Agile Commerce: Three Questions For Carmen Sebe, CEO, Avangate
I recently had the chance to catch up with Carmen Sebe, CEO of Avangate, to talk about how agile commerce is effecting its clients and how it is positioning its solution to support the transition to agile commerce.
Avangate provides software companies with eCommerce, partner management solutions, and an affiliate network; assisting them to sell their products online as well as to manage a global distribution network. Founded in 2005, Avangate currently serves more than 1,500 software companies through its SaaS eCommerce solution and has a 22,000 member affiliate network. Carmen is a seasoned technology CEO who has worked with European and global clients for many years.
Forrester: Carmen, thanks for taking some time out to talk to us about your business and agile commerce. We have been talking to clients about the evolution of their business from channels to touchpoints. You serve clients selling digital goods across a number of different models, such as B2C and B2B. How are you looking at agile commerce and what does it mean for your business?
Ms. Sebe: For our business this has a two-fold implication: on the one hand in the way we help our customers — software sellers — reach and deliver products digitally to their B2B and B2C users. And on the other hand, agile commerce will impact the way we reach our clients. With agile commerce, software vendors will expand their product offerings to allow access to their services via many if not all touchpoints — and we have to be prepared to accept and support such behavior. It’s our vision to facilitate this process for our clients and shoppers.
Forrester: As a service provider, how do you think your organization will need to change to respond to agile commerce? Do you see a new organizational model having to take shape?
Ms. Sebe: I would like to think we have always had a customer-centric approach. Honestly, we don’t have a new organizational model emerging, but an adaptation of how we work and interact with customers is important as they must adapt to agile commerce.
Forrester: How are the solutions your firm provides changing to address the evolving needs of business transacting and marketing online and across touchpoints?
Ms. Sebe: Essentially, at Avangate, we couple payment processing and gateway services, electronic software distribution, cloud-based hosting, and marketing tools. We pair that with human-driven processes such as fraud-screening and customer support. Our focus has been to couple these services into as usable a product for online software sellers as possible. I see the core of the service staying the same. But the way we interact and deliver the service will evolve with a greater focus on mobile and multichannel — or agile commerce — integration. We must offer [our clients] greater visibility into their sales across channels and facilitate their interaction with their consumers across touchpoints.
Forrester: Thanks so much, Carmen.
This is the second in a series of interviews with executives about the ways they are responding to agile commerce. I really appreciate Carmen’s participation and look forward to bringing more of these to you. If you are interested in participating in this series or have ideas for people you would like to see us include, please email me at brianwalker@forrester.com.
Thanks,
Brian
For more on Agile Commerce, read our blog post or our report, or participate in our community discussions.