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Highlights In This Issue
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Kurt's Corner
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They Said It
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TradeCard News |
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The Buzz From Media and Analysts |
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Customer Success |
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Upcoming Events
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| Newsletter Archive |
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Welcome to TradeCard's quarterly e-mail newsletter. If a friend or colleague would like to receive this newsletter, ask them to sign up by visiting: http://www.tradecard.com/resources. | ||
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| Highlights In This Issue | ||
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| Kurt's Corner | ||
Web 2.0 and you... Last month I attended a technology conference hosted by Warburg Pincus in San Francisco that focused on Web 2.0. The requisite stars of the next generation of the Web were all there: Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist; Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media; Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google; author John Hagle III; John Seely Brown, PhD, Director Emeritus, Xerox PARC along with dozens of other thought leaders in the space. It was humbling to be around so many great minds. It was also an amazing opportunity to learn about the realities of Web 2.0 and most importantly, from my perspective, the business implications of it. There has been a lot of hype these days about the whole concept of Web 2.0. Is it just another bubble or truly the beginning of a sea of change around the use of the Web? With the valuations of companies like Google, Ebay, Myspace and You Tube, it's not hard to believe that we are just in another bubble. But when you look at some of the fundamental changes in Web-user behavior, there is something else happening. It is happening first in B2C companies because the "kids" who grew up with the Web are driving this change in behavior. Tim O'Reilly described the following common attributes of Web 2.0 companies:
Tim defined Web 2.0 companies as systems that harness network effects to get better as more people use them. He also noted, I'm happy to say, that TradeCard and its network of vendors, financial institutions, logistic providers and Web centric technology, "is one of the first B2B companies to really take advantage of Web 2.0." But more on the TradeCard "global business village" in my next column. Have a great summer. Kurt | ||
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| They Said It | ||
Notable Quotes From the Past Quarter With increased pressure to accelerate every aspect of the supply chain, full end-to-end visibility of every step of the process is required to be successful in today's environment. With TradeCard's latest enhancements, our customers will have an unprecedented window into their supply chain. With one click of the mouse, you can see every place on the planet where a particular item is being touched, including details such as: 'How much is on order? How much is in process at every vendor factory and in what stage of production is it? How much is available for early shipment that I don't own? How much is ready to ship that I own? How much is in transit and, of that amount in transit, what is its exact location - at the source port, mid-ocean, destination port, in customs, in warehouse?' This level of visibility allows our customers to fully implement the advanced postponement and acceleration strategies that are recommended by the next generation of demand planning systems. When you layer on TradeCard's imbedded financial services, this is truly Supply Chain 2.0. -- Kurt Cavano, CEO of TradeCard ----------------------- We have begun implementing the SourceView WIP solution...it allows us to view a WIP tracking report that is automatically populated once a PO is created. Dates are kept current by the vendor directly entering. We manage any changes through automatically generated exception reports. TradeCard compliments our overall strategy. We are committed to continued advances in technology in managing our supply chain. We expect this to be aggressive and ongoing for the next several years. TradeCard's continued enhancements and new technology are in line with many of our needs. In addition, TradeCard's flexibility and nimbleness make it an attractive solution to implement quickly. -- Jon Runkel, VP of Global Sourcing, Cutter & Buck ----------------------- We have learned how important the supply chain is becoming. Big companies have already known about it but the action sports industry is just getting into the supply chain. A company like ours puts so much time and money into product and marketing but the end game is still the same-customer satisfaction. Which means we've got to get the product to the customer. -- Carolyn Rainville, Director of Sourcing at Burton Snowboards ----------------------- Strategic sourcing on the TradeCard Platform will help us to grow our private label business and respond faster to consumer demands. TradeCard will enable us to operate with flexibility and efficiency without adding staff overseas. Process automation and financial services obtainable through the platform will support our efforts to improve margins, increase cash flow and grow our retail business. -- Steve Tewkesbery, Chief Sourcing Officer, Super Cheap Auto | ||
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| TradeCard News | ||
Latest Announcements from This Quarter CUSTOMERS SCORE TRADECARD AT 97% FOR SERVICE In May, TradeCard ranked among the elite software vendors for overall satisfaction, market knowledge, ROI and user buy-in, including a 97% score in customer service, in Apparel Magazine's software scorecard. The rankings are based on customer surveys that focus on satisfaction and breadth of product offerings from the top 50 software vendors in apparel and retail. TradeCard ranked among the top performers in each of the following categories:
To read full press release, go to: http://www.tradecard.com/news/pressreleases/apparelmag_softwarescorecard.html ----------------------- TRADECARD COMPLETES SAS 70 TYPE II CERTIFICATION FOR OPERATIONS CONTROLS TradeCard has completed a SAS 70 Type II examination of its internal controls related to the processing of transactions on the TradeCard Platform. The examinations were performed by Ernst & Young LLP to report on TradeCard's controls over processes and data that impact customers and partners. "As an on-demand global trade platform, our customers' data and the control processes that surround them are vital to our business," said Kurt Cavano, CEO of TradeCard, Inc. "We don't just want to be a trusted platform for conducting global trade, we are determined to be the most trusted platform. The SAS 70 examinations provide assurance that our operations and management are responsive to the needs of our customers to help manage security and accuracy throughout the TradeCard transaction flow." To read full press release, go to: http://www.tradecard.com/news/pressreleases/2007sas70.html ----------------------- SUPER CHEAP AUTO SIGNS WITH TRADECARD TO OPTIMIZE SOURCING AND DRIVE BUSINESS GROWTH Super Cheap Auto, the leading auto parts retailer in Australia and New Zealand, has signed with TradeCard to automate transactions and eliminate manual processes to enable a strategic direct sourcing model. Super Cheap will implement TradeCard to automate and integrate the flow of money, product and data across its overseas suppliers, sourcing offices in China, four distribution centers and retail locations. Super Cheap Auto operates 235 Super Cheap retail stores and 29 BCF (Boating, Camping, Fishing) branded stores. To read full press release, go to: http://www.tradecard.com/news/pressreleases/supercheap.html | ||
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| The Buzz From Media and Analysts | ||
A look at what's new in the financial supply chain management space FURNITURE TODAY MAGAZINE AND TRADECARD PRESENT WEBCAST ON BEST PRACTICES IN THE FURNITURE INDUSTRY Ray Allegrezza, Editor of Furniture Today Magazine and Kurt Cavano, CEO of TradeCard discuss current issues in the furniture industry and sourcing best practices. Topics include the difficulties associated with furniture companies moving overseas, how to approach the balancing act between sourcing and customer service, how to achieve control, visibility, and collaboration, and other tools to streamline the furniture supply chain. To view this webcast replay, click here. ----------------------- ABERDEENGROUP AND TRADECARD PRESENT SUPPLIER ENABLEMENT WEBCAST Supplier collaboration and enablement has become a key cornerstone for filling orders accurately and on time. In this webcast, Beth Enslow, senior vice president of enterprise research at Aberdeen Group and Kurt Cavano, CEO at TradeCard discuss best practices and solutions for effective collaboration, accurate and timely transactions and ensuring a win-win opportunity in the supply chain. To view this webcast replay, click here. ----------------------- Consumer Goods Technology Magazine: FINANCIALLY SOUND Cutter & Buck has evolved its supply chain into a "best run" operation that synchronizes the flow of products and cash. In September of 2005, Cutter & Buck kicked off an initiative to automate transaction processes from purchase order (PO) to payment and chargeback. The apparel maker partnered with TradeCard, the provider of a hosted sourcing collaboration platform offering online financial services, to remove paper from the transaction processes to cut costs and improve visibility in the supply chain. "We chose TradeCard because it is extremely user friendly, quick to implement and it saved us on our settlement expenses as well as streamlined our purchase order delivery," says Jon Runkel, vice president, global sourcing and distribution, Cutter & Buck. To read full article, go to: http://www.consumergoods.com/Media/PublicationsArticle/21_CG_0407.pdf ----------------------- BURTON SNOWBOARDS HONORED BY WORLD TRADE MAGAZINE Burton Snowboards, honorable mention Manufacturer of the Year, exemplifies how a small company with an innovative approach to trade finance can get an edge over its competition. Maintaining an ever broadening supply chain was "very expensive, administratively difficult and time consuming to manage," explains Treasurer Tom D'Urso. Then he was cold-called three years ago by a salesman for TradeCard, asking him "how would you like to be able to eliminate letters of credit and also become a profit center for payments to your vendor?" He took the meeting and now Burton manages the bulk of its trade finance through the TradeCard platform with less and less LCs. Automation of the payment process ("I now know where I am in the payment process with each of the vendors"), along with offering the option for vendors to receive payment in as little as 10 days after shipping, has significantly streamlined vendor relationships. To read full article, go to: http://www.tradecard.com/languages/EN/news/articles/worldtrademag_may2007.pdf ----------------------- ABERDEENGROUP REPORT Apparel Company Chooses On-demand Platform for Worldwide Supplier Collaboration The company realized it had significantly underestimated the development and support structure required to build and sustain a solution in-house. This challenge was exacerbated by the fact that a business strategy change toward more outsourcing meant that even more suppliers in even more countries would need to be on-boarded to the platform. Solution: After going through a formal RFP process, the company selected an on-demand collaboration and global trade management platform from TradeCard to manage its procure-to-pay process with worldwide suppliers. Its main reasons for selecting the on-demand solution were:
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| Customer Success | ||
This quarter we present a snapshot on Stride Rite in a retail webcast led by Kurt Cavano, CEO of TradeCard and Matt Pillar, editor in chief at Integrated Solutions for Retailers Magazine. Click here to view the retail session/Stride Rite case study. | ||
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| Upcoming Events | ||
July July 12: AHFA Global Supply Chain Management Conference ----------------------- August August 1: CSCMP Taiwan 2007 August 28: Apparel Sourcing Summit@MAGIC (TBD) ----------------------- September September 9-11: American Lighting Association Annual Conference September 16-19: IFSA (International Financial Services Association) Annual Conference September 17-20: SCM Logistics (TBD) September 25-27: Material World Fall Be sure to check back for updates on where we'll be next. | ||
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