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If you have never implemented a new B2B eCommerce interface between two businesses, below is a short checklist on how to setup a B2B eCommerce solution:

Establish Need. First two businesses need to identify a need to exchange electronic documents. An example of this is where a supplier would need an electronic purchase order from a customer and the customer would need an electronic invoice.

Agree Upon A Solution. Next the businesses would need to evaluate the B2B eCommerce opportunity and identify a solution that is agreeable to both parties. In many cases, one or both of the businesses have set up a similar B2B eCommerce relationship previously either with another supplier or customer. The eCommerce solution defines the type of data (invoice, purchase order, etc.) that will be sent, the data standard that would be used (XML, EDI, non-standard), the communications protocol (FTP, SFTP, etc.), processing frequencies (once a day, event-driven, etc), and any quality checks (functional acknowledgment transactions, batch numbers, etc). In many cases, the businesses will sign a formal trading partner agreement.

Jointly Implement Plan. Once the technical solution is agreed upon, both partners would setup their system to exchange the data.

Test Interface. Next, they would send test data and both would agree that they are ready to send and receive electronic business documents.

Implement. After a successful test, both businesses would start accepting and receiving electronic business documents. As needed, either trading partner may request changes that would require them to go through the implementation process again to effect the change.

I like web mashups. They excite the imagination combining two or more data sources to create a new service. These web mashups first started with consumer-oriented services such as using Google Maps for real estate listings. Now businesses are starting to use business mashups to combine multiple data sources for reporting and analysis.

Actionable Business Mashups. The key thing for a business mashup is that it be actionable, not just “eye candy”. Just because you can mash together an Excel spreadsheet to data in your ERP system is not a good reason to do it. A good example of a business mashup is where you combine data from your order management system and transportation management system in order to improve customer service.

Flexible, Near-Realtime Business Mashups I see business mashups as a valuable tool for many companies. Business mashups offer the opportunity to get near and even-real-time decision support to all levels of management. This is becoming more critical where business cycles and activities continue to become more compressed as well as more interactive (social). Business mashups offer a lot more flexibility than having to make software changes to existing systems.

Alternative or Supplement to Business Intelligence (BI) Applications. The Enterprise Web 2.0 blog’s posting, Why you shouldn’t be getting your ‘BI 2.0’ from your BI vendor, provides some insight into business mashups, specifically business intelligence mashups. Provides great insight of why BI applications and data warehouses are falling short and how business mashup may be a better alternative.

Collaboration is an interesting word. The thesaurus notes that the word, “collaboration”, has a positive connotation except in wartime (ex. working with the enemy). With that note, how do you define business collaboration? Is strategic business collaboration essential to have an optimized supply chain? Can businesses be competitors, but still collaborate to optimize their supply chain? How does Business-to-Business (B2B) system integration relate to business collaboration? Paul Cousins has created an interesting business collaboration model that can be used to define the full spectrum of B2B relationships. In this 2D model all levels of business collaboration can be defined by the degree of dependency (Y-axis) in the business relationship and the degree of certainty (X-axis) in the relationship.

Cousins’ Business Collaboration Model - degree of Dependency and Certainty in a Business Relationship

Below are the four quadrants of the business collaboration model:

Traditional (Independent / uncertain relationship) - Lower Left Quadrant. A traditional-type of B2B relationship is weak. Both businesses are highly independent and they have no on-going relationship with each other. From a supply chain perspective, this is a transactional type of relationship. Examples of this is any type of auction like eBay auction, reverse auctions, and commodity-type markets. There is no value-add to the relationship except for the life of the transaction. From a B2B perspective, there is no motivation to do system-to-system interfaces to exchange electronic documents except through a third-party service provider that provides the electronic marketplace or auction.

Opportunistic (Dependent / Uncertain) - Upper Left Quadrant. An opportunistic-type of B2B relationship is weak, but there are select opportunities to do business together, and may be more opportunities in the future. Example of this could be a seasonal supplier or a supplier that is attempting to establish a long-term relationship with a retailer or manufacturer. From a B2B perspective, the “cost of admission” may be very high for a supplier. The large retailer or manufacturer may require several Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) interfaces (purchase order, advance ship notice, invoice, and so on) just for the supplier to do occasional business with a large business customer. See posting, What if We Gave All Suppliers Free EDI Software?, for more on the challenges of small suppliers and B2B eCommerce.

Tactical Collaboration (Independent / Certain) - Lower Right Quadrant. A tactical-type of B2B relationship in many ways may be a missed opportunity or an opportunity waiting to happen. Example of this is when two businesses are regularly doing businesses together, but at least one of the businesses has not realize the extent of the relationship. There may be millions of dollars and thousands of purchase transactions being exchanged, but both businesses are not collaborating strategically to optimize the relationship. From a B2B perspective, this current relationship is more than likely costly in terms of business transaction costs (transactions like purchase orders, ship status, payments, and so on). In this type of B2B relationship, all or most business transactions exchanged between the businesses are probably manual and / or the business customer may be paying premium pricing for the supplier’s goods or services (example: paying publish rates for shipping versus contract rates). This is where one or both businesses need to evaluate the relationship and either distance themselves from the relationship or develop a strategic relationship to reduce costs and improve the overall value-add to the relationship.

Strategic Collaboration (Dependent / Certain) - Higher Right Quadrant. A strategic-type of B2B relationship is where both businesses keep their business relationships optimized to minimize cost and to maximize value to the end-customer. Many International and large businesses as well as their suppliers seek this type of relationship. Strategic business collaboration is key in such industries as the automotive and electronics industries where all the businesses in the supply chain are dependent on each other and they have a long-term relationship with each other. From a B2B integration perspective, these businesses may exchange any where from three to 50 different EDI-transactions between their systems to minimize costs, maximize speed-to-market, and optimize value-add to the end-customer.

See JanHusdal’s posting, Biting the hand that feeds. Or why all firms are snakes, for more discussion on Paul Cousins’ business collaboration mode.