2022: shifting from survive to thrive
Welcome to 2022, the year of “can do, will do”: a year in which businesses seek to move from ‘survive’ to ‘thrive’, taking the new realities of and finding practical ways around the concerns many business and finance leaders face.
However, the agendas of small businesses and big businesses couldn’t be more polarised. So what does this mean for the supplier-buyer / creditor-customer relationship, and how can credit teams adapt and innovate on a budget?
Enterprise Expansionists
Deloitte’s quarterly CFOs survey in Q4 2021 found a strong appetite for growth through acquisition and global expansion amongst FTSE listed firms, making capital expenditure a high priority. In fact, at 37% of CFOs surveyed, this is the highest ever figure since their survey began in 2009.
Despite this, other priorities show a keen awareness of common challenges; recruitment, retention: finding and keeping good people to make things happen after 46% reported difficulties recruiting during 2021. Unsurprisingly, 77% expect to invest in workforce skills in 2022.
Productivity as a Priority
An astonishing 84% of the CFOs expect productivity to accelerate in the next three years, and 94% expect to invest more in digital technology. This has positive implications for credit teams that are not yet equipped with a software suite to facilitate efficient working across Order-to-Cash processes and who struggle to work from home productively when needs must.
Software as a Solution
Credit Managers report to us that their systems did not always permit full access when working from home, and competition for broadband meant that even when they did, the systems were unreliable. This hardly makes for a satisfied and engaged employee.
On the other hand, our clients report the transition from office to home working was seamless with Corrivo, which is designed for the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere securely and without disruption. Corrivo also promotes productivity and removes the common Credit Manager frustration of needing to switch between systems.
In Corrivo, everything the AR and credit team need is one place, and there are multiple features designed to encourage teamwork and productivity. Tight integration with ERP systems means that Corrivo users see more in Corrivo with fewer clicks to access the information that they need.
Small Business, Big Problems
In contrast to the enterprise CFOs, other research shows that amongst the top concerns of SMEs is access to credit to fund the cash flow gap that is inevitable due to challenges such as;
- transportation and supply chain disruption
- rising salaries in a competitive labour market
- choppy demand for services or products, some caused by external factors way beyond their control
- inflationary pressure affects prices not just for products but also for overheads like fuel and real estate.
Fast, Friendly Finance
Access to finance or credit can be costly, complex to secure, and burdensome administration, which adds to their labour costs. We believe that is why interest in our invoice finance solution is fast growing among large businesses that can achieve two in one: access to capital for their expansion and low-cost access to credit that can be seamlessly extended to their customers.
Helping small businesses gain friction-free access to invoice finance for up to 60 days beyond the invoice term is very appealing to credit managers. Still, there is another way it serves their needs: as a loyalty incentive for the high-value customers.
Low Cost, High Value
The Corrivo invoice finance solution comes at a low cost to our clients’ customers and no cost to the supplier. However, some of our clients intend to use fund the extended credit term themselves and offer their best customers extended credit terms at no cost to the customers.
This is a loyalty tool and allows them to provide customers with an excellent reason to stay and spend more with them than with competitors. At the high-value end of the customer spectrum, discounting is frowned upon as it devalues the supplier’s offering.
However, providing something extra free is particularly satisfying to the higher spending customers that themselves may fall into the category of enterprise expansionists seeking capital to fuel their growth.
To learn more about Corrivo as a solution to productivity, employee engagement and retention challenges, or to learn more about our Invoice Finance proposition, head to the solutions section of this website or email sales@datainterconnect.co.uk, and I’ll be happy to answer questions or give you a product tour.
