Critical Success Factors Of Business To Business (B2b) E-Commerce Solutions To Supply Chain Management

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) which are relevant in the Supply Chain Management.Critical Success Factors can be defined as those few areas in which satisfactory results sustain competitive performance for the organization. The CSF approach represents an established top-down methodology for corporate strategic planning. This approach identifies a handful of factors that can be controllable by and informative to top management in order to formulate or adjust strategic decisions. In this chapter, CSFs are identified from the various business strategies adopted. Because the quest for competitive advantage from CSFs is the essence of the business level, as opposed to that of the corporate level, the business strategy is then the focus of attention.Recent advances in the field of computer networks and telecommunications have increased the significance of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce is the ability to perform business transactions involving the exchange of goods and services between two or more parties using electronic tools and techniques. Companies across many industries are seeking to negotiate lower prices, broaden their supplier bases, and streamline procurement processes using e-commerce. The rapid diffusion of the Internet offers huge potential in building communities of interests, forging alliances, and creating technology-intense economies of scales.Business-to-business e-commerce (B2B) is the largest portion of transactions performed online, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Approximately 90-95% of the total e-commerce revenues are attributable to B2B. Business-to-Business E-commerce evolved from traditional EDI, which is one-to-one technology, to a diversity of business models. EDI has been a standard utility for Supply Chain Management.Supply chain management aims at optimizing the overall activities of firms working together to manage and co-ordinate the whole chain. A Supply Chain is considered as a single entity. SCM aims at reducing the sub-optimization which results from the conflicting objectives of different functions. It is assumed that firms have a common understanding and management of their relationships as well as they recognize the need for those relationships to provide some form of mutual benefit to each party. SCM requires integration of independent systems and is of strategic importance in addition to being of operational importance.This study reviews the literature on SCM and develops a framework for examining the effect of B2B adoption. Three research streams of B2B solutions (innovation adoption, organizational behavior, and critical mass) are reviewed and a conceptual framework. Then, the critical success factors of B2B solutions are identified and classified into two levels, the corporate level and the supply level that incorporate two critical areas: the value of B2B solutions and their limitations. Key factors are (i) strategy "co-operate to compete", (ii) win-win strategy, (iii) commitment to customer service, and (iv) common applications. The study is concluded with suggestions and recommendations for further research.