The Past, Present and The Future Of Trade Deductions Automation: Lessons For A/R Industry Leaders

[0:00] Host:

Good morning, everyone. Our last session before lunch, right? I’m excited about lunch. I heard we got some good stuff going on. Okay, so today we have Kim Erickson with us from Optimize Consulting, right? Yes. And then she’s gonna be speaking a little bit about deduction automation. So without further ado, I’ll hand it over.

[0:26] Kimberly Erickson:

Thank you very much. And especially because there’s a number of sessions always going via currently, right? So it’s hard sometimes to make a decision about where to be and what to do. So I appreciate you being here. And one of the reasons why I think this is such an important topic is because of course, it’s a trade and each of the clients that I have helped and also from where I began, this is by far the largest challenge that we face because it’s consumed so much of our analysts times, and our team’s time to do it. And there’s so many data points and touchpoints. It makes it challenging. I think probably if I was to pick one thing that I’d really like to impress upon you if you don’t have it already, it is just to increase your appetite for innovation and improvement in this area. It is obvious, because of the topic that it is and the number of deductions that makes up. It lends itself obviously, to a lot of opportunities. And, because of the complexity and the different things that we have in that area, we tend to sometimes shy away from it. I’ve been using this tool I started out as a user and implemented into a group I was part of, and that was some time ago. I’ve been in this space for 18 years. And some especially and, and Roger to who’s with me as well on my team, you know, we’re all we’re very, very anxious for the next best thing in this space. Because since we went live for the First time as the very first user of DMS there’s been relatively little change from the way in which we go about settling trade within the tool.

And so I think today I want to set some expectation that I, you know, we talk a lot about AI and automation and so forth. I’m actually going to talk a little bit less about that because it’s so widely kind of brought to the forefront it’s so very, very necessary and it’s something that I want to encourage you while I speak about to do maybe in parallel to the ambitions and the goals and the things that you’re doing along with your automation because matching and auto-matching and auto clearing, obviously by far is going to have the greatest and quickest results for you as far as trade is concerned. But it is a journey and you can’t just get it like that. Every customer is not like a Kroger, right? We love Kroger, we love some of those accounts that provide us so much rich information. And so we need to obviously solve for that with automation to the degree possible. And because it’s a journey, we want to try to obviously start there. But again, maybe some of the things that I want to bring to light that maybe you haven’t thought of, and also some of the things that are coming in the tool that we’ve been working on. That’s what I especially want to highlight today along with a few other points. So I’m going to start with just making sure I have some understanding of the people. Okay, I’ll use that. Is, is as far as the other things I want to just touch on briefly before is first just to get kind of some idea of who’s in the room. And if I can get my slides straight. And so I want to just do a quick show of hands and maybe an understanding again, I want to be very conscientious of maybe what you’re kind of where you’re at as a group to the degree possible. So maybe I can highlight things more than other things, because of who’s here. So if I was to kind of put them into four, different places, one being, you’re kind of exploring this space still. And maybe you don’t have a deduction solution, maybe you’d use a different one. So if you’re in that space, that’s one second, you might be currently using it but are looking for the kind of maybe what’s next? Is there something there that I should be leveraging that maybe I’m not? Third would be if you’re looking especially you’ve already are using the trade and want to advance that further. So you’re pretty familiar with it and say, what’s next? And then finally, you’re you’re here to maybe look for more AI, what’s in it for automation. So I’m gonna go back, let’s just if you could just give me a show of hands. So who would maybe fall in that first bucket with you? I’m still exploring. Okay, good. And the second, you use the detection module, maybe not necessarily trade, you’re maybe looking for a little bit more understanding of what that brings. Okay, third would be, you have the trade and I want to see what’s next.

Kimberly Erickson:

Okay, got it. And then fourth AI and looking for more interest and an understanding of that, okay. I mean, we’ll touch on that a little bit. Because obviously when you think of trade you can’t think of what I bring. So, um, so I’ll definitely bring it up again. But I will certainly focus on some of the things that we can do and leverage within the system and some of the things that we’re trying to develop there. Okay, so I’m going to go back a little bit, and that’s where I want to start. And, I want to kind of because of it because, of course, we just pass it into a new decade, right. And so I have to take a little step back at this time, as I do every year. I try to look back on this one. I did a little bit more effort at the beginning of the year, but in particular, as far as the deductions face is concerned, I think I want to go back just to quickly give some appreciation of where we’ve come. But also to point out one key thing from stage one that I want to go deeper a little bit later. So stage one in, again, I’ve been in this space for 18 years, 12 years, or Excuse me, this is something to start with 2010. And before, this was a time, we didn’t have automation, and if many of you know and understand this space, and I hope you can relate. It was very paper-intensive, it was very challenging at that time because we were kind of leaning on our own resources. We had a lot of meetings to try to come up with things and how we could do this better, and we came up with wonderful coding and filing systems and, and all these wonderful things, right.

We were trying to do the best with what we could. And but the one thing that stood out I think about this time that I think maybe we’ve lost a little bit in our quest for automation, is that we really relied on Are people in our resources to come to bring up ideas and things that maybe we could do better or differently because of the challenges that they were facing. And so I remember at that time, we were pretty developed. We developed an appetite for continuous improvement. We were leading and looking and asking questions, and Okay, why are you struggling there? And okay, we’re doing this over here. Can you try it here? And then we had somebody that came up with a nice filing system that made it possible for us to see the work in progress and what stage we were at. And so we started, you know, moving that around and shuffling it to others. So, I think we learned a lot through trial and error. And because of that, people embrace the change a lot differently because we were all part of it. We were talking about it, we were coming up with solutions. We were doing things and we were making things happen and we were pretty proud. And so then we moved into stage two, and I call this the claim aggregation, enlightenment period. And so through this time, it was a time that we first came into contact with claims and POD aggregation. Like this was just after 2010. We went live with this. And, and I have to just say it was at a national manufacturer deduction resolution group meeting. And this particular meeting we were talking about, we had split out sessions if you’re not part of that group, it’s an awesome group. And we had breakout sessions because one of the things we were struggling with was backup before we realized HighRadius was present. And so we got people together, and we all had to split out nice. I chose that one. And that one, in particular, was like, Oh, I thought for sure, I might get some better because there were some large organizations represented there. And I thought, oh, certainly, I’m gonna find something today. And for that particular meeting, at that particular time for that topic, I came back with just like, Uh-huh. And a few months later, I got this cold call that I actually responded to, and I don’t always didn’t always do that. And, and it was from Dan Chapman from HighRadius and said, Hey, we have this solution. Getting your back up and I’m like what?

[9:02] Kimberly Erickson:

You know, I was just at this meeting, I thought surely I would hear at that particular one, but it was, you know, obviously, the early stages of some of this. And so, I’m gonna, as we, as we put that in, we went ahead with it, we put some agents in place, and we put some more agents in place. That’s what I was like, wow, this is like, awesome. And then we were thinking, Okay, if you can do this, what more can you do? And so then we started exploring the DMS solution, and we’re the first to go live with that DMS solution. And it was, it was an incredible time. But I think in our quest for automation, which now kind of bled into that, that stage three, and now into the stage for the development and so forth and so on. That’s what’s happened since then we just kept getting better and bigger and doing different things. And hey, if you can do this and there this particular feature, can you make it work over here? Right, and that’s, that’s what we want to continue and do. And that’s certainly what we’ve obviously been trying to do in the trade space. But again, I want to touch on why I think we could do more of what we did. Maybe in stage one better to Today to engage our teams and get people more on board, by just involving more people in the process and our decision making and thinking through the options and the features and making sure that they’re heard. So I’m going to touch on just three things, then we’re going to go get deeper and deeper into a trade. But these are pretty foundational that I don’t want to brush over. And so first, of course, we’ve heard and it was touched on yesterday, also how important data is. And I think that the key thing I want to share about data as relates to trade is that, of course, it’s King. And it’s a starting point. So you have to make sure you have reasonable expectations about what’s possible in your organization if you don’t have a good handle of all the data points that are needed and in the shape that it’s in and how often that is kept up to date. And so, I say reasonable expectations, right is that’s so important because we want to think, Oh, this automation is so awesome. It is and the technology’s not your problem, that the data is likely going to be your challenge to get that off the ground. So start and just move forward. Don’t Wait till you think you have all your data in shape and then try to do these wonderful things. With automation, just pick like a customer like Kroger, like a Safeway, like some of those that you know, you have a lot of rich data because of the claims, hopefully, aggregation, some of you and maybe hopefully all of you are doing and start there and start small and start working your way through because you’re gonna learn a lot through that first and so don’t again, don’t wait. But remember, that’s key to your success in this area. Outside of that, it’s partnering as partnering with obviously your solution provider to say, Okay, here’s my problem, you don’t necessarily have to have all the solutions, you can just say, here’s what we’re doing. Just I need to kind of show you all the touchpoints and how we’re validating and what you could do to help solve it. And they will help and guide you through all of that data piece. And second, again, this is a really big call. This is probably something I’m most passionate about and have a lot of awareness about because the implementations that we support is that you don’t forget your people.

[12:03] Kimberly Erickson:

And so you can train, you know, think transformation and automation and so forth, which is wonderful. Make sure you’re doing what you need to do to engage your team and get them on board. And think about it, and also having the courage to maybe let some of those go, that you know, maybe aren’t set to make that journey, that will actually be a great gift to you to sometimes just say, maybe this just isn’t a fit, and how can we help you and support you and in finding that, and helping move through that change? And so, when I say transformation when I think of transformation, I don’t think of just automation? I think no, this is an engaged team. These are people that have an understanding of the tool and why we’re doing it and they’re on the mission with you. in your quest to automate more. And I just attended. I have to call Mike Thielen. I just attended this session that you did and one of the things that I that was really important that he talked about in so look at your slide and his slide. Once you have those available to you, there is a section and a few sides just on people. And that I think was really helpful. And he tends to have a really high level of retention in the organization and he is doing a lot on the people side that I think makes sense and has been through and on this transformation journey. So leverage those things, talk amongst yours, your each other and use resources to help bring your team along. Because there’s a lot that we can do and learn from each other in that respect. And they’re just sometimes the littlest things. And so that is key. And also remember that even with automation, some of your people can bring about some of the greatest automation, because they’re the ones that are struggling using the tool. And if you’re not listening and engaged with them, you’re gonna miss some really valuable things that maybe you could bring to the forefront of a HighRadius and say, hey, we’ve got to do this. I can’t hear this anymore. This is so important.

Kimberly Erickson:

Next is just this whole continuous improvement piece of If you don’t already have that as part of your organization, I’m sure each of you likely does. This is so important as a leader and anyone that’s, that’s in a position, especially of authority within these departments is just instilling a list a continuous improvement mindset, that we are on this quest to kind of keep doing better and more because what’s interesting is that’s part of change management is if you can get them and to help walk through these stages, bits at a time, you’re gonna find that it goes a long way. So let’s move on now to trade promotion automation. And I’m going to just quickly call out a couple of things again, to hone in on the importance of this topic. Around 80% of the deductions that the clients that we serve have this challenge. It’s a huge part of their other problems. So that’s obviously made it even more important to me to help and our team to make sure that we’re doing the right things to help move this along. As far as automation and possibilities, you all know that of course, it lends itself to greater efficiency and people, hopefully, because they’re engaged and kind of walking along with you how important that is. And when they feel that way, of course, they’re going to be happier, and more fulfilled in their jobs. And then obviously on the third point, I think sometimes that’s maybe undervalued is how much impact we have and the deduction teams have on sales. And because of that, obviously, they get a lot of pressure that way, right? from saying, we got to do it, make sure you’re accurate, make sure you’re fast and why isn’t this paid. And this was outstanding for how long, right? There’s a lot of pressure that’s felt and it’s not just quick and easy all the time because of the complexity and the touchpoints in this area. So there are four things that I have to wind up with. So you’re going to see when we say holistic are going to see that later approach to trade. That’s what I want. I really emphasize is to start thinking more holistically about the process. And so when I mean like what’s holistically thinking about trade research and resolution, it means walking it all the way through the process. We focus so much sometimes on the settlement. Because you know, that we that’s obviously important, but we forget sometimes and under, really the heavy lifting is done, trying to figure out and what to do in the spreadsheets that we’re using in that process, sometimes even with users of HighRadius today, to get to that place where you’re comfortable and making that payment. So making the payment is like Okay, wow, I can finally make the payment. And so what I’ve really been challenged thinking of is like, Okay, how can we make sure that we’re looking more at a hole and thinking of this more holistically, even from a screen perspective, and where you’re going to interact to determine that and not just make it a point of time where I’m finally ready for the resolution, I go to the resolution window.

Kimberly Erickson:

So there are four things again that I want to touch on, and I’m gonna just do it briefly. One relates to data consumption, the Other is just the workflow, right? Because you’re committing so much so often with sales, especially in this process. The third is, of course, automating. And then fourth is the bulk update and resolution. And that resolution, the fourth one is the one we’re going to expand upon. And I’m gonna show you some screenshots and so forth of what’s coming to give you a glimpse was just a starting point. But I’ll give you a glimpse of where the tool is headed. So first, as far as the data consumption is concerned, remember that this is a key thing in your solution if you’ve got to make sure whether you’re using HighRadius or not, you’ve got to make sure that you have the data and are able to bring it in. Because the more power that you have to bring that out into HighRadius, the more capabilities you’re going to have like the ones I’m going to be sharing so that’s very important. Of course, it’s your portal customers. So around 50% of our customers have really an, deduction volume variable Thing customers because you know that the largest number of customers that you have are those that don’t provide you all that rich, wonderful information. And so the 50% or more roughly as those that you’re getting pretty good rich information, you have a, you have a chance of getting some automation from by maybe, and you’re going to start somewhere and work your way through those, to the degree possible, of course, to be able to get different data from multiple TPM systems, and you might just have one right now. But maybe over time, you want to make sure that you have that capability to bring in more. And then, of course, the auto-population and some of the work that we do within the system to populate certain attributes so that it’s fewer touchpoints even in our trade process. Next, I move into collaboration and workflow at lower carb for I think I see you in the back of the room. I remember I have to go back because this has to. I went to one of these meetings very early God and she came with this dashboard that they were using for sales. And I was like, whoa. And this was before HighRadius time. And so this has been a forever challenge, right? Because, again, when you think about data, one more point about data, remember that even if you have all that data, you’re also relying on a person to make sure they’re putting things inaccurately and timely. And so again, that might cut down on your ability to automate until you work more and more of that out. So there is a real need today and continues to be a real need to make sure we can really efficiently route and move things from one person to the other, and see very clearly who’s responsible at that point in time. And so in a trading system, no matter again, what you choose, one of the key things that I think is so important, of course, is to be able to leverage and have this ability to route and keep people outside of just a deduction group engaged and part of that process within the tool. And, that part is important, of course. Along with your ability to do some approvals, and have a rather complex ability to route and even do in route, even people’s absences and so forth with this with the system to support you. Next is the matching. And of course, in resolution, I’m going to just make sure I’m very distinguished between these two, because they can kind of get messed up when we’re talking about automation and, and what’s possible. So there are two things to consider are two things we kind of coined it as one is auto-matching, which means that the system doesn’t actually create the resolution on your behalf, it’ll merely suggest the deal or the number of deals that are possible to play against to make it a little bit easier. So there’s less searching and filtering and so forth, bringing it right to the forefront and being able to find that right from the worklist view. So that’s an auto-match. Auto resolution means I’m going to be so bold as to let the system even create that resolution. I might or may or may not send it off to approvals. But I would need that capability if I did want that. And so again, automatic versus auto resolution, those are critically important to have in a system. And HighRadius has that today, what we’re working to do, obviously is trying to make these better. As far as the updates and again, this resolution is going to lead me into my next set of slides to walk you through kind of what’s coming or a glimpse of what’s coming. Before I do that, I’m just touching on the bulk update, right that’s been in the system since day one.

Kimberly Erickson:

So obviously, you need to make sure it’s if you do this as well as possible, you auto-populate the fields to the extent possible to make updating not necessary, but to make sure you have that ability because you have to do that with reason codes and action codes and so forth if you’re using that system and the number of fields available. So let me move into the bulk resolution and in bulk Resolution. This is where again, I want to emphasize some time and what’s capable, because again, with your ability to decide whether you match or whether you choose to resolve but you are leveraging that AI technology. That’s obviously again, what needs to be done hopefully in parallel to what I’m going to be showing you because I don’t want to undervalue or underestimate the power of that. But again, because you’d have to do it and you take it in steps, and you have a lot of maybe pain and so forth being realized by the team because of the number of touchpoints in the system to actually go and create a resolution. Let me give you an example. So if I was to go in the system today, and I knew I needed to create a resolution, I have a couple of different options. One, I could obviously go into my record, I could double click into my record, this is what most do because you can’t necessarily most can’t use the bulk resolve today. Because of some limitations, but that is changing. So most of the users are double-clicking on the record, they’re going down below to the resolution window. And they’re going into that, searching for their commitments. And paying that way and going, one at a time. And so that’s what happens. And so what we’re trying to bring together in this new kind of window, I guess, you could say, is to bring more of that into one place to make it a little bit easier. So it’s not necessarily the set apart window that you have to stay in. And you can’t close out if you need to go check something else. Because what happens is, when you get into that window, you’re in the resolution window, you can’t do anything else, you can’t just quickly click out because I already have my search I found I’m like, Oh, now I need to do something else.

And then I have to go all the way back and then start my process over again. We’re trying to say how can we bring this together a little bit more with the rest of the process and the things that happen when you get there? Maybe I go there and I find oh my goodness, I don’t have enough to pay, I don’t have the accruals there, because I’m gonna have to wait for the accruals. And so I’m going to have to wait and again, go back, nothing to save my work. So that’s where we’re trying to bridge the gap, do a few last click points. And so in here, when we consider, I’m going to just take you through a few screenshots, I’m gonna get a little tactical on you. But this is so important. Hopefully, for those of you that maybe again, whether or not you have an appetite to do more, you haven’t seen this, or whether you are currently using it, you want to say again, what’s next. So this is the very first time this should look familiar to all HighRadius users. This is just your deduction worklist. And so for this example, we’ve just selected two records on this worklist. And the next is I’m going to there’s going to be a new drop-down option available. And again, I don’t think I pointed this out earlier, we’re looking for more that have an appetite to do this. So I hope that you might visit me after if this is something that you’re interested in pursuing. We have a pilot going on currently with an account And so again, we’re looking to expand and see what more we can do here. I do have a signup sheet I’m going to point out at the end with your name and email. And so I can get this information for you. And we can connect. Of course, of course, you can always do LinkedIn and the mobile app but keep that in mind as you’re looking at this. And so the bulk trade you’re going to have a debit and additional drop-down that’s going to take you to a trade settlement and header resolution. And this is just the start we’re going to eventually have item resolution there too. And here is going to be a new window available. This is going to be a beautiful thing here. If anybody hasn’t noticed it, Notice I opened up a new tab, a sub-tab rather than a window. So this opens up the door for me to be able to click out and go do some other things and maybe check and maybe I was just interrupted in the meantime and I’m like oh geez not gonna back out or wait and oh my goodness, it just timed out on me. Right as all different scenarios happen in the course of a day and so We wanted again to bring this to life and having it be a tab versus a window is so very helpful. It may change a little bit from the next time you see it if it’s something that you’re interested in as we’re playing around with the position, and should we have the window down below or side by side right now it looks like this.

Kimberly Erickson:

And so on the left, you’re gonna see the deductions that we selected, that quadrant on the right quadrant on the bottom, you’re going to see the commitments. And you’re going to say, Boy, that’s not a lot of real estates, because there’s a lot of other attributes I have to learn, I need to see rates and dates. And I want to make sure I know the spin type, and so forth. And so know that you can, there’s an ability to move in these windows over and over and so we’re trying to determine is it easy to scroll down or moreover depending on where we positioned those windows. So for now, again, this is kind of where it’s at. We also have the ability to look at documents within this window. If we needed to see the deduction backup to a quick check on something. Again, I can also click back into a different worklist to view that same information. But above, you’re going to see on that quadrant Where you’ll see the resolution information more similar to what you see in the resolution window today. So let’s just walk through this particular example. First, I’m going to select one of the records, I could select more, but in this case, I’m just going to do one. And notice here, I have the ability to put in not just a full amount, but a partial amount, which is also very powerful. Because today, those of you that maybe do use bulk resolution on the worklist level, you don’t have the ability to do partials. And so even just having this is like wow, for those that that can’t do this today and want to be able to do more than one at once because it all relates to the same and so so I’m going to pick my deduction or deductions on my left and I’m going to then place my resolution amount in the window to the right and the quadrant to the side and I can continue on and go through multiple if I wanted to spread that out. Once I do that, I get a window just validating Oh, you are waiting. We’re creating a resolution for you. Then you’re going to get a resolution submitted status when you’re done. And notice it doesn’t necessarily take you out of that window. Another option is if I wanted to, in this particular client use as an allocation method. And so within this method, we have the ability to select our records. And the system will actually use a formula to determine what amounts to allocate, to allocate against each of the products. And so if they were to use that method, they could choose to select the record she was allocated. And notice here I don’t want to skip over, they show they selected all of their deals that they wanted to allocate against. And then they get again, the window that says, How much do you want to resolve against these?” And on the top of this window, you’re gonna see the total unresolved amount. Just so you know, you don’t have to sit there and calculate, oh, how much do I have laughter? What do I have remaining that I could spend? So you’re gonna see that it’s even visible when you’re looking at this window. And then you’re gonna, Of course, get the pop up with the rate and you’ll get the confirmation that you’ve successfully created the resolutions. And so when these resolutions are created, it’s also as though you did it on its own. So you see, from a standpoint of I want to review this record, and I don’t want to have to sort through all this mess because maybe I selected a lot of them. Now, when you go to look at that payment, in the resolution window, when you’re done, you’re gonna see that though you created that resolution on its own, it will still share a resolution ID with the rest. So if you do need to see them all you can. And that just gives you a taste of what we’re working on.

Kimberly Erickson:

That’s just the start. We’ve been partnering with HighRadius for the past year and a half to get here. It’s taken some effort to kind of develop and get the right feedback and so forth. And so we’re very excited about having this option to use them this way to kind of bring it to the next level again, considering that we still have a good number of transactions that we just have to do manually, we need a better system. And we need it to be fewer clicks to get that done. And that’s incredibly important. So some of the benefits, of course, is we want improved productivity, I don’t think I need to restate this. But we do want higher employee engagement, again, involving people getting feedback, having people, you know, try this out, if you were to pursue this, the more you can get kind of especially in that test phase to give you feedback, even though you don’t plan to use them any other part, just to get them feeling like they’re part of it. And they can give some feedback and see what’s coming is so very helpful. Once you feel like you have a few users to kind of test it out. So you can assure it’s a good experience for more users. And then, of course, the sales and having better information because we want to be able to get these payments made quicker. And yes, again, we want to rely on our technology to do as much as we can to do the auto-match and the auto-resolve. But again, we need this tool as well because we’re dealing with probably closer to 80% that we’re going to start out with once you get the start of automation. Again, you’re going to keep working your way down. But certainly, this is going to be very, very valuable.

Kimberly Erickson:

So let’s just look now and end with what’s next. And I want to have a few things that I’m personally passionate about. I’ve been in this tool for such a long time that I care deeply and have kind of felt and experienced so much feedback over the years. So these are the things that I’m really encouraging. And then I’m going to say, here’s what they’re going to do for 2020. Next, these are the things that were ambitious and we’ve been talking and wanting to do things and work some things out. The first thing is thinking about sales communication, again, fact Laura, again, like right, this is like so far back, you know how long this has been a challenge. So we want to make this better and different in today’s state. It’s at a deduction, lower class level. And you know why people love emails, they love emails, because I can send one email to my salesperson and say, Hey, That 20 Records. And you just have to do this one thing for me, right? And so when they move to HighRadius, wow, it’s wonderful because we have all of the things there. We’ve got visibility, we have accountability because we have lots of wonderful things to record, we have actions to show what part of the process it’s in, we have the documentation there, we have all the attributes, you don’t have to put into an email, right? That’s wonderful. But where we fall short today is that we need to be able to do this a little bit more efficiently to consider the people that are receiving this. So the salesperson today and I have to just start with sales because this is to me who is going to feel at the most is a salesperson would go in today and see this list of let’s just say 20 deductions for again, let’s just use one. I’m gonna use Kroger’s example, I must because it’s easy, and hopefully most can relate.

Right, they deduct by warehouse by week. And so when I go in to see a deduction, I’m gonna I’m going to easily maybe get 20 at a time that all relate to just one thing I might need changing or updated. are validated before I can make this payment. And so when the salesperson goes in, they’re going to see this long work list and be overwhelmed. And what are they going to do? They’re going to put it off. And they’re going to say, oh, maybe another day, I don’t have enough time yet, not realizing that maybe all, you know, could be helped. And certainly, we use TAs and some of these other things, but they are still all of these false or today. And so and so what we’d like to move towards is something if any of you are related to the task is just thinking of our requests to sales, be more like a task. If you’re familiar with a task, meaning I create a task with or without an association to one or multiple deductions. And within that task, I can just say, hey, you simply do this and when they go to this list, they’re gonna just see one thing rather than the 20 things but they will still have visibility to those 20 things if they choose. And so that’s the approach that we’d like to move towards and I’m hoping and maybe even with Jessica’s a little extra push to, with we work a lot with product development, to kind of keep something like this going because whether it’s trading non traded doesn’t matter we have a lot of requests going out to people in the organization that we need to make sure we get better at. and then and then the use of grouping and so forth, the number of clicks, we want to make sure we do that better over time. And I’m kind of speeding through ICM almost up. And then finally, just the research and, and collaboration and looking at things more holistically. This is my last slide. This is where the things that HighRadius is working on actively support. And so of course, hopefully, you see if it’s something you’re interested in as a proof of performance. Think about that concept, because a lot of you are spending time in your organizations to have to go out and get a point of sale, deliver and add copies, for example. Some don’t do as much of that and leave it up to sales to do that. But if you do, that’s something that we’re working on and they’re hoping to bring some things to life yet this year and are looking for partners in that area. Next is just obviously the automation doesn’t even need to go in that holistic Dick, right, we’re trying to move away from spreadsheets, which is whether we like to admit it or not, is heavily used in the trade resolution space if you want to be a little bit efficient today. And so we want to move more away from that. And then, of course, this bulk trade, which I just showed you, and there’s more coming on that. That’s just our very first start. So with that, just a quick reminder, I’m just going to quickly wrap it up, please, please reach out to me, if you have any interest, I have a sign up here. Of course, you can reach me on LinkedIn or on the vulva app. If you want more information to explore some of this, certainly, we’re available to help you in that journey. And, and we also have a couple of other things, resources that we send out within the organization. And that is some updates and so forth and reminders about things that are coming to call out more specifically, and some workshops and things that we can tell you about. So thank you for your time. Do we have time for any questions? Okay, awesome. So yeah, let me open up for questions. Okay.

[36:09] Kimberly Erickson:

Back there.

[36:19] Host:

So real quick. You talked about making sure you involve your team. Yeah. As you go through this. We have outsourced so I have my team in Omaha and then I have a team in Noida, India. Yeah. How do you go through making sure the offshore team also feels like they’re included in this because they are so far away?

[36:40] Kimberly Erickson:

Yeah, they are. That’s a great question, especially in outsourcing or whether you’re using a broker to do a portion of the resolution doesn’t really matter. There’s a different level or different way to engage with them. But what I would still suggest as you find it to help, keep people there, find some change agents in that group, somebody It may not be possible to have a number of them find at least see if you can get change agents and identified and at least you know those because they will quickly surface when you ask the question or you say, okay, who do people listen To hear, right? And so I would do that and then enlist, because there’s so much you can do, obviously just using, you know, different technology that we have for meetings and so forth. But I would at least, you know, make sure you’re allowing them to be part of here’s the vision we have, here’s what we’d like to do. Do you have any input, especially if they’re doing all the heavy lifting, because I will guarantee you, you’re gonna miss things if you don’t engage them, right? Because they’re doing this stuff from day one and day out, and they’re experiencing the pain. And so you want to make sure as a customer, treating them as a customer and saying, okay, where’s your pain? What’s happening, show me your process and make sure that you’re really in tune with that, because even if you gave them the process, there’s no assurance that they’re actually using it right. And so it’s really trying to get it firsthand. And then I would do that from the various start the project as you’re designing and making sure you’re not missing anything and then continuing to evolve, involve them at certain points. And the certain points that I would make sure involve them is, of course, in the beginning, validating the design, I would take them to design decisions and make sure before they’re finalized, and then through the process development and thorough testing. And then, of course, the things that you need them to help prepare for go-live, but they will be just as critical as your internal team, because, again, that they can easily choose to circumvent this system and not use it, right. They could do all the same things, export their worklist to a deduction, or to a spreadsheet, color-coded and do all the wonderful things and use macros, some of them are really good at it. And so if you don’t have their buy-in, you’re not going to get the outcome that you desire.

[38:51] Kimberly Erickson:

All right. I think we’re all good. Thank you so much.