Commercial B2B Portals Powered by Banks
There is a case for extending this service to other corporate customers of the banks, including small and medium businesses. While B2B businesses might not have the same challenges in managing the volume of billing and collection procedure as B2C firms, they could be interested in some of the other value added possibilities that such a platform throws up, including formation of a closed user network of trusted trading partners, all of whom may or may not be having a banking relationship with the bank that is hosting the platform.
What is required is a single portal combining the entire range of corporate online banking services along with the tools for social interactivity, which is open not only to the banks' corporate account holders but to their partners (including customers and business associates) as well. In effect, this portal must blend the capabilities of B2B portals with traditional corporate online banking - all of which exist as stand-alone solutions in most businesses today - to provide a single window of trade-driven interaction, exchange and financial supply chain management.
This is where businesses registered on the portal would fulfill almost every commercial activity - right from inviting tenders, raising bids, issuing orders and invoices to settling payments - as well as exchange knowledge or solve problems with the help of their trusted community partners.
The advantages are many.
To banks, a portal of this nature would provide a line of sight to a multitude of prospective customers that currently have account relationships elsewhere. By analyzing the sales and purchase patterns as well as financing needs of these firms, the banks can identify new business opportunities that they could target with better propositions.
For businesses, the portal would be their single window to managing their entire commercial operations as well as banking requirements.
