The signs are all here: supply chain disruptions, increasing interest rates, high levels of inflation, and layoffs in certain companies and industries. A financial slowdown, perhaps even a recession, is here, and for those of us who have been doing this for a while, we know how it plays out. In good economic times, companies focus their resources on driving sales, customer acquisition, increasing market share, and new product development. But when the economy slows, and sales growth grinds to a trickle or even stops altogether, companies should start to act accordingly.
When this happens, as it appears to be the case at this point, companies start looking for areas where they can reduce costs and become more efficient. One area typically at the forefront of these efforts in lean economic times is the back office, since it is often viewed as overhead. Financial and procurement back-office functions are usually among those groups that are asked to do more with less.
The Good News:
In slow economic times, back-office operations have the opportunity to get the attention of senior management and implement systems and processes that drive efficiencies and allow you to do more with less. When times get better and the economy turns around, they can do more without having to add significant resources. The result, of course, is not only a more efficient and updated operation going forward, but also a significant contribution to the company’s overall financial health.
While these opportunities present themselves for all of the various back-office functions and departments within an organization, we will focus on two specific areas that deal with vendors and have a direct impact on a company’s spending, especially during a financial slowdown: finance/accounts payable, and procurement (sourcing, purchasing). Both of these areas have processes that are generally very manual, especially relating to onboarding and processing transactions to/from vendors. Best-of-breed solutions address those areas of the procure-to-pay cycle NOT particularly automated or efficient. They also help fill any functional gaps in your ERP or other systems. These solution modules can be deployed individually and scale to deliver a full-function PtoP system in a phased, modular approach.
Back-Office Cloud-Hosted Solutions
- Vendor Portal
- Invoice Submit
- PO Flip
- Payment Inquiry
- Payment Dispute Submission/Tracking
- Deductions
- Vendor Onboarding
- Company Information
- Compliance
- Diversity
- Tax (TIN check)
- Insurance Submission & Renewal Notification
- Internal Approval Workflows
- Real-time Collaboration with Vendor
- PO Dispatch & Update
- Automated PO Dispatch
- Request Vendor Updates
- Dispatch PO Updates & Communications
- AP Automation
- Remote Approvals
- PO Matching
- Workflow Management
- Data Capture
- Dynamic Discounting
Start Preparing
As a financial slowdown approaches, it is crucial to prepare your organization for changes. Plan to operate more efficiently and do more with less by addressing financial and vendor-related back-office processes now. These portal-based business solutions give managers more visibility into spend and critical vendor activities and give them more flexibility in managing cash flow.
The tools mentioned above are important pieces that help you operate more efficiently and with a high degree of vendor self-service. Additionally, these solutions also help promote a stronger vendor community by allowing them 24/7 access to the data they need in their operations.
Contact ICG today for more information or request a demo of any of our back-office automation solutions. You can also watch a short video on all of ICG’s back-office solutions.