The chief executive of eConnections, a maker of supply-chain intelligence software and the developer of one of the first successful business-to-business portals in the industry, has long been a believer in the real-world impact of the Internet on the ways companies can communicate and buy and sell goods.
Rodin started touting the Internet back in 1994 when as president of Marshal Industries, a distributor of electronic components, he launched one of the first business-to-business portals that provided managed spot-buys and Web seminars for the industry.
In addition to being CEO of a successful software company--eConnections was listed in Upside Today's Hot 100 companies in the business-to-business sector--Rodin is a director of RosettaNet and CommerceNet, industry groups trying to develop e-commerce standards and protocols.
In a recent interview, Rodin described the success of his earlier Internet venture, the challenges facing the technology industry, and the future of the supply-chain management and business-to-business software sectors.
Q: As an early Internet evangelist, how do you see the Internet? How would you assess the current high-tech downturn, and how long do you think it will last?
A: I never saw the Internet as a fad. I've always viewed it as a facilitator of robust communications. In the electronics sector, the Internet could provide supply-chain connectivity and the ability to deal with extended environments and the supply chain's global issues. I think the Internet has only just begun to show the power of this connectivity. It's going to be as pervasive as electricity. The Internet will be always on, reactive and proactive, and ever present in our lives.
As for the downturn, it's bad. We've traditionally seen peaks and valleys in this industry about every 10 years, and this is another one of the valleys. I think it's exacerbated by the fact that companies have not been able to manage their extended supply chains. They weren't able to effectively mesh demand with supply and manage their supply-chain partners, so the dip has been deeper and more sudden than in the past.
In the electronics industry, we see supercompressed product life cycles multiplied by build-to-order, made-to-order and cut-to-fit demands, which have produced tremendous complexity and time pressures. We're now beginning to see a new trend in outsourcing, and companies like ours are ready to help others ride out the downturn by taking that increased complexity out of their supply chains and helping them to create new efficiencies.
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