Ezeego1.com, the travel meta-search site, has tied up with redBus (www.redBus.in ), the largest consolidator of bus operators (over 270) to provide bus bookings on a real-time basis on its site. Customers can now book bus tickets on more than 3,600 bus routes across the country.

Speaking on the launch, Ms Neelu Singh, COO, ezeego1.com said, "We have always been pioneers in introducing new services and in redBus we found a unique opportunity as it would provide our customers one more option for their travel needs."

Re-affirming redBus'' partnership, Charan Padmaraju, Co-founder redBus, stated that, "redBus found great synergy with ezeego for launching the bus service on their website because we noticed that there are many customers who fly to a particular destination and then take a Volvo bus to cover the last leg due to the lack of airport facilities in some towns. This partnership is to add value to such customers and help them plan their entire trip in one go."

The unique aspect of redBus service is that it allows a passenger the flexibility in terms of choosing the type of bus (A/C, Volvo, non A/C or Sleeper), seat preference and pick-up and drop points.

Ezeego1.com, is one of its kind virtual travel market-place that offers all travel related services. On one hand are the suppliers i.e. the airlines, hotels, tour operators, transporters, insurance companies, the forex dealers and on the other are the customers, both B2B and B2C. The portal is a Travel Meta Search Site where the consumer gets real time information and transaction capability online. It uses the best technology platform in the Indian travel industry.

Ezeego1.com offers a real time web based booking engine which is seamlessly integrated to the mid and back office. It also employs a unique Single Window platform for multiple services, so one does not have to enter and exit different systems. It is the only reservation system that offers a dynamic packaging of all services with real-time inventory.

Ezeego1.com has strong online and offline fulfilment systems, different modes of delivery and collections, which help cater to the customer in any part of India. The portal has tied up with various payment gateway options.

redBus ( www.redBus.in) is India's first and largest online bus tickets company. It has a national presence, with its headquarters at Bangalore. redBus can be accessed on www.redBus.in or at any of their 9 call centers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Vijayawada or Vizag.

Customers get the advantage of choosing their seats online, getting tickets home delivered for over 270 bus operators and over 3600 routes in the country.

Andrea Lopez - Mumbai

The IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) plans to sign a contract with WorldSpan as one of the GDS providers for its B2B portal I-Top 8. The portal has already registered 50 members so far and hopes to expand its membership base once completely in place. Says Biji Eapen, president of IAAI, "We have just concluded our trial run with Amadeus and are now in the process of finalising the details of the contract with WorldSpan."

As reported by Express TravelWorld earlier, the B2B portal will hold payment gateways in addition to hotel reservation and car rentals. "Members will be able to create a profile for their own sub-agents and clients," adds Eapen.

Source: expresstravelworld

LUND, Sweden & COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Apptus, a global provider of Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) solutions, today announced that the major directory service of Denmark, De Gule Sider, has successfully implemented Apptus platform to launch their brand new site Allbiz.dk, a business to business directory service.

"We’re very excited and proud to accomplish our vision to develop a state of the art B2B directory. This has been possible thanks to the Apptus Theca Platform, set to give deep, precise and highly structured search results," says Patrick Mesterton, Online Marketing & Sales Director, DGS.

Allbiz.dk focuses on B2B customers and services exclusively. It is an excellent tool for small and medium sized companies when searching for new suppliers, customers or partners. In one single place Allbiz.dk provides information that is essential for development of B2B relations such as key financial figures for evaluation of companies.

The search engine behind allbiz.dk is highly flexible and capable of accommodating the most advanced search queries of our users. This has been made possible thanks to the great technical expertise at Apptus. Thanks to the flexible mind of their employees we have a solution that meets our market requirements, says Pernille Eiberg Brocks, Product Manager, DGS.

Allbiz.dk is the latest search solution that Apptus has created for DGS during the last few years. DGS has with the help of Apptus turned their site into a first-rate service which has doubled the amount of data, users and performed searches, whilst keeping the same platform thanks to the Apptus Theca® flexible and advanced solution.

For us it’s stimulating and rewarding to work closely with an advanced company such as DGS and the Allbiz.dk project, says Michael Atlevi, CEO at Apptus. It’s a company that moves in new directions on the market. Furthermore it’s a proof of the excellency of our Apptus Theca® platform. It is scalable both in volume load and complexity and handles a company in serious growth. Apptus Theca® is continually being refined and developed at a pace that ensures and strengthens our customers’ leading positions over the years.

About Apptus

Apptus is a private company, headquartered in Sweden with offices in Canada and England. As the Nordic leader within the field of search and database technology, Apptus provides solutions and products that ensure accessibility for customers with growing data sets and strong demands for search logistics, relevant results and connections to the customer's own business. Apptus primarily supplies solutions to customers within the fields of e-directory and e-commerce. Among the customers are Bokus, CDON, De Gule Sider, Eniro, Hitta, Lokaldelen and Lunarstorm. Apptus conducts research in search and database technology. Apptus’ keywords are quality, result and growth. For more information, please visit www.apptus.com.

About Allbiz/De Gule Sider

De Gule Sider® is the leading information service in Denmark with more than 374 million look ups per year in 101 telephone directories, at degulesider.dk, allbiz.dk, mobil.dgs.dk and information service 1811. De Gule Sider A/S is the largest publisher of telephone directories in Denmark with an annual number of copies exceeding more than 7 million directories. De Gule Sider employs approximately 600 people. De Gule Sider is a part of European Directories S.A. - one of Europes largest directory publishers with companies in several European countries.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://newsroom.cision.com

Source: (BUSINESS WIRE)

"Business Information and Education Industry Report (Global) February 2008 Provides a Comprehensive Analysis of the Industry Dynamics for the Global Business Information and Education Market"

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c92626) has announced the addition of "Business Information and Education Industry Report (Global) February 2008" to their offering.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the industry dynamics for the global business information and education market. It is divided into six industries: scientific, technical and medical (STM), legal, tax and regulatory (LTR), real time financial data, B2B publishing, directories and education. The report uses proven economic frameworks to provide a balanced and objective assessment of the issues facing the industry.

Questions answered in this report include:

Scientific, Technical and Medical

Demand factors

- How is the market segmented?

- What are the drivers of demand?

- Why does buyer behaviour support prices?

- What are the threats to this business?

Supply factors

- What are the barriers to entry?

- Who are the main players and how do they compete?

- How has the industry shifted its model from print to digital?

- What are the challenges facing suppliers?

Legal, Tax and Regulatory

Demand factors

- How does the size of a buyer influence demand?

- What strategies have been adopted to reduce buyer power?

- What is the threat of substitution?

Supply factors

- Who are the main players and how do they compete?

- What strategies have suppliers adopted to boost demand?

Real Time Financial Data

Demand factors

- Who are the buyers of real time financial data?

- How is the market segmented?

- What are the drivers of demand?

- How have buyers sought to reduce supplier power?

Supply factors

- How have suppliers responded to falling barriers to entry?

- How do suppliers compete?

B2B Publishing

Demand factors

- How do revenues in B2B publishing differ from consumer publishing?

- Which are the most cyclical revenue streams for B2B publishers?

- How has the internet affected the revenue model for B2B magazines?

Supply factors

- Why is the B2B publishing industry so fragmented?

- Who are the main players?

- What innovations have players introduced to boost their competitive position?

Directories

Demand factors

- What are the drivers of demand?

- Why does the industry have monopoly characteristics?

- How has the threat of substitutes increased and made life difficult for players in this industry?

Supply factors

- What are the barriers to entry in this business?

- How does the UK market differ to the US market?

Education

Demand factors

- How is the market for educational books segmented?

- What drives spending in schools and colleges?

- How has technology influenced demand?

Supply factors

- What are the barriers to entry?

- What has attracted private equity groups to this market?

- Who are the main players?

CONTENTS:

Science, Technical and Medical

- Demand

- Supply

Legal, Tax and Regulatory

- Demand

- Supply

Real Time Financial Data

- Demand

- Supply

B2B Publishing

- Demand

- Supply

Directories

- Demand

- Supply

Education

- Demand

- Supply

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c92626

Integration solution offers prebuilt connectivity with SPSCommerce.net to major enterprise resource planning apps, warehouse management and 3PL systems

Mountain View, CA — Software-as-a-service integration provider Cast Iron Systems has teamed with SaaS EDI specialist SPS Commerce to offer a solution designed to help suppliers more quickly and easily connect their back-office applications with SPS' outsourced electronic date interchange service and exchange information with major retailers.

The Cast Iron Integration Solution for SPS contains prebuilt connectivity from SPSCommerce.net to major enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, including SAP and Oracle, as well as to databases, flat-files, warehouse management and third-party logistics (3PL) systems, XML and Web services, and on-demand applications.

The solution can enable to suppliers to exchange information with some of America's largest retailers, including Costco, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, the solution provider said.

"The Cast Iron integration solution is a cost-effective, plug-and-play solution that enables companies to communicate with our EDI services in real time," said David Novak, executive vice president of business development at SPS Commerce. "It is so simple for our customers to use that within days they have been up and running with our EDI services directly integrated with their internal systems, providing end-to-end connectivity between retailers and suppliers."

The Cast Iron Integration Solution for SPS Commerce uses a "configuration, not coding" approach to SaaS integration, aimed at eliminating the need to implement complex and expensive middleware or write custom code that may not scale to other integration projects as a company grows.

Cast Iron provides a drag-and-drop graphical user interface to design workflow rules and transform data between source and target applications with automatic completeness checks. A single Web-based console delivers visibility into implementation, monitoring and maintenance.

"With the inherent complexity of supply chain integration," said Ken Comée, CEO of Cast Iron Systems, "companies are finding the combined SPS Commerce and Cast Iron integration solution to be a very effective way for suppliers to enjoy the advantages of a software-as-service model and be nimble and responsive to the needs of their large retailers."

The Cast Iron Integration Solution for SPS is available from Cast Iron Systems. A fact sheet is available at www.castiron.com/docs/so/CI_for_SPS.pdf.

BEIJING (AFP) - Leading Chinese Internet portal Sina.com has launched an English news site, amid intense global interest in China following last week's earthquake tragedy.

"We have chosen to launch our English news site now as we would like to provide up-to-minute coverage of the earthquake for overseas people who are concerned about the tragedy," Sina president and CEO Charles Chao said.

"Over the longer term, we intend to make this site a window for international communities to have an easy access to China-related information and to have better understanding about modern China."

The site's address is http://english.sina.com.

Sina is China's most popular news and sports Internet portal.

The English site was launched late last week.

Source: yahoo

Minneapolis, MN, May 17, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Open Systems, Inc., a single source provider of TRAVERSE and OSAS accounting, CRM, eBusiness, not for profit, manufacturing and distribution software, and SPS Commerce, the leading provider of SaaS EDI services, today announce that they have teamed to provide an integrated supply chain solution for mid-market companies. The joint solution pre-wires TRAVERSE users to SPS' network of over 1200 retailer trading partners.

"This solution enables our TRAVERSE customers to quickly and easily communicate important documents to their customers, suppliers, third party logistics providers, and sourcing agents," said Open Systems VP of Sales Paul Lundquist. "They can send and receive purchase orders, invoices, advance ship notices and other electronic documents directly from within their TRAVERSE application. Using the 'multi-tenant' Software-as-a-Service model, our users save time and reduce costs by leveraging SPS' specialized expertise, infrastructure and existing maps."

"We are very pleased to partner with Open Systems as a part of our SPS Ecosystem community," said Archie Black, President and CEO of SPS Commerce. "By teaming SPS' on-demand B2B integration with their industry-leading TRAVERSE accounting and business solution, mid-sized organizations can benefit from a more streamlined and hands-free approach to communicating necessary order, shipping and billing information with their trading partners."

About SPS Commerce
SPS Commerce is the leader in Software as a Service (SaaS) B2B integration, connecting every partner in the supply chain. Retailers, manufacturers and 3PLs have selected SPS Commerce as their outsourced provider to automate and integrate their trading relationships. SPS Commerce has more than 10,000 recurring revenue customers, pre-built integrations spanning 2,700 unique fulfillment workflows across 1,200 retailers, grocers and distributors. It has a customer satisfaction rate of 93%. SPS Commerce is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For additional information, please contact SPS Commerce at 866-245-8100 or visit www.spscommerce.com.

About Open Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1976 on the premise of delivering powerful accounting software solutions to small and mid-market customers, Open Systems is a single-source provider of accounting, distribution, manufacturing, not-for-profit, CRM and eBusiness solutions. Products offered include: OSAS for Windows, UNIX, Linux and Mac users; TRAVERSE for the Microsoft platform; and TRAVERSE eBusiness Solutions. Source code for Open Systems products is provided at no additional cost. For more information on Open Systems products, call 800-328-2276 or visit www.osas.com.

For further information:
Ann Wickstrom, Communications Specialist
Phone: (952) 403-5727/Email: annw@osas.com

2008 is seeing BDS defy the laws of Gravity with a five-fold increase of online enquiries as a direct result of its specialist online sourcing system.

This year has seen the specialist markets fall back to earth with a bump but thanks to the impact of Gravity – the specialist online sourcing system - this swell has seen BDS challenge the gravitational pull of the market with the increase resulting in around 90% of new business enquiries. Almost half of these enquiries then go through to the Decision-In-Principle (DIP) stage and then, assuming they fit the product criteria, the broker can then submit an application via Trigold’s Electronic Trading Platform and an underwriter will look at the case within 15 minutes of receipt – assuming all of the information is correct.

Gravity is a web-based system so it is updated online, this ensures that products are constantly updated and in some cases can actually be updated faster on Gravity than on the lenders’ own website. It has direct links to lenders KFI’s and decision engines. Gravity also provides proactive management information as it has the ability to be able to deliver numerous reports, in various formats and different frequencies.

Bob Hope, Sales & Marketing Director at BDS, commented:

“2008 has seen an unprecedented number of product changes and withdrawals which has resulted in growing numbers of brokers left high and dry in terms of product placement. As lenders continue to reduce their pipeline submission times BDS is offering brokers an easier route to securing a product for their client. By using Gravity to source and DIP, then submitting the application via Trigold’s ETC we can guarantee that an underwriter will be looking at the case the same day.

“Time really is of the essence in the modern day mortgage market as we are all aware of how much more business and ancillary sales we have to place in order to get sufficient financial reward. We firmly believe that Gravity will not only save broker’s time but also reward them with great accuracy and efficiency with are all ‘must haves’ in the current financial climate.”

Source: introducertoday

The onset of new database technology and the improved availability of information from electronic sources are changing the way traditional market research is delivered. New players are quickly adapting to the new research environment and delivering market research within online databases whereby the information is fully indexed, searchable and provides a medium for clients to upload and index their own internal data sources.

In line with this shift in market research delivery, Vertical Edge (the publishers of http://www.free-research.com and http://www.companiesandmarkets.com) is providing its clients with a new service whereby market research information is fully indexed in client-friendly and interactive online databases. These tools enable the information to be fully searchable, archived and provide users with a bespoke extranet service where internal research data can also be indexed and uploaded.

In line with technological advances regarding the delivery of information, Vertical Edge Ltd has developed a proprietary set of tools to build data and content quickly. There are a wide number of applications and Vertical Edge is now offering data and content services to a wider range of customers.

There are limitless applications for the company's data and content services. Vertical Edge effectively 'builds, aggregates and indexes' a huge amount of data for a number of clients, as well as for its own websites.

The internal control of market and competitor information has large implications for cost, efficiency and more importantly, effective market and competitor knowledge.

If you wish to discuss how Vertical Edge can help you build this internal knowledge, send an email to info@verticaledge.co.uk for an initial discussion or visit the following site for more information of our bespoke database services: http://www.companiesandmarkets.com/data_content.asp

Companiesandmarkets.com is a central source of market research from the world's leading analysts and report publishers. Companiesandmarkets.com contains a comprehensive range of specialised market intelligence reports from leading publishers for all market sectors. Companiesandmarkets.com is part of Vertical Edge Ltd which also supports free-research,com.

Source: 24-7pressrelease

Taipei, (CENS)--Seeing the drastic volatility in bulk commodity prices worldwide, domestic fodder suppliers are jointly procuring corn from China so as to cut purchasing cost.

Domestic farms and fodder suppliers recently procured approximately 500,000 metric tons of corns, about one-tenth of the nation`s overall annual import of such agricultural product. China-grown corn will likely start to be shipped to Taiwan from the beginning of July, which will ease strain on domestic fodder suppliers.

The procurement partnership includes listed leading fodder suppliers as Greatwall Enterprise Corp., Uni-President Enterprises Corp., Taisun Enterprise Co., and Fwusow Industry Co.

An industry insider said domestic fodder suppliers currently spend NT$11 to buy a kilogram of corn, despite selling the same between NT$9.4 and NT$9.5 per kilogram, which has put them in the red.

With the China-exported corn and the coming of peak selling season, domestic fodder suppliers will see product prices stabilize to enable breaking even from the third quarter of this year.

A survey by FoodChina.com shows that corn shipped from North America is set at US$330 and US$360 per metric ton, while China-grown corn is between US$10 and US$15 less. Including shipment costs, domestic fodder suppliers can cut costs by between 5% and 10% per kilogram to buy corn from China than North America. FoodChina.com is a B2B (business to business) e-marketplace and professional service provider based in Greater China aiming to serve the agribusiness community.

The Taiwan Feed Industry Association says the joint procurement launched by domestic fodder suppliers is effective monthly from the beginning of July till the end of this year, with such partnership to help wean domestic suppliers from relying on North American growers.

Taiwan`s demand for corn reaches five million metric tons per year; while China exports about eight million to 10 million metric tons or corn per year. In the wake of reported food shortages internationally, China has banned exports of agricultural products, except Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
(by Ben Shen)

CHENNAI: As part of its efforts to usher in e-governance, Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday launched a website for online processing of land documents, including registration.

State Minister for Revenue and Housing I Periasami unveiled the website at a regional review conference organised jointly by the Land Resources department and Union Ministry of Rural Development.

"The website 'www.eservices.tn.gov.in' will have all details such as patta pertaining to lands of individuals," he told reporters.

"So far, 3.2 crores of land resources having full details of the owner/enterprise across the State have been registered on this website", he said.

The website which is to be launched in interior districts of Tamil Nadu in a phased manner will be covering the entire state soon. "Initially, it has been launched in Dindigul, Vellore and Coimbatore" the Minister said.

Elaborating about the project, Union Rural Development Secretary Rita Sinha said e-processing would prevent tampering of documents and every individual registering on the website would have a unique identity number.

Already this kind of e-processing of land resources had been implemented in various states and also in other countries, including England, Australia, Thailand and Kenya.

"Initially, we have planned to launch it in 11 states across the country and as of now, it has been completed in Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and now Tamil Nadu. We want to cover the entire country by the end of 12th Five Year Plan," she told reporters.

With this kind of development, accuracy and time reduction could be achieved, she said.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Let's face it: when you've worked in the same industry for a long time, sometimes the creative gets a little stale. You've probably noticed that after awhile most B2B (define) e-mails start to all look alike.

That's why I'm glad I work in a range of industries from nonprofit environmental fundraising, to financial services, to healthcare, and of course, B2B. The variety helps to keep a fresh infusion of new ideas coming in.

Today, you'll get the benefit of my successful experience in the nonprofit fundraising world with some ideas for freshening up your e-mails and improving your response rates.

Shorten up Your Subject Lines

In past columns, I've talked about how political e-mails use short subject lines and how results from a recent MailerMailer study showed that these truncated inbox teasers outperform their longer counterparts.

Well, I tested this myself for my environmental nonprofit client -- and in several tests, the shorter subject lines won conclusively. Not only were the open rates higher, but so were the clickthroughs. Because the clickthrough action led to a donation page, the end result was significantly higher revenue.

So I'd say that in the B2B field, this is definitely worth a test.

However, a word of caution. It's harder to write a short, pithy two-word subject line than it is to write a longer one, so you might want to get a professional copywriter to help you.

Also, if you do a test, the first few words of the subject lines should be identical to make it a true test -- and the rest of the longer subject line shouldn't really introduce any radically new messaging that would skew the results. You're only testing the subject line length here, not new content.

Let Your Audience Vote

When you're creating a new brochure or ad, instead of just sending around the initial concepts for internal approvals, ask your prospects and clients what they think.

One of my nonprofit clients recently did this for an ad they were thinking of running, and their audience voted for one ad over the other by a wide margin. When you consider the high cost of media placement, it's a real vote of confidence when your prospects and clients "pre-approve" the ad you're planning to run.

Another note of caution: it may seem like a good idea to show a running tally as the votes come in, but if you're really trying to test creative, this can throw off your results. When people see that one ad is preferred by other voters, they may be swayed to respond differently.

Once the voting is over, you can send a second e-mail announcing the winning ad and where it will appear. These announcement e-mails get very high open rates since people are curious to find out who won. So be sure to put some sort of offer or call-to-action in the announcement to keep the positive momentum going.

Paint a Compelling Word Picture in the First Sentence

We all know that we have to hook readers in first few seconds they open an e-mail, but not many B2B e-mail marketers put in the time investment to make that happen.

In fundraising, you have to pull at the reader's heartstrings in the first sentence -- or you've lost them. This means painting a compelling word picture that makes the problem that others are experiencing hit home with the reader.

The same goes for B2B. Except that in this case, you need to create a word picture that really hits home with the reader personally. Ask yourself "what is keeping my prospects and clients up at night?" By describing that fear in a personal way and offering an immediate, actionable solution, you'll be well on your way to closing the sale.

Lower Your "Ask"

Fundraisers personalize e-mail fundraising requests using information such as how much the donor has previously given. So if you've given $35 before, they'll ask you to donate somewhere in the range of $35 again.

However, recently a nonprofit client was trying to raise money for a particular campaign. We were on our third e-mail in a series of appeals. I realized that if the reader hadn't given already, maybe it would help to ask the reader to chip in only $10.

That worked like a charm and brought in over $50,000 in unanticipated revenue.

How would this work in the B2B space? If you're selling a seminar for $2,000 and no one is biting, you can, of course, lower the price. You can also offer an audiocast or a report with a portion of the seminar content at a significantly reduced cost. The beauty of e-mail is that you get results in 24 hours so you can bob and weave with the market as needed.

Add Variety to Your Own Inbox

If you work full-time for a B2B company, you're probably on the e-mail lists of all your competitors so you can monitor the industry. However, if you broaden your exposure to other sectors -- by signing up for B2C (define), political, nonprofit, and other industry e-mails, you're sure to get some innovative new ideas to try. And of course, reading publications like ClickZ or other marketing e-zines for case studies -- and keeping a "swipe" file of creative ad and e-mails you want to try -- can keep things fresh and interesting.

Source: clickz.com

Alibaba and Intel Helping Chinese B2B

Chinese e-commerce website company Alibaba has announced a partnership with Intel (INTC) to launch a kind of special computer to meet the e-commerce demand of small and medium enterprises in China.

The computer, which local media reports will be made by designated PC manufacturers and embedded into Alibaba’s e-commerce platform for SMEs, is expected to come out within the year. Alibaba and Intel say they have yet to choose the right PC manufacturers and have tem be responsible for the production and sale of the computer.

Developing the B2B Market

Alibaba has lately been doing deals to bolster its services for SMEs in Asia. The company last month inked a deal in with Infomedia India Limited to benefit small and medium-size enterprises in India. The Alibaba.com and Infomedia partnership will combine the power of traditional print publishing with online media and e-commerce, providing Indian SMEs with a one-stop solution for global and domestic trade. Together they will create a strong online community of Indian business people and provide them with a single cost-effective channel to promote their products and source from quality suppliers in India and around the world. It will also provide SMEs in India with the latest industry news and technical developments in multi-media formats.

Sourced from China Tech News

Most search marketers focus on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. But B2B search marketers also have a growing number of vertical search options. Clicks and leads from these vertical search sites may not yield the same traffic as general search engines, but the percentage of qualified traffic and conversions can increase dramatically with leads from these specialized and vertical business-oriented engines. Here's a roundup of the most important search sites and resources B2B search marketers should be targeting.

While business searchers may start their quest on a general search engine like Google, as they become more informed and progress further in the buying cycle, they often turn to other sources for additional and more detailed information. Many turn to general B2B search engines or head to niche-oriented search sites, where they hope to find fewer extraneous search results and other types of content, such as white papers, case studies, and other content marketing vehicles. The searcher's aim is to get better information and to get it more quickly.

There are good vertical search sites and ones that are struggling to optimize their search technology and their ability to capture and organize information. The best ones deliver comprehensive results in the given niche, provide more focused search results than general search engines, and give searchers the ability to quickly and easily find relevant information.

Good vertical search sites also provide opportunity for B2B marketers, who can generate highly qualified leads and click-through due to the focused demographics of many B2B vertical search sites. That concentrated demographic also allows marketers to precisely target their ad messages and other marketing efforts. Lastly, because vertical searchers are often further in the buying cycle than their general search counterparts, the click-through and leads tend to be more valuable, giving marketers the ability to influence potential buyers as they draw closer to the purchase decision.

As B2B marketing budgets shift more strongly to online opportunities, media companies are beginning to add vertical search as a way to remain authoritative in their niches and to make up for decreasing offline revenues. And with the trend toward vertical search, we see also the growth of companies such as Convera that offer vertical search platforms that shorten the time to market for those wishing to enter the vertical search arena.
Here are some of the more popular B2B search engines:

General B2B search engines

Business.com is far and away the leading general B2B search engine and directory, with six million unique visitors per month. PPC and paid directory inclusion are available to marketers. Sponsored search is syndicated to more than 100 other business sites, such as Forbes and BusinessWeek. In March, Business.com launched Channels, adding two vertical search portals (Money and Technology) to its general search capabilities. Users will benefit from more targeted information and search results; marketers will benefit by reaching a more concentrated market segment.

Several times smaller in traffic than Business.com and part of the iEntry network, Jayde is another B2B search engine and directory. Many of the search results on Jayde have company profiles with links to internal web pages, similar to Google's site links. While Jayde says it crawls sites, it appears that it may only crawl those sites residing in its directory and those specifically identified by Jayde staff. Submitting your site to Jayde's directory for review is free, but you'll have to agree to be on Jayde's list to receive emails sponsored by iEntry's advertisers. If you opt out, your listing can be removed. Paid search is not available.

Zibb is owned by Reed Business, one of the largest business-to-business publishers. General search capabilities are supplemented by the ability to search in a limited number of silos, such as industry news and blogs, the web, and Zibb's directory. Zibb crawls the web, winnows non-B2B content, and organizes the relevant content into taxonomies. Searchers can also drill down into these categories and further refine results by topic, content type, or source. PPC is not directly available; ads are served up by Google. Although it's the smallest of the three general B2B search engines listed here, it is growing. Per Alexa, its traffic has nearly doubled in the last three months.

Industrial search engines and directories

GlobalSpec serves the engineering, manufacturing, and related scientific and technical market segments. Registered users can use the search bar or drill down deeply into product and service categories. Search is also available by needed specs, patent, material properties, news, application notes, part numbers, and standards. While GlobalSpec crawls the web for relevant sites/content, you can also submit a site for consideration. Sales lead and CPC programs are available for marketers, as are sponsored listings.

Similar in traffic to GlobalSpec, ThomasNet serves industrial buyers and sellers. Although there appear to be fewer silos within which to search, there are good options on ThomasNet to narrow search results by geography, certifications and standards, type of company, etc. Also available is the ability to search within CAD files. While GlobalSpec allows users to compare product catalogs of various suppliers, ThomasNet allows users to compare company information on its listed suppliers. The only way into ThomasNet's directory is via paid listing. Banner ads are available to marketers.

Masterseek touts itself as "the world's largest and most comprehensive B2B search engine that connects buyers and suppliers worldwide." Several times smaller in terms of traffic than GlobalSpec or ThomasNet, Masterseek's search options are also more limited, giving users the options to narrow their searches in two silos—companies or products. Its search results are also much more akin to general B2B search engines; the focus is on click-through to the listed sites as opposed to providing more detailed information on the companies or products. Paid search options are available. On Monday, B2bcompass Ltd., parent company of UK-based international B2B search engine b2bcompass.com, signed a letter of intent to acquire the shares of Masterseek in exchange for shares of B2bcompass.

Information technology

Part of the TechTarget network,KnowledgeStorm is the most popular search vehicle in the technology sector. Instead of delivering information and links to relevant pages on the web, KnowledgeStorm delivers links to whitepapers, webcasts, case studies, articles, reports, and analyst reviews. While KnowledgeStorm offers category sponsorships and search ads are served by Google, content marketing is the focus of the site. Users must be registered with KnowledgeStorm to view more detailed search results and must provide further lead information to obtain the actual content.

IT.com uses "dynamic peer ranking" to order its search results, with the goal of mirroring "how a large community of buyers judges each vendor's position in the market." While a general search tool is available, IT.com also offers more narrowed search within defined categories. PPC search-term ads are available. Also available is sponsorship of search categories, where the sponsor's ads appear before the user searches and where the sponsor's brand identity (with link) remains present during all search activity within the sponsored category.

Launched late last month by UK-based Incisive Media, IThound is the latest newcomer to information technology search. Like KnowledgeStorm, it delivers whitepapers, product information, webcasts, and reports. Though there are banner ads on the site, content marketing rules the day at IThound. No AdSense or PPC was noted at this time.

Global trading

Described as the "online dating service for global business," Alibaba boasts 27 million members in more than 200 countries, field sales and marketing offices in more than 30 countries, and more than 5,200 employees. Users search for either buyers or sellers of goods and services around the world. Various advertising opportunities exist. And while you may not have heard of it, it's one of the most popular B2B sites in the world; it has an Alexa traffic rank of 226. In October 2005, Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Inc. formed a long-term strategic partnership. Alibaba.com went public in November 2007, raising nearly $1.5 billion for the company. By comparison, Google raised $1.9 billion in its IPO.

Made-in-China is perhaps the second most popular international B2B trading site (Alexa rank 2607), but, as the name indicates, it is primarily concerned with China. The site offers marketers preferred listing placement and opportunities for banner ads.

TooToo is another global online B2B trading platform, allowing its users to further refine product and company searches by type of business (e.g., manufacturer, wholesaler/distributor, agent) and by standards certifications (e.g., ISO, CE). TooToo claims its site represents eight million manufacturers and three million buying leads. It currently has an Alexa rank of about 7500. The site doesn't appear to offer PPC or banner ads. In addition to search listings, the site offers marketers other premium opportunities such as "showroom" web pages.

There are a number of other global trading sites, such as TradeKey, ttnet.com, and Exporters.sg.

Other vertical search sites

There are a number of other good vertical search engines in various B2B niches, like SearchFinance for corporate finance, Construction.com for the AEC community, Scirus for scientific research, and SearchMedica for medical research.

B2B vertical search is a growing area. Though B2B media companies have been slower to react than their consumer counterparts, many B2B media outlets are entering the fray, such as Incisive Media. Some not-for profit organizations are also entering the space on matters of health and research (e.g., Healia).

Perhaps one of the most targeted niche search site I found was CleanHound, owned by Trade Press Publishing Corporation. CleanHound is the search engine for cleaning professionals, providing "useful and quality information for the janitorial/sanitation executive." While I'm sure this evoked at least a smile in most readers, if the search engine is comprehensive and well known in the industry, you can bet it's a good medium for marketers in that space.

Whether it's organic listings and rankings, directory inclusion, content marketing, PPC, banner ads, or sponsorships, there's plenty of opportunity for marketers to target their efforts more precisely through B2B general and vertical search. You may not get as many clicks or leads, but you'll get a much higher percentage of qualified traffic.

Source: searchengineland.com

IndustrialLeaders.com, publisher of industrial auctions, directories, on-line trade shows and engineering blogs for manufacturing and industrial professionals, announced today the two Web sites ForeignTRADEX and Worldwide Industrial Marketplace have joined the Industrial Leaders group. The company said the three-way partnership will enable all Web sites to feature an Industrial Classifieds marketplace hosted by IndustrialSAVER at http://www.IndustrialSAVER.com/classifieds/

According to Heidi Pearson, spokeswoman for the group, the classifieds marketplace is also integrated with a number of industrial auctions focusing on a wide range of industrial and manufacturing machinery, machine tools, industrial MRO supplies, material handling equipment, general industrial supply products, construction and building materials and heavy equipment. All auctions are accessible at http://www.IndustrialSAVER.com/auction_directory.html

Ms. Pearson said the Industrial Leaders group now consists of various industrial supply directories, trade portals, social media networking sites, B2B forums, on-line industrial auctions as well as a virtual-based expo known as the International Industrial Trade Show (IITS). "From industrial supplies, equipment and machinery to woodworking tools and construction equipment, the Industrial Leaders group connects industrial buyers and suppliers in over 54 countries," says Pearson.

About ForeignTRADEX

ForeignTRADEX.com is an industrial trade directory connecting manufacturers, distributors, exporters, importers and end-users of industrial products with emphasis on the UK and EU markets as well as Australia and New Zealand at http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com

About Worldwide Industrial Marketplace

US-based Worldwide Industrial Marketplace is dedicated to connecting manufacturers, exporters, importers, distributors and end-users of industrial products all over the globe, primarily in Asia and the Middle East at http://www.WorldwideIndustrialMarketplace.com

About Industrial Leaders

IndustrialLeaders.com the 'American Industrial Marketplace' connects buyers and suppliers of industrial supplies, equipment and machinery throughout North and South America with emphasis on Canada and the United States. The primary focus of Industrial Leaders is to promote American manufacturers overseas at http://www.IndustrialLeaders.com

The on-line industrial and construction auction site IndustrialSAVER has re-designed its Web site to include B2B social media networking tools for industrial buyers and suppliers participating in its marketplace.

Westboro, MA, - IndustrialSAVER, a US-based website specializing in industrial auctions and a division of Industrial Leaders announced today the addition of specialized business tools added to its industrial marketplace at http://www.IndustrialSAVER.com/classifieds/. According to Maria Santos, spokeswoman for company, the site enables buyers and suppliers of industrial supplies, equipment and machinery to interact with one another utilizing on-line networking tools designed to improve the initial communication process of building a trading partnership.

In addition to the marketplace, the site includes an industrial auction directory at http://www.IndustrialSaver.com/auction_directory.html. The publication features auctions intended for manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and end-users of building materials, construction equipment, heavy machinery, electrical supply, electronic components, industrial computers, metal and alloys, machine tools, contract manufacturing services, industrial textiles, material handling equipment, storage systems, shipping and warehouse supplies, measuring and testing equipment, industrial textiles, surplus wholesale lots as well as a wide range of other industrial and construction products.

"We created the marketplace to help companies involved in the industrial marketplace to more easily meet trading partners on the Web," says Dominic Matello, Business Director of IndustrialSAVER and co-founder of http://www.IndustrialLeaders.com. He added, "Whether you are buying or selling industrial or construction goods you'll find IndustrialSAVER provided a number of opportunities to meet potential trading partners in local, national and overseas markets."

Source: (PR.com)

Made-from-India.com Launches New Global Marketplace for Indian Manufacturer and Exporter

India, 01/03/08 - Made-from-India introduces new services to its online business-to-business (B2B) portal, which provides a professional business platform for the Indian exporters, manufacturers, suppliers and businessmen of any country who are involved into import-export trade. This portal is far more advanced and extensive in terms of its features and not just an online version of any other portals. It aims at qualitative and genuine data, rather than quantitative approach.

Made-from-India firmly believes that today is the age of information and half baked or incomplete information is always as suicidal as wrong information. Here, quality meets both genuineness and seriousness in business, as business always means profit. We have just tried to emerge as a reliable and complete information hub, and for that we are doing every effort to make it most complete one to meet the competitive environment. Our editorial team brings latest industry news, does research and brings out sartorial analysis, articles and highlights, along with brand launches, product catalogues and news features. Adding to the multitude are the Editor blogs, Expert comments and many more to come.

Exclusive services from Made-from-India.com:

v Product Directory (List of manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, global traders)-user can find only quality as we don’t believe in quantity.

v Trade Leads (Post buying and selling leads)- one can realize how it is different

v Virtual Office – an online revolutionary office existed never before.

v News (Keeping you updated with latest happening from niche markets)-be in the competition, be with the latest of the world with analysis.

v General Information (Informational articles, whitepapers and case studies from industry veterans)- many more will be updated under the segment as information is never complete and never stops to become perfect.

v Trade services (professional support and assistance).

Made-from-India ensures that this is one of the most user-friendly portals focusing on multiple areas while catering to the requirements of countless individuals belonging to import-export, in a simple and comprehensive manner. At the same, we always seek your advice for improvement at info@made-from-india.com

About Made-from-India

Made-from-India is an innovative and comprehensive online business-to-business (B2B) portal. It’s not just another B2B portal, but is meant for serious businessman only who care for Costing, Profit, Turn Over, Brand Promotion, Brand Creation, Brand Make Over, Edge Over others, and Growth.

For more details,

Please visit http://www.made-from-india.com/Contents/About_Us/Our_Services/

www.made-from-india.com

MFI TRADE LINKS PVT LTD.

205-214 Advait Complex,

B/S Sandesh Press Road,

Vastrapur, Ahmedabad – 380015

Gujarat, India.

Or, email at info@made-from-india.com

ArriveNEWS, an Industrial Leaders Web site and organizer of the International Industrial Trade Show (IITS 2008), has developed a marketing partnership with IndustrialMRO, the Web site for plant maintenance, repair and operations professionals

The International Industrial Trade Show, a virtual expo organized by http://www.ArriveNEWS.com, has partnered with IndustrialMRO to form a business-to-business marketplace for industrial buyers and suppliers. According to Catalina Goncalves, spokeswoman for the companies, the partnership will enable users of IndustrialMRO to connect with exhibitors of ArriveNEWS in effort help them develop a trading partnership.

Ms. Goncalves said the partnership includes both IndustrialMRO and ArriveNEWS becoming a division of the Industrial Leaders group, a publisher of industrial supply directories designed to promote American manufacturers of industrial products in international markets at http://www.IndustrialLeaders.com. Both sites are utilized by manufacturing, construction and engineering professionals actively seeking buy or sell industrial supplies, equipment or machinery as well as allied services.

"The International Industrial Trade Show will now be able to reach more industrial buyers and suppliers in result of this partnership with IndustrialMRO," says James Dorsey, Website Manager of ArriveNEWS.com. He added, "Exhibitors of IITS will now have their company and products exhibited in front of plant maintenance and operations professionals that use http://www.IndustrialMRO.com"

IndustrialLeaders.com, the American Industrial Marketplace owns and operates a number of Industrial Directories, Industrial Auctions and Blogs for the manufacturing, construction and engineering communities. Industrial Leaders is utilized by companies looking to buy/sell industrial supplies, equipment, machinery as well as heavy construction equipment in 54 countries with emphasis on North America.

Source: 24-7pressrelease.com

INTTRA, the leading e-commerce portal for the ocean freight industry, recently announced that Jeff Pattison has joined the Company's senior management team as Chief Information Officer. Pattison brings a unique blend of technology expertise and leadership experience to his role at INTTRA. As CIO, Pattison will be responsible for the technology that powers INTTRA's e-commerce tools and the work processes that create and sustain it, including research, design, engineering and development of the product line.

INTTRA, the largest e-commerce platform for the ocean shipping industry, offers a range of e-commerce products to help shippers and forwarders plan, process and manage their documentation with their carriers. Pattison's appointment is a further testament to the Company's commitment to providing its customers with comprehensive technologies for simplifying collaboration and increasing supply chain visibility.

Pattison will work closely with John DeBenedette who has moved to INTTRA's Commercial Department to lead the global team. Leveraging DeBenedette's leadership experience with INTTRA's global sales force, the Company has merged commercial, marketing and product management under DeBenedette in his new role. This collaboration of departments will allow INTTRA to continue accelerating its efforts to bring innovative products to market quickly and effectively without compromising quality.

"In today's global environment, INTTRA stands above the rest, increasing supply chain visibility for international shippers, carriers and freight forwarders," said Pattison. "INTTRA's e-commerce tools make the global marketplace more accessible and provide a transparency to the supply chain that benefits all users. I am looking forward to working with INTTRA's seasoned management team to further develop their innovative product line."

Prior to joining INTTRA, Pattison served as Vice President of Application Services at NRT, Inc., the largest owner and operator of residential real estate brokerages in the U.S. In this role, Pattison was responsible for more than 20 mission-critical consumer and B2B Web sites and the supporting enterprise architecture for more than 65,000 independent real estate agents in 1,000 offices around the U.S. Prior to joining NRT, Pattison was Director of Application Development at Medco Health overseeing numerous applications used in their prescription processing. In addition, Pattison spent eight years at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), providing cutting edge business solutions to clients across various industries.

"Jeff's varied work experience in other industries will allow INTTRA to broaden its scope and will help us continue our tradition of innovation and technology leadership in the industry," said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA, "while John's new position will enhance our focus on product development and market strategy."

Pattison graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Management Information Systems and Marketing.

About INTTRA
INTTRA, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., is a leading global provider of e-commerce solutions to ocean carriers and their customers. INTTRA professionals work with customers to streamline and standardize their shipping processes, applying their e-commerce knowledge of the shipping industry for customers in markets worldwide.

More than 240,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week, representing almost 10 percent of global ocean container trade.

INTTRA's e-commerce platform offers a comprehensive range of e-commerce tools, including: Tender, Sailing Schedules, Booking, Shipping Instructions, Bill of Lading, Track & Trace, and Reports. Accessing the INTTRA platform is simple, using any combination of their channel solutions: INTTRA-Link (EDI-based, system-to-system connection), INTTRA-Desktop (off-line PC application), or INTTRA-Act (web-based application).

INTTRA's carrier network includes, Alianca, ANL, CMA CGM, CSAV, CSAV NORASIA, Deutsche Afrika-Linien, Emirates Shipping Line, Hamburg Sud, Hanjin Shipping Co., Hapag-Lloyd, "K" Line, Libra, Maersk Line, MCC Transport Pte Ltd., MISC, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., NYK Line, Safmarine, Senator Lines, United Arab Shipping Company.

For further information visit www.inttra.com.

SOURCE: INTTRA

The Research in Motion (RIMM) vs. Apple (AAPL) smartphone face-off makes for a good story, but the companies present an interesting business strategy question: Is it better to start in the enterprise and then go consumer, or vice versa?

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce generated a total transaction value of 1.058 billion yuan (US$148 million) during the first quarter of 2008, slipping by 4.4% on quarter but rising by 19.0% on year, according to China-based consulting company Analysys International.

Of the transaction value, 621 million yuan or 58.7% was due to imports and exports while the remaining 437 million yuan or 41.3% was from domestic trades, Analysys noted.

Business-to-customer (B2C) sales transactions for online shopping during the first quarter reached an estimated total value of 1.282 billion yuan, decreasing by 1.2% on quarter but increasing by 25.7% on year, according to the research firm.

More Info

Companies are spending 33 percent of their lead generation budget on outsourced business-to-business teleservices, notes Peter Ostrow, senior vice president and director of the customer management group at Aberdeen, citing a recent study by the

While demand generation professionals consistently turn to a wide variety of direct marketing software and e-mail marketing tools in search of sales leads, current research by Aberdeen points to a significant spend associated with a more human element: outsourced B2B (business-to-business) teleservices, provided by a large array of vendors offering different models of phone-based support by outside agencies.

In fact, organizations spend 33 percent of their overall lead generation budget on such services, and 44 percent of Best-in-Class end-users do so, according to data collected by Aberdeen in a March 2008 survey of more than 200 companies.

Within the outsourced B2B teleservices sector, a commonly addressed discussion point revolves around the simplest of questions: "What is a sales lead?" More specifically, at what stage in the overall lead generation cycle is a contact record, industry executive or company deemed "qualified" as a sales lead that should be shipped by marketing to, and accepted by, the sales team within a vendor's customer?

Within any discussion about this definition sits the oft-debated concept of appointment setting. Research clearly shows the idea of a prefabricated phone or live meeting between a sales rep and their prospect is highly attractive. At nearly four times the popularity of the next most frequently cited definition of a qualified sales lead, well-prepared appointments appeal to the Best-in-Class marketing and sales leaders.

A Pay-Per-Appointment Structure

Yet, digging deeper into what would appear to be an obvious desire, the data show a significant qualifier when comparing a simply defined "scheduled appointment or conference call," with a scheduled event that is "supported by qualifying data." While 10 percent of all other companies cite the former as the most relevant definition of a qualified sales lead, zero percent of the Best-in-Class agree.

Returning to how top-performing organizations interface with outsourced B2B teleservices providers, Best-in-Class companies support a pay-per-appointment structure that complements their preference for defining qualified leads as intelligence-supported meetings or calls arranged by the outsourced provider.

Another glance at favored compensation approaches raises the question of whether a rigid adherence to a pay-for-performance relationship is optimal. Aberdeen research reveals that 70 percent of the Best-in-Class either currently deploy a flexible financial arrangement with their outsourced services provider, or plan to do so within the next year. Far fewer Industry Average and Laggard companies mirror this open-ended mindset.
Valuing Lead Quality

Among the 20 percent of all survey respondents that rate appointment setting as a top-two valued activity provided by outsourced B2B teleservices providers, the companies most frequently cited as vendors include By Appointment Only, Catapult Target Profiling, PointClear, Senior Level Communications, Target 250 and Televerde. A number of interesting trends exist within the survey responses from this audience Over 800,000 High Quality Domains Available For Your Business. Click Here. of "appointment-setting devotees":

* These companies report an average annual revenue of 19 percent smaller than all companies surveyed.
* Lead quality is twice as important as lead quantity.
* Lead quantity itself is an elusive goal: 19 percent report dissatisfaction with how many leads they receive, compared with only 5 percent of the Best-in-Class.
* They strongly support the best practices of regular adjustment to messaging deployed by outsourced callers; clearly quantifiable deliverables, which equates to successfully held appointments; and regular one-on-one interface between their sales reps and the calling staff representing them to the market.

Of most interest is how companies that prefer appointment setting compare to others regarding overall success. Aberdeen's maturity class framework for this data set focuses on changes in year-over-year performance across a number of metrics, including sales performance against quota, and average deal size, as self-reported measures of core sales and enterprise competency.
The 'Devotee' Subset
A dramatic delta in performance is obvious here: If Best-in-Class organizations, which represent strong-performing sales teams, are highly supportive of accepting sales leads only as data-supported appointments, and seek to primarily compensate vendors the same way, why do devotees of appointment-setting services yield such poor performance on a corporate level, at 7 percentage points worse than Laggards and 21 to 28 points less than Best-in-Class? The answer lies in the additional characteristics associated with the "devotee" subset:

* These companies report only a 2 percent interest in lead nurturing compared with 17 percent of all companies in the survey. This point suggests a "silver platter" mindset that, despite a desire for quality over quantity, reveals a deeper pattern of simply wishing for educated buyers to be introduced to sales with the least resistance accompanying the conversation.
* Appointment-setting devotees are 40 percent more likely than Best-in-Class companies to express dissatisfaction with the amount and accuracy of business intelligence gathered in support of leads delivered as appointments. This stems from a demand for style over substance.
* When asked why leads are rejected by sales, these respondents chose "cannot connect with the decision-maker" and "company is not a good fit for my solution" as the predominant reasons for pushing opportunities back to outsourced vendors. Again, the pay-for-performance model deployed inspires vendors to arrange sub-optimal opportunities for customers, in the interest of volume delivery only.

A Complex Equation
The data regarding appointment setting suggest that organizations pursue the service from outsourced B2B teleservices vendors, but not as a sole or even predominant compensation model amidst an overall engagement. Lead quality, the ability to receive well-nurtured opportunities and, ultimately, the challenge of providing sales "customers" with well-rounded leads, should be addressed as contributing factors in engaging with vendors.

Ultimately, the value of appointment setting to marketing buyers and sales customers remains a complex equation. Best-in-Class companies have exhibited a strong preference for deploying this silo-type of service, but the data shows that an over-reliance on the model leads to negative results in overall corporate performance.

Source: crmbuyer.com

B2B portal:
A Business Platform to Ultimate Productivity Improvement

If somebody tells you that your present corporate website can be converted to a B2B portal which will help you significantly improve your company’s productivity in both of the two primary factors: Revenue Growth and Cost Saving, and that the portal can be launched in a matter of months with a very reasonable investment, what will be your reaction? Read on to learn how corporations all over the world are missing an opportunity, which can revolutionize the way they manage their businesses.

What is a B2B portal?

A portal is defined as an access point to World Wide Web. A portal is a combination of web pages, features and services which become a primary destination for users. The word was first used to describe the sites of popular Internet access providers or search engines such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo! At a later stage, the word “portal” evolved into something bigger covering business websites, where a corporate portal or enterprise information portal acts as a base for employees, customers, suppliers and other associates of a company to access corporate information and web services. A B2B portal is a distinct kind of website with features to conduct electronic business and manage significant parts of corporate business processes.

Benefits of having a B2B portal

Today, B2B portals are not just a fancy idea! They are an absolute necessity for all enterprises of any type and size. The advantages of having a quality B2B portal are massive. Implementation of a true high quality B2B portal could have immediate impact on company productivity.

Revenue Growth

Revenue Increase from Existing Clients
Existing clients get faster and easier access to product information, quicker response to their requests, get better customer support and are able to buy products online.

Revenue Increase from Value Added Services
Once a B2B portal is set as the primary sales channel, spared resources can be used to create more value added services for clients. Some of the services that the portal may offer also could be utilized to generate more value.

Cost Savings

Order Processing Cost
If the B2B portal integrates supply chain management solution, it will reduce the cost of processing orders drastically. Studies show that similar solution can reduce cost of processing a purchase order from US$ 70 down in average to US$ 6 only.

Sales and support costs
Automated sales and customer support features integrated in the solution is capable of reducing overhead costs up to 30 percent.

Inventory keeping costs
Clearer visibility and forecasting ability thanks to various features of the B2B portal may help companies considerably reduce inventory keeping costs.

Other key benefits include:
Low customer acquisition cost
Effective portal branding on the Internet will help to attract customers from new sources. The cost of acquiring customers through online channels is always cheaper than other traditional methods.

Improve customer service
Ability to have constant interaction with customers through the B2B portal helps companies serve customers better. The B2B portal solution allows tracking the whole ordering process from payment to delivery and brings greater efficiency in customer service.
or directly buy products using the shopping cart
Reduce sourcing time cycle
The customers can select products from the integrated marketplace of the B2B portal and either sends purchase orders or directly buy products using the shopping cart. Buyers handle all their procurement related correspondence from a consolidated working page, which helps them react instantly and reduce time in document processing.

Community participation
Company buyers and sellers can create communities surrounding the B2B portal’s discussion board. This helps getting valuable feedbacks on time, building new partnerships using the networking ability of a community, and disseminating important information to members easily.

Real time access to current product information
Current information of a product is vital for an accurate buying decision. Updating product content and other information using customized forms as it is necessary, the company can help buyers and other associates to take critical decision promptly.

Control rogue spending
Consolidated and automated procurement and approval method stops maverick buying in a company.

Main components of a B2B portal

Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management solutions can deliver great values to company’s existing systems. Implementation of these solutions will help achieving incredibly high return on investment and will have tremendous impact on company’s business, which include: better productivity, faster order processing, greater visibility, the elimination of maverick or unplanned purchasing, etc.

Marketplace
This is the venue where the enterprises can post their products for sale. A sophisticated shopping cart will be integrated into the electronic marketplace in order to automate the buying process.

Auction
Electronic auction system can use both English and Dutch auction methods. For convenience the auction component can be integrated into the electronic marketplace.
Online auction helps liquidate surplus goods easily.

Reverse Auction
This solution allows the company to automate electronic procurement, where suppliers compete for business real time online.

Storefront for Participants
Each associate of the B2B portal will get a Storefront that may reflect profile of the company, its products, services or other information.

Forum
A Forum or a Discussion Board is an organized, on-line interactive message board where participants conduct discussion on a set of topics by posting questions, comments and responses.

Internal Messaging System
Elaborate Messaging System allows a participant of the B2B portal send and receive messages from other participants and the company. Since the messages do not leave a secured server, participants would not be worried about sending sensitive information over the Internet.

Classified
Catalog based bulletin board allows company associates to post important notices in various predefined formats.

Directory of Companies
This is a listing of all registered associates of the B2B portal either by business category or by alphabetical order. An advanced search engine tool is incorporated in order to find a company based on data provided.

E-catalog
E-catalog — a hierarchy of product and service categories based on UNSPCS, a global products and services classification method that covers the broadest collection of industries and commodities available today, and designed to facilitate e-commerce transactions by providing geography-independent common nomenclature system.

Product Content Adding System
Product adding mechanism based on either easy-to-use wizard or simple but detail forms allows users to integrate products or services with accurate and up-to-date information.

Product Notification
The system can generate an alert and send by email to a user, who requested to inform once a particular product or service gets added to the E-catalog.

Numerous other features could be incorporated to an existing B2B portal depending on requirement, such as: News Aggregation using RSS feed, Contact Management, Electronic Journal, Press Room, Document Repository, etc.

Time needed to set up

Using ready made B2B Portal components from a provider like Rusbiz.com a medium size portal can be built or integrated to existing website within three to four months.
By developing a B2B portal ahead of your major competitors you can give your business a significant boost and make your company stand out from the crowd.

About the Author

Nowshade Kabir is CEO of Rusbiz.com, a global B2B portal for small and midsize companies. Our distinctive web stores along with many outstanding features like e-marketplace, e-catalog, supply chain management solutions, and trade leads section will allow you to build robust Internet presence and manage key business processes online. Rusbiz also develops Corporate B2B portals.

Source: pro-analyzer.com

Business Community Management (BCM)—there's a new name for you. It certainly was to me when I met the EMEA management team of Inovis, John Redfern - MD, Paul Tatam - Sales & Marketing Director and Stephen Jefferies - Director of Retail. Redfern described BCM as "BCM creates a comprehensive view of an organisation's supply chain by integrating the technology, business processes and communication of the entire business community. By unifying the technology and business community communication, a company can optimise its supply chain and create sustainable value through three key avenues: increasing end-to-end visibility, reducing B2B complexity and automating the entire trading community." Now that seems to be quite a mouthful and you may still not quite get what is involved.

Let's go back to look at a typical supply chain. There you are, a manufacturer of widgets—of course, the best in the market. You have a number of partners who provide services and component parts that help you make your widgets. The first requirement to operate in today's fast changing world is that you have all the necessary systems that allow you to manage your own operations. This is normally provided by an Enterprise Resource Planning package. This helps you manage your sales and purchase orders and their links into your production orders and, importantly, your finance systems. You can manage your own inventory in your own warehouses and WIP on the shop floor. Now all manufacturers have heard of Lean Manufacturing or one of its many derivatives such as TQM, Six Sigma and so on. All these are ways to help the manufacturer reduce their costs through managing their inventory through a just-in-time principal. There is a fundamental key to this—you have to collaborate with your partners. This means you need to share information, make compromises and work for the benefit of all concerned—that, of course, includes the customer. Now come the problems:

* They don't have the same meaning for the data terms that you use
* They don't use the same ERP system as you do
* They have other customers who are your rivals so there is a need to secure sensitive information on both sides
* In a number of scenarios, it is not just 2 companies involved but a plethora—for instance component manufacturer, logistics company and you
* All your current ERPs are not very flexible and business users have developed lots of Microsoft Office based application front-ends
* A high proportion of your orders are in error with a large number resulting in deductions and overpayments
* You have a high number of stock-out situations occurring
* It is costing you between £20–40 a time to resolve data and invoice errors.

So what you need to be able to work this complex environment is something that simplifies it all by taking the complexity away, improving the visibility across the whole supply chain with better security and that provides agile integration between all partners. So what services do you need in place to achieve this?

The first piece is a communications layer that allows all members of the supply chain to exchange content with a gateway/portal that controls the access to the content dependent on role. The content exchanged needs to be both validated as well as synchronised. As content is added there is a need for an event driven process to be triggered. This will need to integrate with a number of transactions and processes in different organisations to support the business process. Therefore there is a need for transaction and services management as well as facilities to make interoperability between the diverse systems easier. To overcome disparities in data meaning, there is a need for a Master Data Management solution for the community and data that is shared between business partners. In order to manage the environment, provide business intelligence and support alerts around governance and compliance issues, the solution has to have a layer for management and reporting. This is what Business Community Management is all about. Does this sound too good to be true?

So how do Inovis tackle this? Inovis provide a suite of modular applications, all of which are built upon their Multienteprise Expert Services Hub (MESH) platform—this is designed on a distributed architecture around a J2EE clustered environment. The BCM suite comprises five key modules that support the BCM model I have described. Jefferies said, "The modular nature of BCM applications enable companies to add value incrementally, allowing quick adoption as business needs require and the ability to scale for future growth".

The Visibility module provides a "single pane of glass" view presented on a dashboard that enables the community to track and act upon the business intelligence in real time. The Transact module translates data from an array of protocols, standards and applications. The translation applications support VAN, Direct Connect, ebXML, Web Services, AS/1 (SMTP), AS/2 (HTTP/s) and AS/3 (FTP) and other network-based protocols and formats including EDI, EDI-INT, RosettaNet, and has specific adapters and support for enterprise integration to systems such as Oracle and SAP. The Collaboration module features out-of-the-box notification, events and alert capabilities. It allows the user to define the performance parameters and responses to meet specific community needs. The Communication module supports over 47 protocols and standards, including direct connect, AS1, AS2, AS3 and Value-Added Networks (VANs). The Optimize module is built around a centralised master data repository that standardises B2B documents, supply chain documents and catalogue items from the community. It features a tracking portal that provides visibility into every transaction in addition to tracking of data against pre-defined business rules. When errors are identified, transactions are quarantined and resolved before they can create downstream problems in the supply chain or other business process. These applications are provided as services run on the Inovisworks™ Value-Added Network hosted at Inovis's Tier Four Data Centre, which Inovis claim has 99.995% availability with automated failover. The service is supported by professional and educational services to enable the customer to make the most of the solutions provided.

So we have a new acronym—BCM—and a new outsource service from a well-known experienced provider of outsourced services. If you want to improve your supply chain and you have been nodding your head as I have described the scenario, you should certainly look seriously at Inovis's BCM solution.

Source: it-director.com/business