The e-economy represents a new way of organizing the production and distribution of industrial products, both in relation to the purchase of the raw materials, parts, components and accessories for production of final products and their distribution on a large scale to importers and big buyers.

Its axis is the e-commerce, that has by now achieved a surprising level of development. According to the US Dept. of Commerce 1998 estimates today confirmed the projection of the e-commerce foreseen growth indicates an arithmetic index of development: in 2005 the business transactions conducted online are expected to reach 5% of the world trade and in 2010 even 25%!

The center of gravity of its development is not B2C business to consumer-, the business relation between the manufacturer or distributor and final consumer. Its center of gravity lies in B2B business to business-, the business relation between companies and the development of their transactions that today represents 80-90% of all Internet transactions.

But, what companies can do B2B? What company can post its business relations with customers and suppliers online? The answer is categorical: only the companies that benefit from the new information technology and operate at international level, or that have decided so, can be present online.

The investments required to enter the Internet are within everyone's reach: in spite of the high promotional and advertising costs that website maintaince requires, it is much cheaper to develop the international presence online than oflline. Furthermore, the appropriate choice of the website, i.e. its maximum visibility in the market niche can further reduce the investments.

The Internet gives an opportunity of establishing market contacts worldwide without being physically present. Of course, it cannot replace them, being always more incisive than the one online, in particular in respect to big markets. It is certain, however, that the Internet offers new business scene. Both small and medium-sized companies now compete with the big ones all over the world, since e-commerce does not require high investments in infractructure or physical presence on the market.

In the past, only the big companies could transfer their production and market their products in countries that were more convenient for this purpose, depending on the economic situation of the moment. Nowadays, all companies can do it, irrespective whether they are small, medium or big.

The Internet facilitates the search for partners and distributors, buyers and sellers of the final products or raw materials, components, parts and accessories in the whole world, 365 days a year and 24 hours a day.

This fact presents the following problem to big companies: how to use the Internet without radically affecting the pre-existing business relations? As a matter of fact, they have, in general, an internationally widespread physical presence. The answer lies in using the Internet, above all, as a medium. And that is exactly what they do. However, the small and medium companies with no consolidated distribution network, do not face this problem.

That is why the Internet for the big companies is mostly a medium. They use it as a channel for communication with their customers and as the best vehicle to reinforce their distribution network at the informative, advertising and promotional level.

The Internet multiplies business relations and, at the same time, makes them more fluid than in the past. The further we go back, the bigger the instability of business relations is. Today, this instability tends to disapperar, due to multiple reasons, including the fact that the quality standard of industrial production is more and more homogeneous, from company to company.

In order not to loose the market, the growing fluidity in the business relations requires a constant presence of the international companies in the market where they operate, independently of the unstable presence of their representatives that change constantly the product lines they represent or their trade marks. The Internet contributes in creating this instability in the business relations. However, if the company is on the Internet, it secures the necessary, independent presence in its markets, in all situations. On the other hand, since being present in the Internet means presence worldwide, it also guarantees a discreet presence in markets where these relations are already well-established.

In other words, the Internet offers the opportunity of having your operations in all of those markets where there are no established business relations and to maintain instead an independent one on the markets where this is not the case.

All the companies, whatever their size is, will have to adapt themselves to this panorama if they want to develop their market internationally. This development will require the use of specialized portals like ours and their services in all industry.

Today, all the manufacturers can further develop their B2B markets by posting online their international business relations with their customers and suppliers, using the Internet as a medium and/or market place. As a medium, it is the manufacturer's informative and advertising meeting point with his potential or already existing distributors. As a Marketplace, it gives an opportunity of posting online the business relations with customers and suppliers through e-procurement and marketing the products on a large scale.

Until today, the development of the e-procurement was limited to big industries -such as automobile, aviation, chemical, steel and heavy metal industry- and to the distribution giants, like Sears and Carrefour. They have posted online their suppliers network thus significantly reducing their costs. But now there is an overall tendency of expanding an e-procurement to all production sectors in industrialized countries through specialized portals. Of course, at first sight there are more risks involved than profit for the big supplying companies of raw materials, components, parts and accessories, including dental. Their customers can constantly monitor prices, market conditions, forcing their suppliers to compete among themselves, to increase their productivity and reduce expenses. This is the most exposed area of B2B for the big dental suppliers but at the same time this circumstance is compensated, thanks to the Internet, through strong market expansion.

For small and medium manufacturers, those that manufacture on behalf a third party and/or sell components and accessories, the Marketplace represents a new market that allows them to increase their volume of sales with minimum investments.

All manufacturers could equally benefit from this development of the Marketplace, including big manufacturers of raw materials, components, accessories, parts, accesories and finished products. It is estimated that the use of the Internet in purchasing them reduces the costs from 10 to 50%, depending on which industry. This reduction in costs involves profit reductions for big suppliers, of course, but it is compensated by the market expansion generated by the Internet. The GNP growth in the big industrialized countries proves this fact.

This is why one of the biggest developments in the Internet is foreseen in the area of the Marketplace, where the industry can get all necessary supplies directly, comparing prices and products of its potential suppliers.

The advantages of the Marketplace are multiple. In the first place, it offers "one more chance" to buy and sell, and guarantees a strong exposure to all its clients.

Secondly, its online exhibitors become more competitive by offering them new international business opportunities that do not require their physical presence, promotion, advertising, and can even eliminate or reduce the distribution network needed for the development of their markets.

Finally, at purchase level, both at e-procurement and for purchases on a large scale, it also allows the significant reduction in costs, and wide selection of the products -including the new ones-.

It is important to keep in mind that only to the companies that are open to information technology innovations, economic globalization, development of the international trade and to the companies that have international operations or the ones that have decided to do so, can fully benefit from the Internet.