Dan Juckniess, chief sales officer, SPS Commerce
Dan Juckniess has a clearly stated goal: To help build SPS Commerce, the state's first $100-million software company, into Minnesota's first $1 billion tech firm.
Juckniess joined the Minneapolis-based company, a leader in retail cloud services, earlier this year in the newly created position of chief sales officer.
The first step toward reaching that goal, Juckniess said, is adding to a streak of 63 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, according to third-quarter financial results reported in October. Another will be doubling the sales team.
"First and foremost of my charters here is to make sure that we continue the momentum of the sales machine," Juckniess said. "At the same time we need to put into place some more key foundational infrastructure items that will allow us to grow to $1 billion."
SPS Commerce offers a cloud-based platform that automates supply chain management and other functions for retailers and suppliers. It supports electronic data interchange (EDI) so retailers and suppliers exchange data such as purchase orders electronically in standard format between business systems. The company has more than 65,000 customers in more than 60 countries.
Juckniess, previously with Thomson Reuters and Edmentum, has more than 20 years of experience in executive and sales leadership roles, working in enterprise cloud services, educational technology and business information solutions.
Q: What brought you to SPS Commerce?
A: The business model, which connects retailers and their suppliers in such a way that the network continues to push interest and growth. It's more about execution. Secondly, the people and culture. Everyone seems to bleed this SPS blue and it's very contagious.
Q: How is your experience helping in your new role?
A: At Thomson Reuters there was some complexity to the sales. With Edmentum, an educational technology firm, there was a lot transactional business. When I came to SPS … the mix is both heavily transactional as well as complex. My experience fits nicely to hit both.
Q: Why should a retailer or supplier do business with SPS Commerce?
A: We have a technology solution that takes a lot of the pain away from the interaction of a retailer and their suppliers and vice versa … by ensuring that they're speaking the same language. We are potentially going to be able to sit in the middle of helping to solve what retailers and suppliers are battling with and that is ultimately to serve the customer the way the customer is demanding to be served.
Todd Nelson
