Why We Really Need B2B Companies...
First of all, all B2B companies are not created equal. To lump together, for example, CMRC and ITWO is fun... but not correct. The fundamentals of each company could hardly be more different.
Second, The Street, in classic all-momo-no-reading-beyond-the-headlines style, i.e. the stuff that makes Cramer who he is and who he isn't, aren't schooled enough to tell you, for example, that building private or public eMarketplaces isn't as easy as it seems. I mean, they certainly could build a non-strategic site to do online procurement of indirect materials (think pencils and coffee cups. But, the big boys, like Honeywell and UTC and VF Corporation and others know that they don't have the chops nor the time nor the technologies to deliver a collaborative DIRECT materials procurement marketplace like Sun Microelectronics has, thanks to i2.
Further, the ULTIMATE B2B play would HAVE to be a company whose solutions have mastered GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS. I mean, when you get right down to it: B2B IS supply chain management, planning and optimization taken to the Web.
It's helping companies make better decisions, plan for demand, optimize the physical fulfillment of goods, collaborate in REAL-TIME with suppliers, design partners, trading partners and key customers. And who is the hands-down, acknowledged (by EVERY industry analyst who knows the space, including Forrester Research and Gartner) leader in supply chain management? There isn't any serious debate about this: it's ITWO.
The real battle in eBusiness--with B2B and B2C as subsets--is now down to two: Oracle (big brand name, lacking solutions) vs. ITWO ("dark horse", but with PROVEN supply chain and multi-enterprise collaboration and decision support technologies). Ellison is fully engaged in the game and will score some victories. But, my money is on ITWO... as it has been since 1998. ITWO has ACTUAL, REAL software: collaborative procurement solutions up and running at Sun Microelectronics and Compaq. ITWO's eBusiness solutions power the top 10 PC companies in the world. ITWO has implemented the world's largest and most complex supply chain for Samsung. ITWO's TradeMatrix eMarketplace solutions have been, in essence, ratified by UTC, VF Corporation, Warnaco, Sun Microelectronics, Honeywell,
IBM, etc.
And what of Oracle? Well, a powerful, database-centric brand with a hard-charging CEO, Larry Ellison. They have terrific marketing muscle and message control. But, where are they in supply chain management? Nowhere. And, at a time, when analysts like Forrester are advising that enterprises outsource almost everything apps-related to ASPs, how valuable is a database-centric brand?
Only time will tell. In the meantime, a Prudential analyst downgrades to accumulate... and I can assure you... that Prudential itself was accumulating yesterday around $100 a share. Pru has been imprudent-ial in its assessments thus far of The New Economy. It played the DOWNGRADE card in an anxious market to achieve what it could not achieve by foresight some two years ago... get ITWO at a cheaper price.
Best Regards,
c m
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