Challenges in content management for B2B electronic commerce

Internet based electronic commerce provides a much higher level of flexibility and openness that will help to optimise business relationships. B2B market places provide completely new possibilities for their clients: instead of implementing one link to each supplier, a supplier is link to a large number of potential customers when linked to the market place; a supplier or customer can choose between a large number of potential customers and can optimise his business relationships. In a nutshell, B2B market places are a middleware, that help their customers to contact a large number of potential clients without running into the problem of implementing a large number of communication channels. Content management is the key issue in B2B electronic commerce. The article discusses the main obstacles for successful content management, it identifies the main tasks, and discusses possible support in mechanising them. Tools based on information retrieval, machine learning, and ontology technology can significantly help to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the overall process