It’s Your Job to Sell Order-to-Cash Transformation – An Outline to Begin Your Journey
Through a recent CRF webinar, I had the pleasure of listening to a former credit practitioner, Sarah-Jayne Martin, share her experiences selling the need to invest in technology at the operational level of an Accounts Receivable organization. What was truly interesting was that it wasn’t just about developing an ROI (return on investment) and placing that in front of a CFO, but to holistically consider impacts along the value chain imbedded in the process and to think broadly about the advantages that can be brought to a company when embracing a fully loaded approach verses an individual department approach. In essence the development of both an internal and external viewpoint greatly increases the odds of buy-in to fund and implement such projects.
Here are several key points to consider:
- Determine your own list of requirements
- Evaluate and embrace other stakeholder’s requirements
- Understand the type of CFO you are seeking approval from
Requirements
Start by listing your requirements and apply the MoSCoW methodology when deciding what is most important to you. So, what is MoSCoW? Must Have, Should Have, Could Have and Will Not Have. Each of these is critical. When this is complete, expand the same methodology across the revenue cycle value chain and all points where the AR function integrates. By doing so you’ll expand the overall impact. Once your portfolio impacts are understood you can determine a greater ROI to present to your CFO.
Stakeholder Requirements
Today’s integrated world requires leaders to view and operate in an environment that removes the “us” verse “them” mindset and to work together in a common relationship for the greater good of the customer. CRF is finding that the future requires tomorrow’s professionals to own the full process and, when evaluating technology, to incorporate stakeholders across the same. Each stakeholder should have the ability to participate in their individual requirements, therefore they must be included when requesting approval for new technology.
Type of CFO
Knowing your customer (KYC) is nothing new to the discipline and this same methodology applies when presenting a request for approval to implement new technology. The philosophy suggests that your request for approval be tailored to one of three CFO types: “Technology Laggards”, “Teetering” and “Tech-Savvy”. Each of these requires a different approach in how you present your request for approval.
At the end of the webinar, participants walked away with valuable feedback on how to present requests for changes in the O2C process with the key walk-away being the digital environment we live in, and today’s advancements/opportunities allow us to think across process lines instead of the traditional transactional point of view.
The webinar can be found on the CRF website – members can download free of charge: CLICK HERE