Customer Outlook: 3 Things Our Customers & Partners are Planning for in 2023

The leaves have turned, the NFL season is well underway, and the air is getting brisk. This is the time of year when we at Esker begin engaging in a number of conversations with partners and clients who are planning for next year’s projects and budgets. The last few years have been a wild ride, to say the least, and looking to 2023, we’re noticing a handful of themes emerging in these planning sessions. Here are three of the most prominent points that our customers and partners have repeatedly mentioned in these end-of-the-year conversations.

1. Digital Transformation

It’s both a buzzword and something that has become a top priority for almost all companies in the current, post-pandemic business landscape. This is nothing new, and it’s one of those tried-and-true themes that we expect to hear consistently about for the next few years. One new twist on digital transformation: Many companies are starting to develop transformation roadmaps and actually plotting out where they are and where they want to go. Companies that take this approach are seeing success when they work with companies like Grant Thornton and Databank to create a project plan and timeline.

2. Economic conditions are leading companies to further examine cash management and looking for creative solutions that can be implemented with no disruption

More and more, we are having discussions with clients that are running into situations where cashflow is tightening. Key suppliers are asking them to renegotiate the payment terms, looking to get paid faster. Customers are asking to extend terms — sometimes as much as 90 or 120 days. This can lead to some stressful juggling for company executives. That’s why many companies are beginning to consider different payment programs  like Dynamic Discounting.

Dynamic discounting is a sliding-discount structure that allows suppliers an option to receive payment from buyers in advance of the invoice data — the earlier the payment, the more the invoice total is discounted. This capability is built into the Esker platform through our Pay Later program offered by Fintech partner LSQ. Pay Later allows buyers to have the flexibility and control to choose how long they want to hold onto their cash, while suppliers are still getting paid at terms or earlier. Both of these options can be alive and running in just weeks – allowing companies to very quickly adjust to conditions that are changing rapidly.

3. Staffing continues to be a challenge

Last week, one partner mentioned a client that has had 150% turnover in their Customer Service department in the last year. In addition, we are seeing more and more clients that are transitioning to Intelligent Operations, where they are able to have oversight of the operations but no longer have the responsibility of hiring and managing the staff on a day to day basis.

In these scenarios, utilizing customizable dashboards and a shared platform for functions like order management, customer inquiries, collections, cash application, and claims and deductions is key. It allows companies to have full visibility into each of the processes and to have real-time access to all of the information. These platforms also provide a simple interface where staff can be trained quickly and the time to meaningful productivity can be shortened considerably.

4. Remote work and its impact on the future of staffing

Even though the demand for remote work environments was exacerbated by necessity and will continue to be crucial for future interruptions to business, it will also be perpetuated by talent retention/acquisition efforts. There’s already a growing performance gap between teams that are empowered to work remotely and those whose processes keep them physically tied to one place, and job candidates are starting to see work-from-home benefits as an expectation instead of a perk. Even if an organization doesn’t have a remote work policy, equipping staff with a cloud-based solution allows businesses to continue operating even in the most unexpected and inconvenient circumstances.

Does this match with the conversations that you are having with your teams? This list is essentially a comprehensive evolution from last year’s discussions. So much has happened in the last few years — some things have accelerated company initiatives, and some have halted them. One thing that Esker has heard over and over again is that organizational agility and tight collaboration with partners are imperative for organizations to continue to grow and thrive as they move forward. Now you can leverage our personal feedback from customers and partners to enter 2023 fully prepared.