Chapter 8. The B2B Zone

In late 1999, the hottest buzzword for new Internet startups was B2B. Business-to-business exchanges promised ultra-efficient global marketplaces for raw materials, goods, and services. One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is from the spoof-rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. An interviewer was talking to one of the band members about his custom-made amplifier. The musician was explaining that although the volume control on most amps only go to 10, his went to 11. When the interviewer asked him why couldn't they just make the dial go to 10 and make that a little louder, the rocker could only respond, “These go to 11.”

This obdurate belief in an idea is similar to that held by people who believed that B2B exchanges would change the economics of supply and demand overnight. The timeframe will be longer, but the capability of companies to implement efficient business-to-business transactions online will eventually become a critical factor in a company's profitability and long-term success.

Partners and suppliers, driven by cost savings and competitive pressures, are prepared to invest some time and effort into integrating IT systems. But giving even well-established, trusted partners access to internal systems raises a number of interesting challenges.

Unless a single company is powerful enough to make demands on weaker companies, connecting IT systems involves compromise on both sides. Barring the unlikely event of parallel evolution, each company will have a completely unique mixture of technologies, tools, and applications to conduct its business. Fortunately, the wide acceptance of XML and the Internet is providing more common ground for companies that want to share access to information and systems.