Business-to-business e-commerce frameworks

Electronic commerce lets people purchase goods and exchange information on business transactions online. Although the Internet's role as a business ch annel is a fairly recent phenomenon, its impact, financial and otherwise, h as been substantially greater than that of other business channels in exist ence for several decades. The authors believe that e-commerce gives companies improved efficiency and reliability of business processes through transaction automation. There ar e two major types of e-commerce: business to consumer (B2C), in which consu mers purchase products and services from businesses, and business to busine ss (B2B), in which businesses buy and sell among themselves. B2B transactions are a growing segment of the e-commerce market. This artic le analyzes and compares popular B2B frameworks that attempt to address suc h issues as interoperability and security between enterprises transacting b usiness over the Internet.