FEBRUARY 2010
Noughty finish... > Job (title) Swap > US Expansion > New Recruits > eWorld Purchasing & Supply > OECD/ ITF Roundtable > Multimodal 2010 > Squaring the circle
Noughty finish sees Trade Extensions grow by 35%
Despite the economic uncertainty that defined 2009, Trade Extensions finished the year strongly and ultimately recorded a 13% growth in revenue. Growth in the last six months of 2009 was even more impressive and increased by 35% with early indications showing this level of growth will be maintained in early 2010.
New customers generated over 20% of Trade Extensions’ revenue and existing customers increased spend by an average of 20% as they used Trade Extensions in additional areas of their business.
Direct businesses customers and consultants accounted for over 80% of revenue in 2009 and the revenue contributed by consultants rose by 60%. Consultants will be a major focus for Trade Extensions during 2010 as it seeks to compete with other suppliers in terms of functionality, service and price.
During 2010 Trade Extensions will also be seeking to further develop its work in the public sector – an area where historically it has been strong.
JOB (title) SWAP
To ensure Trade Extensions is in the best position to grow and develop it has made small but significant changes to the roles of its senior management.
Garry Mansell becomes Chief Executive Officer with overall responsibility for the business and Arne Andersson becomes President with responsibility for the technical development of the company’s products.
Arne Anderrson said, “Garry and I have always performed these roles so, to a certain extent, it is just case of swapping job titles. Having said that, now the roles have been formalised it does provide the outside world with a clear structure – it’s my responsibility to make sure we have the world’s leading products. The fact we grew 35% in the last half of 2009 suggests we are doing something right.”
Garry Mansell said, “Arne and the team in Sweden write the best code on the market and our customers are seeing the benefits. Because our software is written in-house, all our procurement services seamlessly integrate with one another and it is very easy to deploy our software across organisations. We saw this last year and 20% of our revenue in 2009 came from existing customers increasing their spend as they used us in several new areas of their businesses.”
US Expansion in 2010
2009 saw Trade Extensions consolidate itself in the US market and despite only having had a permanent office in the US for 18 months, the US now contributes over one third of Trade Extensions revenue. To support customers in the US further, Trade Extensions will open additional offices in two US cities during 2010. The locations are yet to be finalised but will be selected from New York, Chicago or San Francisco.
New Recruits
Trade Extensions has made two key appointments since the last issue of ‘By the Buy...’
Shweta Sharma has joined as Business Solutions Manager, Americas. She is based in our Houston, TX office and will provide support and consultancy to our US-based customers. She is also responsible for training and supporting the implementation and utilisation of the software platform.
Before joining Trade Extensions, Shweta worked with Paradigm Partners as an Engineering Associate and she also worked as an IT consultant with Infosys.
In addition, Mike Coburn has joined Trade Extensions as a Strategic Sourcing Consultant.
An experienced programme manager, Mike specialises in applying online solutions to customer procurement projects. He has broad procurement experience gained in the transport, FMCG and telecom sectors and he will work with customers to manage procurement events and optimise supply chain strategies.
Events – eWorld Purchasing & Supply
Trade Extensions will be giving two seminars at eWorld Purchasing & Supply - the UK's primary event focusing on using of leading-edge technologies and techniques for procurement.
Wednesday, 24 February 2009 Private education from public sector
The private sector can learn from the public sector's experience of e-sourcing and, with reference to recent Swedish public procurement projects, this seminar will show how sophisticated and powerful bidding processes are being used to provide excellent value for money for government agencies and, at the same time, attractive business for winning suppliers.
Thursday, 25 February 2009 Supply Chain Sanity
Learn how powerful new techniques are enabling organisations to unravel the complexities of their supply chains and truly optimise them for the first time. Complex procurement projects need not generate unmanageable amounts of data and, with the right tools, it is possible to simultaneously source and optimise any multiple leg supply chain.
eWorld Purchasing & Supply is taking place at The National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, UK on 24, 25 February 2009. It is free to attend and you can register online - www.eworld-purchasing.com
Events – OECD / ITF Research Round Table
The Joint Transport Research Centre of the OECD and the International Transport Forum has invited Trade Extensions to present a discussion paper at its ‘round table’ event taking place on 8-9 March in Genoa, Italy.
Information and communication technology is critical to effective intermodal traffic management and the session will generate a report on its potential to improve freight transport which policy-makers will consider at the 2010 International Transport Forum taking place in Leipzig, Germany on 26-28 May.
Presentation of a paper is by invitation only but there are a limited number of seats available for freight transport specialists who want to attend and contribute to the broader discussion. Programme and registration information will be available shortly on the International Transport Forum website: www.internationaltransportforum.org
Events – Multimodal 2010
Trade Extensions is sponsoring Multimodal 2010 and once again we will be running a programme of industry briefings from our stand. Continuing our desire to provide high profile and relevant seminars we have confirmed an exceptional programme:
Decarbonising of Logistics
Professor Alan McKinnon - Heriot-Watt University
Alan Mckinnon will share the latest thinking on how manufacturers and retailers are minimising
the impact their logistics operations have on the environment and will discuss future initiatives and
trends.
An Introduction to Trade Extensions and Optimisation
Trade Extensions
In this session we will explain how we help major manufacturers, retailers and the public sector
achieve optimised procurement in their major sourcing projects – no matter how large and complex
the requirements.
The European Freight Market
Joe Critchley, Trade Extensions
Joe Critchley will share the procurement tactics and techniques being used by major organisations
in the market today. He will highlight how European freight rates and their underlying drivers have
been evolving over the last twelve months.
Case Study: Optimising Tender Benefits
Philip Witerhalder - Kellogg’s
Philip Winterhalder will describe how sophisticated optimising techniques were used in Kellogg’s
recent pan-European tender to address a number of key strategic objectives.
Supplier selection in today’s economic climate
Craig Bunker - Key3 Partners
Craig will share with you some insights to use when
examining the operational, financial and technical ability
of transport companies, especially if you are seeking
those that will be here for the long term
Supply Chain Sanity
Trade Extensions
Here you will learn how powerful new techniques are enabling organisations to unravel the complexities of their supply chains and truly optimise them for the first time.
Multimodal 2010 takes place in the UK on
27 – 29 April 2010 and the precise timings
for these briefings will be confirmed closer
to the time. Details of the briefings and more
information on Multimodal 2010 can be found on
the Multimodal website: www.multimodal.org.uk
Squaring the circle – development for 2010
Spend Analysis and Contract Management were introduced during 2009 and to complete the procurement suite we will be introducing a compliance module during 2010. As is the case with Spend Analysis and Contract Management, the new compliance module will seamlessly integrate with our esourcing and world leading bid optimisation functionality. The compliance module will allow users to monitor and manage what was agreed with suppliers and what happened in reality.
In addition to adding compliance functionality we will also be
introducing a Tender Dashboard to provide users with an even
better way of viewing the key data and management tasks in
any tender.