Ardent’s FinTech Influencer Series highlights innovative voices in the world of Accounts Payable (“AP”) automation. This series is the go-to spot for progressive thoughts on how technology, transformational thinking, and revolutionary ideas are changing how AP work gets done. We continue our series today with Matt Clark, President and COO at Corcentric.
Ardent Partners: Good afternoon, Matt, and welcome. Let’s get started. Please tell us a little bit about your background, your company, and how you ended up in this industry?
Matt Clark: I graduated from the University of Maryland and, shortly afterwards, landed a position at Infolinx, an enterprise records management software provider. Infolinx was a small company in its early stages when I joined and it afforded me the opportunity to be exposed to an entrepreneurial endeavor and to get my hands dirty in all aspects of a tech company. The experience at Infolinx got me interested in the tech space and sparked my passion for applying technology solutions to help businesses grow.
At Corcentric, we started off as a technology platform that helped streamline transactions for group purchasing organizations, buying groups, and associations. By doing this, we got a lot of visibility into both the buy and sell side of business-to-business transactions. This experience helped us understand the opportunities to provide value in Payables, Receivables, and Procurement. Over time, we evolved our solutions to leverage combinations of technology, services, and consulting to establish Corcentric as a leading provider of procurement and finance solutions that transform how companies purchase, pay, and get paid.
Ardent: What is your perspective on the ePayables market today?
MC: The best word I can use to describe the ePayables market today would be fragmented. There are a lot of solution providers coming at the ePayables space from a number of different directions and addressing different elements of the Payables spectrum. This fragmentation makes it difficult for companies to sort through all of the potential providers to determine who to partner with as they map out their holistic source-to-pay strategy.
Ardent: What should we be paying attention to now and in the future? (Technologies, trends, etc)
MC: Collaboration is the key trend to pay attention to, both from an internal and external perspective. Internally, organizations need to make sure there is collaboration between Procurement and Finance: 90% of businesses don’t align Procurement and Finance to adopt common technology, and 60% of operational savings are forfeited when Procurement and Finance have siloed relationships – so there is a huge opportunity here.
Externally, collaboration between customers and suppliers is going to become increasingly more important. Fewer than 10% of businesses demonstrate a systematic effort to collaborate with suppliers. Yet, companies that do collaborate with suppliers can have two times the profitability growth rate of those who don’t. By partnering with the right technology solution provider, both internal and external collaboration can be accelerated, and a tremendous impact can be made that results in the elimination of friction that has bogged down the B2B transaction world.
Ardent: How has the market/industry changed in the past five years and what do you think it will look like five years from now?
MC: In the past, there has not been a focus on back-office operations and how financial functions like accounts payable and accounts receivable can play a strategic role in a company.
There has been a shift in the business mindset when it comes to financial transformation. More companies are realizing that with the right strategy, the back office can be converted into a profit center; examples include figuring out ways to convert transactional data into a competitive advantage, and implementing payment strategies that generate revenue through optimizing payments from a modality and timing perspective.
Looking ahead, with technology advancing at a rapid pace, what is working in the consumer space will eventually make its way to B2B. Companies cannot afford to ignore this. Transactions in the consumer space have been simplified, and a tremendous amount of friction has been removed so that the buying experience is immediate, at our fingertips, and extremely easy. This has totally disrupted how consumer commerce is conducted, and you will see a similar disruption in B2B commerce.
Ardent: As an executive at a FinTech solution provider, what keeps you up at night?
MC: The fear of the unknown is what keeps me up at night. The pace of change in this space is so rapid and if you stop innovating, stop evolving, and stop searching for what’s next, even for a short period of time, you can fall behind quickly.
Ardent: On a personal note, what is your favorite book or movie and why do you like it?
MC: I am an avid sports fan, so when I am not reading business books, I like to immerse myself in books related to sports. At a young age, I watched the documentary “Hoop Dreams” and it quickly became my favorite. It was ahead of its time in terms of sports documentaries and really sparked my love for documentaries that still exists to this day.
Ardent: Thank you Matt for your time and sharing your insight on the market.
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