We first saw supplier networks emerge online in the 1990s, when the business world was going gaga over the early stages of e-commerce and online trading. Originally tagged "online exchanges," these networks promised to disintermediate traditional distributors by putting buyers and sellers in direct contact online. As part of that process, everything from orders to customer service to financial transactions would take place on the web.
While the first generation of online exchanges didn't quite live up to expectations (due in part, of course, to the dot-com implosion of the early-2000s), the new guard appears to be gaining ground in the area staked out by its predecessors.