Mid-market by design

The spend management technology market continues to grow increasingly complex, with providers offering everything from specialty tools to complete end-to-end Source-to-Pay solutions. For mid-market companies, choosing a software provider can be daunting, and the chosen technology has to provide the answers to specific business needs while also being affordable and scalable.
 
As with any size of company that’s looking to implement spend management technology, mid-market organisations need to manage costs, manage spend and digitise back-office functions such as purchasing, accounts payable and supplier management. It is also essential to maximise spend under management, streamline purchasing and accounts payable processes, and stay competitive.
 


What is “mid-market”?

The Harvard Business Review defines the mid-market as those businesses that earn between $10 million and $1 billion in annual revenue. Some analysts prefer to define middle-market firms by the value of their total assets. Others characterise the middle market as companies with between 500 and 1,000-1,500 employees. PWC considers the middle market to be those organisations which fall in between what are defined as small and large entities.

The very definition of mid-market is quite ambiguous.

Mid-market experts Proactis have taken the definition a step further and broken down mid-market organisations as follows:
  • £50m to £1bn turnover
  • >100 suppliers/contracts
  • >30 RFPs per annum
  • >£20m indirect or >£5m direct spend
  • >30 P2P users
  • Process >30k (standalone) >6k (wider solution) invoices per year
Proactis has been focussing successfully on this “niche” market segment for many years, with solutions that can be classed as mid-market by design.
 


Designed specifically for the mid-market

Mid-market organisations have a unique set of challenges and variable levels of resources, which Proactis solutions have been specifically created for. They often have processes that are heavily manual, or only partly automated (sometimes being managed by self-built systems), often with low user adoption. Multiple other systems, such as ERP, finance, Supply-chain, are widespread - with ERP systems covering parts of the Source-to-Pay process. As budgets are limited any Source-to-Pay solution needs a strong business case, which includes a strong capability for price, fast implementation and an ability to integrate seamlessly with systems already in place, with no widespread disruption.

The number of dedicated Procurement resources varies across organisations, from zero to many, often with change having to be managed by in-house resource and along-side BAU, or by costly freelance, or mid-tier consultancy firms. This means time is tight and there is a need to show value quickly, meaning a step-by-step approach to transformation is usually preferred. Pre-built or easily configurable integration capabilities are now required to enable rapid access to benefits and high user adoption, and this is where guidance, support and clarity on industry best-practice by any technology provider is key.

Proactis Rego is a powerful Source-to-Pay software platform specifically designed for mid-market organisations. The end-to-end modular platform enables customers to control spend and manage supply-chain risk; improve compliance and governance of their purchasing activities; reduce the cost of goods and services; and deliver efficiencies, all through process digitisation and automation.

And taking a modular approach supports mid-market resources, budgets and priorities, is easy to implement and use for rapid access to long-lasting benefits, and is supported by direct local customer service throughout our relationship.