SAP invests in a lot of promising startups, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. E-3 Magazine has selected the most interesting companies to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at Winddle.
Winddle is a collaborative web platform that offers a unique end-to-end, agile approach of supply chain management, unifying data and streamlining collaboration from purchase order creation to its final B2B delivery. The solution connects purchasing and logistics teams, suppliers, forwarders, and IT systems (e.g. ERP) to ensure that everyone gets real-time visibility. As a result, organizations are able to better anticipate potential issues (delivery delays, missing quantities, deliveries split, invoicing errors, etc.) and take faster and smarter decisions to mitigate their impact on the global supply chain performance and client satisfaction.
Selected by SAP as one of the 8 most innovative startups in the European supply sector in 2020, Winddle supports around 3,000 supply chain professionals from around the world, connected on a daily basis for efficient coordination of supply chain flows. In this interview, Emilia Jevakhof , co-founder and CEO of Winddle, explains the value of her comapny and its vision for a market that crucially needs to gain visibility and agility to efficiently address current challenges.
E-3 Magazine: How does your solution work?
Emilia Jevakhof: Through a unique web platform, the solution connects all parties (internal and external) that need to collaborate on a purchase order. It organizes all their daily monitoring and information sharing thanks to powerful business modelization and in-house algorithms to push real-time alerts and automatically calculate potential impacts of changes such as dates updates, delivery split, or transportation change. With Winddle, operational teams get rid of manual reminders, ERP updates, Excel follow-ups, and multiple entries of the same data to focus on their core mission: ensure that the purchase orders are delivered in a timely and optimized manner. The solution brings end-to-end and real-time visibility that enables all the operational teams, suppliers, and forwarders to make better decisions and increase their service level rate. Beyond streamlining daily operations, the solution supports supply chain strategy, providing detailed KPIs on suppliers and supply performance both in terms of timing, quality, and costs. Finally, it’s important to mention that Winddle makes the difference with its user-centric and flexible approach, which ensures quick implementation, the ability to easily connect the platform to other systems (ERP, partner systems, etc.), and a detailed management of each client’s custom needs.
What are the customer-side requirements? Do they need any special technology to use your solution?
Jevakhof: Basically, when we are talking about connection to the platform, it refers to two different options. Every user has the possibility to access their own Winddle account with login credentials, e.g. a password, without any tech requirements except internet access. The interface will have the same basis for everyone, but depends on user activity scope, custom settings, rights, and authorizations to ensure a focused user experience for everyone. The second option to connect to the platform is through IT interfaces. Winddle can be connected to any third-party systems (clients’ ones such as ERP, but also suppliers’ or forwarders’ systems) in two-way data exchanges and various formats (API, EDI, FTP, etc.). For project roll-out, a dedicated Winddle team supports customers at every stage of the project so that the solution deployment is simple and agile.
Why did you start Winddle to begin with?
Jevakhof: Winddle was created by sourcing and supply professionals based on a simple observation: In an environment where people need more and more agility and real-time visibility to be performant, it is unacceptable to still rely on fragmented and manual purchase orders monitoring with a low ability to anticipate issues and poor data quality. Our vision is simple: We want to enable customers to leverage technology and business expertise to get rid of the operational ‘black box’ that exists in many supply organizations and efficiently support the alignment of physical and digital workflows. The real challenge is to structure and organize the various objects linked to purchase order management from creation to delivery and their relations (products, PO, deliveries, shipments, etc.) through a user-friendly but still performant interface.
How could your solution potentially help customers navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and the different challenges of reopening?
Jevakhof: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winddle is particularly valuable for managing highly fluctuant and constrained supply chain flows. Indeed, optimizing supply chain management minimizes the time and resources our customers have to focus on urgency monitoring. Besides, being able to maintain a direct and fluid collaboration with all the supply chain stakeholders helps to quickly communicate supply plans or updates in an optimized and efficient way, increasing the visibility required to anticipate issues and mitigate risks.
How are you connected to SAP?
Jevakhof: Winddle is a valuable complement to SAP ERP solutions as well as the Ariba platform and can be connected within various modalities based on each customer’s environment and business needs, ranging from our standard integrations, which will soon be available on the SAP App Center, to complex two-way custom interfaces.
How has SAP.io’s involvement impacted your journey?
Jevakhof: Joining SAP.io was a wonderful opportunity for us! It enabled us to benefit from business and tech experts from SAP and their worldwide network through a valuable hands-on approach.
What’s next for Winddle?
Jevakhof: Winddle is in a strong growth phase with dynamic business development, both in our historical consumer products market and in new sectors such as industry. This ambitious strategy is combined with an intense product roadmap to continue to be one step ahead of our customers’ needs, with new releases planned on carbon tracking or forwarder invoice management, for example.
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