e-Procurement: From Strategy to Implementation

The Future of E-Markets

In fact, so popular and lucrative has the entire market become that there has arisen a number of third-party vendors that specialize in building and operating e-markets, boasting that a basic trading hub can be set up in three to six weeks for a few hundred thousand dollars. This has meant that many people with an entrepreneurial flair and a good working knowledge of a vertical industry supply chain have been tempted to plunge into the market with their own trading hub. Venture capitalists, understanding the popularity and the potential “winner-take-all” scenario for those entering these e-marketplaces, have been only too keen to provide the funding.

There are drawbacks, of course. As with any independent many-to-many ...