Recent studies have concluded that the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector isn’t much excited to switch over to the new generation Fintech operations in managing their banking and finance operations.
Traditional tools and processes have somehow found themselves ingrained into the mindset of this rather large audience in the industry, which feels a change over to a new and untried system may cause some initial upsets in the integration and system process flow. This hesitation is present, despite the recognition of better efficiency and speed which the new tech processes offer.
Technology Proliferation
One of the hurdles which users in this industry face is the proliferation of targeted Fintech offerings in the marketplace.
This would mean that the SME sector will have to weigh and choose several options before they can finalize to fully automate the back-end operations within their businesses.
‘Procure-to-pay’ space is one of such cases:
From e-Invoicing to supplier management to B2B e-commerce or supplier payment tools, there is hardly any one Fintech source that can single-handedly take care of all these in one lot.
After observing the needs of the B2B sector, Fintech companies have put together their heads and have come up with a ‘combo’ offer, where a vast range of platforms have been put on display under one umbrella by the Fintech solution providers, for the benefit of the segment.
Thus expense management to cash flow forecasting to supplier management and more can be picked up in one go, at one place.
However, there appears to be a big ‘But’ still, in the process system.
The lack of enthusiasm amongst the B2B sector to go in all-out for adopting into the new technology, is still a hurdle for the scores of ‘back-end business process operators’ to overcome.
To make the technology experience smooth and friction-less for processing it would take much more efforts for the Fintech sector, feels an industry expert.
SMEs still would have to integrate a range of technology inputs to complete the picture. For instance, one Fintech company may offer a connection of the business to a supplier to procure goods, but for actual payment of the order, the Company has to approach another tech to complete the ‘procure-to-pay’ cycle.
Partnerships Pay
Suddenly, Fintech offerings have now caught-on to the concept of ‘Partnerships’.
With two leading Fintech service offerings coming together, the industry witnessed a sudden jump in the package deal of services – solutions have been integrated and B2B customers can now pick a long line of procurement, ordering and supplier management processes in one workflow and link it to invoice payment step, without a snag.
The partnership announcement and demo inspired several other such moves within the Fintech landscape and the ultimate beneficiary? B2B customer, of course. ‘(It is) bringing what are traditionally two siloed business processes in the middle market and connecting them into one complete procure-to-pay operation’, says an industry voice.
Such integrations between two B2B Fintech companies is paving the way for a large number of service offerings under one roof for the business sector – and this is, irrespective of using API techno logy or not.
Finally, the industries seem to realize the benefit of putting two heads together to solve a problem that has been hammering them in the B2B sector for some years now.
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.
