A framework for developing a unified B2B e-trading construction marketplace

With its great explosion and the advancement of related technology and services, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet has provided a rich environment for developing Internet-based electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications in construction. Among the different types of e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) is the most widely used. The B2B e-trading marketplaces (also called B2B-exchanges), which have sparked a revolution in the way of trading products between buyers and suppliers, are an essential component of B2B applications. However, many e-trading marketplaces have been developed and hosted by different construction products and services providers, and each forms a closed system with their own customers and clients. In this paper, the concept of e-union is presented, which integrates the services provided by different e-trading construction sites to provide an open e-trading service. The design of a mobile agent-enabled framework for building such an open e-trading marketplace environment is described, along with a prototypical implementation.