The concept behind collaborative commerce is to break the rigidity of supply-chain model constraints and dynamically enhance information sharing through integration technologies and the Internet. The concept is to bridge employees, customers, and partners in such a way as to improve trust, share information, and ensure mutual agility and resourcefulness across transactions. Private trading exchanges provide the technology platform that enables collaborative interactions with trading partners and customers. The exchanges combine integration and process management, Web service connectivity, and collaboration and document standardization into a single trading interface. Private trading exchanges are not cheap.
Companies can get to market faster, often in months.
Besides cost concerns, other reasons for choosing to go private include issues such as security. By transacting business in a public forum, companies run the risk of exposing proprietary data. Another factor is the sheer, inbred competitiveness of business. Many companies aren't attuned to sharing the benefits of bulk purchasing. Most prefer to remain selective when inviting partners to engage in business.