Order Process is Easier than ever with the New Tender Option on CheMondis.

How convenient: as of now you as a supplier can increase the visibility of your in-stock products by just a few clicks and you as a buyer will no longer miss an unbeatable offer – with the new tender functionality on CheMondis.

And yes, it really is as simple as it sounds. Suppliers of chemical products can place an ad for their in-stock products  with all the necessary details such as the available volume or offered Incoterms. Buyers can accept this immediately or place their own open RFQ for products they need, to which suppliers who have them in stock can respond with an offer.

Sounds good? Let’s take a closer look at the process for suppliers and buyers.

Ultimate Tender Guide for Buyers.

In the middle of your purchasing process you realize that you are  looking for a  product that is currently hard to find on the market, or for which you simply want to compare prices. Why not make it as easy as possible? Just post your open quote request via a predefined form on CheMondis and wait for offers coming to your desk. All the necessary information is shown in the graphic below.

Ultimate Tender Guide for Suppliers.

You want to get rid of some of your products quickly? Or are you one of the few suppliers who can currently offer a product that has been out of stock for some time? Then, draw attention to your company with the tender function on CheMondis. Of course, you can also see what is currently in high demand through open requests from buyers that you can respond to. Congrats, already you found a new business partner! See below what kind of information is needed.

Now It Is Up to You.

You felt addressed by this article? Then go ahead and create your first tender request or offer via your company’s account on CheMondis.

You are not a CheMondis customer yet? No worries! You can get your free access to the platform:

    Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis blog.

    May We Introduce: The New Version of The Brandshop Feature.

    You want to get into e-commerce or expand your digital sales channels? Then you will inevitably have to consider which sales platform you want to use.

    The web offers a variety of options. The most common are probably marketplaces and online stores. So it’s not surprising that many manufacturers are increasingly asking themselves which digital sales channel is the right one.

    What Are the Top 5 Pro’s of Marketplaces for You as a Supplier?

    • Extend your global reach and ensure that your brand and products are not just visible on CheMondis but also on search engines like Google
    • Generate new business by becoming visible to new markets and customers online to extend your business success
    • Low set up costs and efforts make a quick and uncomplicated start possible
    • Benefit from a trusted environment since every company on CheMondis needs to run through our verification process

    What Are the Top 5 Pro’s of Online Shops for You as a Supplier?

    • Your products are not exposed to any competition
    • Benefit from any freedom regarding the design of your shop
    • Create your own domain for the shop

    What Is a Brandshop on CheMondis?

    The answer is pretty simple: both. The CheMondis brand shop combines the best of the two options. You can present your company and portfolio on a dedicated storefront that provides all advantages of an own online shop while being listed on the marketplace.

    The brand shop enables you:

     

    • to present your product portfolio
    • we ensure that thousands of buyers will find your brand shop on CheMondis and Google
    • to customize your brand shop to fit your company’s corporate design

    >> As of now, a dropdown menu with categories your products on CheMondis is embedded into your brandshop.

    >> Use category teasers & benefit from the CheMondis badges

    You want to learn more about the badges? Check our blog article here.

    >> List your top products on top of your brandshop.

    Now It Is Up to You.

    You are already a Brandshop owner but want to upgrade to the new version?

    Get in touch with your CheMondis Account Manager our leave us a message via the contact for here.

    You want to set up a brandshop for your company on CheMondis?

    Just leave your contact details here and we will get in touch!

    Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis blog.

    We launch CheMondis Payment Services – the Next Step in Facilitating Digital Trade.

    As CheMondis, it is important for us to offer a secure environment for business – without any unnecessary risks.

    Therefore, we partnered up with trustshare, the leading escrow payment infrastructure for online B2B marketplaces to offer a secure payment service to all users of our platform. It is directly embedded into the platform and allows simple, fast and cost-efficient payment handling while ensuring maximum protection for both parties.


    Why Does This Payment Method Add Extra Security for You?

    Next to the mere transfer of funds, the CheMondis Payment Service includes a so-called escrow option. It is designed to eliminate the risk of the delivery and payment processes. No more questioning yourself, whether you really want to pay a new supplier in advance, or whether you should really ship the goods to a new buyer on a 30 days invoice. With CheMondis’ Payment Service you have one hundred percent security for all transactions!

    The Service works as follows:

    You have just completed the negotiations on CheMondis. The deal is ready to happen. If your partner for this transaction has also allowed the payment type escrow, it can be selected within the negotiation.

    Now, the buyer pays in advance, but the funds are not released yet – the funds are securely stored in a bank account that is associated with your transaction. The supplier can see that the payment has been made, so it is safe to ship the products now.

    After successful shipment and delivery of the goods, the buyer releases the funds to the supplier for payout.

    The supplier can now transfer the money to his bank account.

    Obviously, this process is superior to traditional pay on invoice in speed, transparency, security, and costs.

    What Does This Mean in Terms of Benefits for Your Company? 

    We have summarized and compared the common payment methods of our industry for you in the following table.


    I Am Convinced. How Can I Unlock the Feature for My Company?

    Of course, both you and the other party need to agree to this payment method prior to using it. To do so, as a supplier you just need to enter an e-mail address in your Escrow and Payment Settings on CheMondis. As a buyer, you can register with our payment partner right after closing the deal. It is as easy as it sounds. Once, you’re done, you can use the new payment method…

    Now It Is Up to You.

    You want to get started?

    You are not yet a customer on CheMondis but want to do secure business in the future?

    Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis blog.

     

    Is Working from Anywhere the Unstoppable Future?

    We all feel that the world of work is changing, right? Driven by globalization, digitalization, and global crisis, the work-from-anywhere concept has become one of the working world’s answers to these rapid challenges. Work wherever you can be productive  – under palm trees, by the sea or on a lonely mountain, as long as there is a solid internet connection.


    A Brief History of Remote Work.

    If you look back in time, work models such as working from home or location-independent working have been in existence for about 50 years.

     It began with the introduction of the first work from home jobs in the 1970s, prompted by soaring gasoline prices as a result of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo. Consequently, commuting became more expensive. These measures allowed people to work from their homes, coworking spaces, coffee shops and other locations for the first time…

    Ultimately, thanks to the advent of computers, laptops and lastly the internet in the 1990s, employees’ geographic flexibility increased significantly.


    Working from Home vs. Working from Anywhere.

     There are various types of geographic flexibility that are categorized as “remote work” the option to work from any remote location away from company premises. Let’s first clarify what constitutes remote work before we delve into the difference between working from home and working from anywhere.

    In distinction to working from home, working from anywhere means working from any other appropriate location to perform your job, except from your home address.

    Just imagine this: Instead of the rainy weather in Germany, you wake up in the morning and smell the fresh sea air. While you enjoy the first coffee in the morning sun with bare feet on sand your laptop is slowly booting up.

    Sounds too good to be true? Then read on attentively now…


    Working From Anywhere Increases Your Productivity by 4.4 Percent.*

     According to Nicholas Bloom, employees that are having the opportunity to work remotely, show an increase in work output of 4.4 percent when in the work from anywhere program compared to the baseline of when the employee was in the work from home program.

    What are the working from anywhere benefits for employees?

    • Possibility to travel to other countries, visit family / friends
      • If an employee can work fully remote from another region / country, living in the preferred geographical location will also result in greater satisfaction or may also retain top international talent, that may want to move back to their home country for more proximity to their family / friend
    • Broaden horizon= learn a new language, getting to know new cultures
    • Different environment can also spark creativity and result in new ideas

    What are the working from home benefits for employees?

    • Increase of freedom / flexibility regarding reconciling work and family/private life – e.g. emergency childcare is guaranteed, open the door for technicians…
    • Saving time (and money) that would otherwise be spent on a long commute allows employees to have better work-life balance and adds hours back into their days.
    • More focus and less distractions – depends of course on the home situation
    • Increases wellbeing = Allows workers to control ambient workspace elements such as clothing, layout, music
    • Lower rental costs when a high-priced apartment is not needed in the city.

    What are the benefits for employers?

    • Attract talent: Working from home is a standard demanded by talents, Working from anywher is a great benefit, which especially international talents are seeking for
    • Saves money: Fewer sick days, saving on rent and equipment, if a free desk policy is implemented


    By implementing such a model, companies also have a number of other advantages, such as saving on rent for office space, electricity and infrastructure costs, or the saved workspace can be converted into collaborative space.

    It quickly becomes clear that this concept is beneficial for both employees and employers. Doesn’t it?


    The Other Side of the Coin.

    As with everything, there are some challenges you need to consider. 

    Depending on the duration of working from anywhere, physical distance can have an impact on your company culture. Face-to-face contact is limited, spontaneous conversations decrease, and you might feel socially and professionally isolated, disconnected from colleagues and the company itself. However, appropriate collaboration tools and a meeting structure designed for this purpose can remedy the situation.

    But daily meetings and workshops also face hybrid challenges.

    • time differences can reduce the daily joint working and coordination time.
    • technical equipment of laptops, cell phones, headsets, cameras etc. must be available
    • a stable and strong internet connection forms the basis of course
    • without physical presence it is more difficult to assess how the other person is doing, what he feels and thinks. Misunderstandings can therefore arise quickly

     Accordingly, clear guidelines are needed for successful hybrid work (e.g. camera on / off, etc.).

    The CheMondis Approach.

    As a startup, we certainly would like to embrace this flexibility in terms of work location. At the same time, we believe that our success is largely determined by our culture and a shared sense of community that requires personal and physical interaction.

    Therefore, the following “CheMondis way of working” is the current approach that works best for us.

    • There is no daily obligation to work from the office
    • Some teams define autonomously a minimum of 2 days per week to work together from the office
    • Besides that, everyone has the opportunity to work from anywhere for a defined amount of days per year – as we’re located in Germany, this is currently limited to Europe
    • Due to this way of working, all our meetings are held hybrid – for everyone in the office in presence and for everyone else remotely. No question that we had to get used to it.

    We have been practicing this way of working for about six months now and with great success. Everyone enjoys the time together in the office but equally the flexibility to decide working from another location from time to time. Especially our “work from anywhere” offer has been used extensively – in the last 6 months 12 employees have been working from other locations than their homes or the office. In total we have worked 81 days from 7 countries.

    It was precisely during this time, after a long home office period, that we were able to achieve great entrepreneurial success. Flexibility and self-determination due to the working from anywhere model have been a huge boost to our performance.

    Ready for the Beach?

    The prerequisites for successful remote work must, of course, go hand in hand with organizational procedures, corporate and management culture, appropriate equipment and, obviously, a role that allows working online. Would you offer the remote work option to individual employees only or to nobody at all in this case? There are parameters must be considered before implementing such a model. Also, a high administrative effort and costs for implementation and for processing must be considered and well planned – policies, legal prerequisites, defined processes regarding taxation and social security, as well as visa-support are required depending on the scope of flexibility offered.

    You probably guessed it already, there is no one fits all solution. Every company will have to determine which working model fits it best – physical presence in the office, working from home, working from anywhere or as a first iteration from all over your country, etc. Of course, under the legal framework that your country provides for it.

    If you take another look at the advantages for companies and employees and consider the ongoing digitization and globalization, it quickly becomes clear where the journey is heading. We are heading straight for a future in which the option for remote work will no longer be just a benefit, but a standard. Many international companies, such as Google or SAP, are pioneers in this field and have already successfully implemented such extremely flexible and innovative solutions.


    Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
     


    SOURCES: 

    Prithwiraj, R., Cirrus Foroughi, C., Larson, B. (2020). Work-From-Anywhere: The Productivity Effects of Geographic Flexibility. Harvard Business School. 

    WeWork (2020). The benefits of remote work – for both employees and managers.

     

    How to Enjoy the Taste of a Freshly Baked Pizza Through Your Mobile Device? The Answer: Virtual Taste.

    Maybe you felt the same – during the pandemic, many people have (re-)discovered their cooking and baking skill. More or less voluntarily. Some of us even for the very first time. People who usually go out to get their nutritional needs were suddenly forced to bring fresh vegetables, meat, or fish into their own oven.

    Combining ingredients to create an uplifting and satisfying experience can be quite challenging and complex. Flavors are delicately designed with spices, oils, and essences, slowly building up during multiple and precisely timed stages of cooking until merging into a holistic sensation of taste between your jaws caused by chemical reactions.

    What if we told you that you can enjoy the taste of a freshly baked pizza through your mobile device? Sounds too good to be true? Then, read on now…

    Key Compounds Unlock the World of Taste.

    Taste is one of the basic senses that help you to experience food and beverages. The taste of food is caused by its chemical compounds which react with receptor proteins in your taste buds.

    Taste receptors are activated when food is chewed and mixed with saliva (commonly known as spit). Our tongue has a brush-like surface consisting of so-called papillae. These filament structures increase the surface area of the tongue and hence maximize the area of potential friction with food. Some of these papillae contain taste buds that are equipped with receptor proteins. These proteins ignore most of the food mush flowing around them until they detect their target group of food and flavor molecules. It is interesting to note that these proteins don’t have a narrow selectivity for specific molecules meaning they can be activated by a multitude of compounds.

    Let us explain how by showing some small examples: compounds with Sodium ions trigger the salt perception, and a lot of different acids vividly trigger sourness. The whole process can be imagined as if the receptors are simple locks, and the compounds are keys. When the lock is opened, a chain reaction starts.

    Once the protein is activated the whole taste bud cell comes to life and starts putting many more proteins inside the cell to work. These proteins cooperate by rapidly shifting electrically charged atoms around which produces a tiny electrical current inside the cell. This impulse is so tiny you cannot feel it.

    However, it is detected by the underlying nerves in your tongue. These are specialists at detecting and passing on tiny electric signals. The signal is amplified until the message races out the back of your mouth, up through a tiny hole in your skull, and into your brain. This process only takes a few milliseconds. Your gustatory cortex (the taste center of your brain) finishes the job by telling you, which one of the general tastes you perceive: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or savory.

    Interestingly there are also interactions between different tastes and between taste substances. For example, the bitterness of coffee is suppressed by adding sugar. A synergetic effect for savory can be obtained by mixing Glutamine acid (E 620) and Inosinic acid (E 630). The savory taste is also known as “umami” coming from the Japanese language and might explain why many Asian seasoning mixtures rely on spices that contain Glutamine acid.

    Everyone Has a Different Taste.

    The threshold for the detection of taste compounds by humans also varies significantly. It is low for signals of toxic and rotten substances, i.e., bitterness and sourness (increasing in this order), and is highest for sweet substances, the energy source for humans.

    Contrary to popular belief, the entire tongue can detect all five tastes. There isn’t a “zone” for each one. However, compared to the center of your tongue, the sides of your tongue are more sensitive to every type of taste. The exception is the back of your tongue. This area is extra sensitive to bitterness, which is thought to help us sense toxic foods before we swallow them.

    The basic taste system is the same for all of us. However, we differ in the perception of each taste kind. This fact can be explained through the different quantities of taste buds. Each taste bud cell adds a little bit to the strength of a taste, so people with more taste buds are more sensitive to a particular taste.

    Gustatory Technology.

    The food industry today relies on sensory devices that can discriminate and analyze food and beverages, greatly contributing to quality management. These sensors use ion-selective electrodes to convert the concentration of flavor compounds into electrical signals. As an example, this enabled researchers to a uniform categorization of taste of different beer brands.

    But can this process also be reversed to imitate a certain taste? This kind of technology can be helpful for a variety of industries and can take an interactive experience to a whole new level. The engineering discipline that deals with gustatory representation is called gustatory technology.

    Electrodes are used to simulate the taste and texture of real food in the mouth. In 2012 a team of researchers at the National University of Singapore developed the digital lollipop, an electronic device capable of transmitting four major taste sensations (salty, sour, sweet, and bitter) to the tongue. The same team later in 2016 created a prototype with thermoelectric elements to simulate the sensation of sweetness through changes in temperature.

    This approach doesn’t require any chemicals and purely relies on electronical and thermal emulation. The lock-key-mechanism is circumvented by short-circuiting the underlying nerves of the taste cells. This system could be implemented in mugs or drinking glasses to make low-sugar drinks taste sweeter and help people reduce their sugar intake.

    A team from the University of Tokyo created a device that simulates the different textures of food also through electricity. The gadget uses electrodes that are placed on the masseter muscle (a jaw muscle used for chewing). It can simulate texture by changing the muscle frequency. For example, a higher frequency gives the food a harder texture.

    Another Step to a Multi-Sensory Viewing Experience.

    It is time to look at a chemical approach to this biochemical mechanism. Professor Homei Miyashita from Meiji University’s School of Science and Technology in Tokyo has developed a prototype lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavors.

    The system is called Taste the TV (TTTV).  His team of researchers used taste sensors to sample a variety of foods and came up with a palette of 10 different aerosol flavors. These base flavors can be combined in any ratio to approximate a great spectrum of tastes.

    The device uses a carousel of different canisters that spray the flavor sample to be rolled on hygienic film over a flat TV screen for the viewer to try.

    In the COVID-19 era, this kind of technology can enhance the way people connect and interact with the outside world, said Miyashita. “The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” he claims.

    Miyashita works with a team of about 30 students that has produced a variety of flavor-related devices, including a fork that makes food taste richer. Potential applications include distance learning for sommeliers and cooks, and tasting games and quizzes, he said.

    Miyashita has also been in talks with companies about using his spray technology for applications like a device that can apply a pizza or chocolate taste to a slice of toasted bread.

    If we witness people constantly licking the surface of their mobile phones in the near future remains to be seen. But his technology adds another dimension to the rapidly expanding trend of digitization.


    References:

    • Bradbury, J. 2004. Taste perception: cracking the code.
    • Smith, D. V., and Margolskee, R. F. 2001. Making sense of taste.
    • Chaudhari, N., and Roper, S. D. 2010. The cell biology of taste.
    • Reed DR, et al. 2010. Genetics of taste and smell: Poisons and pleasures.
    • Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. 2016. How does our sense of taste work?
    • Beauchamp GK, et al. 2016. Why do we like sweet taste: A bitter tale?
    • Breslin PAS. 2013. An evolutionary perspective on food and human taste.
    • Wilson A. 2015. Taste vs. flavor: What’s the difference?
    • Tahara, Yusuke; Toko, Kiyoshi (2013). Electronic Tongues–A Review. IEEE Sensors Journal, 13(8), 3001–3011.