With the B2B commerce {industry} quickly altering, it ought to come as no shock that some finance groups are struggling to maintain up. Nonetheless, new analysis by Hokodo, the supplier of versatile fee phrases for European retailers and marketplaces, reveals that as a lot as two-thirds of the {industry} is failing to maintain tempo.
Within the new investigative report, produced in partnership with the B2B eCommerce Affiliation, Hokodo reveals that 66 per cent of finance leaders say their group is unable to maintain tempo with the velocity of e-commerce.
B2B e-commerce goes by means of a fast-paced evolution, with the market set to whole round $2.641trillion in 2024. Nonetheless, Hokodo’s report highlights that many finance features aren’t future-proofed. In actual fact, its pan-industry survey of CFOs and finance leaders discovered that 17 per cent of finance leaders really feel that their finance group isn’t ready for the long run.
The boundaries to finance features being future-proofed come all the way down to a scarcity of steadiness between progress versus management. Forty-six per cent of these surveyed are struggling to strike a steadiness between monetary controls – the insurance policies used to handle monetary assets and make sure the accuracy of reporting – and strategic progress initiatives.
Louis Carbonnier, co-founder and president of Hokodo, defined: “Though the B2B commerce {industry} is digitising at a excessive velocity, our investigation has discovered that finance groups are dealing with quite a few boundaries and easily can’t sustain with the tempo of e-commerce.
“Future-proofing begins with tech enablement of the finance group. Whether or not it’s by means of studies like this or our digital commerce credit score providing, our mission is to make sure all finance leaders are able to face the way forward for B2B commerce.”
When requested whether or not e-commerce has made managing monetary controls harder, 39 per cent of finance leaders agreed; whereas solely 5 per cent strongly disagreed.
Overcoming important challenges
Whereas not solely attempting to strike the correct steadiness between progress and management, finance leaders are additionally dealing with obstacles round money stream and fee phrases. The survey revealed that the highest three challenges for finance leaders are:
- Working capital administration and money stream unpredictability (66 per cent)
- Slicing prices (49 per cent)
- Managing funds and fee phrases (44 per cent)
Worryingly, these challenges are stopping finance leaders from having the ability to innovate and make sure that their finance operate is future-proofed. The survey discovered that different key boundaries to innovation are finances constraints (66 per cent), resistance to alter (54 per cent), and lack of capability (37 per cent).
Christopher Gee, UK lead at B2B Ecommerce Affiliation, additionally added: “It’s reassuring to see this report provide a realistic method to automating finance processes. This report supplies well timed insights and useful methods for anybody navigating the complicated world of B2B finance, balancing effectivity with progress.”