Obstacles and Challenges Facing B2.B Marketplaces: Switzerland Experience

The literature on electronic commerce has long recognised the importance of B2B solutions for the industry, but to date, there are very few studies focusing on the marketing aspects of such solutions. This paper examines the obstacles and challenges that marketing business-tobusiness E-Marketplace models faces and discuss several factors from the buyers and suppliers point of views. The B2B model, which has been taken as a case study, is basically for outsourcing of activities through a federation of electronic marketplaces that enables the outsourcer (buyer) to select the optimal supplier for a given activity and to monitor its execution. A mobile agent technology and a federation of electronic market places support the model where multiple buyers, multiple suppliers and multiple marketplaces are coordinated asynchronously, bringing benefits to all parties. However, currently, we have reached the final stage which comprises the test of the model, the analysis of the feedback of the various actors of the market and the commercialisation of the model in the market. In this paper we describe first our B2B model. An overview of the main actors and their roles are given. With these in mind, we present and discuss the concept of the model. Secondly, we present our ongoing experience in marketing the model to the Swiss industry. Our goal is to provide the reader with the scope of issues that they must consider in the design and development of B2B marketplaces. The model (case study) forms a part of a larger research project named ANAISOFT, and therefore we do not attempt to generalise the findings, but rather presents the reality of marketing the B2B-model to the Swiss industry.