Please tell us about your journey in the financial department. What inspired you to start at Verusen?
With 10+ years of experience I have led key finance, accounting, and growth initiatives in the software and technology space. Before joining Verusen, I served as Vice President, Finance, of Personify, Inc. I also held a variety of Finance & Accounting roles at MemberClicks, LLC., Fiserv, and KPMG. I graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a Master of Accountancy degree.
Global supply chain networks continue to expand significantly in their criticality and complexity, and Verusen is on the cutting edge of providing industry leaders with the ability to streamline supply chain management. I joined Verusen because of the incredible team members and the real, material value Verusen will unlock for our customers in the years to come, while redefining materials management along the way.
As a CFO, tell us more about your roles and responsibilities? How have these evolved during the pandemic period?
As CFO, I oversee the finance, accounting, tax, reporting, and due diligence processes at Verusen. I also partner with the CEO and other members of the executive team on org-wide and function specific strategic initiatives, helping to create solid foundations from which to grow and paths to succeed and scale.
The pandemic has created many challenges for organizations across the globe. It is more crucial now than ever before that finance take a strategic approach towards leading an organization through these challenges.True partnership and cross-functional collaboration from finance is absolutely critical to success. Deep knowledge and understanding of all functional areas of the organization is required in order to be an effective strategic partner to the leadership team. The traditional finance focus we are accustomed to has evolved and matured into a much more functionally strategic and operationally embedded entity.
Read More: Global Fintech Interview with Scott Zoldi, Chief Analytics Officer at FICO
Fintech stacks are enabling CFOs and their teams to take on more work with better automation and superior document processing capabilities. Tell us a little bit about your fintech stack?
I believe fintech stacks play a key role in accelerating the efficiency of a business. We currently use tools such as QB, Bill.com, and Certify. As Verusen continues to grow, I plan to leverage the necessary tools to help us achieve success and eliminate barriers.
I am always evaluating our current end-to-end tech stack, not only as it relates to fintech, but along the entire prospect/customer journey. I believe it is pivotal that SaaS organizations automate and integrate as much data entry and inter-system data transfer as possible, therefore reducing time intensive manual processes and exposure caused by delays and erroneous errors. Additionally and equally if not more important, by automating systems and processes our teams are able to focus their time on activities that drive more value to the customer and the organization.
How does your company address the global supply chain network? What’s your role in this expansion?
As businesses continue to work through these unprecedented times, organizations have heightened their awareness of the importance of the supply chain as a competitive advantage. This has resulted in a tremendous demand for our innovative AI solutions and services for enterprise-wide digital supply chain transformations. We are focused on delivering our self-cleansing, self-learning, always-on solution so that organizations can work more efficiently and make more informed decisions, while remaining focused on their digital transformation journeys.
As I joined the Verusen team, we have and will be able to better support this demand and our continued growth, while executing on our global expansion plans, including more than doubling the size of our team over the next year. Additionally, we are rapidly expanding our footprint throughout the manufacturing space via our industry agnostic tools, diversifying our distribution network and capabilities, and focusing heavily on continually delivering enhanced products that better serve our current and future customers, alleviating much of the common pain and hindrance they are faced with today.
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What are the complexities & challenges involved in the current supply chain management? How can technology solve some of these challenges?
Supply chain organizations are using yesterday’s technologies to solve tomorrow’s problems. These technologies have failed and will continue to fail supply chains around the globe. We are seeing organizations that are facing pressure to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and optimize materials management. However, they are also challenged with poor data quality, siloed materials data, and bulky/inefficient legacy technologies – leaving them with severe data complexities and sub-optimal solutions.
These supply chain organizations can leverage advanced technologies like AI, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing to accelerate their digital transformations. These technologies will enable a resilient, connected end-to-end supply chain network.
Verusen is focused on simplifying materials management by using AI to provide complex global supply chains material truth for data harmonization, inventory optimization, and procurement intelligence. Our platform harmonizes disparate materials data across many ERP instances/systems while providing trusted data across the enterprise to optimize inventory (regardless of how each customer uniquely defines optimal), creates trust in production uptime, and provides actionable intelligence for decision makers throughout the organization and across their supply chain networks. The result is a data foundation that organizations can trust to fuel digital transformation and support related Industry 4.0 initiatives.
Your take on training CFOs and financial leaders on new-age analytics and data management techniques- Do you think organizations should spend more time and resources on data training programs?
I believe data training programs can greatly accelerate the knowledge and expertise of financial professionals, and organizations should not only provide access to it, but actively encourage it. In order for financial leaders to be truly successful strategic partners, we have to be able to base our partnerships, recommendations, and advice on data and facts. We are not bringing the same level of functional SME knowledge to our peers, so in order to add maximum value and drive material growth, what we bring to the table has to be rooted in the story the data tells us. If we cannot understand the data or the value it provides then we are self-inflicting a natural ceiling on the level of value we can create.
Your prediction for the global fintech market and how it can influence the adoption of technologies in the supply chain management and other related industries:
The growth of the global fintech market goes beyond accelerating financial initiatives. Setting an example of focusing on the right advanced technologies is a critical role that financial teams can leverage to inspire all functions of an organization. I believe that fintech has the opportunity to pave the way for technology adoption across an organization, not least of which is its’ supply chain. Supply chain capabilities often have differing incentives. For example, procurement & sourcing are incentivized to cut costs, while manufacturing and operations are incentivized to reduce downtime. Creating a technology driven environment that empowers decision makers across the supply chain to make data driven decisions from real-time, automated data insights will be a game changer. This reality will allow multi-faceted, complex organizations to be increasingly flexible and nimble, with the ability to pivot and convert strategy to quantifiable value at speeds we have not experienced to date.
Read More: Global Fintech Interview with Alexander George Muthoot, Deputy Managing Director at Muthoot Finance
Key skills you are looking for in your team members at the time of hiring:
One of our core values is known as GOOD HUMANS – This has to do with having the company’s impact enable the well-being and aspirations of its employees, customers, shareholders, and community. We believe this is critical throughout the recruiting and onboarding processes. We are looking for team members that are problem-solvers, innovative, and life-long learners.
A mentor of mine once said to me “fail early, fail often”, and I take that with me wherever I go, and I believe it to my core. We are looking for those individuals who want to make a difference, and are not afraid to try. So long as you are actively engaged, identifying the problem, and proactively seeking a solution, we applaud you.
Customer first attitude. How does what I am doing create additional value for the customer, and ease their pain points?
Interested in learning more about our open positions? Visit verusen.com/careers.
Thank you, Brent! That was fun and we hope to see you back on globalfintechseries.com soon.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Verusen is a Supply Chain Intelligence company focused on materials management that uses AI to provide complex global supply chains material truth for data, inventory optimization, and procurement intelligence. The company’s platform harmonizes disparate material data across many ERP instances/systems while providing trusted data across the enterprise to reduce inventory costs and build trust in production uptime. The result is a data foundation you can trust to fuel digital transformation and support related Industry 4.0 initiatives. The company is based in Atlanta at the ATDC building.
