Value contributors

The colors of battling challenges vary each year for buyers and sellers in an e-Marketplace. There are times when colors become faint, and in several occasions, they come out bold and stronger depending on difficulties that are to be expected within a 12-month run. So far, equities investing managed to open on the green side despite a foreseeable tougher year for 2009, but the fact remains that most businessmen are welcoming the year with utmost caution and optimism combined.

For those who read the 2008 yearender, “Expediency for positive perspectives,” the succeeding will help enlighten on steps, how participation in an e-Marketplace would help those venturing in their respective endeavors turn into “value contributors,” and become a remedy despite prevailing global anxieties.

With consumer prices on the downtrend, e-Marketplace players are starting to queue up for contract review or renegotiations, while others have started to explore possibilities of selecting alternative variants related to their overall requirement or key business processes. These variants can only be appropriately defined when discipline as regards to specification settings is made, to adequately pinpoint which ones can readily be traded off vis-à-vis those that should be retained. Here, policies are constantly polished to ensure that quality goods and services are delivered at a price which consumers could actually be satisfied with, and arriving at a good package that is friendly to the latter’s pockets. 

Since these are geared toward obtaining the lowest possible cost, sellers or suppliers benefit in terms of proper production and/or order planning, as they adjust to volatile business costs (e.g., interest rate, foreign exchange trend). In fact, value engineers become more apt stocking “adequate” reserves, specifically those that can be readily absorbed by customers based on the latter’s expected demand and/or sales trend. We think this would be the key practice that would dictate business process flows for the coming months, as enterprises are gauged depending on their ability to respond to abrupt changes within the macro setting, especially when volatile gyrations occur within the demand and supply chain.

An e-Marketplace is also a commendable venue that would allow small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) explore business opportunities. Prospective overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who may have been hit by industrialized countries’ economic despondency could explore investing avenues by meeting competent buyers within a larger corporate setting. This can be facilitated via resource aggregation, especially when key members of an SME manage to define their key products and/or services they could readily trade or sell. Getting introduced is the first step, but e-Marketplaces can have much productivity relative to sealing business agreements that would allow SMEs to get a fair return on investments.

The administrative route is also addressed, given a reputable e-Marketplace’s ability to link an exchange with the local financial system’s payment gateways. It is much faster to expedite the commerce process since one stands to gain from getting the pulse of requirements from buyers and sellers, allowing for faster payment/settlement procedures. SMEs could even become more equipped and confident running their respective e-store concept, especially when they are bridged to a wide array of prudent buyers and necessary infrastructure to support their marketing objectives.

More than targeting ways to streamline costs and achieve transparency by participating in an e-Marketplace, the outlook has transcended to viewing the exchange as a necessary long-term partner for growth. Much can be done when enterprises (whether large or small) perceive the benefits e-Marketplaces bring even on the sales side, especially to complement their traditional sales force. Customers are retained and demand growth is harnessed because a step in the proper direction creates value to enterprises aiming to win.

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