According to VendorMach data, yes industry matters when it comes to collecting receivables. VendorMach sorted through 13,000 UK private companies records with trade debtor receivables data in its database. After filtering for companies with revenue, excluding firms with 30 days payment or less (best practice) and further standardizing the industries, we were left with 1500 records to analyze and the top 10 B2B industries with a penchant for getting paid very late. Of the 1500 records, the median DSO (days sales outstanding – the number of days it takes to collect receivables) was used. To further provide context with the …
Digitising the Supply Chain
Supply chain professionals are now told on an almost daily basis that their next challenge is to digitise the supply chain. A recent report from PwC says that computerising the process promises to “make the supply chain more efficient, agile and customer-focused”. This is undoubtedly accurate, but advice on this typically majors on what is possible within the supply chain – the use of emerging technologies such as the internet of things and 3D printing to solve traditional, analogue headaches. This is an excerpt of an article by VendorMach CEO, to read the full article go to ITProPortal
Technology CFO’s and Reducing DSO
Among CFO’s there’s often talk about how to increase the efficiency of working capital in the organization. Is it by reducing DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), reducing DIO (Days Inventory Outstanding) or extending DPO (Days Payment Outstanding). Sounds like an acronym cocktail right? Basically, do I collect my own sales receipt faster, get inventory/deliverables out of the door faster or just pay my suppliers later. Conventionally, extending DPO ends up being the first route of increasing working cap, followed by chasing up on those receivables (DSO). It’s a lot easier to pay suppliers later than chase receivables and or think about …
Why IoT Needs AI
At one of my recent talks in New York about AI in the supply chain, one of the key questions that came up was “Are you talking about robots?” You see, AI has been romanticized into this abstract term that conjures images of walking robots doing your household chores while you just sit back and relax. But what does it really mean, and where did the term actually come from? Artificial intelligence encompasses the new paradigm of machine learning and big data processes that enable you to get predictive insights from a combination of historical amounts of preexisting data processes …
Shorter Working Capital Cycles, a Win Win Solution
Businesses need a shorter working capital cycle to fund their day-to-day operations such as debts and expenses, a major component of their liquidity. What is working capital? Working capital is the aggregate value of the current assets of a company, which can be continuously utilized to support the current operations. It helps in understanding the liquidity position of an organization. Working capital is much more focused on short term – current asset and current liabilities. Ultimately, positive working capital or cashflow ensures that a business has enough funds to support its operating expenses and short-term debts. Understanding Working Capital Cycle …
Is Supply Chain Finance only Necessary for Cross Border Suppliers?
Let’s start with a key question, what is supply chain finance? Supply chain finance (SCF) is when supplier invoices get financed by a bank on the basis of the creditworthiness of the buyer. A supply chain finance program is when a large buyer’s CFO approaches its bank asking to set up a (also known as reverse factoring) program for a number of suppliers. While suppliers can be based domestically, more often than not, historically such SCF programs were designed to support international cross border operations with cash strapped suppliers based in a different country from financing bank and buyer. This …
4 Things to Watch for in the Trump Administration
Global Trade Spend Increase As was reported recently, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is now dead. What does it mean for the supply chain? It means, if you are a US business with some business operations overseas, expect increased supplier spend. You may need to offset new law that will come into place by diversifying the risk with local suppliers for non critical operations. Less Taxation, More Jobs? There is talk of increased repatriation of multinational funds sitting in foreign markets. As much as $2.6T is stashed abroad and they have been there for a while (current 35% tax not an incentive …
VendorMach’s Dr Faridani Speaking at Data Natives in Berlin
Jacqueline Faridani, VendorMach’s Associate Director of Quant and Credit Risk will be at the Data Natives conference in Berlin! She will be on the Big Data panel in Fintech with fellow panelists Christian Rebenik, CTO of German digital bank N26, Dr Stefan Wachenfeld, CEO of Savedo and Devie Mohan, CEO of Burnmark. To learn more the conference, here is a great summary from Dataconomy
Lesson on Machine Learning and Scoring Invoices at Byte Academy
VendorMach was recently hosted at Byte Academy to talk artificial intelligence and scoring invoices. The lesson given by Ojinnaka to a room full of data scientists, developers and banking IT professionals discussed approaches around big data mining, neural networks, databases and tech stacks. Succinctly summarized here
Brexit and Trade Finance
The pound hit 31 year lows against the US Dollar on Friday October 7 at $1.18/£. For exporters, good news in the short term. British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed she will steer the country to a hard-Brexit, meaning opting out of the European single market to preserve immigration quotas. “While a weaker currency can give exporters a boost, those advantages can disappear when the slide is as fast and disorderly as sterling suffered last week, according to Nomura Holdings Inc.” Trade finance: Short to mid term solution Will trade finance offer a solution to fledging exporters as the currency sinks further? UK exporters looking …