The technology space is seeing enormous and rapid growth but every disruptive new startup is joining a ferociously competitive fight for survival working capital is the lifeblood of all industries and lack of it is a key reason the businesses fail joining me is Nick Lawrence from wells fargo capital finance Nick what challenges do technology manufacturers face when it comes to securing working capital well I think some of the biggest challenges faced by technology companies include requirements to grow and what is really a rapidly evolving and very competitive industry requirement to reduce boring course to improve profitability and essentially to look to optimize cash flow through working capital and an extended payment terms now putting a more practical perspective on it a channel partner whether it’s a reseller where the distributor needs the benefit of a credit line in order to provide that credit line the finance provider is taking it a credit risk in the event of non-payment or insolvency therein lies a key challenge so how significant candy benefits of supply chain financing be the biggest benefit is the ability to provide growth capital to enable those technology manufacturers to increase sales now how do we do this we inject working capital into the channel through the provision of extended payment terms for example and credit capacity to help provide those channel partners with a competitive advantage manufacturers may also be motivated by the desire to outsource their credit and collections rest for example or simply to improve cash flow and DSO financial metrics they also may be motivated by the desire to promote efficiencies and cost savings while supply chain financing is fairly specialized in nature importance is growing in cross-border trade as a tool for optimizing working capital and cash flow and ensuring that there’s international supply chains and domestic supply chains remain stable and liquid can all businesses benefit corporate clients clearly have to weigh up you know conflicting priorities within their business for promising to provide no returns on investment very returns on investment program opportunity really needs to be sufficient scale to justify the setup costs for example and we need to ensure that all internal stakeholders are fully aligned and then ultimately you know the bank have various areas where it prepared to take risks but it will look for smart ways and using tools to broaden its risk appetite to really deliver something which you know is compelling for our clients so how does wells fargo approach clients and trading partners what’s the roadmap for a successful program we start with the dialogue we need to identify business need for our products and solutions we endeavor to provide reliable advice and guidance to get the commitment of our client and then to embark and what we hope will be a long and sustainable partnership together in a more practical level in order to maximize program success we need to have a formal implementation plan we need to have a program in place with key strategic objectives we need to measure our performance we need to set goals for growth and geographic expansion for example and we need to adhere two timelines and milestones that we agree together we need to be strategically aligned we need to be adaptable and we need to be flexible in our day-to-day engagement so once it’s rolled out how does it operate tell me about the platform so put simply the platform connects all three parties in the program to enable electronic transfer of data such as invoice files our customers value our proprietary technology platform for two reasons one is flexibility can accept most invoice files adaptable to the most IT platforms and we can integrate with other bank or third-party processing and payment systems and second it’s scalable so we can use one platform to deliver a product that is domestically and internationally the platform drive efficiencies providing a light touch approach which is really important when we are transacting many thousands of different transactions often for multiple customers and currencies in different countries and regions around the world so how’s the proliferation of non-conventional FinTech players going to be disrupting this market it’s too early to tell how the market will develop but for me by introducing competition into the market that has to be a good thing competition encourage us as encourages us to innovate develop new products and maintain our relevancy without clients that interns ensure that we are easy to work with and strive to have a compelling value proposition so you’re compelling value proposition then what are the new developments with all the new value and you’re gonna be bringing yes I obviously can’t divulge anything that’s market confidential but what I can tell you which has been very widely publicized as a really exciting opportunity for us as the recent acquisition of general electric’s commercial distribution financing business GCF but simply there is an inventory financing business that funds the flower product from manufacturers to dealers it drives casually benefits that the product managers risk is there too to help drive sales as well very much a complimentary acquisition and something which i think will provide further opportunity for us to enhance our products look forward to hearing about it Nick thank you very much thank you very much thanks for watching you can find out more about supply chain financing and European CEO dot-com and please subscribe for the latest business finance and strategic insights transforming Europe.