ISV Talks
ISV Talks
Revolutionize Your Procurement and Spend Controls: Insights with Fraxion’s Jesse Byam on How to Navigate Procurement Challenges, ERP Integrations and AI Innovations
What if you could revolutionize your procurement process while integrating seamlessly with your existing ERP systems? Join us for an enlightening discussion with Jesse from Fraxion, a veteran with over two decades of experience in the Microsoft channel. We journey through Fraxion's transformation from eRequestor to a global leader in procure-to-pay software, breaking down the entire process from initial request to invoice processing. Jesse shares invaluable insights on how Fraxion's technology ensures compatibility with both modern cloud solutions and legacy systems, offering unmatched flexibility.
As we navigate the shifting landscape of the Dynamics channel, Jesse sheds light on the consolidation of smaller VARs into larger 'mega-VARs' and the accelerating shift towards cloud delivery. The conversation doesn't shy away from the challenges, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. We examine the critical need for ongoing training and discuss the potential return of in-person bootcamps. Additionally, Jesse highlights the pressing issues of talent shortages and cybersecurity threats, providing a comprehensive view of the operational hurdles facing the Dynamics ecosystem today.
Unlock the potential of AI in business applications as Jesse explores its transformative impact, particularly in AP automation and predictive coding. Discover how Fraxion helps organizations, from educational institutions to not-for-profits, gain better control over spending with features like AI data extraction and Microsoft Teams integration. We wrap up with exciting plans for the upcoming Dynamics Community Summit North America, emphasizing the importance of enhancing customer experiences through integrated solutions. Don't miss this opportunity to gain actionable insights on spend control, cloud integration, and innovative procurement processes.
Welcome to this episode of ISV Talks Videos. I'm Carol Livingston, the owner of Dynamics Connections and the host of ISV Talks, and on this episode I have my friend Jesse from Fraxion. Welcome, Jesse.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate you having me on today.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Hey, Jesse, so could you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been in the industry with the company?
Speaker 2:You bet it's always good to do this because I've been in here so long. It reminds me how long I've been in the channel. I actually started way back in the Microsoft channel in about 2000. So it's what I'm on 20 year 24 of that. I've been with this company, with Fraction, for about four years now. So industry wise we've been on that 25 years. I started out with a VAR and grew that business and ended up being one of the partners there for a number of years, Sold that off to one of the biggest VARs in Canada and was on their technology leads as a partner for all of Canada. And then when I left that I decided I wanted to be still in the channel. That's why I jumped on the ISV side and came over with Fraction.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, yeah, so you've been on the partner side of the table as well, so that's good. I did not realize that. Yeah, and I always feel like when you mention how long you've been in the channel or in the industry, it feels like, man, I'm old.
Speaker 2:And we date ourselves, no question. I'm always like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, no question.
Speaker 1:I'm always like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, right, I don't know. You don't look that you can be as old as I am. Oh, tell us a little bit about Fraxing. How did the company start and what's the company history?
Speaker 2:Sure, a lot of people may not recognize Fraxing from the Microsoft channel, but we've actually been around since about year 2000.
Speaker 2:We originally started as eRequestor so anybody who is the Microsoft, gp or SL world would have remembered us as e-requestor. We started in the Microsoft channel as an e-procurement solution way back then and then in 2019, we merged with Fraction, which is actually out of South Africa, and gave us a global presence now, and rebranded as Fraction. And the funny thing is that that all happened in 2019, and I joined the company about a year into that merger. And then, as that got started and I was about to start a whole channel program with all of our bars, we had COVID and we lost a couple of years there being able to get out and help people our story and who we were. So if you'd been in the channel a long time, knew who your requests were, you'd understand who we were and kind of where we're coming from. But anybody kind of who's new to the channel wouldn't know that. So it's nice to be able to get back into the channel now and start talking to people about what Fraction does and who we are.
Speaker 1:And we are a procure-to-pay software company that integrates into Business Central and other ERPs.
Speaker 2:What does exactly procure-to-pay mean? I hear that a lot, but I wondered what that means. Yeah, no, we do get that question because a lot of people think e-procurement but that's not your whole solution, that's just a portion of your procure to pay. So procure to pay is a grouping of functionality, allows you to go from the request of an item or a good or a service, work it through the approval process so that it's ready to go, create the PO. You want to be able to track that receiving when it comes in, and then you want to track that invoice and be able to do the three-way match. Now, that's one part of the process, but then you really want to be able to see that global view of your spend, and so you want to track things against some of these budgets that may include expenses or other areas of the business, and so we're able to do that across. So procure to pay is really going from that whole request right to the invoice process. So end to end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, Well, that helps explain it, because sometimes you know people have a different understanding what that means and that's pretty comprehensive. You know absolutely, and you mentioned other ERP products you're compatible with. I know you mentioned Dynamics, but what else?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so we actually cover all the kind of mainstream cloud-based solutions. So we've got Sage, intact, we've got NetSuite, acumatic, obviously Business Central, all those. But if you look at our legacy side still support gpsl, sage 100, 300, 500 and some of those other main solutions as well, because we have a our old e-requester product that still runs every loves because it's deeply integrated into those legacy programs. We still sell lots of those and we have our cloud-based solution which we then sell on top and and use with all those cloud-based solutions. So we cover not just your newer ERPs but all the ERPs, just depending on what your requirements is.
Speaker 1:So do you think people generally want something that's in the cloud, even if they're on-prem with their ERP?
Speaker 2:It is. It's a funny thing, you know we get. You would think everybody wants to be in the cloud, but if you put a ton of money into your ERP, so let's say you're on GP or SL or Sage 500, which used to be the old MAS I'm actually dealing with the MAS 500 one which is now Sage 500 system right now and they're highly committed to that internal infrastructure and what's going on and keeping that control, and so they have very little interest in a cloud-based solution. And so we still sell a lot of our older on-premise solution stuff solution and so we still sell a lot of our older on-premise solution stuff. But obviously you and I are going. We've seen that transition because we were so used to everybody being in their, on their servers and now we see everything going to the cloud, so that that shift is happening more rapidly.
Speaker 1:As you know, digital transformation is taking over every organization, so more and more everybody wants to be in that cloud yeah, and I and I know I know some clients that I, when I was a consultant, you know we were dealing with on-prem solution and then they wanted to maybe migrate to the cloud but they weren't quite ready. So it's kind of nice to have a hybrid right, Like they can be in, kind of see what that's like, at least on and and they're procurement, procure to pay.
Speaker 2:that's probably a natural fit for cloud it really is, and and we could even be in the cloud and still integrate to like gps, like we can do all those integrations from our cloud solution. But I mean it is a fascinating thing to see how digital transformation is really accelerated, but yet you have this subgroup of companies who are really dedicated to what they've got today and the amount of time, because they've got tons of customization and history sitting there and they just it's too hard to do, yeah, expensive.
Speaker 1:You know, that's maybe another reason is to kind of have time to plan that out. So is there any particular industries that you specialize in or work with?
Speaker 2:I do and I'm glad you asked, just because there are some areas where we are super efficient and effective and there's a couple where not necessarily a great fit for us, and so it's always nice to have that conversation up front when we're dealing with it.
Speaker 2:So we do a lot in like the education, not for profit, agriculture, retail kind of spaces, anywhere where they've got lots of people out or lots of people making requests for non-stock or non-business related, you know, inventory item stuff. So like if you're doing manufacturing and running MRP processes, we're not a great fit because we're not integrating for the most part at the inventory level right, and so most of our stuff is if you've got multiple locations and you've got people making requests but you've got a centralized accounting department who's trying to keep track. And two, you want control of the spend that's going on outside or around the organization, because there's lots of spend. People who want that control are really looking for our stuff because they want to approve what we call it being proactive versus reactive. You want to know what you're spending and you want to know what's out there before you spend it, not after the fact. When else are you getting invoices?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like who approved this and where did it go? Like what's happening, and so we try to be on that proactive end of things. And people who want control that's the type of people that are looking at our solution and buying it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you mentioned not-for-profit or education. Those make sense. What kind of multiple location businesses do you see using your solutions?
Speaker 2:It's funny. So some of our clients we have lots of clients who are in like the hotel industry and they've got all these properties that they're managing and they're trying to keep track of the spend in each one of them and making sure that they are allocating the cost to those specific properties. So when it's multiple locations and actually in the manufacturing space, even though we don't do the manufacturing component, people add our solution because they're dealing with you know this factory over here and this you know warehouse over here and maybe this storage unit over there, you know whatever it is, maybe there's a storage unit over there, whatever it is. And so they've got dispersed people in these different geographies or these different locations that they're trying to make sure they have control of their spending, that they have complete visibility of what's happening.
Speaker 2:When we talk on the not-for-profits, a lot of the not-for-profits actually have tons of locations that they may manage. So we've got like Easterseals in Chicago and a few of these different places where they're actually managing these homes and all these people are going out and making requests to purchase and manage for these things and so we do a great job of that. And then when you take into not-for-profits having things like restricted funds, because they've got donor funds and those types of things. They really those restricted funds. It's very important to know where that spend is going and be able to report on it, and so we capture, like I said, it's not just requests that end up in POs, but we actually capture expenses. So let's say, you end up needing to buy breakfast at this location, for whatever reason. That doesn't necessarily go in for a PO approval process, but it needs to be captured against that restricted fund, and so when we talk procured pay and spend management as a whole, you want to make sure all of that.
Speaker 1:So you can know what's going on. Yeah, yeah, restricted funds. There's also like grant money that they're spending and programs they need to track to. And yeah, it's complex, well, and when we're dealing with education.
Speaker 2:now you're dealing with all these departments and different buildings, like some of these universities, charter schools, and you've got so much going on. You need, as an accounting group and as just a control group, you need visibility into all that spend so you're not buying more than you need to and it's the right spend and you're using the right vendors. So all that stuff really comes into play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So do we have government using this? I'd like to see them control spend.
Speaker 2:It's funny we do have some government entities that do these. Unfortunately, it's not the ones that we probably want. Using a shoulder spend.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't that be a joy to be able to say oh government, you're really doing. What have you spent on my tax dollars? Yeah, okay, so just kind of changing gears a little bit here. You know, I know you've been on the channel a few years and you know there's a lot of changes that have happened, especially after the pandemic. I think everybody realized they needed to be more efficient and a lot of people working remote. So what changes have you seen on the channel? And you know kind of what are some of the big trends there.
Speaker 2:Well, you've been through this with me, which is funny. You know, when I started we had lots of small organizations who were as VARs and it was not unusual to find three, five person shops, like, if I remember, when we had three people. And you know, we were also considered a big var, at least in our geography where we were, and I kind of thought that was interesting. So now with microsoft, the way that they've changed the way they deal with partners and the way that the partners work, I've seen a huge consolidation of partners where we've got lots of what I call megavars who have just gobbled up and swallowed up all these smaller vars, because they have that scale and they can do that and manage. You know, manage with Microsoft, manage with the ISVs so we see a lot less of the smaller vars in play.
Speaker 2:You know, like you still see one or two, the individual consultants but you don't see those smaller five, six, seven person shops. But then it's also changed in the way because we deliver in the cloud now and so you don't need the same infrastructure requirements in your team, you don't need SQL DBAbas the same way that we used to in the old days. You know some of those things. But we are seeing some of those technology partners that used to really be on the classic side are now moving themselves into the erp space, in the crm space and, and you know, they're pushing into the market. So you may be missing some of those smaller vars, but you're seeing this whole new group of players coming in the technology side because it's much easier to you know you still need PPAs, you still need those individuals who are very skilled at the ERP, but you get into the market, if you're already in technology, a lot easier than you used to be able to too.
Speaker 1:Great and yeah, and a lot of partners that were ERP focused in the beginning now have kind of scaled to add infrastructure and managed services and Azure Cloud hosting and other products and services, so they could really truly be that end-to-end technology partner and not just their you know accounting system partner or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. It's much like I said. You see that consolidation, but you see also that merger with the technology group now, and so that small guy now merged with a small technology guy, but now they're a medium-sized business. It's all about the technology, which is super smart. It makes sense if you can put all that together, because you have to have managed services around some of these things. You have it all all folds into the same licensing and all the different pieces. So it totally makes sense to me where they're going.
Speaker 1:It does make sense, although I find that, you know, some of those technology partners don't really have the team members that are skilled in the business side, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you get asked as often as I do. Hey, do you know anybody who can do Business Central? Well, I know lots of people can do it, but they're all working.
Speaker 1:There's no shorter, yeah everybody's exactly, yeah, yeah, that is the challenge is it's just a talent and the partners that have them are keeping them busy keep them busy, and they're doing a good job.
Speaker 2:I think the training, because everything's online in a much easier fashion. Like, I mean, when we when you and I started, they actually hosted gp sessions in fargo. You know, I think they were the gp boot camp. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, we used to have to. You know, it cost us I think for a week was two thousand dollars, but we'd send them down to fargo for a week. They'd go through the bootcamp for a week or two and then come back and be ready to go. They don't have to do that anymore. You can get so much more online now and do so much more. I think the training is much easier.
Speaker 1:I've heard some partners talking about maybe reviving that concept of doing some bootcamps and trying to get some of their either people re-skilled you know that maybe know erp on accounting skills, to have all those great consulting skills, but also bringing on like graduates that come out of college and they're ready to go and get them trained too, right? So I think it makes a lot of sense it does, and people.
Speaker 2:I mean we do a lot online and you and I work online a lot, but any opportunity I get where I can get some training and be on on, you know, in a situation with lots of people around, I'm there because I feel like I learn a lot more for the conversations and you know, just even sitting drinks. You and I sat there the at the last conference in Seattle there and just sat for an hour and chatted. You know that's some of my most valuable information I get all year hour versus sitting on a webinar where I get that little 5% or 3% extra. Those events are their requirement as far as I'm concerned in lots of ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, in the end, we're working with people. I mean, yes, it's technology, but it's working with people. Yeah, I definitely agree. What other operational challenges are you seeing with Dynamics partners or customers?
Speaker 2:Ooh, operational challenges you seeing with Dynamics partners or customers, operational challenges? You know, other than people, which everybody struggles with, there's a lot going on in the market that really, you know, adds stress to a lot of companies. So you know, I think you and I have talked about this in the past but security issues like ransomware. Ransomware has become rampant and you know I don't know how else to say it we had a company that we had to restore. They'd lost most everything they had. We had to get them back up and running in a week or two, seen that a couple of times where the backups didn't work right or whatever you know, on their end wasn't going on their on-prem stuff and we've got to go back and do it.
Speaker 2:So there's security compliance can do it. So there's security compliance. If you're looking at segregation of duties like your, compliance is super important to make sure that your internal controls are there, because if you don't have them as much as employees are generally, you know, 99% great, there's always that 1% out there that are looking to defraud you in some way or some fashion and if you don't have the right things in place, you open yourself up. So I think you know some of those are really tough, and I think you hit on the other one Labor shortage. Finding people with the right talent is so hard these days.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you do At the right time, too right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like if you were to say, hey, I need to do an implementation. If you don't have the right resources, you're not getting very far implementation.
Speaker 1:if you don't have the right resources, you're not getting very far. So yeah, and I do think that is a stress and a strain on the partners in the channel right Is finding the right talent and the right resources to, and there, you know, I've even heard some partners deferring start dates, you know, just because they don't have the capacity. It's like everybody else seems to be the same boat, right? I?
Speaker 2:think the same things. That happened when I was doing our business is the same now. You're competing for the same resources because there's just not enough of them and, unfortunately, if you are in a leadership position or you're the one trying to get these projects out the door and you're hamstringed by resources, then you're like customers only will wait for so long you know it doesn't. It doesn't matter. You can be great at what you do, which is awesome, but it's your chance to do well when there's work available to you and if you can't get the people right kind of people, I think that there's a lot of challenges around labor and getting people. I think your idea of bringing the boot camp back is so smart, like and we need that younger generation getting involved in the space because, as you and I know and we've talked we've been in the industry a long time and we're not we're not alone in that.
Speaker 1:There's lots of us have been in the industry a long time right, I talked to some partners in the business central space at that conference that we were just at and yeah, it seems like they're kind of like, hey, maybe we can kind of work together and maybe do some training of staff and bring on some new people.
Speaker 2:So well, you might have another new calling coming up for you Quick connections?
Speaker 1:Just wondering. I know we heard a lot at that conference. It was a Microsoft event, A lot of Dynamics partners hearing about AI. Can you tell us how Fraxion is leveraging AI in your solutions or your application?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and you're right. We were at that Seattle BizApps conference, which should have been aptly named the co-pilot event, the AI conversation, and I have this across because I work in so many industries. I have this conversation across many industries and I have people say to me all the time, what are you guys going to do with AI? And I said, well, what, where do you see value of AI in your business and what are you willing to pay for it? Oh, I'm not sure I'm willing to pay for that yet, like I have these interesting conversations. So to me I look at our AI strategy and really when I talk to my team, it's all about let's bring AI on where AI brings value to the customer. Like, there's a lot of glitz and glam and you know people look at that shiny object scenario with this, but if it's not providing value, why would we spend the time and energy to put it in there?
Speaker 2:So when we look at things like Copilot or ChatGPT, obviously from our side we're bringing that in. We already use AI extraction on the Azure platform when we're doing our AP processing and bringing all that data in from the invoices, where that totally makes sense, right? Ai really does a great job of bringing that out. Predictive coding, all those pieces. We're putting it into our support. So when you have a question, you know how would I create a rec. It should say, well, here it is, let me show you, and here's a video of how to do that. You know like it's going to auto generate and do all those pieces for us.
Speaker 2:The other one is we're using, looking at, using AI. We're already doing community analytics through our Power BI platform, but really using AI to say, okay, well, here's how the community is doing, here's how you rate. What do you need to do different to be better? And so giving you suggestions how do you become better in your process? Is your approval process broken or not working efficiently? Are you using too many vendors and you should be using less vendors? Those type of things. And so we're really spending time on the AI side, looking at that value proposition of giving people value versus just throwing AI in there.
Speaker 1:I love that benchmarking concept right, like how are people in kind of similar size companies or organizations doing their processes and you know how could I be more efficient? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you know what else is going on in your industry and you're able to say, well, how are we doing against that? Now you've got something to say to your team. Okay, well, here, here's an area we should be doing better. Why aren't we? Yeah, and you have something to do? Yeah, like, ai is great, but it the decision-making that goes around. The data right, and we're really big on putting data in the hands of the decision-maker at the point of decision, because we want the most available data, but they still have to make the right choice with the data.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they need those insights, you know as a buyer, or an employee or a manager. Yeah, they all have some needs you know, but I like the buying trends and the benchmarking. That's a really cool idea. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you say buying trends, I mean it would be nice to be able to say this you know, tell me what the average price of a Surface laptop is at the moment. You know, just so I know if I'm getting a good deal when I buy my next one. I agree with you the buying trends and being able to ask the questions. I think it could be a lot of fun very soon. It just I think it's just got to mature a lot more. I mean, I think when I we did laugh about this at the conference, we just didn't realize that co-pilot wasn't just co-pilot, but you had teams you had co-pilot yeah, specific co-pilots.
Speaker 2:You had co-pilot for the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, specific co-pilots, you know, for your ERP, for your CRM, and then you've got co-pilot studios so you can build kind of custom applications.
Speaker 1:So you know, and I kind of feel like Jesse, it's always like at the beginning of something new. You know, we all kind of like go through this period of like it feels fuzzy. Like when they talked about the cloud, I remember thinking what the heck is that? You know. When they talked about digital transformation, you know, I was like okay, that's like another buzzword. But you know, we're kind of past that now. People kind of have sort of transformed their businesses, you know, and virtually gone more in the cloud. So, yeah, I feel like it's this time where people will take a little bit of time understanding how it can be applied in their business and organization. And I think businesses like Praxian too right, where you're using AI and you're kind of in the back end helping provide those insights or providing that workflow and streamline the process.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, as it matures, we're just going to see. Obviously it's like all these, all the tools like you're talking about. It just takes time and maturing to really get a good feel for it. And right now I think you and I were laughing. If they were to put if they had co-pilot adoption like they had Teams adoption, it would just disintegrate. Co-pilot is not built to handle that kind of volume at this point. So Microsoft's being pretty cautious on how they roll that out, which is smart, right and so it is a fascinating thing, you know.
Speaker 1:if they had the floodgates open, everybody had the demand they might be a little overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:Just this much, yeah, just this much, a little bit yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:well, let's talk about the story of a customer that's been successful with Fraxian's solutions, and why.
Speaker 2:Sure. Why was to look, you know, and I'll look at a couple different industries that we've been working in, so one of them is, of all things, tree fruit. The tree fruit industry has done really well with its technology when it comes to the actual operations of their orchards for the apples, and we've got several apple producers that we've worked with, but their technology on the back end and their processes around the operations for things like requests and controlling spend have not been good, and so we've really found a great niche and we've spent a lot of time in there. We have been able to help them get a control over what's being spent. They're able to say, by this orchard, how much did we spend on this, what did we use? Like all these different pieces, and they their accounting department no longer is getting all these invoices and saying, well, where is all this coming from? Did we actually use it? Did we even receive it? Like what is this? Just providing that visibility like this goes back to the geography thing. When you've got all these people out and about and they're managing these operations all over, it's really hard. So we've been able to provide a lot of visibility and clarity into their business and control their spend, make sure they're spending with the right vendors so that they're getting the best prices and taking advantage of their negotiated prices. You know, we have obviously a lot of our technology around punch out, punch in which I think we're probably going to talk about here in a little while have really added a lot of value to them.
Speaker 2:And then, if we flip that over and we look at the education sector, which we've also been doing a lot in, you know, schools are running tighter and tighter all the time. You know like their budgets are tighter. We really focus on, like the private and charter schools who are actually can be quite big and with lots of departments, different buildings, separate locations. Again, not, they didn't have the visibility, they couldn't tell what was going on. They didn't know what their people were spending money on. They didn't. The people who were spending money didn't know what their budgets were, so they were just spending because they thought, okay, I got this amount of budget, even though it's wrong. You know they're getting information that's, you know, 60 days old, so they don't even know where they're at in their budget.
Speaker 2:My college school was one of ours that we did or we've been working with the last couple of years. I just did a case study on them and just the amount of visibility and their control of their spend has saved them so much time and money and resources that it's it's been incredible right. And then we get to work with fund groups. So one of mine that I actually really like a lot is the montana school for the deaf and the blind, and they're not for profit and but they've got lots going on because their their student base has lots of special needs and so they're, you know, making purchases and doing all you know doing all these things.
Speaker 2:And so, again, visibility, control, really making sure that they make it easy for their people to buy things if they're interacting with amazon or you know a lot of these work with granger a lot of them, you know all these different vendors that they work with and really streamlining that whole process and giving them control. It's really been a lot. So I actually really have a soft spot and really enjoy working for the not-for-profits, just because you get to see the great work they're doing and when we help their business be successful, I feel so good about it personally and we as a business feel so good about it. There's a lot of rewarding pieces there for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're supporting their mission, right, which is to help whatever their community is they're working with. So, yeah, I totally get that Well. So what are some of the new things? I know you mentioned like punch in, but what are some of the new things that Praxian is doing to help customers move along in their journey to the cloud?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean so from a change in our product. So if you look at us from the e-requestor days, where we're just focused on the request, you know we're so much more than that now with the full spend management. Because, even though we still consider ourselves a procurement company, we do the AP automation as well. So we capture and use AI data extraction in Azure to capture the invoice, do the matching, so we added that to our product. I don't think most people even realize that we do the AP component of it. There's lots of companies that just do the AP or just do e-requests, but we've put that all the way across together. So that's one piece. But if you look and our CEO Stanton and I actually just did a session the other day on this it's about working with tools, working in the tools that people are used to and familiar with, instead of trying to jump around Like, well, I need a request, well, I have to do it here in Fraction. We don't have to anymore. We actually are just reducing and we'll be the first company in our space with a Teams integration where you can actually create your request and approve it all in Microsoft Teams, and so that should be here in the next month your approver having to go into the system and approve it. I mean, we have the phone app, obviously, where they can approve it off their phone. But if they're sitting at their desk working in Teams and all of a sudden comes up and says, hey, here's the request, I'll show you what the budget's against, and so I'm giving you all the data to make the right decision, budgets it against, and so I'm giving you all the data to make the right decision. You just have to approve it or cancel it or, you know, send it back, whatever you want to do, all within Teams, which is where you familiar work today. The other part of that is, you know, we've talked about the Amazon experience. So we have a product called Punchout which allows us to streamline the purchasing with any vendor who's made their website Punchout enabled, and we have well over 50 vendors. We already do with this today. You know like, obviously, amazon staples best buy, granger a lot of medical care places packaging lots of those and more and more the smaller vendors are actually enabling their websites and what that allows us to do.
Speaker 2:So let's say I'm someone who needs something. I literally just say I want to create a request for stuff and I push, I say, well, where do you want to do this? Do you want to do this? At one of your punch out vendors? Literally, just say I want to create a request for stuff. And I push and say, well, where do you want to do this? Do you want to do this? At one of your punch out vendors, and I say, yeah, I want to go to Amazon. Amazon logs me into Amazon. I do my shopping like I normally would on Amazon. I mean, how much do you shop on Amazon, carol? Probably as much as I do a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we know that a lot across our whole family. Yeah, that's right. Every day there's a package there for us waiting yeah, and businesses aren't any different.
Speaker 2:People are out there shopping like crazy and now all I say when I get to the end set of checkout is submit for approval. And I push submit for approval, we automatically send all that data with all the right pricing back in. Your approver gets the message yeah, I approve that. Click. We automatically send back the po. They send us the invoice. When the receiving gets there, we say yeah, we got it. Click and we're done. And so that automates that whole process.
Speaker 2:But that's just the punch outside which we do with everybody. So the forward thinking part, carol, which is people probably haven't heard of yet and it's proprietary to Amazon at this point, is the punch in where, instead of me having a system and say I want to go shop at Amazon, I literally just log into Amazon. It recognizes who I am and what purchasing system I'm using. I go through and buy. When I push submit, it just comes in. I as a user, have never entered the system. It just doesn't. It doesn't form me. The requester gets their piece and away they go. So Punchin is proprietary. We're one of about four companies in the US that helped launch that with Amazon. But we're going to see that, I think, propagate out quite quickly now to other groups as it matures in the process. So very exciting stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have not heard of Punchin before. It's kind of new and you guys are on the kind of one of the few that are actually doing that.
Speaker 2:It's pretty cool, forward thinking it's fun to be on the edge. Like you know, a lot of times when you're on the erp side you're kind of lagging behind, like we're always like we'll get you, to you know, the latest version about six months after it's released, or a year after it's released, because then we know it's a whereas on this side. We're at the forefront of it and really spearheading that and having a lot of fun with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know the workers of the future too that I feel like that's what they expect. Right, everything be mobile on my phone, kind of one click you know. Why not have their business applications also have that sort of same consumer-like look and feel too? It makes sense.
Speaker 2:It will, and we're doing a new UI release. Even though our UI is quite up to date, we're doing a newer one and it's going to look and feel I would have to say, probably a lot more like the Microsoft look and feel of Business Central, which allows us to even get more real estate and do a few really cool technology things that we're pretty excited about. Neat.
Speaker 1:I'll be excited to hear more about that. So you know, I have to always ask because you're in the procurement and AP automation space, but it's a really crowded space. So you know why would someone choose working with your solution?
Speaker 2:It's a great question and I agree the AP automation space is loaded and it's really a commodity now everybody's right, like it's just crammed. The side that's not covered well is the procurement side, where it's actually integrated into your ap automation and integrated into your erp system. There's very few companies out there doing that or even offering a lot of the same things we are. For example, you know we're going to be the only one with that Microsoft Teams integration and moving that forward. Obviously, our mobile application is all built on the native iOS and Android and it's progressed a long way. So now you're just taking pictures and capturing your documents on your phone and doing approvals, all those pieces but to put them all together as a single solution not just your requisitions, but your expense and your AP automation and all the different pieces receiving Not many people are doing what we're doing in terms of a full solution in the cloud Very, very modern technology.
Speaker 2:You know there's still lots of AP automation companies who are literally capturing your document and sending it offshore, getting it checked and then bring it back to you. So now I have access for 24 hours or whatever it is. It's amazing how many people are still stuck on that older technology, we used to think, well, we're late to the game with AP automation. But being late to the game has allowed us to use the newer technology and not get stuck and married to the old stuff. So it's actually been a lot of fun. We're very dominant in the procurement side of things and I always say to my staff you know, we are a procurement first company. That's where we grew up, that's our strength. All this other stuff, these are commodity items, but we have them as well, and what separates us is we're not just that.
Speaker 1:Right, so you're not one Turk pony, as they say.
Speaker 2:That's a great way of putting it. That's a great way of putting it. We're very comprehensive, we're deeply integrated into the ERPs that our partners are working with and we really take partnering quite serious. We want to hear from our partners, we work with them, we talk to them about the things they want to see in the product and then, as we're doing our roadmapping, a lot of that input from our partners is being put into the product and where we're going. So we take that very serious and those relationships very serious as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, kind of talking about that, what things are you seeing developed in the future? You talked about a few things, but it sounds like you're getting feedback from customers and partners. But what trends are you guys hoping to incorporate into your product?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're going to see us continue to work very heavily. We're built really heavily on the Microsoft stack in terms of Azure. We're using Azure capture for our AI extraction, the AP side of things, obviously, power BI. We're utilizing all those tools and so now obviously introducing AI into that will be a big trend. But also really building our solution so it works where our customers work. So things like the Teams integration, really enhancing that and building it out. Other you know anywhere, amazon that type of instance.
Speaker 2:So really going out and getting that feel for where do our customers work and how do we enhance that experience without having them, to, you know, come back in and I have to only do it this one way. You know I want to be able to do it the way they want to work and where they want to work. And so when we look at the forward-thinking stuff, that's where our brains are. You know, stan, our CEO, and I have these conversations regularly about one. We're not going to chase the shiny objects, it's got to be value-orientated decision-making. And then, what do our clients really value and where do we? So we spend our money there in those areas. So I could see AI being part of that and teams, all those pieces, but those are the areas we're really focusing on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I know that we talked about conferences, but there's a conference coming up here the latter half of 2024. And we're sitting here right now, in the summertime, before that conference. That would be dynamics community summit, north america. So are you going to be there and tell us how you're going to be involved and how to find you?
Speaker 2:we're going to be there. I'll be there, probably with jen and potentially stan, so there'll be a few of us there and we're going to be out and about. I didn't want to get locked into a booth where I just stood in one place. I generally like to be out where I can meet people, and so we're. You know, I've got my channel manager, jen, reaching out to some of our strategic partners and setting up meetings there, but I'll be there.
Speaker 2:I like to hear where Microsoft's going. I like to hear what the partners are thinking, actually more than anything, how they view working with Microsoft and the changes in that process, what they're seeing in the market. So I'll be there. I'll be talking to partners all over the place looking at those things. So we will be there and happy to chat with anybody about any of this.
Speaker 2:You and I have been in this for so long. We can have a conversation on any of it and I think it's all valuable. So if anybody's got questions that they want to ask about any of the stuff we've talked about today or not just product, but just what's going on in the market and trends I love having those conversations. I like to get other people's opinion on what's going on, where they're seeing changes, where they're struggling. As a as a var I mean I was a var for 18 years around my our shop. It's insights there that I think you know I can provide value to people that aren't just on the ISV side and I like to know, I want to hear, where people are struggling. I think it's fascinating to understand where the struggle is and how to help people do better at business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, so they can reach out to you and you'll be there so they can make an appointment with you, or yeah?
Speaker 2:or they can reach out on LinkedIn. You're just hanging out all the time, so I think you're pretty easy to find well, I I do go to them with the intent of going to them, so I'm, I'm there, I'm at most of the sessions. I try and find out your hotel room.
Speaker 1:I know you're usually in the lobby and the kind of networking areas, so you're usually around.
Speaker 2:Yeah I'm happy to talk to people I don't I. I find it quite fun. I I love the channel. I guess that's the way to put it. I have been in the channel. I've all you know. I've always been in the channel. I love the time I can get together and we can talk and have you know, how to make the channel better, how to help as far as how to succeed better. I love those type of conversations because it's just growing my world and your world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, definitely, and it feels like, you know, still, the Dynamics community is growing, but there's still a good feeling of community. People are willing to help each other and sometimes it's a great place to go to answer questions or find new solutions or new ideas or talk to other users. You know, like, how are you doing this? One of my favorite things is go to the breakfasts and sit with customers and say, well, what are you here to learn? You know, and then I'll run into them later. I'm like, did you find out something about that?
Speaker 2:You'll go to the breakfast. We talk to these people and they'll say, well, we're trying to solve this problem, but we don't know how. And you're like, just go talk to that person over there. Yeah, I know, right, yeah because we've been around so long. We know all the people, we know who's got the solutions, we know you know like who's good and you know that you want to work with. So I think it's awesome, that's really fun.
Speaker 1:Well, just in conclusion, jossie, is there kind of one trend that you're seeing that partners or customers might come talk to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the big trend we saw, you know, really a different way to work with your group when COVID hit and all of a sudden everybody was doing everything remotely or there was way less in-person communication.
Speaker 2:That trend hasn't gone away, necessarily. Lots of people come back to offices, but there's still lots of the organization that's out and about. But these groups and these companies want control of their spend, they want visibility into what's going on and they want to have a great workflow approval process in place so that, whether it's by department, project, dollar amount, whatever it is that the right people are making the right decisions, that they're compliant with what the organization wants to see and that they have a full record of who made the request, who approved it, when did it get ordered? Did the vendor actually receive the invoice? Because we actually do that part and we can say, yeah, we sent that PO and it was opened by this person on this date and then, running it from the finance team, you know, invoices received or goods, goods received not invoiced, or invoice but not received, you know and be able to provide that insight.
Speaker 2:And then I think we're going to see a lot more around community analytics. Right, how am I doing against the community. I think that's more and more important as people are starting to realize if I would just spend better and more with this vendor, I would get such a better price and save so much more money. I just need to be more proactive in doing that. But I need somebody to tell me that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially since people are not working remote, right, they don't have the opportunity to ask their colleagues. That's a really good point. And I feel like that concept of received not invoiced.
Speaker 2:I know I worked with clients when I was a consultant and I'd be like sometimes those are scary numbers and they're big because they don't keep their processes clean and things moving through as they should. Well, and that report and then the invoice not received one is always terrifying. So now I've got it and I have no idea. Have I ever received any of this stuff? This isn't good. And that list is growing. You know, from an accounting perspective you're panicked. Now, what are you doing? Can you pay it? Should you pay it? Do you? Who knows where? Yeah, it's, yeah. All those are very critical.
Speaker 1:Kind of getting those processes a little tighter, a little cleaner.
Speaker 2:So I don't have any kind of like big list cleanup, but that is huge. Yeah, you don't want that accrual report to get too big everybody can my gosh those auditors.
Speaker 1:They love those reports, those are like these are unrecorded liabilities.
Speaker 2:You need to record something it's funny, the auditors are always the most terrifying part. It's funny. So I was dealing with a company just the other day and they're like so if we buy this, can I get my auditors into it? Like can I just give them a license and let them go crazy so I don't have to deal with it? And I'm like, absolutely like, why wouldn't you communicate with them that?
Speaker 1:way. Yeah, I think, and I think accountants and cpa firms are more in tune with that, and so there are, can be more self-sufficient if you give them the appropriate access.
Speaker 1:so, yeah, yeah, definitely saves time, especially since things are so electronic, you know, and digital right, so they've got to have access to do their job too. Well. Thank you, jesse, for joining us today on this episode of ISV Talks. I really had a good conversation, it was fun, and here is Jesse's information if you want to reach out to Jesse. So thank you again, jesse.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's great to see it. If you want to reach out to me, you feel free. My email is jesseb at fractionbiz, which is J-E-S-S-E-B at F-R-A-X-I-O-N dot B-I-Z, or my direct phone number is 206-812-2107. Or if you just want to reach out on LinkedIn and you know, hit me up there. I'm always available and quite active on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Awesome and their website is fantastic. I was looking through it. I really was impressed. A lot of good information there, so check that out at Fraxionbiz, all right? Well, thank you again, jesse, and we'll see you on the next episode of ISV Talks. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.