Page 279 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 5

dealers calling Michelin for product information were sometimes placed on hold. A dealer
who is talking to a customer cannot afford to wait on hold. By giving dealers the power to
access Michelin product information directly and immediately, Michelin saved money
(maintaining a Web page is much less expensive than answering thousands of phone calls)
and gave dealers better service. Dealers using BIB NET are much less likely to recommend
a competitor’s tires to their customers.
Because Internet technologies are tools that improve communications at a very low
254
cost, they are ideal aids for enhancing the creation of a highly coordinated and effective
supply chain. A number of polls and studies confirm that most information technology
and purchasing managers believe that information technology is helping to improve their
firms’ relationships with suppliers and supply chain management initiatives.

Building and Maintaining Trust in the Supply Chain
The major issue that most companies must deal with in forming supply chain alliances is
developing trust. Continual communication and information sharing are key elements in
building trust. Because the Internet and the Web provide excellent ways to communicate
and share information, they offer new avenues for building trust. Most procurement
professionals have built trust on years of doing business with the same vendors. In many
industries, vendors send sales representatives to call on buyers regularly. Vendors also
participate actively in trade shows and conferences. By giving buyers frequent
opportunities to interact with vendor representatives, vendors help build trust.
Vendors are finding that the Web gives them an opportunity to stay in contact
with their customers more easily and less expensively. Although most buyers still see
vendor sales representatives regularly, e-mail and the Web give them nearly instant access
to their sales representative and other vendor personnel. By providing comprehensive
information at a moment’s notice, vendors can build buyers’ trust in the vendor’s ability
to deliver products and provide the personalized service that buyers need.
Many supply chain management researchers are working on new ways to accumulate
information about supplier performance and report that information to supply chain
partners. This type of monitoring and reporting could help companies establish trust more
quickly. Many issues, such as the objectivity and validity of performance measurements,
must still be resolved before these information networks become generally accepted and
used by the supply chain community. The task of developing information exchange
resources that can provide supplier performance summaries was one of the great
challenges that B2B electronic commerce faced in its second wave.

ELECTRONIC M ARKETPLACES
AND P ORTALS
In the late 1990s, a number of industry-focused hubs opened and began offering
marketplaces and auctions in which companies in the industry could contact each other
and transact business. The idea was that these hubs would offer a doorway (or portal) to
the Internet for industry members. Because these hubs were vertically integrated (that
is, each hub would offer services to just one industry), they were called vertical portals,

Copyright 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.