A | B | C
Account: The account of a user at an Internet Services Provider (ISP) or other online service provider. An account entitles the user to make use of services (e.g. his own eMail address).
Agents (or software agents): Intelligent software, which performs certain functions by itself. One such example is the automatic search for favorable prices for a product specified by the buyer.
Aggressor: A term used in connection with Dutch Auctions. Aggressors accept the purchase or sale price offered by the auctioneer and thereby close the auction.
Application Service Provider (ASP): A service provider who operates applications on his own servers and makes them available on the Internet to his clients in return for a license fee. The advantage for the user is that no expensive software integration is required. Operation and maintenance are performed by the ASP.
Attachment: A file attached to an eMail. eMail attachments are a very convenient means of transferring files from one Internet user to another.
Auction: A means of negotiating prices that has always been around. The classical auction is differentiated into Dutch, English, maximum-price, Japanese and Vickrey auctions.
Auction Event Manager: Organizer of an auction. All the relevant details such as market conditions, delivery capacities or potential suppliers are collected and evaluated by the Auction Event Manager and passed on to the Initiator of an auction. Auction Event Managers ensure the training and registration of the participants in advance and subsequently monitor the auction process.
Authentication: Clear and unambiguous evidence that a message (e.g. a bid) really does come from the person who purports to be the sender. Realization can take place both via password-protected access to a closed and secure system and via Digital Signatures in open networks.
Automatic Proxy Bidder: A mechanism for the automatic submission of bids.
ASP: See Application Service Provider
Backbone: Network connection with high bandwidth, representing a central connection within a communication network. Backbones often connect important network nodes between company locations, countries or continents.
Back-End Systems: Company systems dealing with the order process, inventory and achievable management for buyers and suppliers. In order to ensure the automatic transfer of data with a digital trading platform, these must be integrated into the respective back-end systems of the firms. Often the businesses will have to integrate new technologies into their old systems.
Bandwidth: Term for the processing or transfer speed of a network or network connection. Normally indicated in "bits per second" (bps).
Bid: An offer to buy or sell a previously specific product.
Bill-of-Materials Function: A predefined list of certain items required by the buyers for special markets. It can considerably shorten the planning process.
Billing: Process of sending and paying invoices.
B2A: Abbreviation for "business to administration". Transactions between companies and state institutions.
B2B: Abbreviation for "business to business". Describes business transactions between companies.
B2B Marketplace: Electronic marketplace in which communication, negotiations and business transactions between companies take place.
B2C: Abbreviation for "business to consumer". Transactions between companies and individual consumers.
Buyside: Procurement solutions tailored specifically to the needs of the buyer. Typically, suppliers can present their offers in the client's Extranet (including online invitations to tender).
C2A: Abbreviation for "consumer to administration". Transactions between consumers and state institutions.
Catalogue Solutions: A database in which various catalogue products can be accessed online.
Catalogue Aggregation: Product information from various suppliers are standardized in such a way that it can be more easily compared. Virtual distributors - aggregators - often make this service available to their buyers. Extremely valuable if the products are complex and have many add-ons. The prices are usually fixed in a contract.
Certificate: File, which guarantees the identity of a user and thus prevents transactions from being executed under a false identity. A Trust Center or a Certification Authority allocates certificates.
Certification Authority: State-recognized institution which can allocate certificates in order to enable the unambiguous identification and authentication of news and users.
Channel Enablers: Marketplaces, which work together with distributors and wholesalers and open up a new channel of distribution to them.
Clear: The approximation process by which supply and demand prices of buyers and sellers are brought together. This process is used to determine the buying or selling price.
Clearing: Periodic clearing of account balances on servers of different suppliers who accept the means of payment of the others.
Clearing Price: Price at which a bidder buys or sells an article.
Client Server Architecture: Software model in which two software modules work together to fulfill a task. There is one server which performs a specific function or service, and one client which accesses the functions and services of the server.
Coalition: In eBusiness, this is taken to mean buying or selling coalitions, which channel their business processes onto a common marketplace. Coalition marketplaces are not operated by an independent supplier, but by their participants instead. The greater the concentration of participants in the marketplace, the greater the market power.
Community: Communities are websites, which serve to provide their participants with regular information. Classical community platforms include discussion forums and industry-specific portals for the exchange of know-how.
Portum Community PlatformTM: A term that was coined by Portum and which allows community members to represent and optimize an existing business relationship on the web. The Portum Community PlatformTM is the equivalent of a marketplace with a closed user group.
Continuously Clearing Exchange: The price-clearing method of the NASDAQ, which clears price offers simultaneously.
Content Management: Monitoring and updating of the content of a website.
Content Scouting: Research for suitable content for a website.
Cookies: A text file which is stored on the hard disk of a user of the World Wide Web when a certain server was activated.
CoSourcing: Here buyers of small and minimum quantities can enjoy the benefits of volume discounts. A correspondingly large number of buyers must decide on the purchase of a product (also known as Pooling or Power Shopping).
Critical Mass: The "Critical Mass" is achieved when a marketplace has just the right number of active participants for goods and services to be traded efficiently. It is also taken to mean the point in time at which a marketplace surpasses the traditional channels in importance (see also Network Effect, Liquidity).
C2A: Abbreviation for “consumer to administration”.Involves the transactions between consumers and state-based associations.
D | E | F
Data Mining: The evaluation and archiving of information. With regard to end customer data, it is the basis for successful mass selling and efficient one-to-one marketing.
Data Integrity: General term for the security of data against modification or falsification during transfer.
Digital Signature: In order to conclude a contract in the real world, a signature must be provided. This can be authenticated on the basis of the handwriting. This possibility does not exist on the Internet, so a process must be found which enables proof of the identity of the originator to be given. This process is the digital signature, which is a checksum calculated from the document to be signed and a code known only to the owner.
Disintermediation: Designates the replacement of classical intermediary by an electronic marketplace, which is able to connect companies with each other directly and can therefore be a substitute for several levels of intermediaries.
Domain Name: Unique designation of an Internet site, e.g. www.portum.de. This Domain Name can only be assigned to one specific website. The ".de" part stands for Germany and indicates that the domain originates from Germany. US American domain names have even more exact sub-designations: .com - commercial; .edu - educational; .gov - governmental; .mil - military; .org - non-profit organization; .net - network.
Download: Transfer of a file from a server to a client.
Dutch Auction: Auction with one seller and many buyers in which the auctioneer reduces prices (from a high starting point) until a bidder agrees to pay this price. In this process, then, the first bidder triggers the knockdown.
Dynamic Commerce: Form of handling a transaction in which the participating parties have the possibility to react to supply and demand and thereby meet each other in interaction via online media. One form of Dynamic Commerce is the Online Auction.
eBusiness: Abbreviation for electronic business. Business activities, which support processes such as communication, cooperation, service and trade with the help of Internet technologies.
eClass: Classification system for goods and services
eCommerce: Abbreviation for electronic commerce trading over the Internet. Enables electronic business transactions in and between companies, as well as between end customers and companies. The workflow starts when the order is received. This is sent on electronically to the participating offices (order acceptance, store, dispatch, customer service, accounting etc.). It also enables the business transactions to be archived electronically. eCommerce is ideally suited to the direct marketing of goods via the Internet.
ECCMA: See Electronic Commerce Code Management Association
eCommerce Integrator: A service provider, who offers strategy, marketing, design and technical services for eCommerce. Hosting and network services are not included.
eCommerce Networks: Group-independent business departments which execute transactions in the network. The objective is seamless eCommerce in real time.
EDI: See electronic data interchange
eFrastructure: This term originates from Goldman Sachs Investment Research. It is taken to mean the essential architecture of the B2B sectors. eFrastructure includes solutions for logistics, application service providers, outsourcing solutions, auction software, content management software, application integration software, web-based commerce enablers and software from traditional ERP firms.
Buy Auction: See Reverse Auction
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Older version of electronic trading between buyer and supplier. Is regarded as less convenient and more expensive than Internet-based trading. Only suitable for large firms and their economic trading partners. Many marketplaces enable EDI-to-XML transactions in order to achieve commerce between large and small firms.
eMarketplace: All the possibilities of eCommerce are utilized to the full in marketplaces. In addition to the standard information possibilities, aggregators, auctions and invitation to tender platforms are implemented in modular form. Another term for eMarketplace is Net Market.
Encryption: The encoding of data in order to prevent unauthorized attack or data manipulation. A functioning cryptography forms the basis for secure eCommerce solutions, particularly if purchase orders and payments on the Internet are involved.
English Auction: Auctions with sellers and many buyers in which bidders offer increasing prices in order to buy articles.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Complex application software which is used in large concerns. ERP systems manage goods and production means and integrate business processes of different departments. ERP systems now form the administrative backbone of many large groups.
e-Procurement: The procurement of goods and services through the use of the Internet or information technologies. In addition to research, also includes the handling of buying (ePurchasing).
ERP: Abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning.
Exchanges: Two-faceted marketplace in which buyers and sellers negotiate prices. Exchanges are normally based on a supply and demand system, i.e. the classical stock market principle.
Extranet: An Extranet is the connection between at least two Intranets. They can be connected to their business partners with the help of such a network, thereby enabling online communication.
Firewall: A filter between a company's own network and the Internet. Only authorized users receive access to the network via the Internet.
ftp: Protocol, which enables the exchange of files between different computers in the Internet.
G | H | I
High-Traffic Site: Website, which is frequented by many users.
Horizontal Market: Marketplace, which specializes in a specific product group (e.g. plastic). Synonyms include functional market, hub. (see MRO.)
Host: Every computer - specifically in the Internet in this case - which holds applications or data for other computers.
HTML: Abbreviation for "Hyper Text Markup Language". A programming language which is used for the formatting of websites.
http: Abbreviation for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol". Internet standard, which is used for the transfer of multimedia documents via the Internet.
eHubs: Complementary to electronic marketplaces.
Hyperlink: Electronic connections in the Internet which links two files or groups of files together. Typically, text places or graphics, which refer to other web pages, are marked specially on web pages.
Hypertext: Any text, which contains a link to another document.
Ignition: See Critical Mass
Infomediary (business): Service provider who supplies research, comparison information and consulting for products or services. Infomediaries deliver sound price and product research. Synonyms: lead generator, vertical portal.
Information Broker: Term for someone who looks for and complies dedicated information on behalf of third parties.
Initiator: An expression used in Portum auctions to denote the party initiating a buy or sell auction.
Intermediary: Aggregates data and enables transactions by bringing the buyer and seller together. Internet-based intermediaries create marketplaces with a large number of suppliers and products.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): Operator of interfaces to the Internet. Private or business clients conclude contracts with an ISP so that they can dial up into the Internet.
IP Address: Serves the unambiguous identification of a computer in a network. A nine-digit number is used for this purpose in the Internet (e.g. 123.45.67.89). However, usually identification is only by means of a name, to which an unambiguous IP address is assigned by a DNS.
ISP: See Internet Service Provider.
Intranet: Internal Internet technology-based corporate network to which only staff have access.
J | K | L
Japanese Auction: An auction with one seller and several buyers in which the auctioneer increases the price (from a low starting level) and the buyers have to go along at each price in order to remain in the auction.
LAN: Abbreviation for "Local Area Network". Local computer network as existing in a firm, for instance.
Legacy System: IT systems (software and hardware), which have already been used in companies for a long time and no longer conform to the state of the art. This can lead to considerable costs and expenditure in time, particularly in the integration of new applications in these systems.
Liquidity: The volume of transactions. Given sufficient buyers and sellers, there are continuous offers, bids and completed transactions in a market, so that market liquidity is achieved.
M | N
Market Maker: In a securities exchange the Market Makers handle equities which are resold or bought again given the need. Price movements may mean that profits and losses are realized. Outside the financial market Market Makers help buyers and sellers to come together, regardless of whether or not they have an interest in the goods being traded.
Marketplace: A website which provides one or more markets.
Metamediary: In addition to the offers of numerous suppliers and products on the marketplace, the Metamediary offers additional services for market participants. These services can either be offered directly by the Metamediary, or he can include service suppliers in his marketplace. The offered services may, for instance, be quality monitoring, purchasing management and the handling of payments.
Minimum bid: By determining a minimum bid, it is possible to ensure in a sell auction that a certain price for an item in an auction is not undercut.
MRO (Maintenance Repair and Operation): Standard products such as office supplies, services, travel bookings or computers. MRO includes all products which do not contribute directly to the value-added of a company, but are essential to the maintenance of business operations.
Multi-Lot Auction: In a Multi-Lot Auction several auctions can be grouped together into one overall auction. This is also suitable for auctions in which the same group of bidders is always targeted and the initiator wants the buying power to be reflected in an overall auction.
Multi-Position Auction: In a Multi-Position Auction not only can a total price be bid, but bids can be submitted for the various items in an overall contract. This gives the Initiator of the auction better price transparency and an insight into the costing methods of the bidder. If an offer of a bidder fails because of high haulage costs, for instance, this can be picked up by the Initiator and optimized through separate haulage contracts.
Multi-Round Auction: Preceding the beginning of the auction all participants have to place a binding starting price. The participant with the highest price will not be permitted to continue the next round of the auction. This can be repeated until a realistic starting price has been established.
Net Market Maker: A company, which operates an Internet market in order to bring buyers and sellers together.
Network Effect: This is taken to mean the effect under which a market profits when a new participate trades on it. The network effect creates a circuit with more buyers, which attracts more sellers, which in turn attracts more buyers and so on and so forth. Robert Metcalfe maintains that the value of a network grows quadratically to the number of participants. Synonym: Metcalfe's Law.
Normalization: A method of creating a consistent set of designations and product descriptions in which industry-specific translation software is often used. Primarily used by catalogue aggregators, normalization technology requires translation schemata or structures in a product database.
Neutral Oriented B2B Marketplace: Sellers and buyers meet with equal strength in neutral marketplaces.
O | P | Q
Open Buying on the Internet (OBI): An industry standard for B2B buying over the Internet. The OBI standard is intended primarily for MRO purchasing.
Periodically Clearing Exchange: An exchange, which groups together buy and sell offers at regular intervals. This type of exchange is suitable for markets with relatively low liquidity.
Portal: "Gateway" into an information system, which uses the techniques of the World Wide Web. A Portal is an Internet address which acts as the central entry address for a whole information system and can be adapted to be user or group specific.
Private Key/Public Key: Complementary files which are used for the encryption and decryption of documents. The Private Key is not publicly accessible and normally remains with one user, while the Public Key is made accessible to the public, for instance as a certificate.
Procurement Hub: An MRO purchasing marketplace for routine purchases, e.g. office suppliers or travel bookings. A sort of horizontal or functional market.
Purchasing Hub: Purchasing platform which groups together the requirements of smaller customers in order to achieve better deals. Can be configured horizontally or vertically. Is used for spot market purchasing and systematic purchasing (catalogue mechanisms).
R | S | T
Replacement Bid: If the market allows, you can amend your own bid (price, quantity or both) while the process is going on.
Request for Proposals (RFP): Request to suppliers to submit a bid for a product or service that is difficult to describe.
Request for Quotation (RFQ): Request to suppliers to submit a bid for a product or service that is simple to describe.
Reserve Price: An auction parameter, which specifies a minimum sale price or maximum purchase price.
Reverse Auctions: Buyers describe their demand for a product or service and suppliers bid for the contract. In contrast to an ordinary auction, the price only moves down.
Sealed-Bid Auction: An auction with one seller and several buyers in which each buyer submits just one (secret) offer. As soon as all bids have been received, the best bid is awarded the contract.
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): This is a standard, which prescribes processes and formats for handling secure transactions via the Internet. It comprises the authentication and encryption of messages in order to verify the identity of the sender/recipient and guarantee the integrity of the content. SET was initiated jointly by VISA and Mastercard and has become the most important security standard in the Internet for the processing of payment transactions.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL): A data protocol, which ensures the encryption of data between computer networks. SSL also offers opportunities for the authentication of users.
Sell Bid: An offer to sell a product at a certain volume and at a certain price.
Sellside-oriented B2B Marketplace: the sellers dominate sellside-oriented marketplaces.
Sell-Side Solution: Software solutions, which enable the marketing of goods and services over the Internet. These will typically be catalogue websites through which direct purchase orders can be auctioned.
Server: Servers are the backbone of the Internet. They are computers which are connected to each other by means of communication lines and deliver information to networked computers when called in the form of text, graphics and multimedia.
SmartCard: Intelligent chip card which, unlike older magnetic strip and memory chip cards, contains a processor chip. The card thus becomes a sort of minicomputer. Used, for example, to carry a digital signature.
Spot Market: A market for unplanned, spontaneously negotiated purchases not under regular contractual conditions. These transactions are normally unique.
Supply Chain Management (SCM): An attempt to coordinate the processes in production, logistics and marketing which larger firms generally employ. Internet markets could expand Supply Chain Management to all trading partners regardless of their size, since they make a central network node available for integrating information from the buyer and suppliers.
SupplyNet: Designates a very narrow integration of the systems within a Supply Chain. The SupplyNet enables each of the business partners to access selected data stocks of the other independently and thereby to accept responsibility for the delivery of goods.
Tipping Point: The point at which 20% of business is transacted via the Internet.
TradingPlatformTM: TradingPlatform is a term coined by Portum. The TradingPlatform is a standard trading system that can be used for specific projects.
TradingDeskTM: TradingDesk is another term coined by Portum. The TradingDesk is the graphic user interface of the Portum TradingPlatform.
Trust Center: Allocation center for digital signatures and SmartCards with the corresponding function.
U | V | W | X | Y | Z
UNSPSC Code: UNSPSC arose when the United Nations Development Program and Dun & Bradstreet combined their respective goods classification codes into a standard, open system. The UNSPSC Code was the first coding system to classify products and services on global markets.
Value-Added Network (VAN): A Value-Added Network acts as an intermediary, connecting a large number of trading partners by supporting a wide range of different protocols, connection speeds, security levels, standards and other services.
Vertical Market: Marketplace in which the participants transact business in one branch of industry. Vertical marketplaces are often where the suppliers of a complete value-added chain can be found (e.g. automotive industry).
Vickrey Auction: A form of auction called after its inventor, the Nobel Prize-winner William Vickrey. As in the maximum price auction, every participant submits a secret bid. In a sell auction (buy auction) the participant with the highest (lowest) bid wins the contract, but only has to pay the price of the second highest (lowest) bid.
Virtual Private Marketplace: A private market, which enables authorized suppliers to bid for a major contract or vice versa. The Virtual Private Marketplace can be set up in an Extranet or in a larger marketplace.
Wide Area Network (WAN): Network, which, unlike a LAN computer, connects across long distances (e.g. company networks in which several branches are integrated, Internet…)
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): Protocol, which allows the use of Internet content on devices with limited bandwidth and representation possibilities (e.g. mobile phones).
Workflow Marketplace: Offers project startup control and cooperation service for complex, interactive multi-party projects such as construction projects.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language): Text-based meta distinguishing language that allows data to be described and structured in such a way that it can be exchanged between a large number of applications in different hardware and software environments. It is expected that the field of electronic commerce will gain critically in dynamism through XML.
Account: The account of a user at an Internet Services Provider (ISP) or other online service provider. An account entitles the user to make use of services (e.g. his own eMail address).
Agents (or software agents): Intelligent software, which performs certain functions by itself. One such example is the automatic search for favorable prices for a product specified by the buyer.
Aggressor: A term used in connection with Dutch Auctions. Aggressors accept the purchase or sale price offered by the auctioneer and thereby close the auction.
Application Service Provider (ASP): A service provider who operates applications on his own servers and makes them available on the Internet to his clients in return for a license fee. The advantage for the user is that no expensive software integration is required. Operation and maintenance are performed by the ASP.
Attachment: A file attached to an eMail. eMail attachments are a very convenient means of transferring files from one Internet user to another.
Auction: A means of negotiating prices that has always been around. The classical auction is differentiated into Dutch, English, maximum-price, Japanese and Vickrey auctions.
Auction Event Manager: Organizer of an auction. All the relevant details such as market conditions, delivery capacities or potential suppliers are collected and evaluated by the Auction Event Manager and passed on to the Initiator of an auction. Auction Event Managers ensure the training and registration of the participants in advance and subsequently monitor the auction process.
Authentication: Clear and unambiguous evidence that a message (e.g. a bid) really does come from the person who purports to be the sender. Realization can take place both via password-protected access to a closed and secure system and via Digital Signatures in open networks.
Automatic Proxy Bidder: A mechanism for the automatic submission of bids.
ASP: See Application Service Provider
Backbone: Network connection with high bandwidth, representing a central connection within a communication network. Backbones often connect important network nodes between company locations, countries or continents.
Back-End Systems: Company systems dealing with the order process, inventory and achievable management for buyers and suppliers. In order to ensure the automatic transfer of data with a digital trading platform, these must be integrated into the respective back-end systems of the firms. Often the businesses will have to integrate new technologies into their old systems.
Bandwidth: Term for the processing or transfer speed of a network or network connection. Normally indicated in "bits per second" (bps).
Bid: An offer to buy or sell a previously specific product.
Bill-of-Materials Function: A predefined list of certain items required by the buyers for special markets. It can considerably shorten the planning process.
Billing: Process of sending and paying invoices.
B2A: Abbreviation for "business to administration". Transactions between companies and state institutions.
B2B: Abbreviation for "business to business". Describes business transactions between companies.
B2B Marketplace: Electronic marketplace in which communication, negotiations and business transactions between companies take place.
B2C: Abbreviation for "business to consumer". Transactions between companies and individual consumers.
Buyside: Procurement solutions tailored specifically to the needs of the buyer. Typically, suppliers can present their offers in the client's Extranet (including online invitations to tender).
C2A: Abbreviation for "consumer to administration". Transactions between consumers and state institutions.
Catalogue Solutions: A database in which various catalogue products can be accessed online.
Catalogue Aggregation: Product information from various suppliers are standardized in such a way that it can be more easily compared. Virtual distributors - aggregators - often make this service available to their buyers. Extremely valuable if the products are complex and have many add-ons. The prices are usually fixed in a contract.
Certificate: File, which guarantees the identity of a user and thus prevents transactions from being executed under a false identity. A Trust Center or a Certification Authority allocates certificates.
Certification Authority: State-recognized institution which can allocate certificates in order to enable the unambiguous identification and authentication of news and users.
Channel Enablers: Marketplaces, which work together with distributors and wholesalers and open up a new channel of distribution to them.
Clear: The approximation process by which supply and demand prices of buyers and sellers are brought together. This process is used to determine the buying or selling price.
Clearing: Periodic clearing of account balances on servers of different suppliers who accept the means of payment of the others.
Clearing Price: Price at which a bidder buys or sells an article.
Client Server Architecture: Software model in which two software modules work together to fulfill a task. There is one server which performs a specific function or service, and one client which accesses the functions and services of the server.
Coalition: In eBusiness, this is taken to mean buying or selling coalitions, which channel their business processes onto a common marketplace. Coalition marketplaces are not operated by an independent supplier, but by their participants instead. The greater the concentration of participants in the marketplace, the greater the market power.
Community: Communities are websites, which serve to provide their participants with regular information. Classical community platforms include discussion forums and industry-specific portals for the exchange of know-how.
Portum Community PlatformTM: A term that was coined by Portum and which allows community members to represent and optimize an existing business relationship on the web. The Portum Community PlatformTM is the equivalent of a marketplace with a closed user group.
Continuously Clearing Exchange: The price-clearing method of the NASDAQ, which clears price offers simultaneously.
Content Management: Monitoring and updating of the content of a website.
Content Scouting: Research for suitable content for a website.
Cookies: A text file which is stored on the hard disk of a user of the World Wide Web when a certain server was activated.
CoSourcing: Here buyers of small and minimum quantities can enjoy the benefits of volume discounts. A correspondingly large number of buyers must decide on the purchase of a product (also known as Pooling or Power Shopping).
Critical Mass: The "Critical Mass" is achieved when a marketplace has just the right number of active participants for goods and services to be traded efficiently. It is also taken to mean the point in time at which a marketplace surpasses the traditional channels in importance (see also Network Effect, Liquidity).
C2A: Abbreviation for “consumer to administration”.Involves the transactions between consumers and state-based associations.
D | E | F
Data Mining: The evaluation and archiving of information. With regard to end customer data, it is the basis for successful mass selling and efficient one-to-one marketing.
Data Integrity: General term for the security of data against modification or falsification during transfer.
Digital Signature: In order to conclude a contract in the real world, a signature must be provided. This can be authenticated on the basis of the handwriting. This possibility does not exist on the Internet, so a process must be found which enables proof of the identity of the originator to be given. This process is the digital signature, which is a checksum calculated from the document to be signed and a code known only to the owner.
Disintermediation: Designates the replacement of classical intermediary by an electronic marketplace, which is able to connect companies with each other directly and can therefore be a substitute for several levels of intermediaries.
Domain Name: Unique designation of an Internet site, e.g. www.portum.de. This Domain Name can only be assigned to one specific website. The ".de" part stands for Germany and indicates that the domain originates from Germany. US American domain names have even more exact sub-designations: .com - commercial; .edu - educational; .gov - governmental; .mil - military; .org - non-profit organization; .net - network.
Download: Transfer of a file from a server to a client.
Dutch Auction: Auction with one seller and many buyers in which the auctioneer reduces prices (from a high starting point) until a bidder agrees to pay this price. In this process, then, the first bidder triggers the knockdown.
Dynamic Commerce: Form of handling a transaction in which the participating parties have the possibility to react to supply and demand and thereby meet each other in interaction via online media. One form of Dynamic Commerce is the Online Auction.
eBusiness: Abbreviation for electronic business. Business activities, which support processes such as communication, cooperation, service and trade with the help of Internet technologies.
eClass: Classification system for goods and services
eCommerce: Abbreviation for electronic commerce trading over the Internet. Enables electronic business transactions in and between companies, as well as between end customers and companies. The workflow starts when the order is received. This is sent on electronically to the participating offices (order acceptance, store, dispatch, customer service, accounting etc.). It also enables the business transactions to be archived electronically. eCommerce is ideally suited to the direct marketing of goods via the Internet.
ECCMA: See Electronic Commerce Code Management Association
eCommerce Integrator: A service provider, who offers strategy, marketing, design and technical services for eCommerce. Hosting and network services are not included.
eCommerce Networks: Group-independent business departments which execute transactions in the network. The objective is seamless eCommerce in real time.
EDI: See electronic data interchange
eFrastructure: This term originates from Goldman Sachs Investment Research. It is taken to mean the essential architecture of the B2B sectors. eFrastructure includes solutions for logistics, application service providers, outsourcing solutions, auction software, content management software, application integration software, web-based commerce enablers and software from traditional ERP firms.
Buy Auction: See Reverse Auction
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Older version of electronic trading between buyer and supplier. Is regarded as less convenient and more expensive than Internet-based trading. Only suitable for large firms and their economic trading partners. Many marketplaces enable EDI-to-XML transactions in order to achieve commerce between large and small firms.
eMarketplace: All the possibilities of eCommerce are utilized to the full in marketplaces. In addition to the standard information possibilities, aggregators, auctions and invitation to tender platforms are implemented in modular form. Another term for eMarketplace is Net Market.
Encryption: The encoding of data in order to prevent unauthorized attack or data manipulation. A functioning cryptography forms the basis for secure eCommerce solutions, particularly if purchase orders and payments on the Internet are involved.
English Auction: Auctions with sellers and many buyers in which bidders offer increasing prices in order to buy articles.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Complex application software which is used in large concerns. ERP systems manage goods and production means and integrate business processes of different departments. ERP systems now form the administrative backbone of many large groups.
e-Procurement: The procurement of goods and services through the use of the Internet or information technologies. In addition to research, also includes the handling of buying (ePurchasing).
ERP: Abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning.
Exchanges: Two-faceted marketplace in which buyers and sellers negotiate prices. Exchanges are normally based on a supply and demand system, i.e. the classical stock market principle.
Extranet: An Extranet is the connection between at least two Intranets. They can be connected to their business partners with the help of such a network, thereby enabling online communication.
Firewall: A filter between a company's own network and the Internet. Only authorized users receive access to the network via the Internet.
ftp: Protocol, which enables the exchange of files between different computers in the Internet.
G | H | I
High-Traffic Site: Website, which is frequented by many users.
Horizontal Market: Marketplace, which specializes in a specific product group (e.g. plastic). Synonyms include functional market, hub. (see MRO.)
Host: Every computer - specifically in the Internet in this case - which holds applications or data for other computers.
HTML: Abbreviation for "Hyper Text Markup Language". A programming language which is used for the formatting of websites.
http: Abbreviation for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol". Internet standard, which is used for the transfer of multimedia documents via the Internet.
eHubs: Complementary to electronic marketplaces.
Hyperlink: Electronic connections in the Internet which links two files or groups of files together. Typically, text places or graphics, which refer to other web pages, are marked specially on web pages.
Hypertext: Any text, which contains a link to another document.
Ignition: See Critical Mass
Infomediary (business): Service provider who supplies research, comparison information and consulting for products or services. Infomediaries deliver sound price and product research. Synonyms: lead generator, vertical portal.
Information Broker: Term for someone who looks for and complies dedicated information on behalf of third parties.
Initiator: An expression used in Portum auctions to denote the party initiating a buy or sell auction.
Intermediary: Aggregates data and enables transactions by bringing the buyer and seller together. Internet-based intermediaries create marketplaces with a large number of suppliers and products.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): Operator of interfaces to the Internet. Private or business clients conclude contracts with an ISP so that they can dial up into the Internet.
IP Address: Serves the unambiguous identification of a computer in a network. A nine-digit number is used for this purpose in the Internet (e.g. 123.45.67.89). However, usually identification is only by means of a name, to which an unambiguous IP address is assigned by a DNS.
ISP: See Internet Service Provider.
Intranet: Internal Internet technology-based corporate network to which only staff have access.
J | K | L
Japanese Auction: An auction with one seller and several buyers in which the auctioneer increases the price (from a low starting level) and the buyers have to go along at each price in order to remain in the auction.
LAN: Abbreviation for "Local Area Network". Local computer network as existing in a firm, for instance.
Legacy System: IT systems (software and hardware), which have already been used in companies for a long time and no longer conform to the state of the art. This can lead to considerable costs and expenditure in time, particularly in the integration of new applications in these systems.
Liquidity: The volume of transactions. Given sufficient buyers and sellers, there are continuous offers, bids and completed transactions in a market, so that market liquidity is achieved.
M | N
Market Maker: In a securities exchange the Market Makers handle equities which are resold or bought again given the need. Price movements may mean that profits and losses are realized. Outside the financial market Market Makers help buyers and sellers to come together, regardless of whether or not they have an interest in the goods being traded.
Marketplace: A website which provides one or more markets.
Metamediary: In addition to the offers of numerous suppliers and products on the marketplace, the Metamediary offers additional services for market participants. These services can either be offered directly by the Metamediary, or he can include service suppliers in his marketplace. The offered services may, for instance, be quality monitoring, purchasing management and the handling of payments.
Minimum bid: By determining a minimum bid, it is possible to ensure in a sell auction that a certain price for an item in an auction is not undercut.
MRO (Maintenance Repair and Operation): Standard products such as office supplies, services, travel bookings or computers. MRO includes all products which do not contribute directly to the value-added of a company, but are essential to the maintenance of business operations.
Multi-Lot Auction: In a Multi-Lot Auction several auctions can be grouped together into one overall auction. This is also suitable for auctions in which the same group of bidders is always targeted and the initiator wants the buying power to be reflected in an overall auction.
Multi-Position Auction: In a Multi-Position Auction not only can a total price be bid, but bids can be submitted for the various items in an overall contract. This gives the Initiator of the auction better price transparency and an insight into the costing methods of the bidder. If an offer of a bidder fails because of high haulage costs, for instance, this can be picked up by the Initiator and optimized through separate haulage contracts.
Multi-Round Auction: Preceding the beginning of the auction all participants have to place a binding starting price. The participant with the highest price will not be permitted to continue the next round of the auction. This can be repeated until a realistic starting price has been established.
Net Market Maker: A company, which operates an Internet market in order to bring buyers and sellers together.
Network Effect: This is taken to mean the effect under which a market profits when a new participate trades on it. The network effect creates a circuit with more buyers, which attracts more sellers, which in turn attracts more buyers and so on and so forth. Robert Metcalfe maintains that the value of a network grows quadratically to the number of participants. Synonym: Metcalfe's Law.
Normalization: A method of creating a consistent set of designations and product descriptions in which industry-specific translation software is often used. Primarily used by catalogue aggregators, normalization technology requires translation schemata or structures in a product database.
Neutral Oriented B2B Marketplace: Sellers and buyers meet with equal strength in neutral marketplaces.
O | P | Q
Open Buying on the Internet (OBI): An industry standard for B2B buying over the Internet. The OBI standard is intended primarily for MRO purchasing.
Periodically Clearing Exchange: An exchange, which groups together buy and sell offers at regular intervals. This type of exchange is suitable for markets with relatively low liquidity.
Portal: "Gateway" into an information system, which uses the techniques of the World Wide Web. A Portal is an Internet address which acts as the central entry address for a whole information system and can be adapted to be user or group specific.
Private Key/Public Key: Complementary files which are used for the encryption and decryption of documents. The Private Key is not publicly accessible and normally remains with one user, while the Public Key is made accessible to the public, for instance as a certificate.
Procurement Hub: An MRO purchasing marketplace for routine purchases, e.g. office suppliers or travel bookings. A sort of horizontal or functional market.
Purchasing Hub: Purchasing platform which groups together the requirements of smaller customers in order to achieve better deals. Can be configured horizontally or vertically. Is used for spot market purchasing and systematic purchasing (catalogue mechanisms).
R | S | T
Replacement Bid: If the market allows, you can amend your own bid (price, quantity or both) while the process is going on.
Request for Proposals (RFP): Request to suppliers to submit a bid for a product or service that is difficult to describe.
Request for Quotation (RFQ): Request to suppliers to submit a bid for a product or service that is simple to describe.
Reserve Price: An auction parameter, which specifies a minimum sale price or maximum purchase price.
Reverse Auctions: Buyers describe their demand for a product or service and suppliers bid for the contract. In contrast to an ordinary auction, the price only moves down.
Sealed-Bid Auction: An auction with one seller and several buyers in which each buyer submits just one (secret) offer. As soon as all bids have been received, the best bid is awarded the contract.
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): This is a standard, which prescribes processes and formats for handling secure transactions via the Internet. It comprises the authentication and encryption of messages in order to verify the identity of the sender/recipient and guarantee the integrity of the content. SET was initiated jointly by VISA and Mastercard and has become the most important security standard in the Internet for the processing of payment transactions.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL): A data protocol, which ensures the encryption of data between computer networks. SSL also offers opportunities for the authentication of users.
Sell Bid: An offer to sell a product at a certain volume and at a certain price.
Sellside-oriented B2B Marketplace: the sellers dominate sellside-oriented marketplaces.
Sell-Side Solution: Software solutions, which enable the marketing of goods and services over the Internet. These will typically be catalogue websites through which direct purchase orders can be auctioned.
Server: Servers are the backbone of the Internet. They are computers which are connected to each other by means of communication lines and deliver information to networked computers when called in the form of text, graphics and multimedia.
SmartCard: Intelligent chip card which, unlike older magnetic strip and memory chip cards, contains a processor chip. The card thus becomes a sort of minicomputer. Used, for example, to carry a digital signature.
Spot Market: A market for unplanned, spontaneously negotiated purchases not under regular contractual conditions. These transactions are normally unique.
Supply Chain Management (SCM): An attempt to coordinate the processes in production, logistics and marketing which larger firms generally employ. Internet markets could expand Supply Chain Management to all trading partners regardless of their size, since they make a central network node available for integrating information from the buyer and suppliers.
SupplyNet: Designates a very narrow integration of the systems within a Supply Chain. The SupplyNet enables each of the business partners to access selected data stocks of the other independently and thereby to accept responsibility for the delivery of goods.
Tipping Point: The point at which 20% of business is transacted via the Internet.
TradingPlatformTM: TradingPlatform is a term coined by Portum. The TradingPlatform is a standard trading system that can be used for specific projects.
TradingDeskTM: TradingDesk is another term coined by Portum. The TradingDesk is the graphic user interface of the Portum TradingPlatform.
Trust Center: Allocation center for digital signatures and SmartCards with the corresponding function.
U | V | W | X | Y | Z
UNSPSC Code: UNSPSC arose when the United Nations Development Program and Dun & Bradstreet combined their respective goods classification codes into a standard, open system. The UNSPSC Code was the first coding system to classify products and services on global markets.
Value-Added Network (VAN): A Value-Added Network acts as an intermediary, connecting a large number of trading partners by supporting a wide range of different protocols, connection speeds, security levels, standards and other services.
Vertical Market: Marketplace in which the participants transact business in one branch of industry. Vertical marketplaces are often where the suppliers of a complete value-added chain can be found (e.g. automotive industry).
Vickrey Auction: A form of auction called after its inventor, the Nobel Prize-winner William Vickrey. As in the maximum price auction, every participant submits a secret bid. In a sell auction (buy auction) the participant with the highest (lowest) bid wins the contract, but only has to pay the price of the second highest (lowest) bid.
Virtual Private Marketplace: A private market, which enables authorized suppliers to bid for a major contract or vice versa. The Virtual Private Marketplace can be set up in an Extranet or in a larger marketplace.
Wide Area Network (WAN): Network, which, unlike a LAN computer, connects across long distances (e.g. company networks in which several branches are integrated, Internet…)
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): Protocol, which allows the use of Internet content on devices with limited bandwidth and representation possibilities (e.g. mobile phones).
Workflow Marketplace: Offers project startup control and cooperation service for complex, interactive multi-party projects such as construction projects.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language): Text-based meta distinguishing language that allows data to be described and structured in such a way that it can be exchanged between a large number of applications in different hardware and software environments. It is expected that the field of electronic commerce will gain critically in dynamism through XML.
