Author: Soda
Producer: Bright Company
"Inertial thinking, disconnection between business and finance, and loss of budget control are the three black holes that currently devour the net profit of enterprises. Profits not only come from scientific and careful planning and design, but also from supervision and control at all times. If the enterprise has a budget and does not control the expenditure, the money will be spent like flowing water, and the profit will be empty. ”
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, the overall domestic GDP/profit growth of enterprises above the designated size will decrease to 1.1%, and the net profit will decrease by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year. From January to July this year, the revenue growth of enterprises above the designated size in Shanghai fell to -1.1%, compared with 7.7% in the same period last year.
"In recent years, companies have paid more and more attention to net profit, especially net profit supported by cash flow." Ma Chunquan, founder and CEO of Hecc, said frankly at the 2024 Future Finance Conference held recently that this is also the business development point that Heccus pays special attention to and attaches importance to as a revenue and expenditure management platform.
In September this year, Hezi launched the 2024 Future Finance Conference with the theme of "digging out the net profit of enterprises", and Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai jointly explored a better path for corporate profit mining. On September 20, the Shanghai station of the conference was officially launched. More than 100 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and mainstream media attended the conference to explain in detail how enterprises can dig out more net profits through digital tools through the "2024 China Corporate Travel Management and Control Analysis Report" and the white paper "Financial Digital Intelligence Trend Insight in Chain Retail Industry" released on the same day.
As a powerful incision for enterprises to achieve scientific expense control, travel control has significant in-depth value. Fu Xiang, a senior pre-sales expert of Hesi Mall, revealed that based on the "consumption-accounting-archiving" solution that does not require reimbursement, enterprises can reduce travel costs by 10-20%, reduce financial bookkeeping time by 95%, save 90% of the reimbursement time of all employees, and achieve 100% compliance.
"Looking forward to the future, Hecce will continue to explore the practical application of AI in travel management, and 'travel management + AI' will play a greater role in intelligent approval, automatic booking, intelligent standard difference, automatic budget calculation, etc., making corporate travel management more scientific and intelligent." Fu Xiang said.
Wang Yuan, CFO of Younuo Dairy, believes in the theme sharing of "Digital Intelligence Era, Value Creation of Future Financial People" that in order to reflect the value of finance, it is necessary to spend money, count money, make money, and find money, "In the past, 90% of financial things were just counting money, but now we need to dig more to reduce costs and increase efficiency, so as to bring about the improvement of net profit." This requires finance to change from result recording, post-event management, and business support to result-driven, ex-ante control, analysis and prediction in advance, and providing valuable empowerment for the business."
At the scene, "Bright Company" and Ma Chunquan had an in-depth discussion on issues such as AI display, overseas observation, and the nature of cost control, hoping to provide some solutions for enterprises in the period of "profit first" from the perspective of first-line service providers.
The following is the conversation between Bright Company and Ma Chunquan (abridged)
Q: Bright Company
A：马春荃 合思创始人兼CEO
Ma Chunquan (source: provided by the interviewee)
"Radical and conservative" about AI
Q: What are the quantitative data on the efficiency improvement of the enterprise after using the management tools of Heccce?
A: We have made calculations, the initial point of control is different, but with manual calculation of management costs, about 1 to 1.5 financial labor can be reduced for every 100 people, and 2 can be reduced in some places. On the business side, one of our customers saved 1.5 million yuan in travel expenses after two months of use, which is a visible cost reduction and efficiency increase.
Q: Has the addition of AI further increased the quality and quantity of efficiency improvement?
A: Yes, but we don't have quantitative statistics yet.
We are not replacing human labor with AI, but using AI to help him solve impossible tasks, such as instant approval for business banquets and overtime at night. In the past, the model was to pay in advance, but now every action can be accompanied by corporate control, such as applying for a taxi with a reason and obtaining rapid approval, which was not possible before.
Q: A lot of times we think that AI is the icing on the cake, but in fact it is more like a role that "complements" humans, filling in the things that humans can't do before.
A: Yes, for example, we are using AI to do some pilot work, and the coverage rate of security and compliance audits of a Fortune 500 company was 20%, and the cost of repetitive work is very high. However, the use of AI can be infinitely looped, and the biggest cost is the cost of electricity.
Q: What are the current applications of AI?
A: Intelligence is widely integrated in the entire control process. In the past, there were many "black holes" in fee control, such as temporary reimbursement applications could not be approved in time, and special car reimbursement was rejected.
Now, AI has penetrated into many links, such as submitting a reimbursement application, and it will quickly give a reply, whether it is compliant, whether it exceeds the standard, etc. Once the review is passed, the subsequent automatic verification can be carried out, which significantly improves the reimbursement efficiency. In the process of "intelligent control", we found that AI can replace manual labor to solve many time-sensitive problems and impossible tasks brought about by timeliness.
In addition, AI can also provide integrated solutions, such as I am going to Shanghai to attend an event, and feed the purpose, timing, and geographical location of the trip to AI, which can help with hotel selection while meeting compliance needs.
Q: What are the actual roles of AI in the overseas business?
A:: Each of our interactive nodes can use the capabilities of AI, for example, the recognition of overseas receipts has been used when filling in the report.
The recognition of overseas receipts is very complex and varies from language to language. However, AI's translation is second-level, and does not need a fixed format, it can understand which dishes are and which are amounts, which is a very useful point of AI.
Q: After adding the AI function, does the sales level increase the willingness of customers to pay?
A: Yes, but it is still in the grayscale testing stage. We hope to work with our old customers to polish the feasibility and reliability of AI better, and jointly reduce the risk of large model hallucinations to an acceptable threshold.
Q: What is your attitude and pace towards AI?
A: We are both radical and conservative.
The radical manifestation is that we made an intelligent joint laboratory with the Institute of Information Technology of Peking University more than three years ago, when ChatGPT3.5 had not yet been released, and the conservative performance is that our practical penetration of AI in finance is not based on coverage, but on real utility. For example, in intelligent approval, our AI tools have been working with many customers, but this is still a long way from the real intelligence of the whole field and the whole process.
Now AI is definitely a general direction, just like the explosion of electricity is epoch-making, but now they are all doing infrastructure construction, doing some single-point pain point satisfaction, and not yet fully popularized. In the long run, this kind of research investment should be long-term, sustained, and not interrupted.
Overseas business focuses on "accompaniment"
Q: According to your observation and statistics, what is the trend of enterprises going overseas this year?
A: In terms of customers, 37% of our customers have clearly stated that they have started overseas business, including overseas business expansion, overseas factory construction and overseas recruitment. Mainly concentrated in manufacturing, TMT, medical care, and FMCG, the overseas business accounted for 32%, 27%, 23%, and 21% of the overall business, respectively.
In terms of destinations, Asia-Pacific is a popular region for business travel. In 2024, Asia will continue to be an important region for international travel, especially Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, which will become the preferred destination for many Chinese companies to go overseas due to their convenient visa and geographical location.
According to the data, the number of non-financial overseas enterprises directly invested by China in 2023 will reach 56,295, a sharp increase of 9,455 from 2022, the largest increase in history. 2023 is therefore known as the "first year of going to sea".
Q: What is your corresponding revenue growth?
A: In terms of the number of orders, in the GMV data of corporate travel, which is growing slowly, the consumption of international air tickets and hotels has increased significantly, and the proportion of GMV has increased from 7.46% in the first half of 2023 to 14.65% in the first half of 2024, almost doubling.
Q: What are the characteristics of overseas travel business?
A: According to our survey data, during the period of 2023-2024, enterprises will rank in the top three factors in the process of overseas travel, including overseas safety and security, service guarantee ability and price advantage for employees.
Traveling abroad is a challenging task for employees, requiring them to adapt to a new work environment in a short period of time, not only with the hard work of traveling, but also with the challenges of adapting to the local culture and language, as well as a quick understanding of local business practices. Therefore, it is particularly important to arrange a reasonable travel itinerary.
For companies, it is important to ensure employee safety and enhance the travel experience while managing travel costs and dealing with the financial pressures of currency exchange rate fluctuations. From airline bookings to hotel accommodations to day-to-day business activities, every expense needs to be carefully planned and controlled. Compared with domestic travel, the instability of international travel exchange rates has brought additional pressure to the financial management of enterprises, which requires enterprises to have flexible financial strategies and risk management capabilities.
Q: What services does Heccus currently offer?
A: Through the integration of global high-quality service provider channels, we have covered nearly 2 million global hotel resources, more than 1,000 airline resources, and overseas taxi resources in more than 800 cities in more than 70 countries around the world, ensuring that employees can quickly obtain cost-effective travel options when they travel overseas.
For example, in terms of air tickets, the company provides corporate customers with low prices for international air tickets through the world's four major GDS providers (Abacus, Amadeus, Sabre, Travelsky) and airline direct connection products, and supports multi-dimensional control such as space and advance booking. In terms of hotels, it supports enterprises to provide online hosting services with their own agreements through the management and control of different standards, star ratings, off-peak seasons and other dimensions; In terms of car use, it integrates well-known ride-hailing platforms around the world such as Grab, Lyft, Gett, Bolt, Cabify, LeCab, Taxiplon, and JapanTaxi, covering 73 popular countries such as United States, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand, and supports budget control, taxi-hailing cities, geo-fencing restrictions, etc., to effectively help enterprises avoid the risk of overseas car use.
In addition, Hesi Mall also provides "online + offline" multi-channel booking services, and is equipped with 7*24 hours of Chinese and English customer service support to ensure timely response to the travel needs of corporate employees.
Q: Will the cost of modification be higher for products going overseas?
A: The main thing is the cognitive cost, we need to understand some local rules first. For example, which countries have tips, whether they can be refunded, etc. After crossing the threshold of cognition in the early stage, it is not technically difficult. The core is to refresh local policies in a timely manner.
Q: Will overseas local enterprises adopt China's cost control SaaS?
A: Yes, but very few. Our own positioning is to accompany Chinese enterprises to go overseas, and at this stage, we are not focusing on serving local enterprises. Because you can't cast a wide net to serve local businesses. And if it is a companion type to go to sea, our ability is universal.
Q: With the increase in business complexity, how do you integrate overseas service providers?
A: Going overseas not only requires our own supply chain integration, but also reliable partners. At present, our main partner is Huawei's Smartcom Business Travel. Huawei has operations and branches in 24 time zones around the world, and its business travel company is very professional in overseas travel, which can help us make up for many overseas shortcomings, and we are the only company in the industry that has a strategic cooperation with it.
The end point of cost control is to "reconstruct the industrial chain"
Q: In view of the disconnection between business and finance, Hecces proposes a solution of "integration of industry and finance". What do you observe as having a higher acceptance of this model?
A: I think various industries are paying more and more attention to the "integration of industry and finance", but the highest acceptance is industrial enterprises, because most of their entire production lines are automated, so it is natural to "integrate industry and finance".
The most difficult thing is the service industry and the modern service industry, because the people-oriented industry, the management means are not so rigid. Just like a mobile phone will never tell you "I don't accept", but people will say "I don't accept" to management when they encounter some situations.
Q: What are the proven and effective ways to help enterprises manage their costs in a refined manner?
A: For example, heli saves and buys expensive compensation.
Heli Province can well avoid the tendency of "top consumption" in the process of employee travel, for example, the hotel standard is 500 yuan / night, you must spend 500 yuan full. However, if the employee takes the initiative to stay in a hotel with 300 yuan/night, the company will give a certain percentage of the reward of 200 yuan saved, which can be used for private consumption on the Hesi platform. This method greatly reduces the resistance of enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and realizes the "win-win" of employee interests and enterprise interests.
In the "Buy Expensive Compensation" products, we put Ctrip, Meituan, Tongcheng, Didi, etc. on the platform, and while ensuring transparent and low prices internally, if the price is higher than that of other external platforms, users can get compensation for the price difference. Allowing customers to monitor suppliers will make the supply chain stronger and stronger, avoiding malicious price increases. To a certain extent, our cost control method is no longer to carve a boat for a sword, but to reconstruct the value chain.
Q: What are the new initiatives this year?
A: In addition to "Heli Province" and "Buy Expensive Compensation", we have also launched "Bank Subsidy" to bring banks in to help enterprises subsidize the construction of digital revenue and expenditure platforms. The platform construction funds are provided by the bank, which further reduces the cost of digital transformation of enterprises.
Specifically, enterprises can use the bank's treasury platform for free, and these treasury platforms are fully integrated with Heccide, which provides a better experience and lower cost for enterprises, and can also more smoothly promote customer account opening, savings, scientific lending and other businesses.
Q: What is the current number of banks that we work with? How effective is the cooperation?
A: At present, we have cooperated with about a dozen banks, mainly joint-stock banks. For example, Bank of Shanghai, Guangfa Bank, Ping An Bank, Minsheng Bank, Industrial Bank, Bank of Hangzhou, Bank of Ningbo, etc.
Previously, in cooperation with China Merchants Bank, we brought a 23.6% increase in the deposit of old customers by activating dormant accounts and turning small accounts into large accounts without any new development. This information was later used by other banks as a reference.
Q: How about the customer's procurement demand this year?
A: The purchasing power of customers with revenue of less than 20 billion is obviously insufficient, but the purchasing power of customers with revenue of more than 50 billion is significantly enhanced. The fee control industry has reached a watershed.
Q: How do you view the current SaaS industry in China?
A: I think SaaS itself is difficult to do. At the beginning, Hecc's business model was not only SaaS, but also trading and shopping malls, which required the reconstruction of the industrial chain, otherwise most of the money would not be saved. For example, Didi has reconstructed the industrial chain of closed taxis in the past, which has greatly stretched the growth space of the industry.
If you just make an information system, it can't bring more than ten times the growth space, then when you want to make this information system more valuable, the price paid by manufacturers and enterprises will be very high.
Q: In the current economic environment, if travel expense control is implemented well, it may also be a way to solve employment conflicts to some extent. Have you ever thought about how this will affect the long-term development of the company from this perspective?
A: For example, our "Heli Province" product is promoted in the way of cultural construction in many enterprises, not just financial control. In other words, it can be part of the organization-building or culture.
The construction of corporate culture should not only call on everyone to be Lei Feng, but the positive feedback mechanism of the system. If institutional safeguards are established, people will naturally be eager to create profits. In the long run, this model will promote enterprises to slowly move away from the previous paternalistic management model and move closer to the modern management style.