Business to Business 

Although it has become common vernacular these days, few people understand what it means other than Business to Business trading.

B2B allows automatic processes to be sent from one business to another without any user input required. Some examples of B2B transactions are:

• Receiving a list of service jobs to complete from a third party vendor or warranty agent
• Receiving updated price lists and automatically updating the buy and sell costs related to those products purchased from that particular supplier.
• Automatically send orders and quote requests. This could be as basic as send a work order to a subcontractor (with all the details) to sending an eight page quotation request to your electrical wholesaler.
• Receive invoices and credits. High volume processing for particular customers means that considerable time is saved when no user intervention is required. For example works repair for insurance companies

Business to Consumer

Although not yet as popular as B2B, Business to Customer is ever increasing in popularity as the adoption of buying products and services off the web and adoption of broadband services ever increases. Trade services are now providing multiple facilities online for their customers. These are generally provided through a webportal and allow the customer to:

• log and possibly book jobs
• View or manage the status of their call
• View and manage the warranty status of their equipment
• Reprint invoices
• Check product information
• Pay their bill online using Credit Card or BPay facilities

Nobody likes double entering and by coordinating with your supplier or customer your workload can be reduced saving time, money and mistakes.