B2B Platforms as Profit centers?
Enterprises that have made B2B platforms as profit centers mandate their trading partners to pay per transactions. Such enterprises justify their B2B transaction based payments through performance driven SLAs. Revenue earning capability of such B2B ecosystem have enabled enterprises to introduce value added features like integrated trading partner management systems incentivizing new partners to join. This results in a cycle where increase in trading partners’ results in higher revenue realization that in turn encourages enterprises to introduce end of the line value added features. This paves way for evolution of an efficient B2B ecosystem.
It will be incorrect to compare cost centric B2B ecosystems with profit centric B2B ecosystem. We could however look at the kind of B2B ecosystems that can be converted from cost centers to profit centers:
- The enterprise has monopoly in offerings (products/services) and is not bound by regulations.
- Government agencies where trading partners are bound to transact due to regulations.
- Enterprises that provide essential services (esp. in areas like utilities and healthcare)
Often enterprises struggle to justify their B2B enhancement initiatives. In case they run out of alternatives, opting for temporary status as profit centers can be a novel idea to fund these initiatives.
Interestingly, B2B ecosystems that are profit centers are scattered across industry verticals and have no designated patterns. So the option to make convert B2B ecosystems from cost center to profit center lies with the enterprises themselves.
