby leverages existing infrastructure, such as