So this is an interesting concept, if it were possible to conduct B2B trading in a virtual world, would companies use it?.  Well according to this story over on silicon.com  it may not be that far away. The virtual world Second Life , is a computer generated virtual world with nearly 6 million ‘residents’ and nearly $1.5Million ‘real world’ monies are exchanged on a daily basis.  Individual users sign up, choose an avatar or 3D likeness of themselves and then they can begin roaming around the virtual world.  Up until recently the virtual worlds were restricted to ‘visitor’ type attractions, such as the Kennedy Space Centre, but now large companies are starting to see Second Life as a superb marketing tool to showcase their products to a large and a fairly captive audience.  So here are some examples of what these companies are doing:

BMW have established a virtual car showroom to allow visitors to see their latest concept cars and see how they plan to develop their cars in the future.  I wonder if you will eventually be able to configure and order your car through Second Life in the future.  People said that online trading, eg buying a car through a website would never takeoff, but it has.  This way of displaying your products enhances the buying experience.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

Cisco Systems have built their own house to showcase their networking technology and how it can be used to control all aspects of the house.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab 

IBM have built a whole campus which is used to explain what they do as a company, the type of products they sell and how companies are implementing their solutions.  In marketing we often use case studies to showcase how our customers use our B2B solutions, imagine how these case studies could be brought to life in a world like this.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

So with companies entering Second Life, individuals buying goods, casinos offering online gambling, what you also need is a law firm to keep things under control!.  Just as law firms can offer companies advice on using the internet to conduct business etc, so a similar requirement is now needed in Second Life as well.  This is one of the reasons why the law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse have recently setup an ‘office’ in Second Life. 

 

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

Second Life is growing very quickly, housing a large virtual  population and big brand global companies fighting to get a presence, if the residents are able to buy goods from virtual shops, how long will it be before companies could  buy goods from each other?  If this happens, how do companies then manage this buying and selling process in a virtual world?  Will we see 3D virtual invoices being sent from one company to another, will we see bar code labeling somehow being applied to goods in the virtual world and then being able to track the movement of goods within second life?  The internet has totally transformed the way in which companies conduct B2B trading between themselves, are we now seeing a new type of trading environment emerging?

One thought I have had, picking up on the virtual bar code labeling idea above, what about if you could use this environment as a ‘visibility’ platform for tracking the movement of your goods from your suppliers or to your customers.  Today, visibility into the supply chain is one of the most important areas that companies want to improve.  RFID , bar code labeling etc have all been introduced to help improve the visibility of globally shipped goods.  What about if you could setup a virtual environment that simulated your supply chain and you could see in 3D where goods were within their shipping process.  For example setting up virtual distribution centres, cargo ports, airports etc, this could provide the holy grail of visibility solutions for companies wishing to improve visibility of shipped goods.

Another example is Google Earth, companies are already finding ways of exploiting this from a commercial perspective, for example VW are looking at using Google Earth as their next 3D mapping environment for their next generation satellite navigation system. Could Google earth be used in a similar way to Second Life for improving visibility into a supply chain?

 

So an interesting insight into the possible direction for future B2B trading environments, as mentioned earlier, the internet has transformed the way in which companies conduct business between each other, could these new 3D virtual environments provide the next generation B2B platform?, only time will tell.  My colleague Justin Duewel-Zahniser, who also posts on the GXS blog site, is very experienced in the use of Second Life and I am sure it won’t be too long before he posts his thoughts on the potential business opportunities for Second Life…