Business to Business (b2b) Content Management Systems (CMS)

Business-to-Business (B2B) is a term used to define business transactions between businesses. An example of a b to b business might be a manufacturer that only sells to a wholesaler, or a wholesale business that sells to a retail business. In other words, the b2b business does not sell directly to the consumer. Business to Consumer (B2C) organizations are the most widely known. But there a very large percentage of the global market that is dedicated to b2b marketing, and generates 100% of its revenue from Business to Business transactions. In fact, the number of B2B business transactions far outpaces B2C transactions.

The primary source of these transactions occurs somewhere in the production and distribution supply chain and is typically generated by parts, components or raw materials used to create a product, and product packaging and other parts and pieces that contribute to the final product that is sold to the consumer. As b2b markets expanded, the term Business to Business came to be associated with many types of goods and services sold by one company to another company to satisfy a business need. These items can include supplies for use by the employees of an organization.

Whether your business to business organization is large or small, you cannot afford to ignore the opportunities provided by a robust Content Management System (CMS). With the rapid growth of b2b marketing, many organizations use a CMS solution to provide information about wholesale products, and to allow business clients secure access to account information, orders, shipments, and upcoming product announcements.

Elegant MicroWeb encourages its b to b clients to consider Content Management Systems to promote and sell products and services, and to share information with business partners through CMS solutions that provide document management, searchable user lists and user profiles, newsletter services, email lists, and export of information to CRM, ERP and other systems. Using CMS systems and internet access to connect with business to business stakeholders can satisfy all manner of business relationship information and data. These open source CMS solutions are easy to use and easy to secure, where the b2B organization wishes to provide password-protected access to orders or other sensitive information. A cost effective enterprise or enterprise CMS web site or portal is as important to the business to business enterprise as a retail promotion and shopping web site is to a business to consumer enterprise.

How Can Content Management Software Help my B2B Business?

Content Management solutions are no longer restricted to packaged software applications. The original CMS systems offered simple file taxonomy and structure; whereas today’s CMS solutions have evolved to open source, off-the-shelf CMS modules, templates and frameworks. These more sophisticated tools allow clients to meet specific business and usage requirements and to customize CMS applications to achieve business goals.

CMS experts offer customized development and enhancement. Once these experts identify an appropriate framework of CMS tools, content, site maps, web design, templates, workflow and access rights, end users can easily manage the content and site, without the assistance of programmers or developers. The site and content may be updated by content generators, editors, moderators or others within your organization. Content Management Software may also be integrated to provide interoperability with other systems used by your company. CMS solutions and CMS tools provide value through scalability and improved portal performance.

We believe that every organization can benefit from a Content Management System (CMS). CMS frameworks, tools and templates like Joomla, Drupal, dotCMS, Liferay Portal, SharePoint and JBoss Portal can be broadly or specifically applied to address any of the following requirements.

Should My Company Hire an Expert to Implement a B2B Content Management System?

It takes specific experience, innovation, creativity and intelligence to design and develop a Content Management System. The team must be educated in all available CMS tools and templates, and understand the exchange of information and products and services unique to the business to business enterprise. The CMS portal or web site must be created with full insight into appropriate design and development. CMS experts have an understanding of what is required to create an appealing, yet simple interface. Many b2b organizations do business with industrial, wholesale and distribution clients and in some instances with global clients or suppliers. If the CMS web site is not designed for simple access and use, business revenue and web site traffic will suffer. The b to b CMS web site must be logically organized, with meaningful content; a well-conceived access policy, appropriate security, and great usability and interoperability. If your business to business content management system is to succeed, it must utilize appropriate CMS solutions and CMS tools, carefully selected to meet your customer requirements, objectives, goals, schedules and budgets. This selection is a complex process.

There are many content management software solutions, each with a different philosophy, theme, theory, functional architecture and scalability. The newest Web 2.0 standards and evolving social networking platforms include stringent requirements to ensure interoperability with internal and external company systems. When selecting the CMS solution, one must also consider available bandwidth and processing power, Search Engine mechanisms and SEO paradigms, as well as client and server side technology, platforms and trends. In truth the task of selecting, designing and developing a b2b content management system is complex and should be approached only with the assistance of experts who fully understand the available CMS tools and the unique issues faced by the business to business organization.

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