Kaplan & Sawhney

e-Hubs: The New B2B

Marketplaces
Harvard Business Review,
May/June 2000
Prepared by Wesley Shu
 Business-To-Business – B2B (Continued)
► ElectronicExchanges are E-marketplaces in
which there are many sellers and many buyers.

Chapter 4 2
 Inputs – What businesses buy?
► Operating inputs
 maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) goods
► Manufacturing inputs
 raw materials and components that go directly
into the products or process

Chapter 4 3
 Sourcing – How they buy?
► Systematic sourcing
 Regular or recursive sourcing. Each cycle is
similar in quantity, content, routing, etc.
► Spot sourcing
 One-shot sourcing. Irregular
 fulfill an immediate need at the lowest possible
cost.

Chapter 4 4
MRO Hubs (systematic operating)
► MRO: maintenance, repair & operating
► concentrate on goods with low value.
► The transaction cost is relatively higher.
► Di-sintermediate - bypass existing
middlemen in the channel
► E.g., mro.com (IBM subsidiary)

Chapter 4 5
 Catalog Hubs
► Systematic, manufacturing
► Industry specific (manufacturing inputs are
moer specific than operating ones.) – the
only difference from MRO Hubs

Chapter 4 6
 Yield Manager
► Spot, operating
► Good in the case of high price and demand
volatility and
► Things not easy to liquidate or acquire, e.g.,
huge fixed asset, human resources.

Chapter 4 7
 Exchanges
► Spot, manufacturing
► Exchange input parts to manage peaks and
ebbs
► First, establish relationships among
manufacturers
► Exchange parts, especially materials

Chapter 4 8