News in View: E-marketplace standards dilemma causes headache for companies

Companies shouldn't wait for open standards to develop before getting involved in online marketplaces.

That's the view of Martin Bentley, marketing director at Dudley Stationery, who made the claim in this week's News in View programme, which looks at the tough decisions facing companies as e-marketplaces proliferate.

Bentley, who is responsible for his company's ecommerce policy, claimed suppliers which are finding it difficult to join online trading hubs still have to act now.

He said: "You have to get commitment at board level and you have to do it now. You need to find robust partners and you need to recognise you're going to have to make significant investments for several years before you get any sensible payback."

Last week, silicon.com reported that the growth of the e-marketplace sector is in danger of being slowed because the hubs require suppliers to present information in a number of different formats. As a result, suppliers are struggling to meet the costs of getting onboard.

But Bentley said suppliers can't wait for the standards to develop and claimed companies which hold back now risk losing out in the future.

He added: "It would have been tempting to wait, but we clearly couldn't. The major blue-chip businesses we've won wouldn't have even been bidding for the business if we hadn't have been able to put the tick in the box that said: 'Can you trade online?'"

However, Robin Tye, head of ebusiness at PricewaterhouseCoopers, isn't convinced that firms will lose out if they don't take immediate action. He said: "This is still very early days. There's a lot being talked about here but there are very few implementations in place. So everyone should be thinking about online procurement but not everyone should be jumping on the bandwagon."

But Guy Martin, head of infrastructure at iPlanet, said the industry must have open standards to proceed, otherwise potential buyers and suppliers will find it increasingly hard to get involved.

He told silicon.com: "You need to have an infrastructure in place that allows you to build open digital marketplaces, rather than closed proprietary ones that seem to be springing up at the moment& That will open the floodgates for B2B marketplaces."

You can watch the full News in View video analysis in the Telecoms Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a38504 ).