Singtel Launches B2B eShop
Today’s papers mentioned about Singtel launching an online shop for its corporate clients. The shop mainly targeting its business users has almost the same features as the existing online shop for consumers. The difference? Probably sweeter deals since most business package plans (i.e. corporate broadband, corporate mobile plans) are much pricer than that of what consumers are paying for.
I’ve done a little research and here’s the link to the new eShop.
On first glance, in terms of designs and features that the website offers look very similar, if not identical to the existing one for consumers. Compared to the consumer’s version, the prices of call plans, and mobile phones also rather similar. Take for example Sony Ericsson’s C905 Cybershot phone. Both sites offer the phone at $338 with a iTwo Plus, or iThree Plus plan.
The main difference though is that the Business eShop offers a wider range of plans, which includes plans with a much higher subscription fee but with more free talktime. Premium 1500, and Premium 700.
Back to the topic, I really wonder if there’s a need to seperate the website into consumer and business portals. Imagine the amount of effort involved to setup a seperate entity. Even though most of the design and features are a duplicate, most probably seperate database has to be constructed, and hosted on a seperate server for security reasons.
Alright, I shan’t go into too technical detail here. To what I know the Business eShop caters for companys that make payment using credit cards. As of today, I’m quite sure most companies do not have a corporate credit card. Even if they do, its purely more for entertainment expenses like bringing clients out for dinner. High chance the management would still prefer to issue cheques when making equipment purchasing or service subscription, which allows better auditing.
Honestly, I think its a little too redundant to have an eShop that caters for business users. Especially since Singapore is still very traditional asian society. Moreover whats there to make a big “hoohaa” over this online shop on the Straits Times. Hmm… Singtel too much money to spend, and Straits Times probably not much interesting news these days.
