This is the last in the series of three articles that covers the various announcements and news items that came from Tradeshift Analyst event on March 5th, 2013. Previous articles include:
- Some interesting stats on Tradeshift’s network and insights into the Intuit partnership in Part 1, and
- A detailed discussion around CloudScan and Tradeshift’s upcoming workflow capabilities in Part 2.
The Cool Stuff
Today’s post will focus on some of the really cool features (at least for me) of the network. One of these is yet to come and is what Tradeshift calls “Discovery” (hmm I’ve heard that before somewhere – Ariba Discovery). However, this is something different; it feels more like a social network and has similar features, for example, like when a LinkedIn user sees ‘people you might know’ on their LinkedIn home page. Similarly, on Tradeshift users will be able to see “suggested companies” based on the information within the invoice (for example, displaying another landscaping company if one of the invoices is around landscaping). Users will be able to ‘follow’ certain companies and also have access to information about a particular supplier). Customers will be able to write recommendations for their suppliers and suppliers ‘request’ to display their customers’ logos. So, all in all, the new version of the Tradeshift platform which is going to be released in a few months has a very ‘social’ feel with great collaboration and connectivity features.
Another very cool and very different aspect about Tradeshift is its App framework, this is alredy in place and is similar in concept to Facebook apps or Apple apps. The app marketplace, called Tradeshift Apps, is where users find, pay for (some are free) and activate apps. Apps can offer a variety of features and add-ons for example, a map app called Cartobi allows users to view and analyze invoice data on a map, the PayPal Payment app allows for online payments to be collected and Recurring Invoices allows users to send Invoices automatically each month to certain suppliers. All apps have different pricing models, for example, the Paypal Payment app charges $0.50/transaction but Cartobi charges $15/month. All apps are designed to work within the Tradeshift network and once activated are ready to use.
Currently, Tradeshift has approximately 30 apps available with about as many in development. Two that are coming soon were showcased at the event were Duedil and The Currency Cloud.
- Duedil – is a free online database which provides business, accounting and director information on businesses registered in the UK & Ireland. The company aggregates publicly available data from registries like Companies House in the UK which has approximately 2.7MM companies on the register. Duedil will be available as an app on Tradeshift that will allows companies to access information on trading partners based in the UK and Ireland.
- The Currency Cloud – This company focuses on facilitating low-cost international business payments allowing businesses to receive, exchange and send international payments in 140 currencies. The Currency Cloud will be available as an app on Tradeshift and can be used to pay invoices in foreign currencies. An example of how it works – An invoice has to be paid by a British company to its German supplier, upon selecting the invoice assuming the app is activated, the user can request a quote from The Currency Cloud. The buyer will receive a real-time quote which displays all the relevant charges including information on when the payment is expected to reach The Currency Cloud, when it will be paid to the supplier, a transaction number, etc.
From the information shared at the event and also from various discussions with employees, investors and customers, we believe that that Tradeshift has a big opportunity in front of it. The company is innovative in its approach and has successfully created a new platform for trading partners to conduct business, which still has a lot of potential and room for growth. As a result the company is gaining momentum in the market as well as with other innovators such as Intuit. Of course, there are going to be those enterprises whose internal policies and requirements (e.g., requirements that lean towards a procure-to-pay suite including capabilities like eSourcing or eProcurement) will lead them more towards other suite providers like Ariba and Hubwoo. However, Tradeshift with its vision, approach and market traction is certainly going to capture the interest of small, medium and even large enterprises.
