Q&A with Ryan Van Hatten, Chief Financial Officer for Prophix.
We would love to hear what your company does. Can you tell us the scope of your business and some details about your product?
Prophix offers what is referred to as Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software, an integrated, cloud-based platform for the Office of Finance; one that delivers planning, budgeting, reporting, forecasting and consolidation solutions. Prophix is mainly focused on helping organizations in the “mid-market”, drawing on our experience with over 2600 customers around the globe.
With Prophix, users significantly reduce the need to use Excel since most core CPM functions are conducted within the platform. This allows finance leaders to improve profitability and minimize risk and put the focus back on what matters most – uncovering business opportunities.
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, we were established in 1987 and support our 2500 customers worldwide, supported by our amazing partner network. Our premise is focused on changing how people work, establishing planning and forecasting as the core currencies of the modern CFO, facilitating all-important agility and speed, and supporting the office of the future.
That’s really interesting, particularly the point about new currencies underpinning the role of the CFO. So, what, in an arguably crowded market, would you say is your differentiator or unique selling point?
There is a huge opportunity in the mid-market to replace spreadsheets with modern CPM, and this is where we add value.
CPM traditionally has been the preserve of large corporates, and mid-market offerings have either represented a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and proved prohibitive from a cost perspective, or have taken the form of basic dashboards and fallen short in terms of capabilities.
Unlike other products that are required to scale up or down to meet the needs of the mid-market, Prophix has been designed with the specific needs of mid-market organisations in mind.
Our R&D spend is typically ahead of our competitors, and we take pride in knowing our market, and as such, identifying organisations which are a good fit.
The office of the CFO is no longer about looking at the numbers alone and viewing the business retrospectively, making decisions based on past performance. Best practice means understanding the drivers, telling a story and applying meaning to the numbers.
Where have you seen the biggest opportunity in recent years?
The shifts we’ve seen in the world over recent years because of the pandemic, Brexit, war and downturns, have driven a more urgent need for digital transformation with finance teams. This in turn has expedited the evolution of the role of the CFO and created an opportunity for solutions such as ours to drive the necessary changes to support this evolution.
The office of the CFO is no longer about looking at the numbers alone and viewing the business retrospectively, making decisions based on past performance. Best practice means understanding the drivers, telling a story and applying meaning to the numbers.
Managing the pace of change inherent across all businesses now means establishing a forward-looking strategy based on planning, reviewing, and re-planning on a continuous basis. Organisations need to be more agile and flexible to changes in order to merely survive in this new world, never mind winning market share.
We’ve talked a lot here about opportunities, but what are the biggest barriers?
The biggest barrier we see is typically around the kind of cultural change necessary to create this new way of thinking, and the necessary capabilities to help achieve it.
Education is key because if there is no perceived need for change, the status quo will prevail. It’s crucial to get senior-level executives involved from the outset, and this process is generally much more effective where there is an existing forward-looking, visionary leader at the helm.
Taking this top-down approach, it’s then as important to garner buy-in from all relevant parties across the enterprise, at all levels. Through raising awareness at an early stage robust business cases can be established and implemented more effectively, with all relevant parties invested fully in the process.
Percipient is a very modern partner, forward-thinking and most importantly, they take a great deal of time to understand our proposition and how it fits with Sage Intacct, in order to provide customers with the best solution and associated capabilities for their particular remit.
So, moving on to your partner network which I know is a core part of your global business model. How did you begin working with Percipient?
We were introduced to the amazing team at Percipient through the Sage eco-system, and quickly found a number of synergies which led to us working closely together in partnership.
Percipient is a very modern partner, forward-thinking and most importantly, they take a great deal of time to understand our proposition and how it fits with Sage Intacct, in order to provide customers with the best solution and associated capabilities for their particular remit. The team devotes a lot of time to training and as such, they are pretty self-sufficient when discussing CPM with prospects and customers, which represents a win-win for all involved.
As CFO at Prophix, what are the best and worst parts of your role?
My role is incredibly varied which is one of the best parts of it. No day is the same, and I genuinely love being a business partner, taking a consultative approach, and working with organisations to understand what the modernisation of the CFO means to them and analyse problems which can be turned around into opportunities.
Ensuring that we maintain momentum and that everyone in our business feels motivated, bought into our culture, and is focused on the same goal is an ongoing part of my remit, which can be challenging in a changing economy, but is incredibly rewarding at the same time.
Finally, looking to the future, what do the next 12 months look like for you?
We’ll continue to build on what we’ve achieved by developing our team and serving our markets with the capabilities they need to future-proof their businesses and thrive.
The last few years have seen significant investment, not only in our product but in modernising and digitalising our own operations, putting us in a strong position to achieve our goals.
As well as looking at expanding our product footprint into adjacent areas to CPM, we’ll be focusing on a number of core verticals, including construction and higher education, both of which are investing in digital significantly as part of efforts to modernise and maintain relevancy to modern consumers.
While turbulence looks set to be a mainstay of the global economy, we see our role as helping organisations navigate this turbulence using world-class capabilities, supported by the very best methodologies.
Contact Percipient
If you would like to know more about Percipient and our work with Prophix, or if you’d like to discuss the benefits of Sage for your business, get in touch or call us on 01606 871332.