Celanese Chemicals addresses that issue by pointing out that B2B e-commerce won’t replace end users but will change their role from executing mundane, repetitive tasks, such as tracking down purchase-order approvals, to higher value activities such as procurement analysis. "We’re definitely not headed toward a zero-person environment anytime soon," says Bill Schmitt, director of business enablement at the $3 billion company. "There is so much to do to sort out the complexities of this connectivity that people who now do the manual processes are very valuable." The Dallas-based chemical producing unit of Celanese AG does 10 percent of its global business through its e-commerce site?ChemVIP.com?and through dedicated B2B connections, and it hopes to boost that number to 25 percent during 2002.

When Sigma-Aldrich’s e-business team pitches its B2B initiatives to customers’ procurement departments, it homes in on two selling points that are most important to those workers: efficiency and control. Like Celanese, the team promises that by ordering through Sigma-Aldrich’s website, by participating in Pipeline (its private exchange) or by setting up a dedicated B2B interface, procurement employees will spend less time on repetitive tasks and will be needed to review and authorize all purchase orders before they are submitted. They are also able to see how the technology will make their job easier by giving them one source?the website?for checking what stock is in and the status of orders.

Strategy 5 Hold Their Hands

For business partners to completely and whole-heartedly adopt your e-business initiatives, you must assiduously monitor their interactions to see whether they are taking place via phone, fax, e-mail or the Web. If their e-commerce activity seems inconsistent or end users seem uncertain, you need to provide support.

Sigma-Aldrich uses business intelligence software from Cognos to track customers’ buying behavior across channels. If Sigma-Aldrich’s implementation manager sees that a customer used the Web to place an order once but then used the phone next time, he’ll contact the customer, ask if he is having problems and offer to show him the system again. The Web customer service organization uses software from Hipbone, a vendor based in San Carlos, Calif., to take control of the customer’s browser and guide him through the process. Until the customer is fully up and running on Sigma-Aldrich’s website or Pipeline exchange, the company continually follows up to offer assistance. "We’ve learned that [adoption] requires this continual loop of reinforcement," says Johnson.But support costs money. Panasonic Industrial’s Jeanos carefully determines which partners are worth this effort based on business volumes. Though he hasn’t completely sussed out the math, he believes long-term benefits of e-business outweigh the short-term costs of providing support. "I’m not doing this at a loss. The people who are working on it are supporting other projects. This is above and beyond [their normal responsibilities]," he says.