A business-to-business transaction clearinghouse integrates the
traditional point-to-point business supply chain at the clearinghouse.
The clearinghouse provides cost effective access to a wide variety of
members and includes value-added services. Members of the clearinghouse
can include trading members, members that help the trading members ship
their products, and banking members. The clearinghouse facilitates
business among the trading members by providing a single point of contact
for all transactions. The clearinghouse can be specific to an industry,
such as the chemical industry. Multiple industry specific clearinghouses
may form a network clearinghouses to effectively create one larger and
more general business-to-business electronic commerce community.