E-marketplaces face dwindling relevance | ZDNet
Summary
E-marketplaces were overhyped and must now grapple with limited relevance, according to one analyst, while an industry observer noted that private marketplaces, on the other hand, are going strong. "E-marketplaces were definitely over-hyped in the early 2000s," said Andrew Bartels, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, in an e-mail response to ZDNet Asia. E-marketplaces were championed as a platform to aid communication between suppliers and buyers, connecting businesses from similar vertical markets so they can source for subcomponents and seek out the best deals, and provide the tools to support online transactions. When combined with a cloud services framework, a private marketplace can be a low-cost, elastic and governed solution for organizations, Huddleston said. "As cloud services grow, businesses should be less concerned with where the supply chain data [is stored and put] emphasis on quickly creating and dismantling connections," he said.