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Month: November 2016

Quotiss and Maritime Startup accelerators

Awards & Recognition / By

A unique program supporting startups from the sea transport sector will be launched in 2017 in Gdansk, Poland.

On 25 November 2016, the Port of Gdansk Authority SA along with the Gdansk Economic Development Agency and the Gdansk Business Incubator STARTER, signed an agreement initiating activities aimed at establishing a Maritime Incubator, to support new companies from the broadly-defined maritime sector and the ports and logistics sector.

Ultimately, this will be the first Polish acceleration program developed solely for projects from the rapidly developing maritime industry. On this occasion, startups dealing with solutions for the maritime industry took part in workshops, concluding with the presentation of their projects.

 

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Małgorzata Jasnoch, CEO of Gdańsk Incubator Starter

 

Quotiss took part in the event, and after the final presentation has received a lot of positive feedback, as well as useful industry contacts.

 

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Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss

 

Mare Straetmans, Managing Director of the PortXL accelerator in Rotterdam, was a special guest at the event. PortXL is the largest European program implementing port-related solutions. Mare visited Poland in order to check Poland’s startup potential. He is now looking for the best maritime startups around the world – only 10 best startups will get a chance to be part of the next round of the PortXL program.

The event in the media:

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Startup Battle 2016 - II place for Quotiss

Quotiss, the President of Poland and Iron Maiden

Awards & Recognition, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

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Quotiss team has a huge reason to celebrate success – 2nd prize in a prestigious national Congress of Economic Development in Rzeszow, Poland (17-18 November, 2016) contest called Startup Battle.

The Congress was patronized by President of Poland Andrzej Duda. Together with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło and Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mateusz Morawiecki, they spoke openly about the possible ways to improve cooperation between the state and business owners.

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Startup Battle took place on Thursday, 17th November. Out of 60+ projects, which applied to participate in the battle, only 24 most innovative startups got the opportunity to present their ideas during the forum. The jury consisted of investors, entrepreneurs, and representatives from government, startup, and business communities, a total of 15 judges. Assessment of each project was based on several criteria, such as business innovation, market knowledge, business model, project team, and soft skills.

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Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss, presenting at the main congress stage

Only 7 teams made it to the final round after initial eliminations. The tension was building up as everyone had to wait until the next day morning to hear the results. We were extremely excited to get a second place among the best Polish startups! This victory means a lot to us and we are very grateful to everyone who supported us!

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We were thrilled and excited to receive the award, and the day continued with photographs and interviews for the media. Also we were honored to meet with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, and it was very satisfying to see his engaging interest in what we do – later that day President’s office asked us to provide more information about our project.

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President of Poland Andrzej Duda meeting with the Quotiss team

 

Media about us:

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Radio interviews:

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(from 4:30)

‘Congress 590’ took its name from the prefix (first 3 digits) of the bar code, which indicates that the product has been made in Poland or is distributed via the Polish company. The idea of the Congress is to facilitate an open discussion between the state and business representatives and find effective ways to improve the economic development of the country.

dickinsonBruce Dickinson, the frontman of Iron Maiden and successful entrepreneur, was a special guest on the Congress 590. He spoke about the advantages of building ‘fan base’ instead of ‘customer base’, and really impressed the public with the diversity of his business portfolio – from legendary rock band singer, to airline owner, to pilot, to beer / watch / video games producer.

SaaS Software as a service

Logistics Software as a Service (SaaS)

Automation & Digitalization, Logistics Software / By

The massive growth of startup communities all over the world is one of the global trends nowadays. Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing, cloud technology – startups disrupting traditional businesses in ways no one could have ever predicted. It is happening now, and either you are aware of it or you are part of it (otherwise you would not be reading this).

“Fully 80 percent of the products and services being consumed today are different from those that were being consumed five years ago. And five years from today, fully 80 percent of the products being used will be new and different from those being used today”, says Brian Tracy.

 

Logistics Software – a Product or a Service?

 

A product is a physical item that people purchase to own it. Once you own a product, you have all the rights to use it as you wish, until it finishes, breaks, gets lost, etc. A service, as The Economist defines it, is something that “you can’t drop on your foot” – which is technically not always true, think of all the digital products, like e-books, for example. Service is an economic activity between a provider of the service and a buyer, where a buyer does not get to exclusively own it.

Software is a non-typical example. It is a digital commodity, yet for years it’s been treated as a physical product. Corporate software license deals can cost millions of dollars, paid in exchange for a single CD. Very expensive CD. For this reason, new business models have been born, and they spread like wildfire.

 

What Is SaaS?

 

SaaS stands for ‘Software as a Service’, Salesforce.com is probably the most famous SaaS. The model is so successful, it extended Salesforce’s reach far beyond its status as a CRM application provider and challenged many of the traditional enterprise software vendors.

Historically, companies were required to buy, build, and maintain their IT infrastructures despite exponential costs. SaaS gives companies an alternative. Now, they can plug in and subscribe to services built on shared infrastructure via the Internet. The SaaS model has flourished in recent years because of the many benefits it offers to businesses of all sizes and types.

 

Benefits of SaaS

 

Software as a Service has a lot to offer. If it’s used properly, it can help your business save money, time and human resources.

  • SaaS is easy to use

SaaS applications are available from any computer or any device – anytime, anywhere. Because most people are familiar with using the Internet, SaaS apps tend to have high adoption rates, with a shorter training period.

  • Lower costs

SaaS applications are subscription-based, which means lower initial costs. Having the SaaS provider manage the IT infrastructure means lower IT costs for hardware, software, and the people needed to manage it all.

  • Painless implementation and upgrades

Because the SaaS provider manages all updates and upgrades, there are no patches for customers to download or install. The SaaS provider also manages availability – all you need as a customer is a web browser and internet access.

  • Seamless integration, customization, and scaling

SaaS companies with true multitenant architectures can scale indefinitely to meet customer demand, including customization if required. Plus, many provide APIs that let you integrate with existing ERP systems or other business productivity systems.

 

Is SaaS Right for Your Business?

 

For newly established companies it’s almost a ‘no-brainer’ to quickly deploy a collection of SaaS business applications and pay for them with a monthly subscription, rather than invest in IT infrastructure and technical support. Probably the biggest problem for small businesses is the enormous amount of choice that’s already available in the SaaS market.

Larger businesses have a different set of problems to deal with when it comes to SaaS, mostly around integration with existing enterprise software (which can be already locked with costly contracts). Still, enterprises looking to expand into new regions, or adopt new ‘social’ business processes, may well find that SaaS is the most cost-effective way to go.

 

SaaS = Innovation

 

Innovation is everywhere; it can be hard to keep up, but that is part of the fun. New products and services are released every month, and they challenge the way business operates today.

SaaS applications are setting the stage for a new era of IT, and the biggest advantage of all is how quickly they can be re-shaped and re-purposed by a constantly changing business environment. The possibilities are endless for what lies ahead.

Power of simplicity

The Power of Simplicity

Simplicity & Efficiency, Freight Rate Management / By

When John F. Kennedy became the President of the USA in January 1961, Americans had the perception that the United States was losing the Space Race with the Soviet Union, which had successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, almost four years earlier. The perception deepened when in April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

Convinced of the political need to make an achievement that would decisively demonstrate America’s space superiority, Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

 

A Man on the Moon

 

As Heath brothers put it in their book “Made to Stick”: ‘Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives”.

Large organizations are by nature complex, but over the years they added layer upon layer of complexity to how businesses are structured and managed. In many, more energy is devoted to navigating the labyrinth than achieving results.

Accountability is unclear, decision rights are vague, and frequently there is no clear idea of how to use large amounts of generated data. What seems like a simple question to a CEO can turn into a major exercise for hundreds of other people down the organization chart.

 

Longing for Simplicity

 

In recent years, corporations have put their business processes through rigorous scrutiny, with Six Sigma, Lean model, 5 Why’s, etc. While some processes are relatively well structured and controlled, many others haven’t benefited from improvement techniques.

Consider freight rate management in shipping – pricing and quoting of freight rates haven’t evolved since last century. Many global corporations are still utilizing MS Excel as the main tool to execute commercial activities. That results in too much variability and makes the job extremely inefficient.

 

Can Technology help?

 

Many companies have found that trying to simplify processes through large-scale enterprise systems, often leads to diminished rather than enhanced productivity. Why is that? Simply, a large enterprise system is a complexity in itself.

It takes several months (or rather years) to analyze, blueprint, adapt, implement, re-write business processes and then re-write again, facing the reality and actual user feedback. It usually costs a lot of money, making it difficult for top management to admit that something went wrong and expected efficiency has not been achieved, thus creating anxiety and disappointment at the bottom of the organization chart.

The Solution is Simplicity. Keep it simple, even when it actually is about rocket science!

“Before this decade is out, landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”.

At Quotiss, we tackle the main problem of the industry from a different angle: instead of digitizing the enormous complexity of freight rates, we dramatically simplify the freight rate management process, reducing the number of variables in the equation.

Freight rate complexity can be reduced by 99%, following the data patterns discovered by Pareto 100 years ago.

Quotiss sales automation software generates 100% accurate quotes in seconds. The software is user-friendly and tailored to the freight forwarding business. It brings order and structure.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.