CIO OPINION
2021 will likely see a shift that will see the potential of AR unlocked by CIOs , CMOs and CFOs .
Karen Stephen , COO , SurePayd
2021 will see the back-office thrive as digital turns the transactional into the human and relational
Karen Stephen , COO , SurePayd , tells us that 2021 will likely see a shift that will see the potential of Accounts Receivable unlocked by CIOs , CMOs and CFOs .
Our focus is in the digitization and cloud
migration of a traditionally manual area of most businesses : Accounts Receivable , a classic back office function , and this focus has given us a front-row seat on what changes 2021 might bring for many organizations .
Accounts Receivable , or AR , is one of the world ’ s most ancient and unchanged commercial activities . The Code of Hammurabi laid out AR terms for the Mesopotamians as far back as 2000 BC . While the past few hundred years have seen refinements , there have been no dramatic changes until recently .
Where Digital Transformation and automation has taken over in most business areas from customer experience to sales and marketing , AR has somehow been left behind . People are still working off Excel spreadsheets , filling in payment details on a piece of paper or a Post-it , and trying to make a dent in money owed by picking up the phone .
Part of the challenge has been that businesses have traditionally seen AR as largely transactional and unlikely to benefit in a genuinely powerful way from digital reimagining – thus the area has often been neglected .
The past year and emerging technological trends have proven this thesis wrong and 2021 will likely see a shift that will see the potential of AR unlocked by CIOs , CMOs and CFOs hungry for improved cash flows , secure transactions and additional channels
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