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Managerial Issues 129

Social Collaboration SECTION 4.9 REVIEW QUESTIONS

A growing area in c-commerce is social collaboration, 1. Define c-commerce.
which refers to the process where people, individually or in 2. List the major types and characteristics of c-commerce.
groups, interact and share information and knowledge while 3. Describe some examples of c-commerce.
in social networks, or when pursuing social goals. According 4. Describe the elements and processes of c-commerce.
to Carr (2015), online collaboration should be social enough 5. List some major barriers to c-commerce. How can a com-
to enable employees to be more productive yet not distract pany overcome these limitations?
their work. For a discussion, see McCafferty (2015). 6. How is C2C practiced in social networking?
A large number of collaborative software are available to
support social collaboration. For example, see g2crowd.
com/categories/team-collaboration. For more information, MANAGERIAL ISSUES
see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_collaboration.
Some managerial issues related to this chapter are as fol-
lows.
Barriers to C-Commerce
1. Which B2B model(s) should we use for e- procurement?
Despite the many potential benefits, and with the exception When evaluating the various upstream B2B models, we
of some very large companies, c-commerce adaptation is need to match the suitable e- procurement goals with
moving ahead slowly. Reasons cited in various studies solution strategies depending upon whether the pur-
include technical factors involving a lack of internal inte- chases are direct material or indirect material. Four typi-
gration and standards. Other reasons include network secu- cal goals that should be distinguished are organizational
rity and privacy concerns, and some distrust over who has operational efficiency, minimum price, minimum inven-
access to and control of information stored in a partner’s tory and stock-outs, and low administrative costs. For
database. Internal resistance to information sharing and to each of these goals, the appropriate solution and system
new approaches and lack of company skills to conduct should be designed accordingly. Managing many small
c- commerce are also possible factors. Gaining agreement and medium suppliers that do not have sophisticated sys-
on how to share costs and benefits can also prove tems is a challenging goal.
problematic. 2. Which B2B model(s) should we use for online B2B
Finally, global collaboration may be complicated by addi- sales? A key issue for B2B sales is how to reconcile with
tional barriers ranging from language and cultural misunder- the multiple buyers who adopt different EDI and ERP
standings to insufficient budgeting. systems. The Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
solution transforms the internal data of multiple EDI
Overcoming Barriers to C-Collaboration formats used by different buyers. The integration of var-
ious types of EDI standards with ERP solutions is
Specialized c-commerce software tools may lessen some of another challenge to overcome. In addition to contract
the barriers to c-commerce. In addition, as companies learn management, B2B marketers use auctions, liquidations,
more about the major benefits of c-commerce—such as and social networks to increase sales.
smoothing the supply chain, reducing inventories and oper- 3. Which solutions and vendor(s) should we select?
ating costs, and increasing customer satisfaction—it is Vendors normally develop and deploy B2B applications,
expected that more companies will implement c-commerce. even for large organizations. Two basic approaches to
New approaches, such as the use of cloud computing and its vendor selection exist: (1) Select a primary vendor such
variants and the use of Web Services, could significantly as IBM (ibm.com), Microsoft (microsoft.com), or
lessen the implementation problem. The use of collaborative Oracle (oracle.com). This vendor will use its software
Web 2.0 tools based on open source could help as well. and procedures and add partners as needed. (2) Use an
Finally, it is essential to have a collaborative culture within integrator that will mix and match existing products and
and among organizations. vendors to create “the best of breed” for your needs.
4. What is the organizational impact of B2B? The B2B
Collaboration Processes and Software system will change the role of the procurement depart-
A large number of proprietary methods and supportive ment by redefining the role and procedures of that
communication and collaborative software are available to department. The function of the procurement depart-
support c-commerce. ment may be completely outsourced. A procurement