Apps & Platforms: A Conversation with Rinus Strydom of Tradeshift

Key to the emergence and maturation of the As-a-Service Economy is the abandonment of legacy business systems in favor of a shift to a more agile, cloud-based business model. This requires the development and adoption of new SaaS (Softare-as-a-Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) tools. While this element of the As-a-Service Economy has been growing rapidly as businesses replace owned/legacy systems with cloud-based subscriptions, we see the potential for greater value in new business models and collaborative ecosystems that are enabled as a result of this shift.

Tradeshift, one of our sponsors for the recent HfS Working Summit (“The Rise of the As-a-Service Economy, May 12th, 2015 in Dallas, TX) is a provider of cloud-based platforms designed to enable collaborative value within the Supply Chain Management sector. After the event, we had the opportunity to sit down with Rinus Strydom, Vice President of Alliances at Tradeshift. His thoughts on the role of agility and partnerships, the impact of technology innovation on the business cycle, and the value of cannibalization on business outcomes all carry weight across today’s disruptive business ecosystem.

A few key themes of our conversation include:

On the Supply Chain Management: It’s more than just source-to-pay and wallet share – it’s also BPO and FTE as companies shift bodies to technology. 

On cannibalization and strategic outcomes: Success often means cannibalizing existing revenue streams to achieve the larger strategic outcome.  

Discussing the impact of technology: The development of a core digital foundation enables agility, the expansion of the collaborative ecosystem, and the ability to quickly add new processes. People want to be able to consume innovation.  Monolithic software systems are gone and B2B is quickly going the way of B2C: it’s now pick & choose the right apps.

On the value of digitizing the supply chain: By digitizing the supply chain it’s easy to add additional layers of apps to meet new needs.  

Regarding the value of platforms: We see BPO providers using app platforms to help transition from FTE to digital models while maintaining revenue streams. This app platform concept is the way people and businesses are thinking today.

On the shifting user model: Millennials will be the single largest segment of the working population within 4 years – they’ve grown up with tablets and smartphones. Enabling an easy “walk-up” and mobile-centric user interface is key. Nobody wants to sit in front of an SAP or Oracle screen anymore.

On the shifting business model: We’re all wary of the unknown. The C-Suite doesn’t know where they’re going to be in five years – enabling agility to help manage this unknown is key.

Thanks again to Rinus and Tradeshift for their sponsorship of this Working Summit, and for sharing their insights with the HfS global community.