B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Components, Benefits, Challenges and Applications of B2B Integration 41
2.4.12. Expensive
B2Bi implementation is an expensive process. The most basic B2Bi
solution, together with the expense of customization, can cost upwards
of $1.5 million. A substantial amount of money is also spent in EAI
activities such as data cleansing, legacy-system and internal business
process integration, which are prerequisites to B2Bi.
Forrester Research puts developmental costs at $1.5 million for a
basic B2B site to more than $15 million for the most sophisticated
sites, another $700,000 a year to keep up a basic site and up to $4
million a year to run a high-end site.
2.4.13. 24/7 availability of the system
24/7 availability of real-time data in B2B applications, which is one of
the key advantages of B2Bi, is also one of its biggest challenges. In
most companies, the data is exchanged and loaded through nightly
batch processes. However, the logical expectation with B2Bi is that the
data is always available and can be accessed over the Internet. Companies
can work around a data availability problem through data replication,
but it is an expensive process. They have to make the business decision
as to whether it is worth the expense of replicating data on a real-time
basis, an hourly basis or through nightly batch cycles.
2.5. B2Bi-Enabled Applications
The array of potential B2Bi-enabled applications is vast and varies from
industry to industry. In this book, we will be thoroughly discussing two
critical B2Bi-enabled applications: supply chain management and B2B
exchanges and collaborative networks, which are common to most
industries.
2.5.1. Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Supply chain automation, which builds dynamic communities connecting
the enterprise with customers and suppliers, is one of the best B2Bienabled
applications. B2Bi uses Web-enabled technologies to join the