Abstract
The shift of profit margins from products to services, has transformed traditional production equipment supplier industries to providers of Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPSS). IPSS is a new business model for consistent delivery of industrial products such as production equipment and manufacturing services (Manufacturing as a Service). However, procurement of IPSS between industrial companies (i.e. Business-to-Business - B2B) is more complicated compared to the case of products offered to consumers (i.e. Business-to-Consumer – B2C). The complexity in interaction between the involved B2B stakeholders, the lack of trust and high costs especially for Small Medium Enterprises have hampered the establishment of standardized e-marketplaces in a similar manner as in the business to consumer world. This research work presents an overview on the requirements to support supply-chain processes on a digital B2B platform as well as a discussion of the objectives and the benefits of this multi-sided platform.
1. Introduction
The globalization of economic activity and the advent of the Internet have contributed to the introduction of a new Businessto-Business model (B2B) known as the online B2B market or e-Marketplace which promotes marketing relationships between buyers and sellers (Meier et al., 2010). The global industrial world tends to follow the structural change towards the service paradigm. Additionally, the industry sector has become more complex and dynamically affected by the era of Industry 4.0 (Wee et al., 2015). Following the new manufacturing era, the industries aim to enhance their sustainability and competitiveness through shifting their business models by providing Product Service Systems (PSS) for commercial use extending to Industrial Product Service Systems (IPSS) solely for industrial use along with the simultaneous increase of the values of the products (Meier et al., 2010; Mourtzis, 2019).
