CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS TO BUSINESS ECOMMERCE

Abstract

The Internet and the establishment of virtual private communication networks has experienced explosive growth over the past few years, and is rapidly becoming a source of competitive advantage to companies which conduct business across this communication medium. The purpose of this exploratory research is to investigate the critical success factors for the implementation of business to business (B2B) eCommerce in South Africa. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the views of academics, consultants, industry experts, B2B eMarketplace operators and independent B2B Exchange providers. The main findings were that there are a number of critical success factors from an organisational, managerial and technological perspective. The most important factors included the necessity to establish a sound business model, top management support for the initiative and the requirement to establish a customer concentric value adding proposition to one‟s stakeholders. South African managers who wish to take advantage of B2B eCommerce may refer to these critical success factors as a guide in order to minimise the risks inherent in the implementation these projects.