A brand that has seen initial success in Canada or the US is now setting its sight for rapid continental expansion.  This expansion usually means that the management team is taking more direct control of the brand locally, opening physical stores in certain markets, engaging in “Omni channel” commerce and establishing a more substantive supply chain network.  Several operational decisions have to be made carefully: from choosing the right logistics partners to selecting the appropriate sites for distribution centers and offices.  This sales & distribution expansion also requires several important and complex technology-related considerations such as: ERP, CRM, WMS, TMS, e-Commerce, EDI and Business Intelligence (build, buy, extend, integrate).

These strategic, operational and technology considerations require substantial time, effort & skilled project management.  There is an inherent degree of risk due to the various moving parts involved and the usually short timelines mandated to ramp up and achieve targets.  A short list of entities involved in participating in such an expansion includes third party logistics companies, transportation providers, recruiters, real estate brokers, supply chain network designers, technology providers & integrators and many more.  Each of these entities has to be selected, integrated and operationalized.

Where does a management team commissioned with this objective, turn to?  Do-it-yourself on a piecemeal basis, or engage experts who can provide a one-stop-shop solution?

spice™ manages over 2,000 global brands within its technology and business network.  Several of these bands are growing their presence within Canada and the US.  spice™ World, a consulting service and technology-enabled network, is rapidly becoming a one-stop-shop business accelerator platform for brands that are looking for speed-to-market.  The platform combines consulting expertise, resources, specialized technology & project management required by a brand’s management team to expand operations quickly and successfully.  Our teams are helping expand homegrown, European & Asian brands into North America.  spice™ is also launching new initiatives to expand our ecosystem of partners for helping Canadian and US brands access markets in China and India, with a particular focus on the emerging One Belt & One Road (B&R) opportunity across Asia.

spice™ World is a business platform that a brand can “plug-in” to a pre-connected network of business service partners and information technology solutions & providers.  This ecosystem is designed to provide the technical and operational solutions that a brand needs in order to expand from a modest presence to a more substantial operation – achieving speed-to-market at a lower cost and with reduced risk.  The eco-system consists of specialized 3PL companies and transportation organizations that are pre-integrated with spice™.  These logistics providers operate in specialized vertical markets such as fashion, apparel, footwear, sporting goods, CPG, pet products, building supply, consumer electronics, industrial products, healthcare and many others.

Beyond consulting and project management, spice™ also provides pre -integrated technology with major North American merchandise retailers, automotive manufacturers and other major buying organizations allowing the brand to quickly start operationalizing its wholesale business with the correct data flow and end-to-end visibility. The Spice Connect™ and Spice Catalog™ solutions within the spice™ World platform provide cloud data integration and global catalog management solutions, while Spice Trade™ provides a brand to rapidly enable B2B and B2C e-commerce without the hassles.  The solutions are rounded of with Spice Insight™, a Managed Analytics platform that provides the visibility and business reporting required by the management team to monitor success.

With spice™ World, growing brands are receiving the help they need to ensure that achieve their objectives in a timely fashion and with the right expertise.

About the Author

Neel has held senior roles at various technology firms and is currently a Partner at spice™ Technology Group, Inc. Neel is a well recognized technologist within the North American Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution sectors. Amongst the early pioneers in the “cloud” computing market, Neel has been working since the nineties with customers across the globe to achieve technology-driven, quick-time-to-market capabilities for modern commerce and complex supply chains. He brings expertise in digital commerce, supply chain, analytics and in emerging information technologies that are propelling organizations towards new business models. Some of these technologies and their modern applications include “Internet of Things (IoT),” “The API Economy,” “The Sharing Economy” and collectively: “Industry 4.0”

Neel is the Program Chair & Board Member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP – Toronto Roundtable). He is also the Chairperson of the Program Advisory Committee for Business Process Management at Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.