New Spiisee Software CEO: Vendors Need Digital Ecosystems

Vendors and distribution partners need to harness digital ecosystems to improve partner experience, according to Spiisee Software‘s Brian Ochab.

Ochab took the helm of the channel automation provider in November. The Ontario-based company dubs its Everest platform an “ecosystem management platform.” Ochab said Spiisee is working to simplify the vast expanse of relationships between vendors, distribution and brokerage firms and sales partners.

Ochab worked at Telarus for two and a half years as regional vice president of Canada. He spearheaded Telarus‘ expansion into the country and developed relationships with suppliers and agents. He said his experience bridging those gaps helped shape him for his new role at Spiisee. Ochab spoke to Channel Futures about why he joined the company, what it does and his impressions of the channel.

We have edited the transcript for length and clarity.

Telarus’ Brian Ochab

Channel Futures: How did the opportunity open up for you to join Spiisee?

Brian Ochab: As you know, I spent two and a half years at Telarus, an awesome company to work for.  I’ve always had an interest in the automation of the whole partner ecosystem and creating a B2C environment in a B2B type environment out there today. I worked with Carl Watene, who’s the founder of Spiisee. I’ve known him for about 10 years. He approached me in the fall about coming over and running the company, as it started as a sort of genesis out of being just a SaaS startup to a company that had a really awesome proprietary technology and intellectual property and was gaining momentum in the market.

So for me, the timing was right. I built the Telarus business in Canada. The company was new to Canada, had an awesome value proposition, and we made some really good strides. But the opportunity for me was to do something really different and be disruptive in the market.

CF: What piqued your interest in automation?

BO: In my career, I’ve worked for vendors, I’ve worked for TSBs [formerly known as master agents] and I’ve worked for channel partners. So I’ve seen the inequities and inefficiencies in relationships between those three, and even from a vendor perspective, to its channel partners. As I mentioned before, people in the B2B environment want a B2C experience. They want to go to a platform that’s more than a marketplace. They want to go somewhere to buy something, put it in a cart and get out. But technology is very complicated. And there are different speeds, different feeds, different availabilities. Is there hardware with it? Is that hardware bought? Or is it rented? So it’s a complex kind of transaction between the three layers.

And I was seeing that every day. I saw it in my my history, but even when I was at Telarus, because I was managing the supplier relationships in Canada, and I was also recruiting partners. So I would see partners frustrated because they were dealing with three different suppliers. Even though they were working with Telarus, they had to go to three different portals, they had to register them in three different places and they had to follow up with multiple different people or portals. And it slowed down …