Doug Surrett: By merging under one umbrella brand, we can operate better as a global company. We can achieve peak performance in time-critical and complex initial situations. With BluJay Solutions, companies can accelerate trade, fundamentally transform their supply chain economics and gain a global competitive advantage.

SCOPE: What new potential can be tapped into through the merger?
Surrett: We are convinced that future success in global trade depends on a change in strategy. Companies will transform their structures from an isolated and purely function-optimized supply chain logistics model to a global trade network. BluJay is a pioneer here with its Global Trade Network. This new model draws on the combined potential of the global supply chain ecosystem. Our network comprises 40,000 international members, including shippers, transportation companies, suppliers and external logistics service providers. This makes it the largest supply chain network in the world.

SCOPE: How does the Global Trade Network differ from other supply chain solutions?
Surrett: Previous solutions had to be installed locally and were therefore sealed off by a firewall. Networking with the outside world was only possible to a limited extent or not at all. Even today's cloud technology is not inherently better suited to supporting a GTN. Rather, the network must be designed to be flexible from the ground up. This is the only way to ensure that it is scaled for a large number of participants who access it from different end devices. The Global Trade Network was designed from the outset with these points in mind.

SCOPE: What advantages can members of the Global Trade Network use for their business?
Surrett: Our customers are automatically networked via GTN. In the meantime, 40 percent of them already use more than one of our software solutions - for transportation, customs or warehouse management. The good adoption rate shows the added value that the living system of interlocking solutions has for our customers. There is no barrier to entry, as all solutions can be used immediately via single sign-on. In the supply chain, the most significant innovations result from the global networking of companies: Conventional supply chain optimization takes place at the micro level, where only a single supply chain is optimized. The possibilities for achieving efficiency gains are limited. The GTN, on the other hand, offers the opportunity to search the entire network for cost-saving options. These opportunities unfold their effect in the interaction of the entire network.

SCOPE: How do you think the market for supply chain software will change over the next few years?
Surrett: According to a Gartner study, more than three quarters of all companies will rely on big data analysis to improve their business processes in the next five years. Cloud-based applications such as GTN are crucial here, as they provide data that is not available in local solutions due to the much smaller database.