Heather King
All right, everybody is feeling refreshed. You are ready for the home stretch before alcohol, more and more tours of the field. If you didn’t go during lunch, and just aren’t sitting in sessions anymore, well, I am with you. But we still have two awesome sessions to get through before we are able to provide all of these things for everybody. So our investors panel is already up here, so it’s rare to go, but ready for happy hour ready for happy hours, and they want to get going as soon as possible. So we are going to be starting our session action plan for 2020 to take the digital leap with your banking partner, we have our speakers Christopher Jones, the SVP and East region, market manager for Commerce Bank, treasury management solutions group who has more than 21 years of business development and client advisory experience my entire life. Oh, my God. figs, I thank you and did not thank you for laughing. I don’t know, I don’t know which one. Susan E Aiello is the SVP in treasury management and a member of the commerce banks payment leadership team and has worked in the commercial services field for more than 25 years. Jared Lane, who will be moderating the discussion is VP of Digital transformation for HighRadius and is responsible for the advisory practice of its sales center of excellence, and executive and go to market recruiting at high radius. Oh, I didn’t know you had all that. Wow, well done. So this is gonna be a good panel. So please ask your questions at the end. And let’s give them a round of applause.
Jared Lane
All right, thanks, everybody. update my picture, my beard has grown a little bit in that picture. The colors changed a little bit too, unfortunately. But that’s how it goes. Right. Super excited to have Christopher ,Susan here for this panel. And so you know what kind of kick off here and talk about a little bit about the last 18 months, lots of craziness. Everything has changed in the last 18 months. And so, you know, I’ll kind of get a Christopher first and talk a little bit about how you see the focus of your B2B customers, how that focus has changed and how you’ve had to shift your focus to then help them out achieve their new objectives. And through all these changes.
Christopher Jones
Yeah, thanks, Jared. So yeah, I think his economic conditions continue to, you know, challenge companies. They’re all looking for new ways to navigate changing market conditions. So I think your your commercial banking, banking partners are still very relevant to the process to the conversation. Our commercial clients of all sizes across all industries. Jury segments, are really talking to us about how how we can help them leverage technology and gain efficiencies and manage rising, you know, economic costs. So I think even pre pandemic, companies were focused on Process Automation. improvements, leveraging data and analytics is top priority within their treasury project roadmaps. I do think that there’s been a sense of urgency to accelerate discussions around digital adoption, payment system automation, and on the best ways to take advantage of new ways of working on the bank, product front of we’re seeing volumes of virtual cards, ACH for domestic wire for global payments rising significantly, indicating that I think businesses continue to focus on automation and digitization. We have seen a significant increase in the deployment of AR solutions, such as remote deposit capture, and on the AP side ADE outsourcing. I also think financial professionals are telling us that they really are looking to their commercial banks, to be able to provide them guidance on comprehensive end to end solutions that address the entire cash management payment processing ecosystem. I think they’re expecting us to be able to talk deeply about accounts receivables, and accounts payables management, as well as wanting to talk about digital integration and access that will propel the use of analytics for growth type strategy. Payment fraud continues to rise. So mitigation best practices also remain top of mind. And I think because commercial banks provide the financing component of their liquidity management strategy, companies are expecting us as well to offer guidance on their working capital strategy. As cash on hand remains high helping companies fortify cash forecasting models with AI-driven data analytics I think it’ll help our clients to optimally deploy funds across accounting and treasury management, technology investments. So how do we engage companies to help them with some of these, these things that I just mentioned? So in commerce, we recognize the necessity to provide a consultative advisory approach, we’re working with our clients, we deploy a highly skilled team of treasury professionals that execute a formalized process to conduct in-depth payment cycle reviews. How we do that is we spend time with the company’s Treasury team, to get with them to observe their day to day operating rhythms to identify areas for process improvements. This allows us to gain, you know, kind of a real in-depth knowledge of their current treasury management, operating systems, including people, technology products, and process type systems. We do this in a way that allows us then to make recommendations for optimizing, you know, their future state, which allows us again, to offer recommendations to their entire treasury management systems.
Jared Lane
Right. Yeah, that’s awesome stuff. I mean, the changes over the last few months, I think everyone could agree, but it’s been huge, and adapting to it has been key. And so kind of moving on to the next question here. We’re gonna go to Susan. And so when you’re talking about the digital transformation it is certainly easier. I think we all agree when finance leaders are brought into the idea of it. But what happens when they’re not bought into the idea, but how do you, when you have a few moments with them? How do you convince them? This is what you need to do? And here’s why. What are those kinds of core key advantages to convince them that change their mind on that?
Susan E. Aiello
Yeah, I think that’s a great question, Jared. And it’s such an important one. Right? And I think, I think in most instances when we’re talking with organizations and corporations, they recognize that there are great amounts of value and automation, no question about it, but it’s more a matter of prioritization and where it fits within their own unique structure. So that’s a lot of what we do. The first step, of course, is to understand where their pain points are, and where we can really help. I think the pandemic really brought to light a lot of the inefficiencies of paper-based processes. I know when staying at home orders first went into play, we’re working with companies to stand up immediate lockboxes, mobile Remote Deposit, just because companies were, you know, trying to figure out how to get cash in their accounts as quickly as absolutely possible. And when you think about the risk associated with that. So you know, when in an economic downturn, should the distraction be something as basic right as getting cash in the bank, let alone all of the supply chain issues that surround that and the risk associated with that, right? So, truly not having that automation in place, I think really demonstrated what a downfall that was during something like the pandemic. And I think one of the things that we’ve really, really tried to do is talk with organizations about how they can streamline those processes and recognize that not only is the risk associated and not taking advantage of automation, but also, you know, manual processes are prone to human error. And that’s something definitely to keep in mind. The other thing that comes to mind with regard to this question, right is employee engagement. And, you know, the great resignation, it’s a real thing. And with employee turnover, you need to be concerned about that. We recently were talking with a healthcare organization. That said, it’s as difficult to find AR personnel these days, as it is for nurses. I mean, it’s a struggle. And so the more automated processes can be, the more you’re engaging your employees to spend time on things that are really meaningful. That was a big emphasis, right during the pandemic, people trying to find meaning in their careers. And that’s an important component of it. If you lose headcount, when the economy picks up, you’re in a bad spot. So I think that employee engagement is also a really important thing. I also think it’s this great irony, right? We all talk about how electronic payments are the wave of the future, absolutely no question about it. Last year, ACH volume increased on average 11%. And so what’s interesting though, is you go into an organization and you see a whole staff of folks that are their primary objective is reconciling those ACH payments because often, the invoice detail associated with those payments is disjointed. It’s coming in an email, maybe it’s coming in EDI. but a lot of corporations still don’t have that streamlined way of integrating that EDI into their accounting systems. So, you know, that’s really something that folks need to consider when they evaluate whether the time is right for them from an automation standpoint. And of course, you can’t lose sight of the customer service experience. If there isn’t transparency in the payment detail and access throughout the organization, to payments that folks are making with respect to deduction management or payment history, you know, that’s really going to impact a corporation’s ability to serve its customers and the ability to earn additional business. You know, Chris talks a little bit about the payment cycle review. And that’s something I think that’s so important. Because when we have an opportunity to sit down and visit with folks and really get entrenched in their day to day operations, that’s where we can uncover where opportunities lie for us to help in that process where automation opportunities exist. Sometimes I think folks get so locked into their day to day routine, that it’s difficult to see where things could perhaps be improved. And that’s where as a banking partner, we strive to add value and be of help to our corporate clients.
Jared Lane
Cool, yeah. All good stuff in and kind of tied to that. So now, Susan, you described how we get buy-in now people are like, yeah, maybe this is for me. Within the next, you know, step is, we saw earlier in our presentation that, you know, there’s a ton of vendors out there that are doing transformation and promising the world. But the reality is, and I forgot what the statistic really was 75.8% of transformation products fail in so how, how do you work with your customers to make sure they’re making the right choices, that they don’t become one of those statistics now that you’ve, you’ve sold them on all the benefits, but how do you get them to the promised land and not a failure and worse than they were before?
Christopher Jones
So I think it all starts with listening to understand, making sure that we understand a company’s strategic objectives, their top priorities, and then we can help them sort of put that roadmap together. So really kind of keeping them at the centre of the decision making process of the project. Like we mentioned earlier, companies are expecting us commercial bankers and treasury management professionals to be able to speak to the entire treasury management solution set, they are expecting us to bring new ideas that provide value that is relevant to their company. And they also want us to know a lot about not just their company, but what’s important to them within their industry. So understanding their operations, and how and I’ve learned a lot today listening to all of you and some of the panellists, in conversations, how important it is for us to really understand the operations aspects of any particular company. So we can talk about how the financial operations sit on top of that. Using our payment cycle review process, we kind of unpack that with clients. So that’s the first place that we start. I think commercial banks and fintech both bring valuable resources to the conversation. For example, I think commercial banks, commercial banks have a long history of trust. So many companies have had a long-standing relationship with their banking partners. And that allows us to be able to ask a lot of tough questions and really understand their business. Also, commercial banks provide access to traditional account structures and traditional payment systems. Those current systems have been put in place for a long time, we also operate under a very mild, somewhat predictable regulatory environment. So there is some safety and security with working with, you know, with an established banking partner. And I think most importantly, from a bank perspective, you know, traditional financing payments solutions. They do tie to traditional financing sources like commercial banks. fintech. You know, what fintechs bring is innovation and industry-focused ideas and solutions, like the HighRadius focus on the Receivables Management part of the Treasury ecosystem. I think fintechs speed to market execution, and applications far outpace commercial banks in how we traditionally operate. So I think there’s an advantage there. I think fintechs also tend to focus on improving unique customer and employee experiences. As Susan mentioned, think about a lot of consumer apps I know like, like the Uber app that brought me here to the venue today. That was that brought together a very unique, you know, operating system and then an application that also tied the financing piece to it. So I think the important thing is how both commercial banks and fintechs work together. And I think this is where we’ll see more and more activity. Partnerships between the two of us can provide a more robust EDI offering that expands across the entire value, financial bio chain, I mean everything from sourcing through contracting, procurement, invoicing, invoice reconciliation, financing, payment, approval, submission, execution, payment, reception reconciliation. This allows companies to develop specific project roadmaps that fit their unique challenges. And, you know, again, focus on their specific objectives and priorities. This allows us to work with them to see whether the roadmap says hey, we want to work with one particular aspect. Or maybe combine multiple solutions for a more intensive return. A couple of other things I think the fintechs bring to commercial banking specifically is think, I think companies are looking at banks. And they want to know where we are, in particular where we are in our digitization or our Trent digital transformation journey, let’s say, and fintechs help us with our own internal processes as well. They provide a lot of resources to technologies that our cloud-based API connects for ease of use. And I think his interest in open banking and banking as a service increases, I think the strategic partnerships between banking and fintechs will just become more important for our mutual benefit.
Jared Lane
Yeah, no, that’s great. And especially, you know, you hit on the partnership aspect of it, which I think is critically important. But it really leads us to the next kind of question for Susan here, which is, you know, one thing that HighRadius and commerce, you know, has in common, ingrained in our culture is we want to provide value to our customers, right, we wouldn’t have customers if we’re not, not proving ourselves, and there’s, you know, three vendors in line right behind both of us to take over that business. And so, you know, how, how do you service and solution providers, keep kind of expanding their horizons to make sure that they’re providing value. But then conversely, how do you help your customers and provide a framework so that post-deployment, they can apply that framework and figure out if they actually got the value that they were expecting or promised?
Susan E.Aiello
Yeah, you know, and I think, goes without saying, there’s no one, one size fits all solution, right? You know, I think the factors that are going to be important to companies are definitely going to differ based on their priorities and their objectives. And, and one of the first things I think, is to really define well those short and long term goals and to have executive buy-in, of course, which is critical, but first, I think comes that team buy-in. And, and so again, we spend a lot of time really understanding what our corporate existing structure is like, and spending time with the people that are involved in that day to day processing and what their lives are like. Because until you know that, you know, you really aren’t well-positioned to help them identify what those goals are and what those KPIs are. So, you know, I think, factors to consider generally when corporations look at rolling out some form of digital strategy, automation, or things like how will it integrate with other solutions? How flexible is the solution? Does it fit into the overall workflow? And then when you think specifically about AR-related things, I think probably categorically, you can roll it up in three primary categories. And the first would be, how does it help with my cash cycle? My cash flow? So things to look for certain, and very measurable things as it relates to AR products? Is DSO improvement, right? I mean, is it measurable, that my payments are getting in the door faster and operational efficiencies? So a reduction in manual processes, reduction in labour hours, reduction and response times for customer service, better communication internally across departments? And these customer service elements just make life easier for those clients to do business with you. So, you know, I think about the value that online credit applications bring to the process. And are you recognizing that you are providing more of an online portal the clients say with things like electronic invoice presentment and payment are they indeed, you know, paying you more frequently electronically, right. I mean, the objective is to cut that paper out of the equation. So there, there are some very measurable things that can be done there. And sometimes, you know, if folks are looking at automation, why are they looking at automation? Well, maybe it’s that they’re making an acquisition or there’s a merger, and they’re looking to do more with centralized staff. So I think those are obvious factors that factor into that decision making and that determine what, what, what’s going to calculate a new successful transition.
You know, I have a client that due to regulatory requirements, needed to process all of their payments and had to post all their payments, I should say, within 24 hours of receipt. And so what they were doing is they were receiving from three distinct payments, Rails, check, ACH wire, they get these files in every day, and they load them and they try and reconcile. But there was no automation to it, there was no anything that was, you know, didn’t jive was a manual exception that they needed to manage. And so they considered the rollout of the automated solution a huge success because they were able to do it in less time with fewer people. And they had a very specific need that we were able to help them meet when another client and trucking company was processing 2000 items a day. And they were projecting significant growth and thought that they would need to increase their AR team by half to one full-time person per year in the foreseeable future. And you know, that it was a cumbersome process they had in place, they received a lot of ACH. And one payment, as I’m sure many of y’all are, can relate to right, it can be 1000 and plus invoices. So, you know, how did they manage that? And that’s what they were looking for as an integrated solution that would help them take care that within a year that we’re at 74%, of straight-through processing? So I think a lot of it is utilizing the tools that you have getting the information from their existing staff and team on what’s working well, what isn’t working well. And then developing closely with those customers. What indicators are going to result in success for them? And then also, I would say, you know, the measure of success is something that is not a one on one-time thing, right? I mean, after a rollout, I think what’s so important, and certainly, we feel important as banking partners is that we’re constantly staying in close contact with our clients and evaluating what more we can be doing? So yeah, you know, perhaps you’re high on this ranking or that ranking, but what else is there that you’re looking to achieve? And how can we help you get there? A lot of different ways, undoubtedly, to meet that end goal. But I think one of the priorities of a good banking partner is to really help our clients optimize that optimistic automation, with whatever solution they choose.
Jared Lane
Right? Yeah, no, that’s all good stuff. And I know we’re pushing up on time. It’s good conversation, though, it goes fast. So just to kind of in the last question here, you know, let’s talk about the future we talked about last 18 months. So where do you see, you know, put your crystal balls? Where do you see the future for finance and Treasury professionals? Maybe just one minute each to know we’ll take some questions?
Susan E. Aiello
Yeah. All right. So I’ll kick us off. So I’ve got three key ones that I see as a digital strategy. Absolutely, for sure. Real-time payments are coming down the pipe, no question about it, we all need to be ready for it. The next thing I would say is risk mitigation techniques. I mean, banks are really spending a lot of time and effort as I know corporates are as well, right trying to help each other, it’s fair to fight against the bad guys. And that’s not going to, that’s not going to change. So account validation techniques, and technology that we can utilize there to help protect ourselves against fraud is critical. And then the last thing I’ll quickly mention is environmental, and ESG concerns environmental social governance concerns, because as we can see an uptick in corporations looking at that closely, and ensuring that, that they’re really hitting their goals in that regard. There’s a lot of investment related to that supply chain decision that is made dependent on that. And I think that’s something to keep an eye on in the future.
Christopher Jones
Yeah, I would say that the only thing I would add to that list is I’m particularly interested in groups in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and how that’s going to affect our business specifically, but also in terms of payments, in general, so I think there’s there’s opportunities right away for commercial banks to be exploring, or at least keeping up to date of those folks that are looking to crypto as currencies for investment purposes, those that are looking for yield. We see that on the consumer side, as there’s more perhaps, institutional interest as governments kind of figure out how they’re going to get involved and regulate. We’ll see what happens there. I think with regards to I think there’s a couple of things that are really interesting. Blockchain tech Technology with regard to smart contracts, as it relates to decentralized finance, I think the nature of how we borrow land and insure things is all going to change. And I think for commercial bankers, that’s something we really need to focus on and learn more about.
Jared Lane
Perfect, thanks. So do we have time for any Q&A? So I’ll tell you a quick funny Sashi story since he’s not here. So Christopher reminded me of it with cryptocurrency if you don’t know Sashi, he’s a big prank guy. He loves them. He has a special name for it. He calls him prank receptions. And this April he just reminded me we talked about crypto this April Fool’s Day he sent an email to the entire company telling all of us that 1/3 of our salaries are gonna be paid in Bitcoin moving forward. He had the head of HR, created a PowerPoint presentation, formal documents, everything. So he goes full out but the thing about Sashi and his pranks that he gets the biggest kick out of He never says that it’s a prank. You just have to eventually figure it out. And so we all have emails from employees that are either super psyched and saying I want to do more and other blizzards thing I don’t want this risk and the whole day was almost lost because everyone is stressing out about this and he never ever says that it was a prank. And so if any of that is to remind me that thanks everybody for your time. Appreciate if you have any questions, you know, hit us up after we obey around during happy hour. But thanks for the time. Thank Christopher and Susan for the great conversation and appreciate it. Thanks, guys.
