In 2021, Clarivos won the 麻豆原创 EMEA-North Excellence award for Innovation for creating the first for the Intelligent Enterprise in the UK, . This was one of seven 麻豆原创 awards that Clarivos won last year.

Kirit talked to us about his career, Clarivos鈥� ethos and values, the Office of the CFO, 听and Cloud ERP trends in the SME market.

麻豆原创 UKI: Could you tell us about yourself, Kirit?

I live in the West Midlands with my wife, who left Accenture a few years ago and now is a full-time wedding planner. We have a daughter who鈥檚 studying physiotherapy and a son doing A-levels who wants to be an engineer.

I’ve always had an interest in design, as I like looking at cool things. I鈥檇 like to think I鈥檓 quite a good photographer and have a full-blown studio in our house, which my wife often says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 gathering dust!鈥�. But it鈥檚 something I always go back to when I have some spare time.

麻豆原创 UKI: How did you come to found Clarivos?

I started the business just four weeks after I got married, in 1996. We come from a foundation of supporting 鈥楾he Office of the CFO鈥�. Which is the centre of all things digital transformation. Everything flows through 鈥楾he Office of the CFO鈥� 鈥� they dictate the pace and the direction.

I’d like to say I had a master plan, but when I was in my final week of Uni, I got an interview letter for a job at Comshare that I hadn鈥檛 applied for. Back in the day, they were one of the most known consolidation software players in the world.

It turns out that a friend of mine, who had graduated the year before me, had put my name forward for a graduate position as Financial Application Consultant. I remember thinking, 鈥業 don鈥檛 even have a suit to wear.’ The interview went well and I started work in London the following Monday. A big shout out to Neil Chandler, currently Managing Vice President – Business Analytics & Data Science at Gartner, for giving me my first proper job.

I did that job for about five years. During that time, I had a growing sense that we could do this better. I was still very young, so I didn鈥檛 have a five-year plan or anything. If I’m brutally honest, it was about working with some of my Comshare colleagues, having some fun, and creating something of our own. Mihir Patel, now Director of Finance and Quality at Clarivos, and I decided to outsource our services to Comshare and nurture new talent.

We set up Rinedata (now rebranded to Clarivos) in September 1996. I called an old Uni friend, Ketan Patel as we needed deeper technical expertise to complement our finance backgrounds. Ketan is now our Director of Innovation. How times have changed? Currently, we鈥檙e a bit older, greyer, life’s a little bit more complex and we’ve got around seventy-five employees now.

麻豆原创 UKI: How would you describe the culture and values at Clarivos?

Empower-Innovate-Transform is not just the approach we take with our clients and business partners, it also defines the way we engage with our employees. We try to unlock their potential through mentoring and investment in training. We鈥檝e helped to shape a whole raft of thought leaders, specialists, and future business leaders. Many have risen to the Big Four and other prestigious firms. This is the kind of platform we provide for people at Clarivos and it鈥檚 one of the things I鈥檓 most proud of.

We’re a people business. Technology is the stuff that makes things possible, but it’s the people that make it happen. We feel it鈥檚 easier to do our jobs well when we鈥檙e enjoying them so, personality-wise, at Clarivos it鈥檚 about having fun.

There鈥檚 a famous quote by life coach, Dale Carnegie, 鈥淧eople rarely succeed in what they’re doing unless they’re having fun鈥�. I subscribe to that because if you fundamentally hate something, or even just tolerate it, it will always show because your energy and enthusiasm won鈥檛 be there. We try to have a giggle at every opportunity. I think the key to our success is down to the people and customers we work with. We work hard, but then equally we play hard as well. That’s part and parcel of the culture we’ve developed.

When people ask about my job title, I just say I’m Employee Number One rather than a Director. Titles are important from an outward perspective so customers understand who to go to. Internally, we encourage our colleagues to feel they can approach anyone, no matter how senior their role. So, I鈥檇 say honesty and communication are also strong values for us.

Diversity is also really important to us for the richness of cultures this brings and the differing approaches to solving business problems.听 All of which is critical in the ever-shrinking global environment we operate in. I鈥檓 proud to say that within Clarivos we have 16 nationalities that can converse across 37 different languages.

Also, we are all about innovation; doing things in a new, improved way, and making positive changes for our customers. Our innovation agenda is not led by the technology itself, as in, 鈥淲e must embrace RPA, we must use Machine Learning鈥�. For us, innovation translates into 鈥淗ow do we take you, Mr. or Ms. Customer, from where you are today to having smoother, more efficient core processes and systems with a technology platform to support your growth.

麻豆原创 UKI: How are you helping your customers to innovate?

Quite frankly, you can’t start with predictive analytics if you’ve got nothing to predict. So, it’s about starting slow and pragmatically outlining a plan that the customer can easily adopt. Some people are a little bit more forward-thinking and recognise that adopting machine learning and predictive analytics can help them to be ahead of the curve. For others, it’s just a step too far right now so it鈥檚 more about taking them on that transformation journey. For us, innovation is about looking at that stuff, but in an orderly fashion and always within the context of getting them from where they are today to be able to support future growth. And that’s the key.

We are innovating ourselves too. At Clarivos we create our IP (Intellectual Property) to serve our customers better. For example, we鈥檝e created because 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP solves all the operational stuff but senior executives also need budgeting, planning, and consolidation to drive the business. Essentially, we鈥檝e built consolidation IP on top of 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud. It’s been validated by 麻豆原创 as an 麻豆原创-Qualified Partner-Packaged Solution and pushed out globally to the 麻豆原创 partner network.

麻豆原创 UKI: Is there a recent project you鈥檙e particularly proud of?

It鈥檚 so hard to choose! But stands out for me. It鈥檚 a great example of a small business with big ambitions that is embracing Cloud ERP. They make bespoke, detailed models of cars, from Formula 1 and classic through to modern cars. They’ve got their eye on huge growth. Huge is relative, right. They were a ten million turnover business and they want to hit twenty.

Fundamentally, they knew their underlying systems can鈥檛 support that growth. They were blinded by lack of information, lack of foresight, slow processes, all that kind of stuff. The senior finance people couldn鈥檛 add much value as they were just number crunching. They couldn鈥檛 look forward much as they were spending hours and hours just dealing with getting numbers.

Amalgam Collection chose the Cloud ERP system, , for its ability to scale alongside the business and to give them better control of the visibility of all operations. They鈥檙e saving loads of time and effort, have tripled efficiency in the VAT process, and made their traceability and returns processes far smoother.

So for me, this is a perfect example of the first step on that innovation journey that they鈥檙e now on. For a small business, they’re uber-complicated, because they鈥檙e building customized products with lots of parts and sending them across the globe. There are opportunities there to perhaps look at things like IOT so on and so forth because they are a hardcore manufacturing organization. But again, one step at a time.

We did everything, from the evaluation stage right through to implementation, all remotely last year. 听Think about it for a second; global sites, complex business, during all the Covid complications. I think that’s a testament to the way we’ve engaged with the customer but ultimately it’s a testament to the technology.

麻豆原创 Business ByDesign is a very feature-rich system. There are eight modules from CRM to SCM to this, to that鈥o, of course, we didn鈥檛 implement the entire thing in Phase One. It’s again about putting the roadmap in place. So their vision is they want to actually embrace all elements and fully utilize all aspects of what’s in the box. But in a phased and pragmatic manner, at a pace that suits them.

麻豆原创 UKI: What’s your vision for the next few years?

Firstly, we want to continue to be that platform for nurturing the next generation of talent which is something I’m proud of and is important for me. 听Secondly, to continue to be that trusted advisor for our customers, helping them to understand the importance of digital transformation.

I’m purposefully not saying we want to hit triple-digit growth and all the rest of it. I believe if we continue to do those two main things then growth will just be a natural by-product of those other elements.

麻豆原创 UKI: What cloud ERP trends are you seeing in the midmarket?

We used to have people coming to us saying, 鈥渕y budgeting is broken鈥�, or, 鈥淚’ve got issues in our supply chain so I just want a fix for them鈥�. They wanted a bit of tech to do something specific and once that bit was done, they would come back and say, 鈥渨ell, this other bit’s also broken can you fix that next?鈥�.

What we’re finding now is the conversation has shifted from looking for point solutions to discussing digital transformation. SME customers may not use that exact word, 鈥榯ransformation鈥�, which can sound like a five-year roadmap and five million pounds. But they’re now saying, 鈥淲e recognize the outside world is changing. We recognize we’ve got to solve 16 different things that aren鈥檛 working鈥�.

Time-to-value is another big trend. Everybody I speak to is just running at a pace. SME businesses don鈥檛 have the resources and just need somebody to come in as a safe pair of hands and make it happen now. We鈥檝e developed several to deliver this fast time-to-value for our customers. What we demonstrate is what they get. The packages are fixed scope, pricing, and timelines and designed to ensure predictable outcomes and minimise risk.

And finally, it鈥檚 not exactly a trend. More of a tendency that I鈥檝e noticed. For many of the businesses we speak to within the SME market, there鈥檚 a widely held belief that 麻豆原创鈥檚 solutions are tailored for larger enterprises. This couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth. Around 80% of 麻豆原创 customers are SME businesses. The majority of solutions we offer our customers, including 麻豆原创 Business ByDesign, , and , are highly suited to growing mid-market organizations across all sectors. Digital transformation is no longer a pipe dream for SMEs. Together with 麻豆原创, we鈥檙e making digital transformation a realistic goal for businesses of all sizes.

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Sapphire was the first UK 麻豆原创 partner to sign a customer, , to the innovative business-transformation-as-a-service. Sapphire also won the 麻豆原创 Intelligent Enterprise Competition 2021 for EMEA & MEE for its . The platform uses blockchain, natural language processing and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to quickly match up construction companies with the equipment they need.

We caught up with Chris to discuss Cloud ERP in the mid-market and to discover the values and vision of Sapphire Systems.

麻豆原创 UKI: Tell us a little about yourself, Chris.

Chris Gabriel: I live in Newbury with my wife, who is a Five Elements Chinese medicine acupuncturist and herbalist, and my two daughters aged 18 and 14. We also have a cocker spaniel, Fearnley, who we named after Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall because cooking is one of my passions.

麻豆原创 UKI: Could you give a brief overview of your career before joining Sapphire?

Chris Gabriel: I studied at one of the first ever ITEC colleges in the UK. Margaret Thatcher was visiting our college and I was chosen to present to her. I had 24 hours’ notice and she was sat about three feet away from me. After that, nothing ever fazed me again.

I became an apprentice at a local technology firm which sold some of the first mid-sized computers to hospitals and pharmacies. Since then, I have worked for vendors, channel partners and SIs in the UK, US and in Moscow.

麻豆原创 UKI: Why did you join Sapphire Systems?

Chris Gabriel: I got a call from the Chairman of Sapphire, Trevor Rollswho I used to work with. I went in to meet the team at Sapphire who were both incredibly nice people, extremely capable but also genuinely passionate about what the company was doing for its customers. I found it inspiring that Sapphire鈥檚 focus is on what the world will be in the next ten years and how to prepare their customers for that future.

The impact you can make in a mid-market business with Cloud ERP and some of this new, intelligent technology is phenomenal. For example, you can have a major impact with if you’ve only got two people in your Accounts Payable team and you鈥檙e then able to give one of them extra time to focus on the business. Sapphire has over a thousand customers, so we can make a really big difference to so many companies.

麻豆原创 UKI: What are Sapphire Systems鈥� core values?

Chris Gabriel: 听Innovation has always been important to us. We always want to explore innovation that benefits our customers. For example, we鈥檙e doing an intelligent transport project where buses can create their own maintenance schedule to optimize its efficiency and lifetime. That all feeds back into a , such as 麻豆原创 S/4HANA or 麻豆原创 Business ByDesign, which creates real-time budgets and uses blockchain to generate an auditable history.

We’ve got a team now dedicated to developing RPA automation for our customers. We’re one of the first five companies in Europe to have access to the 麻豆原创 Business ByDesign RPA technology. So, we’re currently very focused there and our customers are excited about the positive impact it can bring to their business.

Sustainability is also at the heart of Sapphire. We’ve been carbon neutral for three years now and have won awards for that. We’re looking at sustainability in our customers’ supply chains, and the impact that things like automation will have. We take sustainability incredibly seriously, and we also act on it.

We are working hard to help our customers create 鈥榮ustainability platforms鈥� to connect Cloud ERP with assets via IoT sensors and to link people and resources. These platforms can drive transparency and traceability in areas such as the emerging energy market and manufacturing processes.

麻豆原创 UKI: What is Sapphire Systems鈥� vision for the next few years?

We think it’s going to be a very Cloud-orientated future with an increasing focus on lifecycle services. We want to keep evolving as that lifecycle partner who continually works with our customers over the long term.

Generally, mid-market companies have too much friction in their businesses: in their processes, people, products and services, so we want to help them remove that and create greater digital momentum.听 To do that, we are becoming more inquisitive about our customers鈥� wider business challenges.

We think our industry focuses too much on the 鈥榞o live鈥� date and not enough about what happens next.听 For that, you have to think 鈥楥loud first鈥�.听 A Cloud ERP system can last forever, change continually and adapt as the business using it adapts. But how many partners stay with the customer forever to help them evolve? We want to be that partner.

麻豆原创 UKI: What Cloud ERP trends are you seeing in the mid-market?

We did a customer survey at the start of this year around how our customers have coped through COVID and what their plans were. Whilst everybody wanted to be using more data, and using it better, they also wanted to be more adaptable and efficient. To this end, 90% of our customers said they were looking at considering or currently deploying automation RPA.

What’s interesting is that whereas most mid-market customers used to ask us to replace their ERP with a more intelligent Cloud ERP or hybrid system; a like for like replacement, . more recently, the conversations have changed to, 鈥淗ow can I transform either the function, operations, finance or my entire business?鈥�. But they want to transform in a way that is manageable, via smaller projects that deliver faster ROI.

We’re becoming far more consultative, and then trying to package that up in ways that customers can easily consume it. There’s no point having a big, expansive conversation if you then say, “By the way, it’s really difficult to do and it’s going to take you ages and cost you four times more than you thought.”

We no longer start with asking new customers, “How many ERP users do you want?”. Instead, we鈥檙e looking at how can we help them to transform their people, process and platform and explore how automation and data is going to change their business over the next five years. Also, what鈥檚 changing in their industry and the world at large, and how they can adapt and future-proof.

Are you a small or midsize business based in the UK or Ireland? Find out more about

The post Inspirational Leaders 麻豆原创 UKI Interview: Chris Gabriel At Sapphire Systems Discusses Cloud ERP In The Mid-Market appeared first on 麻豆原创 UK News Center.