New Spiisee Software CEO: Vendors Need Digital Ecosystems
… scale fast enough. So this is another tool that will allow them to do that.
And so to my point, everyone’s thinking about this. A lot of people, even though they’re thinking about this, they’ve put their toe in the water with a PRM or a CRM or something, and they’re trying to make it be what it isn’t designed to be. And the Spiisee platform being so powerful takes a little bit longer for people to kind of get their heads around on everything that it can do.
I think right now there’s a lot of inertia, and I think there are a certain amount of customer prospects out there who don’t really know what they need, but I think in the next 6-12 months they’re going to figure it out. And this is going to be exactly something that they’re going to be looking for.
CF: What are some of your goals for 2022?
BO: We have customers in Australia, we have customers in Canada, and we have a lot of really solid prospects in the U.S. right now. So I think developing the U.S. market and getting awareness for of the platform and what it does and how beneficial it is will be a focus for us this year. And to be honest, what the opportunity cost is if you don’t move your business in this direction, because everything’s moving to a digital platform.
The pandemic has helped fuel that and provide some inertia. And I think sales partners are looking at it the same way. They want to work with a TSB, a disti or a vendor who actually can provide them with an interface that makes them more efficient and agile. That’s really what we built. And we believe, at least according to Forrester, there are only 30 companies globally who can actually do this. And there are only a handful that actually focus on technology.
CF: And I assume even fewer are interested in this channel ecosystem.
BO: Well, it’s a new thing to get your head around, right? It’s really amalgamating the whole [process]. If you’re looking at moving your suppliers and your sales partners into one platform and have it all interact and be working in real-time and have the analytics to run your business — for me, I think that’s table stakes right now for people who are thinking about where their business is going to need to be in the next five years. With all the activity in the U.S. with private equity investment and investment in driving businesses to capitalize on the indirect sales model, especially in technology, a lot of people will build a racecar, but they kind of leave the engine until the last, and this thing is something that will really help fuel all those things that they want to do.
CF: Is there anything else you want to add?
BO: I believe that what we’ve built here at Spiisee is really going to redefine the way that technology is both procured and delivered in an indirect sales model. And we’re going to enable vendors and distis and TSBs (or anybody who touches technology distribution) to accelerate what they’re doing with real-time business intelligence. I like use the word business agility a lot. I think it’s really going to be eye-opening for people to see the benefits here and at the same time align their internal resources to get ahead of this before it really explodes in the next few years. That’s why we’re out there now talking about this and getting in front of as many people as we can.
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