B2B Online Ordering 2.0
If you are considering implementing a system-based solution for fulfillment of marketing collateral it’s easy to assume that a simple, standard e-commerce platform will do the trick. This article examines the broader requirements for control that the client will demand. It is also intended to lay the seeds of questions that a prospective buyer of such a system should consider asking of their shortlisted vendors.
There must be few internet-savvy individuals who have avoided purchasing a music download, an image, an ebook, groceries or clothing on-line. All of these interactions would have involved exposure to a basic catalogue ordering system, the signature features of which would be:
The user searches for products
The user selects the desired products into a shopping basket
The user goes to the checkout
The system prompts for delivery and payment details
The user reviews and gives confirmation for the order
This represents a well understood and recognised pattern for placing an order online. We’re comfortable with this approach and ready to transact when we recognise it.
B2B Catalogue Ordering is an extension of this pattern, the extension being required because in business-to-business trading there are far broader needs than this simple 5-step process can fulfil. Let’s take a look at the reason for this requirement.
Whilst the supplier (agency, printer or similar) and client organisations in a B2B scenario retain their own individual goals, there are fundamental alignments; the client wants to outsource provision of the service at reasonable cost and the supplier wants to win the clients business, also at reasonable cost. Once the obvious product costs have been negotiated, what remains is to manage the system administration overheads to such a level that both sides achieve their overall goals.
This is where the friction arises, driven by the clients secondary goal of achieving a level of administrative control which inevitable leads to management cost for the supplier.
A few examples of the client’s intentions will help to underline the point. These include:
System must be accessible to validated users and only they should be allowed to order from it;
Ensure that all orders are attributed to a valid cost centre in the client organisation’s chart of accounts. The client will be looking to the system to police this and to provide intelligence and reports to illustrate expenditure per cost centre, etc;
Valid cost centre referencing to guarantee that only a user linked to a cost centre can attribute the costs of an order to it;
Spend controls to control expenditure by user, by cost centre and by sub-company;
Payment by invoice, charge card or credit assignment and charge-down;
Quantity controls to limit the quantity of any product that can be ordered both per order, and in a defined period, with limits for user, cost centre and sub-company;
Product access limits to restrict access per cost centres to each product;
Order approval process with trigger thresholds and appropriate routing;
Support a broad range of products regardless of fulfilment approach, including stock managed, downloadable and print-on-demand products.
The client will wish all of these controls and more to be in place – far more than the simple 5-point e-commerce approach.
The supplier, faced with this list of requirements, will be in jeopardy from either not being able to provide the ‘value add’ that they represent, and on the other hand by the cost of providing them!
To win the supplier must do both. The key is in the selection of the e-commerce package. Selecting too simplistic a system will lead to a disappointed client. The only course open to the supplier is to identify or develop a system meeting the client’s requirements but with enough sophistication to make living with them at affordable and minimal cost endeavour.
In this article we’ve looked at the agenda of the two parties in a B2B arrangement, and the criticality of system selection. But we’ve only skimmed the surface – from here we could focus on the needs of multi-currency trading, users speaking multiple languages, multi-territory considerations, order routing to production partners, and dealing with marketing partners…..
Keep safe.
James