you ask anybody “is your working capital truly
optimized?” everybody is going to say, I could
be do a little better. There are always grades or
different spots along the evolutionary chain of
whether somebody has a really tight strategy
and execution to someone who, quite honestly,
doesn’t. A lot of it is systems driven but a lot is
people and policy driven.
So you see this evolution of working capital as
companies hit different points in their lifecycles
and the cyclicalities of business and even within their own staffing to give them the focus and
drive, that’s where the power is in this. Working
capital as a whole is something every single company has some level of challenges and optimization opportunities.
Consulting: Is the system itself turnkey?
Kelly: The way we’ve established it up to this
point is as a Software as a Solution. It’s all cloud-based, we host it. The upfront investment, which is
mostly time, is making sure we have the right data
stream, making sure we’ve outlined the right core
drivers. After we’ve set up that initial template the
frequency of our involvement is determined by the
user. We can give you as much and as timely information as your business requires.
Consulting: Was launching the platform
specifically to address client needs?
Kelly: Again, it kind of goes back to the analogy
that every company faces some level of working
capital challenges and optimization opportunities. I think a lot of it is the demand is there and
the issues have existed. As you look the focus on
working capital is going to become more and more
intense. It’s based on those existing challenges,
but also the increasing availability of data and information and how do we manage and manipulate
that in ways that previously weren’t as easy.
Consulting: How does the platform help
companies maximize their technology investment?
Kelly: In the early 2000s we made tremendous
strides in helping people leverage their ERP investment. What we started to see then was people making all these large investments in these
solutions. At the end of the day an ERP system
is a calculator.
If I put a 2 in there and a 3 in there and expect
them to equal 6 it’s just not going to happen. We
target those areas to identify the system drivers
and key parameters, what are the key pieces of
the infrastructure of your ERP system driving
a lot of the components and a lot of the deci-sion-making processes.
By helping people focus on those things it allows them to take that initial investment and get to
the point a lot of them thought they were going to
be in the first place.
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