The Role Of Intermediaries In B2b

INTRODUCTION
Transactions between two companies or businesses conducted over the internet, extranet, intranet or other networks are referred to as B2B. Efraim Turban (2008:219). This type of transactions takes place in e-marketplaces which can be private, public or consortia. They allow for a situation where one or many businesses are able to supply or purchase goods and services from another set of one or many businesses. In the case of an organization that does not previously have an e-marketplace, auctions can take place through the use of intermediaries whose job it is to attract many potential buyers to the auction site in the case of a sell side or many potential sellers to the auction site in case of a buy-side.

ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES IN B2B
The word intermediaries in B2B refers to electronic middlemen as mentioned by Kourgiantakis and Petrakis (2007), they are necessary to facilitate online trades between buyers and sellers who are businesses. Nilsson and Lundqvist (2006:7) reported that according to Murtaza, Gupta and Carrol (2004), B2B transactions are projected to exceed $16 trillion in the US alone. They also claimed that Lu and Anthony (2003) estimated that there are 4000 e-marketplaces worldwide. The e-marketplaces can be described as an online market where buyers and sellers exchange goods and services. Though this type of market is different from an offline arrangement as seen in auctions or our traditional brick and mortar stores it makes use of intermediaries just like in the traditional markets. The intermediaries stand in between the two parties involved in the transaction ensuring that a double coincidence of want occurs. Such coincidence of wants can either be many-to-one or one-to- many i.e the buyer side and the seller side respectively.

The significance of using intermediaries in B2B transactions cannot be overemphasized; they assist in the following areas
-Businesses are able to concentrate their resources on their core activities instead of uncoordinated and multiple searches for other businesses to transact with
-The supply chain is shortened, reducing the number of weeks and months involved to conclude a transaction; businesses are able to do more in a short period.
-Huge reduction in cost in procurement and sales
-The use intermediaries improves the online of experience of all the parties to a transaction through regularly updated means of collaboration
-Use of intermediaries help in organizing suppliers and purchasers for easy and timely occurrence of transactions

BUY-SIDE AND SELL-SIDE INREMEDIARIES
The two types of intermediaries are used in private e-marketplaces, in the case of the buy-side; one buyer who buys from many sellers hires the intermediary and may maintain control of who is invited to participate in the auction. A similar situation is noticed in the case of a sell-side where one seller who sells to many buyers hires the intermediary and as such maintains the control of the whole event by deciding which buyer participates or not.

The difference between the two intermediaries lies in the activities carried out by the two. While the buy-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many sellers who will sell to the single buyer, the sell-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many buyers who will be buying from the single seller. Any scenario different from one to many and many to one is referring to another type of B2B transaction that can either be:-
1.Exchanges
2.Supply chain improvements and collaborative commerce
Businesses always have buying and selling needs, its either the company wants to dispose of old assets or wants to buy raw materials for its business activities. Materials purchased in a B2B transaction can be described as direct (when it is useful in only one industry or production of one product) or indirect (when it is used to support production in general and not one particular product).

CONCLUSION
Intermediaries have great roles to play in transactions that occur between businesses, especially when the hiring business does not have its own e-marketplace, this makes it important for the sell-side to be able to identify an effective intermediary laden with the duty of inviting many buyers while the buy side identifies an effective intermediary as well to invite many sellers for the purpose of shortening the length of the supply chain. This arrangement has been found to reduce the cost of business procurements and asset disposals in many organizations. Turban et al (2008:222)

REFERENCES
Daniel Nilsson and Krister Lundqvist (2006), Understanding B2B e-hubs and the value they provide Department of Business Administration, Lulea University of Technology.

Markos Kourgiantakis and Emmanuel Petrakis (2007), Modelling B2B E-Marketplaces: The role of intermediaries Department of Economics, University of Crete.

Efraim Turban, David King, Judy McKay, Peter Marshall, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, (2008) Electronic Commerc – A Managerial Perspecive ISBN 9780135135440 Intl Ed. Pearson Education Ltd. london

The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Using Avatars As An Advertising Media.

INTRODUCTION
The internet has come to stay; it came with it a gradual revolution which has improved the views of men about every aspect of human life and business processes. The use of avatars on the internet is one of the gradual changes that are happening to our world, they are animated computer characters that exhibit human like movements and behaviors. Efraim Turban et al (2008:867) Personalized information is now presented in interesting ways instead of looking at the internet as a communication media, we looked upon it as an information environment very similar to a biological environment Peter Small (1997) Advertisements in electronic commerce can now be done with the use of animated computer characters bringing a kind of naturalness to user experience online.

BODY
Internet users are now getting more addicted to the virtual experience being offered on most sites now. Facebook, Yahoo, Vivaty and more now use avatars to improve social networking and increase the euphoria felt by online users. Come to think of it, people derive so much pleasure by identifying with a winning character in a real world situation in a virtual world.

Daily advancements in technology has gone to the level where e-tailers like H&M, Sears, Speedo and adidas allow customers to purchase avaratised versions of their products for online displays. Thus, the benefits of virtual experience enhanced with avatars cannot be overemphasized, they include:-

Improved online sales
Some Companies have increased their sales exceedingly through the use of avatars, an example of this is Mattel, the maker of Barbie that extended her popularity beyond children and must have made increased profits through the increased online activity courtesy of avatars. Efraim Turban et al (2008)

Improved online shopping experience
The users of online shopping facilities get improved experiences; they now enjoy human interactions and real world feelings when shopping online. This replaces the soulless nature of internet transactions that was previously known.

Improved customer loyalty and better online support
Two companies targeting similar age groups might need to outdo each other in order to prove to customers that they have their interest at heart. This could mean that the best company with the use of avatars might retain more of its online customers while dragging more from the other company.

Simulations of real world experiences in electronic forms
Real life experiences are felt online when avatars react in corresponding emotions to different actions of the user depending on what is happening online at the time.

E-learning gets better
With avatars, e-learning becomes better, for example Noah the virtual instructor

Other benefits of using avatars include:
Improved online entertainment for Children
Improved relationships through online social networking
Branding of individuals and businesses
Removes the soulless nature of human-computer relationship
Advertising done with computer characters
Virtual products are highly promoted
Testing of numerous store designs is possible

The drawbacks of using avatars also includes the fact that they are
Sometimes annoying and intrusive to users
Just like so many appreciate the virtual experience of real world feelings online, there are cases when online customers get irritated because of the unusual nature of avatars that to them are not quite necessary.

Very expensive to create in 3D
The cost of the 3D technology involved in digitizing objects is presently enormous.

Installation of certain add-ons
Sometimes add-ons are needed to be installed before a computer can benefit from the interactive abilities of avatars. This ability is hindered unless the computer user activates the add-ons that are pre-requisite to the functionality of the avatars.

Age differences (Children could get fascinated while adults gets irritated with the avatars)
It should be expected that most children of below their teens will surely appreciate an avatarised shopping while the adult generation might find it uniteresting and annoying.

At the same time
Loading 3D effects might be cumbersome
The idea is not easy to sell to top brands

CONCLUSION
Some examples of avatars are
Les Power in the Flex your power show
Herman the bug
Noah as the virtual instructor
These avatars are not necessarily intelligent; they behave in the ways that have been preconfigured in them. My interactions with different avatars revealed that though some individuals might be indifferent to whether there is life on the internet or not. The use of avatars will continue to increase with more 3D technological advancements removing difficulties on a daily basis.