Prefabricated B2B platforms eliminate many development costs and speed time to market. Unfortunately, such platforms might not suit the particular requirements of a given industry. Enterprises implementing such platforms often forfeit desired functionality for the simplicity and convenience of the ready-made package. Partnering is where the B2B marketplaces come in. Marketplaces also provide companies a way to work with existing communities of buyers and sellers, eliminating the need to deal with them individually.
Marketplaces come in many shapes and sizes.
Most have come into existence to deliver some buy-side efficiencies for the sponsors. From a technical perspective, most are based on either the Ariba or Commerce-One platform. Each marketplace model has its own technical and business characteristics, although marketplaces within the same category vary significantly. These characteristics give each model its own profile in terms of cost, benefit, and risk. Because of these different profiles, companies often participate in multiple marketplaces in one or more categories.