Due to the rapid growth of the existing supply chain network in the industrial sector, Tradecloud will radically expand its offer from 2018 onwards. The b2b network used by, for example, ERIKS, Bosch, Nooteboom, Van Egmond and Quooker will then be immediately accessible to all suppliers and buyers in the industry. This represents a unique opportunity for the industry to automate manual processes, to sell more and to focus on exceptions.

The Tradecloud network grows organically because the connected producers independently add their suppliers to the network and vice versa, similar to LinkedIn. Due to the rapid growth of the number of affiliated producers and suppliers, a leading position has been achieved in this sector.

Chain integration: reducing costs and being able to react faster to changes

Recent research indicates that an increasing number of buyers in the manufacturing industry prefer integration whereby they handle the whole procurement process from order to invoice for several suppliers at the same time. The reasons mentioned above are:

  • Making the logistics chain predictable,
  • Automate operational/ manual procurement activities,
  • Focussing on the exceptions in the chain so that attention can be focused on adding customer value.

The immediate consequence of this development is that buyers opt for parties with whom they can exchange information quickly and transparently. E-mail, EDI and Excel are no longer the tools to effectively manage a dynamic chain. Companies that do not keep up with this trend of digitization will eventually miss out on sales. Tradecloud takes a leading role in these developments as an active participant in the Smart Industry project.

Take advantage of digitalisation opportunities

From the beginning of 2018 Tradecloud offers suppliers free acces to the network via portal or API. More information and a registration form can be found at http://www.tradecloud1.com/en/. In concrete terms, this means that it becomes easy for suppliers to digitize their order processes and to integrate the supply chain with that of customers. Such integration will lead to more sales with less order handling. If suppliers want to know whether their (potential) customers are also connected to the network, Tradecloud can facilitate this. On request, she can bring companies into contact with each other.

Director Tonnis de Boer about the open platform: “We see an enormous need among buyers to easily share data with chain partners so that the predictability of the supply chain increases. In doing so, there must be no obstacles for suppliers to participate. The open network makes this possible. We have developed a simple portal and suppliers can now benefit from an API interface. With this expansion, the network effect of Tradecloud becomes stronger and therefore more interesting for producers.”