Challenges in Content Management for B2B Electronic Commerce

The World Wide Web (WWW) has drastically changed the on-line availability of information and the amount of electronically exchanged information. Meanwhile the computer has mutated from a device for computation into a entrance portal of large information volumes, communication, and business transactions. Also, it starts to change the commercial relationships between suppliers and customers. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates for the business-to-consumer (B2C) area between $4 billion to $14 billion on-line sales in the US for 2000 which is around 1% of the overall sales figures. This is still a small fraction of the overall business figures but its fast growth looks very likely given the fact that the number of internet users grew from 100 to 300 millions between 1997 and 2000. Similar estimates are done for the business-to-business (B2B) area. Forecasts for the dollar value of B2B EC in the US range between $600 billion to $2.8 trillion for 2003. Currently, a large fraction of the B2B transactions are still realised by traditional non-Internet networks, such as those conducted over EDI systems. In this traditional paradigm, direct 1-1 connections and mappings are programmed based on standards like EDIFACT. However, this traditional paradigm does not at all employ the full power of electronic commerce and it is quite likely that it will soon out-ranged by more timely, internet and web-based transaction types.