We are over half of the way thorough 2022. It’s nearly a year since I wrote my last blog which looked at new features in O2C. 2022 seems to be going faster than ever, and I feel that the world is getting back to some sort of normality. My diary has certainly been filled with web meetings but I have ventured out on the M40 motorway on a couple of occasions. I enjoy meeting people for real and taking a break from the web cam. It’s a shame however, that the traffic has returned to its terrible pre-Covid levels.

Cashing in with new automation features

2022 has been a busy, interesting, and sometimes challenging year. We continue to go-live with a number of projects but I have certainly found that the popularity of our cash solutions has increased across Credit Management, cash Collection Management and Cash Application processes. My last blog talked about the number of ‘under the hood’ features that I have found with our Order Management solution. The same is true for our ‘cash solutions’ which are now fully integrated, giving our customers an end-to-end O2C solution. The list below is certainly not exhaustive, but I have seen some key changes and improvements in the following areas;

Credit Management – Enhanced workflow rules and mobile approval capabilities for customer onboarding.
Collections Management – Salesforce integration, improved views of historical (and future) ageing information and a projected view of future collection activities.
Cash Application – Enhanced discount handling, seamless SAP connectivity and enhanced templates for more efficient customer communication.

The above features are certainly creating a buzz and I’m excited to see further changes. Customers can check out the ‘What’s New’ section in our product documentation.

On a personal note, I am delighted to be starting a new position within Esker. From the 1^st July 2022, I have taken up the position of Sales Manager and have responsibilities for our expanding UK team and a handful of key customers. I look forward to a new challenge after over 15-years of direct sales.

If you’d like to learn more about using Esker’s solutions to improve your O2C processes with automation, please contact me and my team – we’d love to help.

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

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2021 has been a busy, interesting, and sometimes a challenging, year. My personal projects have seen around half-a-dozen go-lives and almost twice this number of new customers or new automation projects for existing customers. Being able to speak with Esker’s customers about more than one process is perhaps one of the most exciting things at Esker at the moment. We have had Order Management automation in the cloud for more than 10-years now but being able to automate several other processes across the order-to-cash process with the same solution is a real benefit for our customers.

Every time I initiate a new demonstration environment, I am pleasantly surprised by the new features and functions that I see. I know that we release a new sprint every couple of weeks but quite a lot of new features are ‘under the hood’ or are designed to improve security and performance aspects of the solution. However, 2021, has seen lots of new (and visible) features. The list below is certainly not exhaustive, but I have seen some key changes and improvements in the following areas;

• An improved ‘chat’ function allowing enhanced communication between our customers and their customers, available for responses 24/7 and allows full visibility of all past conversations held.
• A new Customer Enquiries module that helps customer service departments triage the customer enquiries received in their email inbox to address enquiries faster, analyse data more efficiently to deal with the enquiry better, and improve the overall customer experience to strengthen relationships.
• An enhanced web portal that has a user experience similar to the ones offered by the B2C e-commerce web sites, such as Amazon, which include product pictures, prices and categories, as well as a shopping cart. This is therefore very recognisable and easy to use.

I’m looking forward to the rest of 2021. I can see another half-a-dozen or so go-lives ahead and hopefully many more new customers and projects.

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

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Following in the footsteps of our colleagues in France, the USA and Italy, our sales team is now focused on either Order-to-Cash solutions (O2C) or Procure-to-Pay (P2P) automation. After a lot of deliberation, I felt that my skills were in the O2C space and that I was best placed to become an ‘Order-to-Cash specialist’. It was a difficult decision for sure, as over the last 14 years, I have helped 100 or so organisations with both their P2P or O2C processes. In fact, I have a number of customers who are in both camps!

Certainly, for the short to medium term, I will continue to work with P2P as I have partners, customers and a number potential customers who are about to begin their P2P journey with Esker. This will change of course as I transition to becoming an O2C specialist full-time. I’m looking forward to working with Esker’s P2P subject matter experts. Their level of expertise will very quickly go beyond my expertise as they focus on a single solution set.

I keep asking myself will this new change be good for Esker’s future customers? The short answer is definitely “yes”. As we add more and more modules to our solutions, Esker employees cannot keep up to speed with so many new features and ever-changing industry trends. 5 years ago, we had Accounts Payable automation and Sales Order Processing automation. At the last count, we now have over 10 O2C solution modules covering collections, allocations, enquiries, management, invoice delivery and order management. And that’s Order-to-Cash alone.

I’m certainly looking forward to 2021 and all of the challenges that it presents.

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

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Take last Thursday as an example. Most of the morning was spent speaking about Order Management. I was working with a partner, an existing customer who was looking expand their solution footprint and a prospective customer who was looking to implement Esker for both Order Management and Accounts Payable. Further Accounts Payable demonstrations occurred in the afternoon and the day was finished off with a Cash Allocation demonstration from Rimilia, one of our partners. I questioned one of our customers as to why they chose to automate multiple processes with Esker. They gave me some interesting reasons;

• It simplifies our IT landscape
• Training principles are common across AR, AP and Order Management
• It reduces the number of suppliers that we have
• We are able to have a joined up solution across Order to Cash and Procure to Pay
• It just makes sense!

So in summary, what makes my work activities varied and interesting gives our customers real benefit. Good for everybody!

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

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It would be great to have data available graphically to help my analysis but the technology that is available is cumbersome and very expensive!

I’d love to have something like Esker’s Order Processing dashboards that are included as standard as part of the solution.  They are configurable and can be viewed through either a browser or the Esker Anywhere App.

It must be great to be a Customer Service Manager and have automation rates, processing times and data input times right at your finger-tips!

Watch the short video: https://www.esker.co.uk/sites/default/files/content/mobile_app_uk.mp4

Written by Paul Stevens – Esker Business Development Manager

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

Read more insights from Paul Stevens