Each industry sector tends to create B2B electronic systems that help reduce cost, improve accuracy, and speed transactions between the companies within that particular ecosystem. If you made a list of industries and wrote down what B2B systems are in place, the largest on the list without any significant notation would likely be advertising.

Full disclosure: I've been involved with this arcane topic for too many years of my career when I used to run one of the companies in this space and many of my consulting clients employ me to help them with B2B solutions.

But why do I stay involved? Simple, the complexity of transacting commercials for linear television pales in comparison to what will happen in non-linear, video on demand requirements for the future. In other words, if the ad industry has not fully gotten its 'plumbing' together yet, what is it going to do 3 years from now?

On Friday, the American Association of advertising agencies (4A's) unveiled yet another new initiative designed to help speed the development of "eBiz" solutions for media buying and selling. The 4A's mission is to design and convert all transactions between buyers and sellers to a fully electronic communications system.

When you really have not accomplished much, it is always wise for a non-profit industry group to hold another meeting and release more press announcements.

(excerpts from MediaDailyNews)

... Dubbed the eBiz for Media Lab, the project is designed to provide a centralized location where media agencies, media companies, and their software vendors can share information and data on their progress and the systems they currently use to conduct electronic transactions...

... However, many efforts have been made independently and some companies have made more progress than others. As a result, a common set of guidelines has yet to be established. One of the purposes of the eBiz for Media Lab is to let all the participants share non-proprietary information that can lead to industry wide standards.