Speaking with Vikram, Chief Operating Officer of Marjory

Can you tell us more about yourself ?

Of course ! My name is Vikram Ramdul. I have been the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Marjory since February 2020. I am a father of two and I come from the North of France. I have many interests outside of work, including entertainment and music. I am also a DJ in my spare time!

A few words about your professional background?

It is strongly dominated by e-commerce and marketplaces! At the beginning of my career, I worked as an e-commerce project manager and then as an e-commerce consultant in the banking sector, notably at Cofidis and Crédit Mutuel. Then 10 years ago, I turned to B2C and B2B e-commerce marketplace. This was an opportunity to work on a whole bunch of marketplaces projects in various sectors of activity and with very different business and technical issues!

"A lot of marketplaces projects"...wow! Can you give some examples?

Yes, of course I can. Here are some examples ...

I worked in the team in charge of the Redoute marketplace, a "classic" B2C marketplace, known I think by many French people! In this project, I was in charge of the commercial engineering and especially of the relationship and interactions with the sellers.

I worked on the creation of the Auchan marketplace as Project Manager and Technical Runner. This B2C platform had the important specificity of being cross-channel which was also one of the challenges of the project. Customers who ordered on the website had to be able to pick up their orders in store but also to return products from the physical stores. This was a real challenge in terms of change management because certain processes, such as product returns, were impacted.

I then worked on the implementation of the Alltricks marketplace, a vertical B2C platform, specialized in sports equipment (bike, running and outdoor) with the specificity of operating in cross-docking.

I managed the creation and implementation of the multi-country marketplace of AccorHotels. The objective of this procurement marketplace is to centralize all the purchases of the Accor group's hotels on the same platform in order to encourage the different franchisees to buy from the same place and thus standardize the standards of the different hotel lines.

I am the digital leader of the marketplace domain at ADEO, the parent company of Leroy Merlin. This project is currently being finalized and I am working as a marketplace expert consultant and IT project manager for the implementation of the Mirakl solution.

I imagine that in all these projects you had to overcome obstacles? Which ones?

Yes, these projects have been very rewarding, both humanly and professionally. The first obstacle encountered in these various marketplaces projects, I would say that it is the time, and the deadlines for implementation, which are often extremely long!

The second obstacle is related to the efforts required to ensure that the service providers meet the real needs of the marketplaces.

Finally, I would say the change. A marketplace project is a lot of changes. A new business model, which is no small feat. Changes in technology. The evolution of the company's processes. All of these changes can be difficult for many employees to grasp.

So why do you think Marjory will be able to overcome these obstacles?

If I joined Marjory, it is because I have this conviction! Marjory's solution with its three pillars - an expert integration platform, certified consultants and an ecosystem of service providers - first of all allows to drastically reduce the time needed for the technical implementation of marketplaces. With its no-code solution, Marjory facilitates development, the transmission of expertise and makes it easy to pass the integration phase, the most critical in this type of project!

With its workflow approach, Marjory's solution facilitates the identification of operational and functional actions/impacts during the design workshops of these workflows. This makes it possible to propose a totally flexible and customizable solution according to the needs of each client and its business context.

In this way, Marjory is a great change management tool, because we anticipate and align decision-makers on decisions and facilitate arbitrations.

Finally, the Marjory solution is a truly agile solution. This saves time in the technical integration phase of marketplace projects, which is where their major pain point lies. The flexibility of the Marjory integration platform allows for testing and providing evidence and reassurance, so that decisions can be made on a real and scalable basis. This agile approach also allows us to limit the technical debt of projects. 

Why did you choose to work at Marjory?

I chose Marjory because I am totally aligned with its innovative vision of integration. Marjory is a new value proposition, totally innovative. In fact, it's the solution I would have dreamed of having when I was leading the marketplaces projects mentioned above! It would have allowed me to absorb the complexity of these projects which, although very energizing, can also be a bit of a source of stress and sleepless nights!

What do you find most satisfying about working at Marjory?

The team and the company culture. Caring, feedback and trust are at the heart of the company project. And you feel it every day in the way you interact with your colleagues. Everyone is there to help the company project move forward and to help the other person move his or her projects forward. I had rarely encountered this dimension of mutual aid in my previous professional experiences.  I also appreciate the transparency that reigns in the company.

How do you see your job in 3 years?

It's both far and near! In 3 years, I still see myself at Marjory, in the middle of a team that is involved, professional, and full of ambition! With the same pleasure of getting up to go to work! With Marjory, we revolutionize IT, we simplify and accelerate the implementation of our solution, all this so that our unique expertise becomes a market reference!