On 17 March 2020, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak addressed the nation, setting out a package of urgent economic measures to support businesses and employees. He recognized Covid-19 as a public health emergency, and also an economic emergency.
“It will be won through a collective national effort”, he said.”
Businesses in a range of industries are working to get SMEs through the emergency. Amongst them stands Sidetrade, which understands how vital cashflow is to the survival of SMEs in an economic crisis.
Lengthening of B2B credit terms, inability to post or receive invoices and reminder letters, unreachable debtors due to containment measures, disorganisation of teams not accustomed to working remotely, loss of control over their arrears… Cash flow is under high pressure, especially for SMEs.
Given the threat to the economy, tech companies like Sidetrade are joining a vast movement of citizen solidarity to support SMEs. Sidetrade is making a special free offer, called “CashControl“, to help SMEs control and secure their cash. CashControl is powered by Sidetrade’s exclusive artificial intelligence technology, used by leading corporations.
“For small businesses to survive, especially in an economic downturn, they must get paid. The Public authorities are right to hold payers, especially large companies, accountable. With the outbreak of the pandemic, SMEs’ first priority was business continuity; the next priority is collecting accounts receivable. The following weeks will see whether or not cash, their lifeblood, comes in. Sidetrade will be there for them. We consider it our duty to stand by them in these unprecedented circumstances by providing AI technology that will make a real difference.”
− Olivier Novasque, founder and CEO of Sidetrade
Sidetrade has taken its Artificial Intelligence technology designed for large businesses, and rescaled it for SMEs. Sidetrade’s CashControl solution is available free of charge, until 30 June 2020, to any company with a turnover of between £8M and £400M. Driven by powerful machine learning algorithms, CashControl has unique features, such as unlimited digital dunning letters, and automatic installment payment scheduling for difficult cases.
CashControl meets the need of SMEs to improve the order-to-cash process through digitisation. The solution is based on Sidetrade’s AI tech named Aimie. Aimie can carry out payment recovery actions without human intervention and constantly adapts strategies according to the changing behaviour of each payer.
With the free CashControl solution, Sidetrade is hoping to arm SMEs for the battle ahead.
As a precautionary measure to protect Sidetrade personnel, by 13 March 2020, 100% of Sidetrade employees were working remotely and fully operational in every country where the company operates. In fact, Sidetrade had made the decision years ago to put its information system in the cloud, with business applications remotely available to all staff.
Initiated 24 months ago to obtain ISO 270001 certification for information security in all operations, Sidetrade’s business continuity plan has been reinforced and regularly updated. For this purpose, the company has been able to rely on a comprehensive set of digital technologies and processes set up to protect employees’ health, and guarantee the continuity of business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an unprecedented period of uncertainty, Sidetrade has already finalized several budget scenarios in order to test its financial solidness, faced with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the severity and scale of the crisis to date, Sidetrade is making extremely conservative hypotheses to construct a “crash test” scenario and adjust investments accordingly. Here are Sidetrade’s current business assumptions:
Beyond this scenario, as a software vendor of 100% SaaS solutions, Sidetrade can count, more than ever, on the robustness of their subscription model to weather the crisis:
For these reasons, Sidetrade management has every confidence in the firm’s capacity to grow revenue in 2020, despite even a worst-case scenario.
In terms of expenses, Sidetrade is significantly scaling down investments originally planned for the present fiscal year:
These measures, already in force, are generating savings of well over €3m against expenses initially budgeted for 2020.
The measures may be extended as needed.
Therefore, even in the bleakest of cases, Sidetrade management fully expects to see FY2020 end with positive Operating Profit.
In terms of cashflow, Sidetrade has an extremely resilient financial structure.
As of 23 March 2020, gross treasury stood at €5.3m, with the equivalent of €5.9m in own shares. Moreover, Sidetrade’s financial debt level is virtually nonexistent, and, if the company ever needed to borrow, they would be eligible for government-backed access to bank loans.
Olivier Novasque, founder and CEO of Sidetrade had this to say:
“Today, like all companies, we are fighting a war on two simultaneous fronts. First and foremost, comes the health and safety front. Thanks to a 100% cloud organization, we have been able to move fast to keep our employees safe, while ensuring the continuity of our operations.”
“The second front is, needless to say, economic. For this, we have constructed different scenarios.
For now, we are taking a worst-case scenario approach and adjusting our investments accordingly. In the course of the last twenty years, we have continually built up the company on solid foundations. Despite the fallout and uncertainty of this unprecedented crisis, the solidness of our SaaS model should allow us to achieve a year of growth and profitability. This would indeed be a resounding victory for Sidetrade.”
We are actively preparing to bounce back, since cash and bad debt are going to be critical issues for companies in the weeks and months ahead.”
PARIS, France | Sidetrade (Euronext Growth: ALBFR.PA), the Artificial Intelligence platform dedicated to accelerating company revenue and cashflow, projects growth and profitability in FY2020, despite the current crisis.
As a precautionary measure to protect Sidetrade personnel, by 13 March 2020, 100% of Sidetrade employees were working remotely and fully operational in every country where the company operates. In fact, Sidetrade had made the decision years ago to put its information system in the cloud, with business applications remotely available to all staff.
Initiated 24 months ago to obtain ISO 270001 certification for information security in all operations, Sidetrade’s business continuity plan has been reinforced and regularly updated. For this purpose, the company has been able to rely on a comprehensive set of digital technologies and processes set up to protect employees’ health, and guarantee the continuity of business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an unprecedented period of uncertainty, Sidetrade has already finalized several budget scenarios in order to test its financial solidness, faced with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the severity and scale of the crisis to date, Sidetrade is making extremely conservative hypotheses to construct a “crash test” scenario and adjust investments accordingly. Here are Sidetrade’s current business assumptions:
Beyond this scenario, as a software vendor of 100% SaaS solutions, Sidetrade can count, more than ever, on the robustness of their subscription model to weather the crisis:
For these reasons, Sidetrade management has every confidence in the firm’s capacity to grow revenue in 2020, despite even a worst-case scenario.
In terms of expenses, Sidetrade is significantly scaling down investments originally planned for the present fiscal year:
These measures, already in force, are generating savings of well over €3m against expenses initially budgeted for 2020.
The measures may be extended as needed.
Therefore, even in the bleakest of cases, Sidetrade management fully expects to see FY2020 end with positive Operating Profit.
In terms of cashflow, Sidetrade has an extremely resilient financial structure.
As of 23 March 2020, gross treasury stood at €5.3m, with the equivalent of €5.9m in own shares. Moreover, Sidetrade’s financial debt level is virtually nonexistent, and, if the company ever needed to borrow, they would be eligible for government-backed access to bank loans.
Olivier Novasque, founder and CEO of Sidetrade had this to say:
“Today, like all companies, we are fighting a war on two simultaneous fronts. First and foremost, comes the health and safety front. Thanks to a 100% cloud organization, we have been able to move fast to keep our employees safe, while ensuring the continuity of our operations.”
“The second front is, needless to say, economic. For this, we have constructed different scenarios.
For now, we are taking a worst-case scenario approach and adjusting our investments accordingly. In the course of the last twenty years, we have continually built up the company on solid foundations. Despite the fallout and uncertainty of this unprecedented crisis, the solidness of our SaaS model should allow us to achieve a year of growth and profitability. This would indeed be a resounding victory for Sidetrade.”
We are actively preparing to bounce back, since cash and bad debt are going to be critical issues for companies in the weeks and months ahead.”
Viseo is an independent service provider that advises companies globally on their digital transformation, including the USA.
Whereas some consulting firms are still struggling with their digital transformation, Viseo is well ahead of the game. In 2017, Viseo put their working principles into practice, combining specialized expertise and technology to boost agility, making digital technology a real lever for competitiveness and performance: they chose Sidetrade to outsource accounts receivable. Let us recall that, by its very nature, a service company consumes a lot of cash flow. Although billing starts accruing in the first month of the service, payments will not actually come in until at least sixty days later. Given this lag, collecting payment on time is crucial in the consulting business.
At international scale, managing accounts receivable involves multiple processes requiring a wide range of skills and systems that must be carefully coordinated.
Benoît Duchêne, VP Finance & Legal at Viseo had this to say:
“As a fast-growing business with over 2,000 consulting staff, we needed to get results fast, without complicating the structure of our finance department. Entrusting Sidetrade with our accounts receivable gives us immediate access to the most advanced credit management technology on the market. We benefit from the unique know-how of the Sidetrade teams who make the most of their technology for our benefit, which gives us greater flexibility”.
By using the most advanced customer financial relationship technology, Viseo has seen a great increase in competitiveness. Trained on an amazing 313 million B2B payment experiences, Aimie – Sidetrade’s artificial intelligence system – analyzes each Viseo client, and recommends the best payment follow-up strategy for each one, in real time.
Beyond systematically enhancing Viseo’s credit management, Aimie also allowed them to improve performance, reduce payment disputes, and resolve misunderstandings more quickly. ”
“With Sidetrade, we came to realize that 70% of our billing disputes leading to late payment came, in fact, from conformity issues (e.g. erroneous addresses or rates) stemming most often from miscommunication between finance and sales. Now, the sales team can view payment behavior via the Sidetrade mobile app, and work directly with their clients, for example when an order is frozen. This is a productive way to inform and empower people in the field on cashflow issues, which in the past were handled solely by the Finance department.” said Benoît Duchêne.
For Viseo, the success of their partnership with Sidetrade can be seen in a 10-day drop in late payments, amounting to $5.3 million in additional cash flow. The past due rate is now stable at 23% and is expected to improve even more in the 2020 financial year, thanks to Aimie’s machine learning algorithms.
Working with Sidetrade, Viseo’s customer financial relationship operations are now optimal. This is a valued partnership, with a real return on investment, with undeniable impact on sales and finance.
Yesterday evening, AI firm Sidetrade hosted “Together for Tech”, an event to celebrate the expansion of its UK footprint with the official opening of the Sidetrade Tech Hub in Birmingham– the ‘Silicon Canal’ of the UK and Europe (“canal” refers to the 35 miles of canals across the region).
During the inauguration, Sidetrade announced major investments in AI, expected to total £30 million by 2025. This is to include software innovation, training initiatives, expert services, and the creation of 70 jobs within the company.
“The Tech Hub moves Sidetrade further ahead in our journey for the most innovative AI-powered solutions for business. This investment represents a leap ahead for Sidetrade, the UK tech community and internationally. The Hub will equip Sidetrade to compete globally in B2B AI technology”, said Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade.
The news coincides with the UK Government announcement to place greater focus on regions outside of London, and a pledge of greater investment.
In 2012, Sidetrade chose London as a springboard for international growth. It was a decision which clearly payed off, given Sidetrade’s resounding success with an impressive array of UK-based client companies, including Samworth Brothers, Fremantle Media, Inmarsat, Hearst Magazines and Atkins.
The £30 million AI investment plan will focus on R&D, innovation and tech skills. The plan builds on Sidetrade’s solid expertise in areas such as machine learning, natural language processing and automated business processes.
“The UK is a global leader in Artificial Intelligence. It is home to start-ups and scale-ups developing innovative AI applications across many sectors from healthcare to finance. The UK is also leading the way in working to find solutions to the challenges of bias and transparency in algorithmic decision-making, as well as how we can use emerging technology to provide positive outcomes for our society and economy, and tackle major issues such as climate change” said Julian David, techUK CEO, who attended the Tech Hub opening. “We are pleased to see Sidetrade will be joining us on this path. Its investment is a sure sign that the UK, and Birmingham in particular, is an attractive place for AI businesses who are ambitious to scale and make a difference to innovation, business, and jobs.”
Sidetrade is set to hire another 70 new talents in the coming years. The majority of the job openings will be focused on AI technology and product development. This plan will bring Sidetrade’s total Tech headcount to more than 150, providing a major boost to its R&D capacities, and future AI features.
The Tech Hub overlooking Cathedral Square in Birmingham is the company’s sixth office, and will be led by Sidetrade CTO Mark Sheldon, who is from the city.
“Our investment and job creation send a strong message that Sidetrade is set for rapid growth with a very capable and innovative team of data scientists, developers, and engineers at the heart of what we do. We want to keep Sidetrade at the forefront of the Tech industry and continue to grow in the UK as a global leader in AI” said Mark Sheldon.
Birmingham has the qualities Sidetrade requires for its development strategy: a highly skilled, multicultural talent pool, and a highly stimulating environment for technical creativity. The hub will be a leading example of how data scientists, developers, and engineers can collaborate on product development, research, education, and community engagement – making regional, national, and international impact.
The judging panel of senior finance professionals singled out the fruitful relationship between the scale-up company and the world leader, particularly Sidetrade’s standout innovation, and its ability to deliver finance transformation that adds greater value to the business.
Sidetrade was recognised for enabling Inmarsat to achieve significant business success on the order-to-cash process and collecting cash faster in the past twelve months through its AI technology.
Using machine learning and natural language processing, Sidetrade helps businesses accelerate cash generation and improve working capital. The future of finance is around automation and standardisation, which is welcomed by finance teams. It means that finance team members are focused on having conversations with suppliers and customers, which is much more valuable and most likely more interesting for the individuals as well.
David Turner, chief marketing officer at Sidetrade, said:
“We are grateful to the CFO Summit for this recognition, and I would like to personally thank Inmarsat Director Global Credit Management Andrea Baker for the great working partnership we have. Shared service centres are prime examples of how enterprises can combine the right technology with their data and processes to make a big impact on the business. Today’s award celebrates this achievement by Inmarsat, the leader in its field, and I hope will encourage more and more global enterprises to look at AI and give Sidetrade a call.”
Alongside Inmarsat, Sidetrade brings AI to a range of additional top-tier customers including: Euro Car Parts, GFK Europe, Univar, Frank Recruitment Group, Customade Group, Rexel, Chubb, Bunzl, Atkins, Hearst Magazines, Inchcape, VF Northern Europe, Samworth Brothers, KPMG, and more.
This is the second consecutive year that Sidetrade has earned a coveted spot in the Top 500. This list highlights independent French businesses who achieved the most solid growth over the last three years (2015-2018).
“We are indeed proud to once again rank among the Top 500 Growth Champions in France. I wish to thank and congratulate our teams for this renewed achievement. Our Artificial Intelligence technology is used every day, by an increasing number of large companies, to significantly grow revenue and accelerate cashflow. Being at the epicenter of this revolution is a great opportunity for Sidetrade, and is highly motivating for all of our staff”, said Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade.
In January, Sidetrade announced double-digit growth for the fifth consecutive fiscal year, and a historic 88% increase in backlog. Sidetrade’s AI is now used in 80 countries by 2,700 businesses in every industry.
Financial services consulting firm TriFinance Netherlands has signed a partnership with AI firm Sidetrade. This partnership, which brings together the expertise of TriFinance and Sidetrade’s leading AI Aimie solution, will help companies in the Netherlands better manage the complex order-to-cash process and increasingly challenging customer payment behavior, enabling organisations to focus on productivity and customer satisfaction.
Leon Harinck, business unit financial management services leader at TriFinance Netherlands, said:
While searching for the best credit management software, we identified Sidetrade as the market leader with Aimie, its AI, adjusting credit management workflows in real time depending on the of the size of the team, automating tasks and recommending the best action at the best time. There was also a great cultural fit with strong skill sets and resources, so the collaboration is very pleasant and dynamic.
AI technology transforms businesses, with the rise of automation and predictive analytics on customer behavior. To successfully address escalating sources of customer data and increasing IT system complexity, financial teams need to swiftly evolve their Accounts Receivable management and technologies.
Sunil Pandit, partner and alliance lead at Sidetrade, said:
We are excited to be working with TriFinance Netherlands to offer to their customers ground-breaking credit management technology to make order-to-cash as seamless and effective as possible. The new partnership will enable Dutch companies to accelerate cashflow generation, and to achieve their overall business objectives by predicting customer payment behavior and increasing their productivity.
Located across 6 offices in Europe, Sidetrade has 20 years’ experience in the world of order-to-cash, and uses machine learning, natural language processing, automation, and an unrivalled data lake of 313 million B2B financial transactions worth 950 billion Euros, to deliver measurable results for its clients.
| SIDETRADE (MILLION EUROS) |
2019 | 2018 | VARIATION (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 REVENUE | 6.0 | 5.3 | + 14% |
| Q2 REVENUE | 6.6 | 5.6 | + 16% |
| Q3 REVENUE | 6.4 | 5.5 | + 17% |
| Q4 REVENUE | 6.7 | 5.7 | + 18% |
| LIKE-FOR-LIKE ANNUAL REVENUE | 25.7 | 22.1 | + 17% |
| B2C SERVICES | – | 2.0 | – |
| ANNUAL REVENUE | 25.7 | 24.1 | + 7% |
2019 was Sidetrade’s fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Sidetrade’s annual revenue totaled €25.7m, representing remarkable organic growth of 17%, vs. 2018, like for like. Let us recall that Sidetrade revenue no longer includes B2C Services, since this business line was phased out, as announced in 2018.
This phenomenal sales growth was buoyed by the core Financials AI business, which reached €21.3m in 2019, up 17%. This acceleration reflects the attractiveness of the latest release of the Financials AI platform. Sales & Marketing AI activity is also growing steadily, up 17% in 2019.
In 2019, the booked Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from new customers shot up 88%, hitting a record level of €4.8m in new annual subscriptions, vs. €2.6m in 2018. This gives good visibility of Sidetrade’s revenue growth in 2020 and beyond. In fact, mean initial contract period for these new customers is 41.1 months.
Key account ARR performance was even more spectacular, reaching a record of €4.2m in annual subscriptions, vs. €2m in 2018, up 113%. This record stemmed largely from the core Financials AI business, with a whopping 295% rise to €3.8m in new ARR, vs. €1m in 2018. Many prestigious new customers signed up with Sidetrade in 2019, boosting strength in its main sales territories:
Three factors explain this outstanding growth: 1) The capacity of Aimie, Sidetrade’s AI platform, to augment dramatically operational performance; 2) Market dynamics demanding new ways of boosting productivity; and 3) Sidetrade’s high sales efficiency.
Today, more and more businesses are turning to Artificial Intelligence, because of its capacity to handle huge amounts of customer data so effectively, resulting in lower processing costs and better customer relations. For Finance, cutting-edge machine learning can process massive volumes of invoices, and customize the order-to-cash process based on AI analysis of customer payment behavior.
Since 2017, Aimie has been learning from Sidetrade’s exclusive cloud containing over 300 million payment experiences (transactions worth €953bn), and continuously improving. Aimie’s cash collection recommendations have proven 53% more effective than human decisions alone. In addition, Aimie has cut wasted actions (those not resulting in payment) by 51%, freeing up operational staff for value-added tasks.
Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, explains that robotic process automation spread in 2019, as companies sought to improve operational efficiency and integrate digital systems in new processes (source: 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation Software). Artificial Intelligence perfectly meets these needs, especially in shared service centers, which are a real mega-trend in large enterprises.
2019 was a great year for sales, especially in France, the UK and the US, proving the value of the investments made to increase the sales capacity.
The global software market for Sidetrade’s Financials AI is expected to exceed $3bn, according to a survey by Research and Markets. As Finance increasingly moves towards digitalization, Sidetrade is well-positioned to conquer this new market, thanks to a technological lead and a highly effective sales force.
Sidetrade is confident in their ability to sustain double-digit growth in 2020.
Solocal, the French leader in digital advertising and marketing, is mature in terms of managing account receivables. Today, they are undertaking new strategic challenges in Finance. Their mission is twofold: digitalize, optimize and fluidify financial relations with 399,000 clients; and bolster cooperation between Finance and other departments in the company to improve management of claims and disputes.
With Sidetrade, we get proven, robust AI technology, which boosts our productivity and enhances the client experience.” , says Olivier Regnard, Chief Finance Officer of Solocal. “The partnership with Sidetrade should enable us to improve our recovery, reduce the amount of arrears, and digitalize the customer journey up to payment.”
We are proud to support Solocal’s new management team with this ambitious transformation program. Through this partnership, we are contributing to bringing teams together on a project of growth”, said Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade.
Sidetrade’s AI Financials solution provides a shared 360° view of the customer, ensuring smooth collaboration amongst the different teams involved in the order-to-cash process. Aimie, Sidetrade’s Artificial Intelligence platform, analyzes over 313 million payment experiences stored in its cloud, and automatically recommends the best strategies for managing late payers. Each day, Aimie automatically prioritizes practical account follow-up actions for teams, specifying the best time and the best channel to contact the customer.
On average, Aimie’s recommendations are 53% more effective at getting payment within five days, vs. conventional choices made by humans. Additionally, Aimie cuts useless tasks which waste the collection team’s time, by up to 51%. This huge gain in productivity enables the team to focus on added value through greater contact time with customers.
