To better understand the huge expectations from e-procurement as well as the need for a new business model that will allow manufacturers and supplier to improve supply chain performance, consider the business environment in the mid 90s. At that time,many manufacturers were desperately looking to outsource their procurement functions. These companies recognized that the procurement process is highly complex, requires significant expertise, and is very costly. Indeed,business-to-business transactions represent an enormous portion of the economy (much larger than business-to-consumer transactions), and the business-to-business marketplace is frequently highly fragmented, with a large number of supplier competing in the same marketplace and offering similar products.