And, as organisations attempt to emerge from the challenges of the past two years better and stronger, many finance professionals will be exploring options to reduce costs throughout the organisation, streamline processes, and gain greater visibility of drains on company funds.
In our recent A-Z guide to workplace procurement in 2022, Matt Cox, finance director of marketing automation platform, Force24, focused on how finance directors can develop long term strategies to ease financial strains while paving the way for further growth and success. If you missed it, catch up below.
One of the biggest challenges financial directors are facing at present is rapidly spiking costs – something which shows very little sign of slowing and is reverberating throughout the entire supply chain.
Not only is it tough to hand price hikes to your own customers, but it’s a blow to have something else to negotiate too. While there is – of course – an aspect of this within any business, now is the time when organisations are negotiating hard with partners to keep any rises small, as to not impact their own margins.
As a result, finance professionals are focused on finding better payment plans, longer term contracts which commit to negligible increases, alongside agreements which will secure better pricing longer-term. Which is a rather seismic shift, given the finance department historically always pushed for flexibility.
What’s more, when it comes to consolidated billing and procurement – this is more appealing than ever thanks, in part, to the timesaving benefits it can offer in terms of processing, invoicing, and paying suppliers.
Finance directors want to be strategic, and spend less time caught up in the day-to-day minutiae, particularly as they continue to ‘steady the ship’ following the events of the past two years. Anything which can make an FD’s life easier – or finances more predictable – is a welcomed option, at present.
