Indian Cos Keen to Adopt B2B and Ride e-Com Wave

Though the India Internet World Conference 1999 largely focussed on e-commerce, a special emphasis was laid on the importance of the business-to-business (B2B) commerce, where the transactions are largely between industrial manufacturers, partners, retailers and vendors and the like.

Experts said that companies both worldwide and in India have begun to realize the potential of B2B commerce and are increasingly investing in becoming B2B-compliant.

While worldwide, the volume of B2B business is 70 to 80 percent of total e-commerce volumes at $43 billion this year, and is said to have a potential to grow to $1.3 trillion dollars by 2003, in India alone, Rs. 1.4 billion was generated through business over the Internet in India, of which Rs. 1.19 billion was from B2B e-commerce. Only Rs. 310 million was generated from business to consumer or B2C e-commerce.

Dr. Anitesh Barua, associate professor at Department of Management science and Information Systems, University of Texas, says that B2B will definitely score over B2C commerce, especially with Indian companies with a global transactions, largely because of the fear of being left behind.

“Every company now wants to be e-business ready as it is a B2B-ready or die situation,” Barua said. The excitement and novelty associated with it will be a necessary condition of its growth, he said. But, at the overall economy-level, it may create more have and have-nots, especially in India.

Rakesh Mathur, founder of Junglee.com and now a free angel investor, told India Abroad that B2B will dominate e-commerce in India initially because of the volume of transactions will be huge compared to B2C transactions. But, Mathur is optimistic that both forms of e-commerce will grow rapidly in the country with the spread of the Internet, which is a “people’s demand, need and force.”

Agrees Prakash Gurbaxani, chief executive officer of Micromedia, organizers of the IIW conference 1999. Gurbaxani told India Abroad: “It is clearly easy to implement B2B solutions as you are dealing with a manageable customer and the results of such transactions are quick to see – efficient management of time and costs.”

Many of the top 500 Indian corporates, including the ITC Welcomgroup, HCL and National Stock Exchange, have already set up the software for B2B transactions over the Internet.

Sanjay Shetty, CEO and technical director, DBS Internet Services, and Microsoft Regional Director (West Zone), told India Abroad that the growth potential of this type of e-commerce is “phenomenal. Transactions cut down the time cycle by more than half and involve minimal paperwork.”

DBS Internet Services Pvt. Ltd., part of the Rs. 2.5-billion DBS group, established in 1996, considered a pioneer in B2B commerce in India, implemented database-driven e-commerce Web solutions for over 150 corporates and is into Web strategy consulting, analysis and design, technology development, systems implementation and integration and Web media consulting.

DBS deployed the first B2B e-commerce solution for Samsung Electronic Corporation for enhanced communication between external and internal customers and employees of Samsung for online transactions.

The company also deployed solutions for HCL and ITC Welcomgroup and designed India’s largest Website for NSE with real-time trade data, besides providing an Intranet/Extranet solution for TVS group, a retail e-commerce solution for Charag Din and an e-store for Timex.

27-year-old Shetty said that with the introduction of Microsoft 2000 package that are compatible to Tamil and Hindi, “we are extremely confident of B2B’s future all over the country. The future of Internet and e-commerce is extremely bright here.”

But he rued that though India will be leapfrogging investment and the time United States has spent on developing Web solutions, there are some problems and challenges the country has to face before it can become an IT superpower.

“The government needs to take initiatives for improving infrastructure and also Web solutions companies should begin to play the role of a leader of spreading awareness about B2B solutions,” Shetty said.

Uday Om Pabrai, vice chairman and chief technology officer, Prosofttraining.com, also said that security of transactions and quality of infrastructure provided both by the government and the Internet Service Providers are going to be critical factors in how e-commerce will develop.

Shetty said the government needs to validate these transactions over the Internet and put in place cyber laws that will help. It can help set up infrastructure, a national backbone for creating access points within radius of every 10 kilometers, he said.

Shetty, who holds a degree in computer engineering from a Mumbai University, and started from a run-down godown in Mumbai the Nirvana Software Consultancy, specializing in database applications, before it merged with DBS group and became DBS Internet Services, is targeting the top 500 companies in India. The company already has 120 clients.

“We can be called the pioneers in the industry as we deployed e-commerce solutions three years ago for Timex, when there was no talk about e-commerce,” Shetty, a bachelor, said, adding: “We talk about e-enabling the corporate to make business happen.”