B2B e-Commerce Site Maintenance - IT Support

Today’s Topic: IT Support

A third-party provider of your B2B e-Commerce site can ensure the receipt and processing of your data, but won’t be able to troubleshoot and diagnose issues, or make changes to your feeds. Pinpointing and fixing automated data issues is something you'll have to manage, and often requires more than one form of expertise - here are some examples:

• Inventory data. You will need someone who is familiar with your ERP’s inventory functionality, as well as your business process around inventory.

• Product data. Feeds require familiarity with the location and usage of product master data fields.

• Order data. Requires familiarity with your ERP’s Order to Cash functionality, as well as your method of order data transmission.

• Middleware. If your business uses middleware to transform data prior to sending to or receiving from your B2B provider, you’ll need an expert in your middleware’s functionality.

• Data security. Your B2B site provider should have their own security certification, but as a brand it will be your responsibility to make sure your data is protected, both in transmission and storage.

• Data transmission formatting. Examples are APIs, XML and EDI. You’ll need someone who is familiar with your formats, and/or can format according to your provider's specifications.

What’s ultimately necessary is an ad-hoc, internal IT-side support coordinator, who can refer your B2B admin to the right person for help within your organization - or contract with an external support provider, if appropriate. This person might be a project manager, or someone else on the IT side in your organization who has - or is willing to gain - generalized familiarity with your B2B site’s functions and configuration, as well as an ability to pull together an appropriate response to issues. Having this person in place greatly increases your ability to respond to website issues quickly and effectively.