1. A Forrester Consulting
Thought Leadership Paper
Commissioned By Four51
May 2015
Build Cloud B2B
eCommerce Applications
On Your Terms
PaaS Combines Speed And Agility
With The Customization And
Integration Businesses Need
3. 1
Executive Summary
Over the past twenty years, online consumer shopping has
become well established, but business buyers have been
slower to migrate. But the wait for the online business buyer
is coming to an end: In the US alone, the B2B eCommerce
market is now on a steady march toward $1 trillion by 2020.
With the rise in prominence of the online business buyer,
having a strong eCommerce presence is no longer a luxury
for B2B sellers. eCommerce systems can’t simply be “bolted
on” to existing businesses, however. They must be
integrated into sales and partner channels and customized
to accommodate unique needs. No one understands this
challenge more than the developers working to build and
deploy B2B eCommerce solutions.
In March 2016, Four51 commissioned Forrester Consulting
to evaluate how B2B eCommerce systems fit into the
broader digital landscape, and what platform functionality
developers require to deliver eCommerce capabilities within
modern websites and apps. Four51 also sought to uncover
developers’ perceptions of various approaches to B2B
eCommerce delivery. Forrester structured a hypothesis to
test the assertion that modern developers who work with
B2B eCommerce solutions will gravitate toward cloud-
hosted platforms over time due to their needs for
comprehensive, customizable, and quick-to-implement
capabilities and workflows.
By conducting a survey of 150 software development and
architecture professionals in the United States with recent
experience developing B2B eCommerce solutions,
Forrester found that current solutions fall far short of needs,
and that Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based solutions are
an increasingly popular option for developers seeking
flexible, quick-to-deploy systems.
KEY FINDINGS
Forrester’s study yielded 5 key findings:
› Current B2B eCommerce deployments disappoint
developers. An average of 80% of the developers we
surveyed rated one of thirteen B2B eCommerce system
qualities we asked about as important or critically
important, yet an average of only 36% told us their current
solution was excellent at delivering the same qualities.
Among the qualities with the biggest deltas between
requirements and performance are completeness of
feature sets, mobile capabilities, breadth of integration
options, and speed of deployment.
› Lack of integrations and customizations limit B2B
eCommerce success. Nearly half of developers we
surveyed cited a lack of necessary integrations with other
technologies and capabilities as a top inhibitor of
successful B2B eCommerce development, thereby
propelling it to the No. 1 spot. Ranking closely behind
were the lack of customization to business needs and
difficulty integrating with other back end systems.
› On-premise and SaaS solutions disappoint
developers. A majority of developers are frustrated with
the challenges of on-premise eCommerce environments –
including cost of acquisition/implementation and
maintenance, time required for deployment and
maintenance, and procurement headaches. Similarly, all
respondents ranked all potential SaaS drawbacks – such
as inadequate integrations, limits on developing for
certain channels, and poor adaptability to business
processes and needs – as a major or moderate issue.
› PaaS-based systems are posed for the largest
increase in B2B eCommerce deployments. Comfort
with multitenant cloud services has risen steeply over the
past two years, and B2B eCommerce developers now
report plans to decrease the share of projects built on-
premise and increase those developed in the cloud. The
rate of increase in planned PaaS-based deployments
over the next two years is twice that of the increase in
planned SaaS-based deployments. Furthermore,
developers told us they are significantly more comfortable
developing in a PaaS environment than they are in a
SaaS environment, while the difference in their levels of
comfort in PaaS and on-premise environments is
statistically insignificant.
› Customization is critical for B2B eCommerce
systems. An average of 81% of developers described
each of the six customization elements we asked about –
ranging from user interface to integration with commercial
applications or RDBMSes to unique business processes –
as important or critically important.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based solutions
are an increasingly popular option for
developers seeking flexible, quick-to-deploy
systems.
4. 2
Online Selling Flips B2B Customer
Engagement On Its Head, And
Developers Are Central To The
Transformation
Business buyers are consumers, too, and it was only a
matter of time before their technology-driven expectations of
meeting their needs anytime, anywhere, caused
longstanding modes of B2B commerce to yield share to
digital ones. B2B sellers have much to gain from this shift.
Executives surveyed by Forrester cite factors such as
higher loyalty, spend, and profitability as motivators for
shifting business buyers online.
i
Delivering on this new imperative isn’t easy, however, and
business stakeholders aren’t the only ones wrapping their
heads around it. So, too, are members of technical staff
charged with developing, deploying, and evolving the
capabilities to make B2B eCommerce possible. Our study
found that:
› B2B eCommerce is a new world for developers, but
there is growing demand for their skills. Engaging
business buyers in earnest through eCommerce is such a
recent phenomenon that only one-third of the developers
we surveyed (all of whom were required to have
experience on such projects) had B2B eCommerce
experience a mere two years ago. With what Forrester
projects to be volume of over $1 trillion by 2020 – a
compound annual growth rate of 7.7% – the explosion of
B2B eCommerce means that these developers can
expect a healthy workload of deploying and refining such
systems.
ii
› Business and technical initiatives alike drive B2B
eCommerce projects. The developers we surveyed are
generally aligned with the business motivators for
deploying B2B eCommerce systems, with the majority
citing factors such as high rates of repeat business,
reduced costs per order, and competitive pressure as
major drivers. Unsurprisingly, developers are also well-
attuned to the technical factors putting these projects in
the pipeline, too, with at least half of respondents
classifying considerations like system modernization,
mobile initiatives, and systems integrations as having
major sway (see Figure 1).
› Developers have a prominent seat at the table when
evaluating and selecting solutions. Developers are
active participants in the evaluation and selection of B2B
eCommerce solutions. In fact, 58% of the developers we
surveyed said their roles in such activities have increased
recently, a third of whom said they had become much
more involved. The share of developers involved in such
decision-making activities is particularly sharp at customer
organizations (i.e., end user organizations) and partner
organizations (e.g., systems integrators, digital agencies,
and consultants), where 41% and 44% of developers with
FIGURE 1
An Assortment Of Business And Technical Factors
Drive B2B eCommerce Initiatives
Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Four51, March 2016
39%
44%
44%
46%
47%
50%
51%
52%
55%
58%
63%
42%
45%
46%
45%
39%
38%
40%
36%
39%
33%
31%
Omnichannel initiatives
Increased loyalty
Lower customer
acquisition/retention costs
Reducing order/manual errors
Higher spend/average
transaction value
Systems integrations
Competitive pressure
Mobile initiatives
Reduction of cost per order
System modernization
Higher rates of repeat/return
business
"To what extent do you believe the
following factors drive the B2B
eCommerce projects you work on?"
Major driver Moderate driver
5. 3
increased involvement call the change major (see Figure
2).
Plans Signal A Rise In Cloud-Based
Development, With PaaS Poised To
See The Largest Increase
When eCommerce first emerged two decades ago, its
impact on business buying was hard to foresee. Even less
apparent were the various development environments such
capabilities could be built and deployed in. In addition to the
established on-premise and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
offerings that have permeated the market, developers are
also showing increasing interest in models like Platform-as-
a-Service (PaaS), which offer a hosted set of tools and
services that allow for the development of custom solutions.
Which methods do B2B eCommerce developers prefer
today, and which ones will they turn to in the future? We
found that:
› Cloud-based B2B eCommerce development, led by
PaaS, is on the rise. Old habits (and code bases) die
hard, so it’s no surprise that on-premise deployment
constitutes the largest share of B2B eCommerce
deployments today (28%). Yet, various cloud-based
models add up to nearly double that amount, with a
combined share of 53%. And developers we surveyed are
FIGURE 2
Developers Play An Increasingly Prominent Role In
B2B eCommerce Solution Evaluation And Selection
Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf
of Four51, March 2016
48%
11%
34%
24%
32%
26%
Somewhat more involved
Much more involved
"To what extent has the role of developers
in the evaluation and selection of B2B
eCommerce solutions changed at your
organization recently?"
Partner organizations
Customer organizations
Vendor organizations
20%
Average of all respondents
38%
FIGURE 3
PaaS Is Posed To See A Large Increase In Its Share Of B2B eCommerce Projects
Not all response options shown
Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
28%
19% 17% 17%
26%
21% 19% 16%
On -premise Commerce Software-as-a-
Service (SaaS)
Commerce Platform-as-a-
Service (PaaS)
Commerce Infrastructure-as-
a-Service (IaaS)
"Using your best estimate, how much of the code you write for B2B
eCommerce projects is deployed in the following environments today? How
do you expect that to change?"
Currently In two years
Projected change in
total share of
deployments
7% decrease 7% increase 14% increase 1% decrease
6. 4
steadily moving further into the cloud, predicting that 56%
of their deployments will be in the cloud within two years.
PaaS deployments are projected to see the biggest rate
of increase (14%) in their share of B2B eCommerce
projects during the next two years, while SaaS’s projected
rate of increase is half that (7%) and IaaS deployments
are anticipated to decrease slightly. On-premise projects
are slated to see the biggest decrease, with their
prevalence expected to decrease by 7% (see Figure 3).
› Multitenancy is rapidly gaining acceptance.
Multitenant architectures – those which let multiple
customers share the same applications and/or compute
resources – allow service providers to achieve high cost
efficiencies while easing services maintenance and
updates. Yet, despite these solutions’ abilities to provide
improved security when properly configured, early cloud
adopters have often worried about security or
performance issues from “noisy neighbors”.
iii
But those
fears are receding as developers gain hands-on
experience with the cloud. Just two years ago, less than
one-third of these developers were very comfortable with
multitenancy, and an additional 42% registered as
somewhat comfortable. Today, the share of developers
claiming at least some comfort with multitenancy has
grown significantly (from 71% to 88%). What’s more, the
ratio of those who are very comfortable to those who are
somewhat comfortable has been flipped, with a robust
59% claiming the highest level of ease with the
architecture, and the overwhelming majority of this shift
took place just over the past year (see Figure 4).
› Developers now prefer PaaS to other cloud delivery
models. The expected increase in PaaS development
compared to other models can be traced at least in part to
developer preference. When asked about their levels of
comfort developing in a variety of environments, the
developers we surveyed told us that they were
significantly more comfortable with PaaS than with SaaS
or IaaS. In fact, developers’ levels of comfort with PaaS
and on-premise environments are not statistically
different. Developers from partner organizations are
especially comfortable with PaaS environments: 68% of
partner respondents said they were “completely
FIGURE 5
Developers Prefer PaaS To Other Cloud
Environments
Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Four51, March 2016
44%
56%
59%
61%
59%
46%
50%
66%
72%
76%
30%
66%
68%
62%
70%
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS)
Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS)
Platform-as-a-Service
(PaaS)
On premise
Open source
"Generally, how comfortable are you
developing in the following
environments?" (answers of completely)
Partner organizations
Customer organizations
Vendor organizations
68%
Average of all respondents
65%
64%
57%
40%
FIGURE 4
The Rate At Which Developers Embrace
Multitenancy Has Increased Dramatically
“To what degree are you comfortable with
multitenancy, and how has that level of comfort
changed?”
Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Four51, March 2016
29%
42%
Two Years Ago
59%
29%
Today
Completely comfortable
Somewhat comfortable
36%
45%
One Year Ago
7. 5
comfortable” with PaaS, compared to 62% who said the
same for on-premise. Customer organizations are
extraordinarily comfortable with open source software
(see Figure 5).
Existing B2B eCommerce
Implementations Fall Short Of
Developer And Business Needs
Deploying a B2B eCommerce solution that meets modern
business is a challenging task. Through our research, we
sought to understand how current B2B eCommerce
solutions meet business requirements and the challenges
developers face in deploying them. We also wanted to know
about the ease with which developers can work with the two
most popular approaches, on-premise and SaaS, which
together account for nearly half of all B2B eCommerce
deployments. We found that the current landscape leaves
much to be desired:
› Most in-place B2B eCommerce solutions don’t meet
developer needs. Businesses demand that their
eCommerce systems be cost efficient, feature-rich, and
differentiated from the competition. Furthermore, such
systems must be quick to deploy and capable of
supporting unique business processes. To accommodate
this list of requirements, developers need solutions that
meet a great deal of criteria. Yet, according to our survey
respondents, traditional solutions aren’t up to par. An
average of 80% of developers rated each of the thirteen
B2B eCommerce solution qualities we asked about as
important or critically important, yet a dismal average of
36% said their current solution is excellent at the same –
a whopping delta of forty-four percentage points (see
Figure 6).
› Subpar integration and customization capabilities
limit success of B2B eCommerce implementations.
The lack of necessary integrations with other technologies
and capabilities ranks as the No. 1 inhibitor of successful
B2B eCommerce workflows among our respondents. Tied
for No. 2 are a lack of customization to business needs
and difficulty integrating with other back end systems.
FIGURE 6
The Performance Of Today’s B2B eCommerce Deployments Fall Far Short Of Needs
Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
36%
34%
29%
44%
32%
35%
49%
39%
37%
38%
33%
31%
29%
72%
72%
67%
83%
72%
76%
90%
82%
80%
88%
84%
86%
85%
Customizability of core business processes
Customizability of the solution's user interfaces
Documentation and online training resources
Maintainability
API extensibility
Scalability
Security
Speed/ease of deployment
Breadth of integration options
Cloud deployment capabilities/cloud-readiness
Mobile capabilities
Completeness of feature set
Cost
"How important are the following qualities of B2B eCommerce solutions? How do
you rate your current B2B eCommerce solution's capabilities?")
"This quality is important or critically important for a B2B eCommerce solution"
"Our current B2B eCommerce solution is excellent at this"
Needs vs.
Performance
Delta
56%
55%
51%
50%
43%
43%
41%
41%
40%
39%
38%
38%
36%
8. 6
Difficulty customizing the user experience and extending
support to mobile devices also made the list of top
inhibitors (see Figure 7).
› SaaS solutions don’t accommodate unique business
requirements. While SaaS-based eCommerce solutions
have taken significant market share in the early stages of
firms’ moves to the cloud, we found that the majority of
developers reported a moderate or major issue with each
potential drawback of SaaS, the top of which include
inadequate integrations, limited options for developing for
individual channels (like Web or mobile), and version
centricity (see Figure 8). We ascribe early SaaS success
more to lack of eCommerce PaaS availability than
superior capability, as evidenced by increased PaaS
adoption intentions in light of increased offerings.
› On-premise solutions don’t work with modern
timelines and budgets. Although their honeymoon
phase with SaaS may be waning, developers won’t be
pining for a return to on-premise dominance anytime
soon. We also asked respondents who recently
developed in an on-premise environment what pain points
such projects inflicted, and found a similar average of
58% reporting moderate or major issues across a range
of factors. Cost – of both maintenance/acquisition and
implementation – made the list of top three issues, as did
the burden of applying upgrades and new versions.
Respondents also complained about the time required to
maintain and acquire, implement, and deploy on-premise
solutions, and the headache of dealing with internal
procurement and budgeting processes (see Figure 9).
FIGURE 7
Lack of integration and customization limit the success of B2B eCommerce systems
Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
% respondents
placing factor in
Top 5
47%
42%
42%
38%
36%
36%
36%
29%5%
8%
8%
9%
6%
6%
13%
8%
5%
11%
5%
5%
9%
13%
4%
9%
7%
5%
5%
7%
8%
8%
6%
13%
5%
5%
8%
8%
7%
8%
9%
9%
7%
7%
10%
7%
8%
7%
10%
8%
Overemphasis on technology versus strategy
Extending support to new devices like mobile
phones or tablets
Difficulty customizing the user experience
Lack of budget
Insufficient staff expertise
Difficulty integrating with other back end systems
Lack of customization to business needs
Lack of necessary integrations with other
technologies/capabilities
"What are the top inhibitors to successful development of B2B eCommerce
systems?" (Top 8 responses)
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
9. 7
PaaS Solutions Provide A Modern
Approach To B2B eCommerce
With the need for solutions that are not only customized, but
quick to deploy, it’s not surprising that B2B eCommerce
developers plan to ramp up their work with PaaS more than
any other environment. But not all solutions provide the
hallmarks of PaaS’ value proposition, such as API-first
qualities and out-of-the-box support for applications that
support customer and business needs.
What customization elements are most important, what
factors drive PaaS adoption, and what qualities does a
PaaS B2B eCommerce solution need in order to be
successful? The developers we surveyed told us that:
› UI is the top customization need, with integrations
following closely. It’s no wonder that developers want
APIs that clearly separate user interfaces from business
logic. An API-first approach supports custom
development of user interfaces and eases integration with
commercial applications, the two most important elements
of B2B eCommerce customization valued by our
respondents (88% and 85%, respectively). Other
customization wants include integration with RDBMes,
plug-in architectures, access to open source code, and
accommodation of unique business processes. In fact, at
least three-quarters of respondents say any of the
customization components we asked about are important
or critically important in the solutions they seek.
Interestingly, developers at end user customer
organizations generally value customization more than
the partners and vendors that serve them. Although the
strong majority of developers at vendor organizations say
customizations are important, they are comparative
laggards when it comes to the magnitude of that
importance (see Figure 10).
FIGURE 8
SaaS Solutions Are Viewed By Many As Inflexible
Base: 142 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Four51, March 2016
55%
57%
59%
60%
61%
62%
Poor adaptability to
business processes/needs
Limited user interface
options
Limited scaling capabilities
Version centricity
Limits of developing for
individual channels
Inadequate/limited
integrations
"To what extent have the following
presented an issue, if at all, when
developing in a SaaS environment?"
(answers of major or moderate issue)
FIGURE 9
On-Premise Solutions Require Prohibitively High
Time And Expenditure Outlays For Modern
Organizations
Base: 135 US software architecture and development professionals
involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Four51, March 2016
56%
56%
57%
57%
58%
58%
59%
60%
61%
Time required to deploy
Time to acquire and install
required hardware/software
Poor adaptability to business
processes/needs
Procurement/budgeting
processes/personnel
Time required for
maintenance
Configuration and support
Cost of
acquisition/implementation
Applying upgrades or new
versions
Cost of maintenance
"To what extent have the following
presented an issue when developing in
an on premise environment?" (answers of
major or moderate issue)
10. 8
› Quick to-deploy, API-first platforms that support
modern technologies are the PaaS trademarks that
woo developers. Survey respondents who indicated
plans to increase the share of B2B eCommerce projects
they develop in PaaS environments indicate a range of
influences leading to their shift from other environments.
Measured by total mentions within their top three factors,
a modern development environment (including
frameworks and APIs) is the most important, followed
closely by better support for the mobile devices customers
have embraced and improved security. Measured by
mentions as a No. 1 factor, the ubiquitous need for
improved security takes top place, followed by the ability
to roll out new capabilities to customers faster and a tie
between more modern development environment and
lower infrastructure maintenance costs (see Figure 11).
› Successful PaaS-based B2B eCommerce depends on
having the right factors in place. Despite their “ready-
to-go” status, respondents indicated a need for a variety
of resources to get the most out of their PaaS solutions.
Overall, software development kits (SDKs) are seen as
most essential, with training, documentation, ongoing
support services, and RDBMS integration support
following closely behind with no statistically significant
level of difference. What constitutes the most important
resource differs for each respondent group, however.
Partners see documentation as most critical, while
customers are more likely to require ongoing support
services and vendors seek a complete RESTful API set
(see Figure 12).
FIGURE 10
Customization Is An Imperative For B2B eCommerce Solutions
“How important, if at all, is customization of the following elements of a B2B eCommerce solution?” (answers
of critically important or important)
Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
74%
75%
80%
81%
85%
88%
Unique business
processes
Access to core
source code via an
open source license
Plug-in architecture
that allows event
interception or…
Integration with my
business’s RDBMes
Integration with
commercial
applications
User interface
All respondents
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
User interface
Integration with
commercial
applications
Integration with
business's RDBMes
Plug-in architecture
allowing event
interception/triggers
Access to core source
code via open source
license
Unique business
processes
Partners Customers Vendors
11. 9
FIGURE 12
Top Resources Needed For Successful PaaS-Based eCommerce Vary By Company Type
“What resources would you need to successfully implement PaaS-based eCommerce?” (answers of critically
important or important)
Base: 135 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
27%
31%
35%
37%
41%
42%
42%
43%
43%
44%
Componentized architecture
Recommended/vetted
consulting partners
Online sandbox to test code
Code Samples
A complete set of RESTful
APIs
RDBMS integration support
Ongoing support services
Documentation
Training
Software development kits
(SDKs) or seeds
All respondents
Partners Customers Vendors
No.1
Resource
Documentation
Ongoing support
services
Complete
RESTful API set
No. 2
Resource
SDKs or seeds
RDBMS integration
support
Training
No. 3
Resource
Ongoing
support services
SDK or seeds Documentation
FIGURE 11
PaaS Adoption Is Driven By Need For Modernization, Support, Security, And Speed
“Which of the following factors have the greatest influence on your decision to increasingly develop B2B
eCommerce projects in a PaaS environment?”
Base: 42 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflows
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016
2%
10%
7%
7%
14%
17%
19%
10%
14%
14%
7%
7%
12%
7%
12%
7%
17%
17%
2%
10%
14%
12%
10%
10%
14%
14%
14%
Shifting capital expense (Capex) to operating expense
(Opex)
Easier updates to new versions and product features
Easier to customize
Executive pressure to move to cloud-hosted solutions
Lower costs of maintaining application infrastructure
Faster roll out of new capabilities to business
customers
Improved security of data and transactions
Better support for mobile devices
More modern development environment, frameworks,
or APIs
1st ranked 2nd ranked 3rd ranked
12. 10
Key Recommendations
Forrester’s in-depth survey of B2B eCommerce developers yielded several important recommendations:
› The future of B2B eCommerce is in the cloud, so prepare for it now. There’s a gradual, but absolute,
movement to the cloud on the part of B2B eCommerce developers. If your development shop is not comfortable
with cloud economics, or the cloud’s technical underpinnings, then it’s a top priority to start gathering experience
sooner rather than later. Hiring developers with implementation experience is a good start, but teams should also
focus on exposing in-house developers to modern principles like APIs, service consumption, multitenancy and
HTML 5 standards, frameworks, and programming languages.
› Support developers’ exploration of new eCommerce capabilities. Implementing a B2B eCommerce solution
used to be a daunting proposition that required in-depth planning, a long project schedule, and considerable
capital to fund. But modern solutions don’t require teams to “buy the battleship”. Instead, let your developers
experiment with modern solutions that are quick to deploy, pay-as-you-go, and highly customizable. When paired
with Agile development approaches, you’ll quickly find out that today’s B2B eCommerce platforms have more in
common with modern development projects then yesterday’s package implementation efforts.
› Make sure your eCommerce investments support more than just the Web. While we still expect the Web to
be an important buying channel for B2B commerce, it won’t be the only one. Business buyers will follow
consumers and become increasingly comfortable buying from their mobile phone, tablets, and perhaps from their
trucks or other connected devices. Make sure that the eCommerce solutions you invest in provide good support
for mobile today, but also that this support doesn’t lock you into an off the shelf mobile app that can’t easily be
customized. Examine how mobile support will evolve into multi-channel support, and how teams can track buyer
habits across multiple channels, at every stage in their purchase journey.
› Consider the flexibility that PaaS eCommerce platforms deliver. Good PaaS platforms are designed to be
flexible. Look for platforms that separate functional services from user interfaces through an API-first approach.
Other needs like mobile app support, integration with third-party applications, and integration with custom
systems are all much easier when there’s not a hard-linked UI getting in the way. Platform APIs should extend to
administrative functions and reporting functions as well. When implemented properly, a PaaS based eCommerce
platform will quickly prove itself through quick, cost-effective delivery of just the features that developers need.
13. 11
Appendix A: Methodology
In this study, Forrester interviewed conducted an online survey of 150 software development and software architecture
professionals in the United States with experience with B2B eCommerce development projects, with significant
representation of respondents from three segments: Customers (those working to develop software to support their
businesses); partners (those working at a consultant, systems integrator, or digital agency on projects to meet the needs of
clients; and vendors (those working to develop software or online services sold to customers. The purpose of the research
was to discover the motivators for and prevalence of B2B eCommerce development, which development approaches are
being used for such projects, and what challenges developers experience in developing quality B2B eCommerce
capabilities. Respondents were offered small incentives determined and administered by their respective survey panels as a
thank you for time spent on the survey. The study was conducted in March 2016.
Appendix B: Endnotes
i
Source: “The Case For Channel Shifting Offline Customers Online,” June 24, 2015
ii
Source: “B2B eCommerce: A Trillion Dollar For The Taking,” Forrester Research, Inc., September 28, 2015
iii
Source: “Understanding Cloud’s Multitenancy,” Forrester Research, Inc., March 15, 2012
![Table Of Contents
Executive Summary ...........................................................................................1
Online Selling Flips B2B Customer Engagement On Its Head, And
Developers Are Central To The Transformation............................................2
Plans Signal A Rise In Cloud-Based Development, With PaaS Poised To
See The Largest Increase..................................................................................3
Existing B2B eCommerce Implementations Fall Short Of Developer And
Business Needs..................................................................................................5
PaaS Solutions Provide A Modern Approach To B2B eCommerce............7
Key Recommendations ...................................................................................10
Appendix A: Methodology ..............................................................................11
Appendix B: Endnotes.....................................................................................11
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