Overview: There are several hundred different B2B (business to business) and supply chain systems active on the Internet today.  These systems differ from E-tailers in that they are specifically designed for business or government agencies as part of an integrated procurement system.

This market represents over $230 billion in US sales and is a major avenue for enterprises of all sizes as well as a growing base of state and federal purchasers. Unfortunately, most companies don't have a clue as to which systems they belong in or what they should be looking for once they've signed up.

Yeoman's Supply Chain Monitoring and Management service provides a comprehensive and cost-effective alternative to doing it yourself. 

Our team will review your target customers' buying patterns and make sure you're in the right systems. Next, we'll monitor and filter all opportunities that we find. Valid leads are then presented to your sales team for the next step. We'll even track the results if you opt to pass on a deal - all for a fixed monthly fee.

At Yeoman, we segment the Internet Supply Chain / B2B channel into four general categories:

• Closed Systems: Including vendors like Ariba, Emptoris, Global eProcure, and 10-20 others. These systems are generally buyer-driven and tightly integrate with the customer's internet supply chain or ERP systems. Most also have a 'bidding' and catalog option, letting customers put jobs out to a prequalified community. Customers all pay a fee to use the system.
• Open Systems: These systems allow free or low cost access for buyers and sellers, positioning themselves as a B2B or industrial marketplace. They generally have significantly more users than closed systems, but lower overall deal sizes.  Major players include Alibaba, whyabe, and Global eProcure.
• Bid / RFP Systems: This group focuses primarily on providing listing and/or basic management services for bid and request posting. They tend to soley focus on the posting and listing of requests only, stopping short of the management capabilites offered by closed and open systems. Many offer tracking and aggregration services as well. This is a rapidly growing group that includes Onvia, schoolbid.com, govbid.com, and bidnet.com
• Basic Listing Systems: This group only provides basic listing and directory services for different business segments. They have little direct impact on sales, but should be watched given their historical strength. ThomasNet is a good example.Their paper directories were the standard for most industrial purchasing departments and they still average 1 million unique visitors per month for their online directory.

All of these channels have little to no integration with major search engines or other sales channels.  Your company needs a presence in all relevant systems and should be actively managing opportunties in each system. Yeoman can help you do that.

Case Study: Sonicwall is a large manufacturer of firewalls and other security appliances. The company has actively been trying to move out of the small business market and target larger enterprises. 

Last year, a large US buyer attempted to purchase 250 Sonicwall units on the Ariba supply chain system. When a product doesn’t exist on the system, the system generates a bid notice to all relevant Ariba suppliers. Even though the buyer had already decided on Sonicwall, it was presented with competing Cisco and Fortinet quotes.

Sonicwall was unaware of the opportunity because none of their traditional channel partners had registered Sonicwall's products in the system. Guess who the customer end up buying?

• Primary Researchers: Responsible for all data and customer buying pattern research
• Analyst: Responsible for reviewing major opportunties
• Senior Consultants: Responsible for the overall program
• Project Manager: One of our PMP certified team members will be assigned to oversee reporting and update activities

More Details: Contact us today for a custom proposal. We also invite you to learn more about our services or download our free whitepaper on Internet Sales Channels.