International Textile

Textile trading the online approach

Introduction The Banyan Tree is an Asian symbol of a market, a perfect place for buyers and sellers to meet and trade in the shade. In the early days, traders in the textile community exchanged goods and barter systems emerged. The progression to forming communities across villages and townships eventually led to the birth of marketplaces and trade centers. The Banyan Tree Theory is the foundation of Business Process Studies across the Online Trading space. It is about creating efficiency, across communities, regions and industries. The World is flat! Today’s World uses high-end technology and communications to bring people closer. Economies are more transparent and the way we do business is changed. With Global economies using synchronized supply chains, instant communication techniques, it is imperative to maintain pace. The flattening and convergence of businesses tools, translates into business functions taken to the Internet. Imagine if you could go to a textile market where thousands of companies from around the world are selling and buying virtually. Now also imagine this anytime of the day and any day of the week! This is what online trade can do for a global business. Companies go to great lengths to develop new markets, may it be a new region, a new end-use, or plain simple market expansion. The options available to companies in the business of Fibers Intermediate, Fibers and Yarns were limited. The Internet has proven to be a very powerful medium for market development. Moving Beyond Paper The procurement of goods and services is a source of frustration and costly inefficiency in many organizations. Procurement operations are plagued by inefficient product selection and sourcing. They are time-consuming manual ordering processes and involve expensive inventories. Organizations’ purchasing cycles and approval times are lengthy, and they lack the data and resources required to perform procurement in a more cost-effective and strategic manner. Internal process inefficiencies frequently prevent employees from acquiring the goods and services they actually need. The procurement process within many organizations has continued to rely on inefficient manual, paper-based processes. The traditional procurement method involves high cost in both time and resources associated with processing a typical purchase order, particularly when each step has to be processed manually. The Conventional Model The fundamental inefficiencies in organization’s procurement systems can only be addressed by streamlining relationships that already exist. There is a strong need to create meaningful collaboration between companies that already work together. The emergence of the Internet as a means of fast and inexpensive communication, augmented by open standards and exchange protocols, has seen an explosive growth in B2B Textile Portals. Marketplaces like www.YarnsandFibers.com and www.just-style.com are designed to allow purchasing to be executed on commodities basis. Online Trading Approach For the promise of e-Procurement to be realized, the barriers must be low, both in terms of cost and the disruption to the day-to-day running of the business. Achieving the full potential of online trading, requires a move towards a neutral model that integrates procurement and fulfillment into a single environment for buyers, suppliers and interested third parties. An effective online textile marketplace should fundamentally provide organizations with a comprehensive and collaborative trading environment - where all participants can trade effectively and economically in a neutral, mutually beneficial environment. Online Trading connects organizations to a common infrastructure that provides the complete range of services necessary to facilitate commercial relationships and execute commercial transactions. Today’s advanced Internet-based architecture means that no software is installed on-client end. Buyers and suppliers plug in to a solution that allows fast and efficient roll out to all users in an organization, regardless of their location. Buyers and suppliers can trade effectively and economically in a neutral, mutually beneficial environment.