Modernized ERPs Deliver Integrated Cash Flow Fix

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software remains a staple for many corporations as a digital hub for a variety of workflows, from payments to cash forecasting. As businesses modernize their electronic payment processes, they’re looking to their ERP solutions to help, not hinder, those efforts. As a result, the creators of ERPs are exploring ways to evolve the tool to meet modern-day needs.

Enterprise technologies can demonstrate the power of digitization to their corporate customers, as EVO Payments Director of B2B Software Fauwaz Hussain told PYMNTS. But in order to most effectively support the modernization of firms, those tools must dive into the cloud and embrace industry collaboration that supports the level of data integration that firms need to not only digitize, but also optimize.

That’s precisely the strategy of many organizations that specialize in ERP software, including Microsoft and its suite of ERP solutions under the cloud-focused Microsoft Dynamics 365 line. As Hussain highlighted, Microsoft has been in the midst of its own cloud migration for several years. In addition to working on providing customers with a cloud-first option, Microsoft has also focused on driving industry collaboration by embracing third-party connectivity as a way to expand its value to users.

EVO Payments has positioned itself as one of those third-party collaborators. Following its acquisition of Nodus Technologies in 2018, EVO became able to take its electronic payments and secure payment processing capabilities and retrofit them to operate within ERP ecosystems like those of Microsoft.

Modernizing to Lead by Example

Today, digitization is essential for any business, but Hussain acknowledged that B2B organizations can struggle to make progress. “Generally speaking, B2B companies have been very slow when it comes to adopting a digital strategy,” he said. “Oftentimes this is because they use legacy systems or have outdated workflows, making any change a huge undertaking.”

That’s where industry collaboration and cloud-first technology step in. Rather than investing in developing proprietary solutions, the partnership model allows best-of-breed technologies to come together to support joint customers’ digitization journeys. With these strategies in place, service providers can make it easier for companies, especially B2B firms, to embrace digitization projects and move toward more modern business processes.

This strategy also presents an opportunity for the service providers to undergo their own modernization efforts. As Hussain explained, utilizing the cloud empowers B2B technology providers and FinTechs to continually update their platforms, and enables businesses to easily take advantage of new enhancements rather than having to invest in new tools that would require additional employee training or implementation time.

With the onset of the pandemic, EVO Payments has also recognized the value of embracing the cloud as an important tool for translating its offerings to its customers’ remote working environments. “When the pandemic happened, most businesses went remote, which suddenly made simple tasks like accepting payments from customers increasingly difficult,” noted Hussain.

It led EVO to continue enhancing its cloud-based payment processing solution, PayFabric®, which enables businesses and their employees to accept payments by directing customers to online portals and sending out self-service payment links. “By allowing customers to make payments on their own, businesses were able to continue to take payments securely while they transitioned to work-from-home,” he said.

A Joint Effort

Driving enterprise modernization is no easy feat, and as more organizations turn to their technology partners to support the process, those partners have had to explore their own ways to modernize and arm businesses with the right tools. Industry collaborations remain critical to not only enhancing the capabilities of existing ERP systems, but also keeping abreast of market trends and changes, as well as remaining flexible as the business ecosystem evolves.

According to Hussain, payments technology remains a critical function for organizations that need to strengthen their cash flows. “One thing to keep in mind, in terms of payments, is that every business has a need to get paid on time and in an efficient manner,” he said.

Hussain pointed to the intensifying pressure for timely B2B payments as one area in which integrated solutions can deliver more powerful ways for users to achieve their goals. “There are a lot of solutions out there, but if they are not integrated, they often increase the workflow, creating more manual labor that decreases efficiency,” he said.

By designing technology solutions that can facilitate data connectivity and striking strategic partnerships with vendors, the solution providers that businesses rely upon to drive their modernization efforts can yield deeper insights and stronger cash flow, rather than adding to the headache of non-transparent, non-optimized data flows.