‘Blog’ Archive

Flex Brings Performance Muscle to B2B Sites March 4, 2010 No Comments

By Jes Lefcourt
The Flex programming language has yet to fully catch on in the B2B world. It should. People shopping on B2B websites increasingly expect the performance and experience they get from the B2C sites they use at home (or when the boss isn’t looking). Websites that incorporate Flex perform like a desktop-resident application. The [...]

Did Toyota Take Lean Manufacturing Too Far? February 24, 2010 No Comments

The Economist carried an insightful article today, describing how Toyota, in its quest to become the number one car manufacturer worldwide, stretched its lean manufacturing philosophy to the breaking point. As Toyota sought to grow market share, they rapidly expanded their supply base to include suppliers they hadn’t worked with before. Along with their sole-source [...]

Report from DoC sheds light on counterfeit electronics in U.S. supply chain February 18, 2010 No Comments

Do you ever wonder if the electronic components that you buy from brokers and independent distributors are legit? Where are they REALLY coming from? The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) just issued its assessment report on counterfeit electronics, which provides some interesting, albeit alarming, statistics on the degree to which counterfeit components have become integrated [...]

New article reinforces Verical’s conviction that memory shortage is imminent No Comments

Check out this excellent EE Times interview with Barclays Capital analyst Tim Luke. Luke anticipates “a tight supply of memory parts in 2010 and perhaps beyond.” This article reinforces our belief that memory will soon be joining the list of hard-to-find parts turning up on buyers’ shortage lists across the world, and at the same [...]

Borrowing B2C Sensibilities to Build a Better B2B Experience February 1, 2010 No Comments

By Josef Ruef
It turns out that purchasing agents and other corporate buyers are no more forgiving than their consumer-oriented counterparts when it comes to slow, bulky ecommerce sites. And that frustration is playing a large role in the trend to make the online shopping experience faster, more efficient, and more convenient for B2B buyers.
In the [...]

Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Economy — Waiting to Crown the “Real” Winners December 8, 2009 No Comments

So the results are in, but who are the “real” winners and losers? I propose we change the way we measure success. We need to look deeply across the end-to-end supply chain to determine which supply chain is the strongest performer, rather than look at single entities. Sure, the retailers’ results indicate who is performing [...]

Evertiq: Tip 5: Seek out transparent catalog pricing December 1, 2009 No Comments

Tip 5: Seek out transparent catalog pricing

Component Buyer Tip #5: Seek out Transparent Catalog Pricing November 30, 2009 No Comments

One of the most frustrating parts about shortage buying is that the more urgently the part is needed, the higher the price goes! After all the effort to locate the part they need, buyers have to haggle their way through the price negotiation. They may not have many options so a bad deal is better [...]

Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Economy- What’s the Real Demand? November 24, 2009 No Comments

With the holiday buying season fast approaching, rumors are already circulating, and ads are being leaked about upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What impacts are these likely to have on demand? Who knows?
Last year, Black Friday was dominated on-line by electronics products, with nine out of the top ten most popular products (Source: PriceGrabber.com). [...]

EMC Mag: The Rise of Counterfeiting November 23, 2009 No Comments

The Rise of Counterfeiting