BestBasket, an Application for Efficient Indirect e-Procurement in Small and Mid-size Businesses

Abstract

The Internet opens up new markets for businesses and can thus allow for a significant improvement in procurement. However, this will only apply if the cus- tomers are able to handle this huge market. In this paper we show that finding optimal suppliers in B2B marketing is a complex combinatorial problem and present a solution to it. The BestBasket system of Mercateo.com helps customers to handle the problem and to easily manage their procurement in an optimal way. The system is used by 1100 customers each day and 35% of them accept the optimized supplier-porfolio computed by the system. This makes up an overall relevant market of e 150 billion per year in Germany.