
While a tech stack is 100% necessary, having one doesn’t cancel out the importance of a comprehensive ERP; in fact, the ERP should be at the core of your tech stack. Whether your company uses SAP, Oracle, or a legacy ERP system, the ERP will always be the single source of truth.
Your ERP allows you to digitize all of your information and store it centrally, but actually accessing and processing that information requires hours upon hours of manual clerical work and laborious data entry. Thus, an ERP can serve as an excellent record-keeping tool, but doesn’t actually do much to facilitate day-to-day tasks. Most ERP platforms have developed extensions for businesses to manage their accounts receivable and order to cash operations – but the functionality is lacking and largely limited to recording keeping.
For completing tasks in the most efficient way possible, a major enterprise should seek out purpose-built platforms for all of their core finance processes such as record to report, procure to pay, or order to cash. By choosing these types of technologies that work well with the mainstream as well as legacy ERP systems, companies can level up their productivity in a big way.
Your order to cash tech stack should start with automation and workflow solutions that can solve for 80% or more of your order to cash use-cases out of the box. Review each of the sub-processes within the order to cash function – credit reviews, customer onboarding, dunning, collections, dispute resolution, cash application. For each of these functions, look for ready-to-use software-as-a-service solutions that automate daily functions and improve productivity. When done right, these software solutions can more than pay for themselves by helping you reduce FTE costs and drive faster conversion of receivables to cash.
If the ERP is the star of your tech stack, then a data integration layer should serve as your best-supporting actor. The data integration layer should connect all data across the company, and support reporting, analytics and visualization. Think about a GPO who is able to get a single-click view into the health of receivables and portfolio aging across all of their business units spread across multiple continents without having to first deploy an army of analysts to gather that data. Gaining this level of visibility and resulting insights should be a priority for all GPOs.
Knowing what your ideal technology endgame looks like is half the battle; the other half involves actually implementing your tech stack by gaining buy-in across all levels of the company. That battle can often be uphill as even the most tech-savvy finance team can be resistant to change. To overcome inertia, change tactics by gaining employee buy-in through prioritizing and trial testing new tools that offer an immediate impact; systems that can automate clerical functions are often the lowest-hanging fruit for starters. Think about areas where you can deliver quick results such as cash application, document aggregation across credit reports, customer portals, and claims.
Instant productivity gains for your order to cash team will go a long way in convincing them that investing the time and energy into mastering new systems will bring worthwhile rewards. Then, focus your amp-up on products with a clear and tangible return on investment (ROI). While many vendors will try to sell you based on hype, ROI should always win out over buzz-based benefits.
HighRadius Autonomous Receivables Software Platform is the world’s only end-to-end accounts receivable software platform to lower DSO and bad-debt, automate cash posting, speed-up collections, and dispute resolution, and improve team productivity. It leverages RivanaTM Artificial Intelligence for Accounts Receivable to convert receivables faster and more effectively by using machine learning for accurate decision making across both credit and receivable processes and also enables suppliers to digitally connect with buyers via the radiusOneTM network, closing the loop from the supplier accounts receivable process to the buyer accounts payable process. Autonomous Receivables have been divided into 6 distinct applications: Credit Software, EIPP Software, Cash Application Software, Deductions Software, Collections Software, and ERP Payment Gateway – covering the entire gamut of credit-to-cash.