DIGITALISATION
“ HOW YOU PAY YOUR SUPPLIERS , YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS , YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN AND PROCUREMENT FUNCTIONS ARE ALL REALLY MISSION CRITICAL FOR MOST COMPANIES ”
— Paul Christensen , Co-founder and CEO , Previse
48 the small number of invoices that are unlikely to get paid . It then pays them immediately , charging a small fee . Historically , paying invoices to a large supplier base is a complex and laborious process . “ Previse does something that no one has ever done before : It forgets that process ,” says Christensen . “ Every large corporate has a huge amount of data sitting in their ERP systems . This goldmine isn ’ t being touched by anybody , so we go through that data and make predictions . Previse allows companies to use data , rather than process .”
The premise is simple , but the execution is not without its challenges . Working with some of the largest corporate organisations from around the world brings with it a level of bureaucracy that can complicate the process . Christensen strips it back further and looks at the current AI or digital conversation that large-scale companies are currently having and highlights that these are mostly focused on the front office , such as advertising and customer experience . “ They aren ’ t thinking enough about the back office , like procurement or accounts payable – the whole supply chain ecosystem ,” he says . “ The back office is kind of low-hanging fruit , that ’ s where you can make the biggest difference . We are showing that we can make the
MAY 2019