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Approx. 400 years ago William Shakespeare asked the question „to be or not to be” in his tragedy Hamlet. Today we ask ourselves a similar question almost daily:

„be to be or not be to be”.

Unfortunately I don’t know too much about literature. Otherwise I would be aware of the answer which Mr. Hamlet received on his question. Maybe this could have been also the solution for the B-2-B questions of the 21st century. So, we will have to discuss this subject again.

monta is a B-2-B supplier in the original sense. Our customers are exclusively distributors/converters and no end-users.

Therefore - so the conclusion of relevant software companies - monta is a perfect example for a B-2-B user and is being contacted continuously by these companies to become active in this direction.

In the meantime we have seen some presentations regarding e-business for business partners. A prime example, often used, and where B-2-B solutions are already actively running is the automobile industry.

This industrial branch has always been searching to buy as much outside services as possible and to delegate responsibilities, delivery times and inventories to suppliers.

Examples:

In a structured relationship end-user, car dealer, automobile producer, supplier, subsupplier, sub-subsupplier... the wishes of the end-user for accessories (i.e. radio) are being entered in the computer system of the car dealer. This information will then automatically be routed through all systems so that the responsible subsupplier can supply the correct radio at the right time to the corresponding production line. The systems in-between do not have to start any activities.

All participants have access to this system and can follow the order status.

Applied to our business relationship the information flow would be as follows: the end-user orders one carton of adhesive tape, the stock system of the packaging distributor states that there is no stock available and generates an automatic order to monta. As this packaging tape is not a standard stock item, another automatic production order with a preliminary production date is issued. The production order automatically books the coating and slitting capacity. The necessary raw materials will be, again automatically, ordered from our suppliers. An order confirmation from our supplier follows. Now we also issue an order confirmation which is sent via fax or e-mail to the packaging dealer and maybe even to the end-user.

You as a distributor could enter our system and check the stocks of standard articles as well as the status of your orders on hand.

A high level of system integration is necessary to implement this with the described sequenzes. Suppliers and customers must agree on a common software platform.

Conclusion:
monta regularly stocks approx. 6 mio. sqms of standard items which you can call off immediately by telephone, letter, fax or e-mail. We believe that we offer a very good service with this standard stock and the current sales system allows you to supply your customers JUST-IN-TIME.

Nevertheless we will establish a questionaire for the next edition of monta news, which should help to realize to which extent you (and of course also we) can imagine to proceed with B-2-B / e-commerce. (BT)