Managing finances is never easy. Not for individuals, and it is infinitely more tedious and complicated for organizations. But do things necessarily have to be that way? One company does not think so.
Meet Procurify.
Understanding the ‘Why’
Procurify is on a mission to reinvent the way organizations spend, and help them gain a greater understanding of the ‘Why’ behind their expenses. By familiarizing themselves with this crucial element of the purchasing and procurement process, they are able to inculcate a culture of responsible spending and fully capitalize on each of their investments.
The company’s Co-founder and CEO, Aman Mann stresses on helping organizations understand their ‘spend culture’. This term refers to the collection of beliefs, attitudes, and actions a collective group has towards spending resources, and how they manage those resources.
Every organization wants to grow and progress, and they evaluate their success by managing and measuring their top line. However, the bottom line is often neglected and many organizations do not understand their spend culture. Without knowing the reason behind each spending decision, it is difficult to decide whether or not that decision is worth the investment. Procurify is helping organizations from around the world understand this and get the most out of every outlay.
Essential Change
Aman developed the concept behind Procurify over many years as he worked at numerous jobs in different companies. He noticed that despite the diverse offices, company cultures, and organizational SOPs, inefficient business processes were a constant feature of the workplace landscape.
The greatest barrier to better efficiency and conducive work environments was a resistance to change. However, Aman also saw that it was always possible to further streamline business processes even at the most progressive organizations.
With their diverse range of spend cultures, companies were erring by using legacy systems and ERPs which are all inherently rigid. These all-in-one spend solutions offer multiple features and tools for finance professionals and executives like the CFO, but are neither user-friendly nor versatile enough for the average worker.
Their desktop-bound or server-limited options have disproportionately lengthy onboarding and training times. In today’s world of convenient mobile apps for virtually every task, such impractical solutions inspire less use, not more.
Ultimately, the fact that these traditional systems come with extended implementation timelines and hefty fees have created an atmosphere ripe for change. Procurify is perfectly placed to exploit it.
Versatility Wins
One of the chief challenges to widespread adoption of Procurify is the presence of legacy financial management products that dominate the market.
However, the platform’s ability to be customized to every organization’s unique work and reporting cultures, the appeal of error-free records, and the drastic reduction in procedural timelines means that Procurify is attracting extraordinary attention.
Some of the world’s fastest growing companies, including A³ by Airbus and Samumed, the world’s largest biotech start-up, have already implemented Procurify.
Aman’s vision goes beyond just dominating the purchasing management segment of the market. He intends to transform Procurify into the Smart Spend Hub™, where all purchases and spending can be captured on one platform.
The company made the first step to this goal in March 2018, when it acquired VendorBase, an independent online buyer-supplier platform. Under the acquisition, VendorBase was rebranded to Procurify Exchange (Pex), an RFQ (Request for Quote) solution. It is currently available for free as an add-on feature to current Procurify users, or as a free standalone platform.
Procurify is already working at improving the platform’s capabilities by incorporating AI and machine learning into its future feature sets. This will create a system that can more easily be tailored to each unique end user.
Downs and Ups
Despite its obvious utility and vast potential for practical application, Procurify has had anything but a smooth journey.
When its co-founders travelled to San Francisco to seek Series A funding, they were so strapped for cash that they crashed on Airbnb couches and ate cup noodles to save money. The team had pinned their hopes on the hundreds of emails that they had sent to potential investors. They did not receive a single response.
It was in the very last few days, when they had just about lost all hope, that a call came through. That led to a meeting with an investor who has gone on to become one of their most valued mentors.
The company has also had to deal with human resources issues, particularly in terms of hiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Painful lessons have been learned about how the right people are what make a company great.
However, the team has incorporated both the positive and negative into a repository of experiences on which they rely to do a better job every day. It helps them tackle every new challenge with excitement rather than fear which, in turn, transforms uncertainty into opportunity.
Aman believes in celebrating small wins, and in the value of teamwork and courage. This empowering mentality has allowed Procurify to grow not just as a company, but as the sum of the people within it.
Source :-The 30 Most Innovative Companies to Watch 2018
