A New Category: Embedding SDaaS (Structured Data as a Service) into Your Application

Revolutionize Data Integration by Transforming External Inputs into Actionable Insights (and making your users' lives easier)

Let me paint you a picture. Most of you, just like myself and my co-founder before bem, are building amazing, cutting-edge software for various supply chains and industries. Some of us have been trying to disrupt supply chains for years—whether it's in food, materials, chemicals, or something else. Others are adding incredible layers of software for insurance, healthcare, or financial services. But here's the reality: no matter what industry you're in, no matter the size of your startup, there's one commonality from the very beginning. And it’s that 90% of your users' data is, and will always be, off-platform.

One of the biggest heartbreaks in my life as a product builder happened after weeks of designing an incredible user interface for Silo—beautiful buttons, sleek forms, and intuitive screens. I sat down with one of our users to show them how easy it was to use. After about 20 minutes, it was clear: yes, it was easier to use than their old system—this clunky, DOS-based thing with green letters. But then they made me pause. The user said, "I just need to focus on doing my two hours of manual data entry." I was confused.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He explained, "I spend two hours every day just inputting orders manually. Most of our business comes through emails and PDFs. I have a stack of invoices here, a stack of faxes there. All that has to go into the system."

That was the moment I realized: it was never about the UI. It was never about how round the buttons were, or how perfect the color scheme was. The real issue was how our software met (or didn't meet) them where they were.

Software Isn’t the Focus—The Outcome Is

The reality is that none of those beautiful design elements mattered. People don't care about software. They care about outcomes. Software is just the tool to get things done. What they really care about is how fast and easy it is to do business, generate revenue, track costs, and understand their business's performance. It was never about the UI.

If you're a new builder in any of these spaces, focus on building an interface that truly meets your users where they are. And that’s exactly why we built bem. We wanted to become that precise interface—a way to seamlessly transform all those millions of off-platform data points into something native to your system.

Meeting Users Where They Are

As a designer, it pains me to admit this, but if we had the technology we have today 15 or 20 years ago, I think we would’ve skipped several generations of user interface design. We would’ve gone straight to AI-driven experiences that allowed people to simply do their jobs faster and better.

And I say this with a heavy heart because I used to be a huge fan of beautifully rounded buttons, impressive facets, and breadcrumb trails. But here's the truth: most of the time, users just want to do one simple thing. They want to punch in an order, because if they don’t, the system won’t know about it. The majority of their communications with other companies, stakeholders, and partners happen outside of your platform.

The Future of Seamless Data Integration

That’s where bem comes in. It doesn’t matter whether the data comes from PDFs, emails, or ancient fax machines—it all gets transformed into your system. We designed bem to be that invisible but essential layer that ensures none of that external data slips through the cracks. It’s all captured, transformed, and integrated seamlessly, leaving users free from the burden of manual data entry forever.

This is the reality for many industries—supply chain, insurance, healthcare, fintech, and more. The bulk of their operations rely on data that exists outside the platform, and bridging that gap is the key to eliminating inefficiencies. In the end, users don’t care about software. They care about how well your software enables them to achieve their goals with minimal friction.

At the heart of it all, you don’t need to obsess over the design of every button or dropdown menu. What matters most is whether your platform can handle what’s outside of it—because that’s where most of the data lives. And with bem, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. We’ve got it covered.