Steelwedge recently announced that we’ve expanded our management team to support rapid growth and ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. We will be profiling each of our new executives starting today with our Vice President of North American Sales, Pier Barattolo.
Pier comes to Steelwedge from Right90 where he Vice President of Sales and drove rapid customer growth. Prior to Right90, Barattolo was Vice President of North American EPM sales for SAP Business Objects, where he helped grow annual license revenue by 82 percent, and Vice President of Sales at IBM Cognos Adaytum where he drove sales from $1 million to over $64 million. Pier has also held executive positions at Rolls Royce and General Electric.
Steelwedge: Why did you choose to join Steelwedge?
Barattolo: I was impressed with Steelwedge’s market leadership and deep S&OP and business planning expertise. The Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and sales and operations planning (S&OP) technology space is exploding as companies continue to focus intently on perfecting their demand-supply planning in response to recessionary pressures. The opportunity to help Steelwedge quickly scale its sales organization to meet market demand presented an exciting challenge.
Steelwedge: What is driving the adoption of IBP and S&OP technology?
Barattolo: As I talk to business leaders across the country, it is evident that the recent economic turmoil exposed the unfortunate fact that many companies lack the processes and technology to cope with unexpected events — whether good or bad. The lack of an integrated operational and financial planning approach meant that executives lacked an early warning system and could not adjust quickly to changing circumstances. The financial, operational and customer satisfaction implications of this shortfall have been huge. Now, as companies are forced to do more…
I’m very pleased to announce that Steelwedge has reached an important milestone today in our growth as a company. We’ve received a $16 million growth equity investment led by Mainsail Partners, accelerating our efforts to serve our rapidly expanding customer base while continuing to build breakthrough sales and operations planning (S&OP) and integrated business planning (IBP) products.
It was important to find an equity partner that could help us beyond simply providing capital. Jason Payne and his Mainsail team have a strong track record helping “boot strapped” companies evolve into world-class companies. They have a wealth of operational expertise working with next generation software providers and bring to bear an extensive network of technology professionals.
This investment will help us to facilitate global sales growth and ensure seamless support to our current portfolio of global customers. Our customers will have access to the leading edge technology, including an enhanced IBP platform. I’m especially pleased that Mainsail’s strategic vision complements our long-time goal of building best-in-class solutions that exceed the expectations of our customers.
Read the press release here: http://www.steelwedge.com/news/details.php?relid=109
We’ve recently announced the release of a ground-breaking solution for improving the speed, flexibility and ease of implementing and adopting the Steelwedge Cloud-based S&OP solution.
The Steelwedge S&OP Service Delivery Platform dramatically enhances the ability of our clients, partners and users to rapidly configure, integrate, implement and train users on a process-driven collaborative Steelwedge S&OP solution.
S&OP has quickly become a management necessity for companies operating complex, global supply chains in today’s climate of uncertainty and risk. Executives facing pressure to manage volatility and risk have embraced Steelwedge to align demand and supply decisions with revenue, margin and customer service goals. Companies that have rolled-out best-in-class S&OP practices have realized big gains, including a year-over-year gross profit margin increase of 48 percent, according to a recent study published by Aberdeen Group.
“In today’s volatile world, companies need to rapidly respond to changes in supply and demand as never before. The Steelwedge S&OP Service Delivery Platform is truly a breakthrough for companies desiring to rapidly implement and adopt a flexible S&OP solution that drives corporate agility.” explained Glen Margolis, CEO of Steelwedge. “This new technology platform enables companies to quickly and cost effectively adopt globally collaborative S&OP processes.”
To learn more about our cool new technology, visit our web site.
Photo: Comparison of the ship sailed by Christopher Columbus with the giant ships sailed by Zheng He in 1405 (source:Wkikipedia)
The world of global sourcing, manufacturing and distribution is rapidly turning upside down. Just a short time ago many pundits relegated India as a place filled with IT genius and broken infrastructure totally inhospitable to manufacturing. After all, China was the place for manufacturing. However, with each passing day history is moving in full circle.
It was very precisely 606 years ago that Zheng He, representing the Ming Dynasty, made his first trading voyage from China to India. He visited Calcutta, Cuchin, Sri Lanka and other well know places during his journey, traveling in a fleet of ships in 1405 that dwarfed in both size and number the ships that Christopher Columbus later sailed in 1492. With these enormous ships Zheng He established a brisk trade between India and China in a twenty-five year period. At the time it was the world’s largest sea trade.
European ships would not surpass these enormous Chinese vessels in size, sophistication or capacity for another 400 years. Zheng He also managed to clear the seas extending all the way to the Horn of Africa and Somalia of pirates that had long plagued traders.
Today, analysts predict that the volume of trade in manufactured goods between China and India will surpass that of any other global trade route by the year 2020. And just a few months ago China surpassed every other country in the world other than the United States in terms of economic output. Anyone intrigued by the world of maritime shipping is aware that the biggest “post-panamax” ships were recently built by Chinese shipyards and are now operated by Chinese shipping concerns. Those in involved in…
