When it comes to customer engagement, it just got quicker for businesses, thanks to IBM. The brand has announced it is making it faster and easier for B2B organizations to deliver the same compelling customer engagements typically found in a B2C setting.
Starting Wednesday, IBM B2B Commerce will transform the complex B2B buying process by providing customers with a more engaging and simplified experience so that they can easily find and purchase the products they need across any channel to build brand loyalty.
“The rapidly shifting expectations of the customer have created a market-defining opportunity for B2B 
organizations to transform the way they engage with their clients,” said Charles Chu, Vice President, Products & Strategy, B2B & Commerce, IBM in a release. “IBM is helping clients meet these new demands by bringing new omni-channel capabilities to B2B for the first time to make it easier for customers to purchase the products they need when they need them.”
IBM B2B Commerce is delivered through the IBM Smarter Commerce initiative and powered by the company's WebSphere Commerce solution. It provides a drag-and-drop option that allows organizations to build B2B storefronts right out of the box.
B2B organizations can model complex buying scenarios and procurement processes quickly while supporting extended routes to market with business partners. By bringing omni-channel capabilities to B2B customers, partners and field sales teams, organizations can expect an increase in customer satisfaction and revenue while reducing total cost of ownership and the need for hands-on support.
The U.S. B2B ecommerce market was predicted to reach $559 billion in 2013 according to Forrester Research. However, IBM said most B2B companies still rely on inadequate systems to engage the customer that make it difficult to manage increasingly complex B2B transactions.
“With so many office supply vendors to choose from, it is critical for us to make it as easy as possible for our customers to order the products they need for their business across our expanding portfolio of offerings," Ritesh Patel, chief Information officer at Office Brands, Australia’s largest independent office products dealer, said in a release. “The new IBM capabilities empower us to dramatically simplify the B2B buying process with familiar B2C-like functionality to create a differentiated experience tailored to each of our customer's specific business needs, roles and entitlements.”"
IBM B2B benefits both buyers and sellers in a number of ways:
Faster deployment of new online storefronts allows organizations to build a complete B2B customer engagement solution in just minutes.
Advanced buyer profiles that enable users to preconfigure the latest pricing agreements, internal approval processes and other negotiated entitlements for their company.
Integrated marketing tools to allow businesses to launch and execute marketing campaigns directly from the platform.
Web site analytics that give businesses the opportunity to fine-tune the customer experience by identifying where customers are struggling with the process.