The Tradebyte ecosystem is growing and growing! Tradebyte and Akeneo are happy to announce their partnership! At the Akeneo PIM Summit in Paris, we took the opportunity to talk to Katharina Caracciolo, Strategic Partner Manager at Tradebyte and Tobias Schlotter, Central & Eastern Europe General Manager at Akeneo.

 

Dear Katharina, dear Tobias, would you please introduce yourselves briefly for our readers?

Tobias Schlotter: With pleasure! But ladies first, dear Katharina!

Katharina Caracciolo: Ah, a real gentleman! I’ve been at Tradebyte for almost two years, starting as an Integration Manager, and recently I became a Partner Manager. Originally, I come from Goslar and after travelling all over the world I came to Ansbach in Franconia together with my husband.

Tradebyte is the middleware between customers, partners and channels. With our solutions such as TB.One and TB.Market, we ensure the smooth interconnection of manufacturers, traders and retailers in the digital supply chain. The Partner Management department has the task of finding new partners – whether it’s service, technology or solution partners. The main thing is that the partner fits with Tradebyte and the Tradebyte ecosystem. Of course I also look after existing partners and make sure we all support each other.

Tobias Schlotter: And now me: I’m 39 years young, happily married, have a lovely daughter and like diving in my free time. And professionally: At the end of 2015, I went to Akeneo out of a conviction for its vision and basically I started as a one-man show. We’ve grown very much recently and nowadays I look after a team of 15 people and I’m responsible for the entire area of Central & Eastern Europe at Akeneo.

How did the partnership come about? Could you give us a few details?

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Katharina Caracciolo: Tradebyte and Akeneo have been interested in one another for a long time, but due to several reasons it didn’t come to a partnership. We don’t have a mutual connector yet – which builds a technical bridge – but there are people who are very interested and keep asking for it. So we’ve been talking to each other on a regular basis and now everything is right so we can officially have a partnership! Not only because we fit perfectly on a human level and, after all, that’s important for good collaboration. The overall package is just perfect!

Tobias Schlotter: That sounds great and I’d like to reciprocate the compliment! (laughing) At Akeneo, we follow the best-of-breed motto and our customers often request the supply or delivery of marketplaces with the right content. In the German-speaking market, Tradebyte is THE champion and simply one of the best. We already have mutual customers and there have been points of contact which made us quickly realise that we can complement each other perfectly. And if the culture also fits it makes even more sense to »formalise« the collaboration in the form of a partnership for our customers. For our existing and future mutual customers, this will also be underpinned technically, as one of our mutual partners is developing an interface between Tradebyte and Akeneo.

That sounds great! Can we tell our readers more about what they can expect from this partnership?

Tradebyte and Akeneo

Katharina Caracciolo: From our side we’d like to appear together at events – like now in Paris (Akeneo PIM Summit) or at the ECD, for example – with exciting success stories in hand – and show the world that we belong together! For example, that could be done in the form of workshops or networking events, but generally we’d like to collaborate closer in terms of marketing and create wonderful formats and synergies with the creative heads we have on both sides. What do you think, Tobias?

Tobias Schlotter: Definitely, there’s a lot to come! We’d like to meaningfully combine the talent and expertise of Tradebyte and Akeneo so that we can share exciting stories and offer »recipes for success« for our users, customers and anyone interested on, for example, the topic of »successful product experience on marketplaces«.

That sounds promising. Katharina, you’ve already mentioned the APS (Akeneo PIM Summit) in Paris this year. How did you like it? What are you taking home from it?

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Katharina Caracciolo: Even the location was something really special. That could only be topped by the great presentations, nice chats and wonderful people. My personal highlight, apart from the yummy desserts, was definitely Joe Pine’s presentation »Experience is everything« and I was impressed by how the shopping experience has changed. But many other presentations such as by Spryker, Productsup & Akeneo were really interesting. We had two wonderful and interesting days in Paris which definitely whets our appetites for more events together with Akeneo.

 Tobias, anything to add?

Tobias Schlotter: I’m very happy that we could meet here at the APS and I’m looking forward to more! Stay tuned!

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