MARKET PLACE AND TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR B2B.ECOMMERCE: PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES

Conan C. Albrecht, Marriott School of Management and Rollins eBusiness Center, Brigham Young University, Douglas L. Dean, Marriott School of Management and Rollins eBusiness Center, Brigham Young University, and James V. Hansen, Marriott School of Management and Rollins eBusiness Center, Brigham Young University

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2003)

This paper identifies and defines standards required for successful eCommerce (EC) architectures. It evaluates the strengths and limitations of current and past systems that have been developed to support EC in relation to these standards. We conclude that there remains an unfilled need for systems that can reliably locate buyers and sellers in electronic marketplaces and also facilitate automated transactions. The notion of a ubiquitous ecommerce network does not currently exist. Such a network would 1) enable sellers to choose to publish product related information in a consistent, predictable way, 2) enable automated agents working on behalf of both buyers and indexing services to find desired information published by sellers without reliance upon human intervention, and 3) enable autonomous agents, when authorized by management, to evaluate products, negotiate prices, and conduct transactions. In the context of these desirable characteristics, this paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the following EC architectures: EDI, company websites, B2B hubs, e-procurement systems, and web services. We identify where each of the architectures fails to provide requisite capabilities. Significant attention is given to the strengths and weaknesses of the web services architecture, since if supported by appropriate standards, has the potential to overcome some limitations of other approaches.