A GPO’s Guide To Customer-Centric Order To Cash

Why Should Customer-Centricity Be Prioritized Today?

Let us first understand what customer-centricity is. It is a business strategy that focuses on offering a great customer experience both before and after the sale to increase profit and achieve a competitive edge.

“The way organizations deal with their customers in a crisis is likely to leave lasting memories in customers’ minds.”

Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point Manager, BMS

Why Customer Satisfaction Is The New KPI You Need To Track

Gartner says that nearly 90% of organizations have a chief experience officer or an equivalent role to improve the overall customer experience. Improving customer experience has been a high priority for 76% of top executives. Hence, GBS leaders must focus on tracking CX.

What Constitutes Customer Experience?

 

The real trouble arises from the past or degeneration

The customer experience should be on the priority list of AR teams. Because on the product side,

• The sales and marketing teams are usually highly aligned in how they approach their customer.
• The inventory and the shipping teams are usually independent in their operations.
• Finally, due to a siloed operation of AR teams, the division of customer satisfaction becomes difficult to achieve.

Driving Customer-Centricity Through Digital Transformation

How digital transformation helps in building best-in-class Shared Services

The SSON global 2020 report survey found that 65% respondents say cloud-based technologies either form or are actively in the process of forming most of their tech stack by standardizing the process through a centralized platform and shifting from on-premise to a cloud solution.

Benefits of shifting to cloud over on-premise

GPOs Course of Action For A Positive Customer Experience

“In today’s world, data is the new oil. We live in a world where we have trillions of data available to us. But if we are not able to leverage that data to our benefit, it serves no purpose.”

Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point Manager, BMS

Optimize Customer Experience With Analytics

Analytics leads up to an efficient data management system where we can track and deliver on our customer expectations.

How can a cloud-based end-to-end platform serve as a single source of truth?

• Customer data is collated in one place, allowing a better end-user experience and real-time visibility. End-to-end integration helps A/R teams serve the customers better, streamline workflows, and reduce the time it takes to address customer requests.
• Self-serving customer portal, where customers can view invoices, make payments, raise disputes, etc.
• Out-of-box reporting dashboard to view customer details and behavior. Also helps track employee performance.

Leveraging AI tools to improve performance

Adoption of digital technology has surged post COVID-19

“Even without the pandemic, Shared Services leaders were planning to adopt digital technologies, and COVID has only sped up the process.”

Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point Manager, BMS

McKinsey stat shows how COVID-19 pushed companies to their technology tipping point and transformed business forever.

Three ways to leverage AI to improve performance

• Serves as a single source of truth
• Enables streamlined workflows
• AI-powered chatbots reduce multiple touchpoints for getting an issue resolved

“One of the most and highly used technologies right now in AI for OTC is HighRadius technology, especially FREEDA, which helps the collections and cash application and all processes.”

Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point Manager, BMS

FREEDA – HighRadius’s Digital Assistant for Order-to-Cash and Treasury Departments

FREEDA is an Artificial Intelligence-enabled Digital Assistant for Order to Cash and Treasury teams. It is capable of answering questions and helping with work just like a knowledgeable colleague, or reliable resource.

Know more about FREEDA

Future of Shared Services in 2025

“I can advise you on a personal note to move to a  cloud-based solution. It is the easier and the more sophisticated way to do business, especially when you have multiple locations, and different time zones to deal with.”

Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point Manager, BMS

According to Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad

• Shared services will sustain beyond 2025. However, the model of shared services will change in the future because of AI and quantum computing.
• The pandemic has shown us the fragility of our shared services model. We need agility, and the willingness to leverage technology to future-proof O2C function.
• The future belongs to AI.

In Conclusion

Since the pandemic, the Shared Service Centres have had to quickly adapt to the ‘new normal’. To improve customer experience, GBS leaders around the world have to rethink their operational strategies. Now, it is really important to move away from an on-premise solution to a cloud-based AI solution to ensure that customers can seamlessly connect with A/R systems and have a pleasant experience.

Watch this session by Moustapha Ould Ibn Mogdad, Market Focal Point manager, Bristol Myers Squibb to learn how the adoption of digital transformation in your A/R makes your order to cash processes more customer-centric.