Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Rob Bonavito, CEO of Jaggaer (Part 1)

Supply Chains are becoming deeply integrated, cloud-based phenomena. We introduced you to some exciting trends in the Inspyrus story earlier. This discussion further explores this topic, as well as the opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to Jaggaer and also some background about yourself.

Rob Bonavito: I’m the CEO of Jaggaer. Jaggaer is a 22-year-old company. It provides a comprehensive and complete spend solution suite across the commercial, higher ed, and life sciences industry. I recently joined the company six months ago. Let me tell you a bit about my background. I have over 30 years of experience primarily in high tech in the supply chain area.

Back in 1999, I started a company called iTrade Network. The company grew to over $100 million in revenue. I sold it in 2010. It was a supply chain solution for the food vertical. It had customers ranging from McDonald’s to Walmart. There’re about 7,000 customers. It covered the areas of spend analytics, inventory management, logistics, and procurement. How I wound up here in Jaggaer is an interesting story.

Back in 2007, I was aware of the company’s prior name SciQuest. It was getting major traction both in the higher ed and in life sciences industries. I actually tried to approach the company and tried to acquire it in 2007. They had aspirations of taking the company public, but it never materialized. I was familiar with the company’s solutions and success. It just so happened that last year, I had the opportunity to join as the CEO. I was very excited to come on board.

It’s been about six months. There’ve been a lot of developments. As you know, we’ve now rebranded ourselves. Our new name is Jaggaer. It’s been very well-received. People ask why we changed our name. I will tell people that everything’s in a name. It’s the attitude. It’s the passion. It’s the energy. It’s not just what you get from the name but how it trickles through the organization and out to your customers.

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about the broad trends in your market and how you are aligned with them or playing in that space.

Rob Bonavito: That’s a good question. Over the last one to two years, procurement has become more of a focus. What I mean by that is that people are realizing that the supply chain and the ability to communicate and work with your supply chain is becoming more and more important.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Rob Bonavito, CEO of Jaggaer
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