What you’ll learn:
B2B buying processes for commerce systems (or any systems, really) are notoriously long and complex. With many requirements at play and multiple stakeholders involved, technology buying cycles can take months or even years. But do you know what could help shorten these processes?
Bringing your CFO in early in the buying process.
Unfortunately, most B2B practitioners do the opposite: When the business and tech teams make a decision on a new commerce system, the next step is to send the invoice for financial leaders to pay.
The problem? 52% of financial leaders feel they are brought into critical technology decisions too late to provide strategic input. This undermines their ability to ensure the investment aligns with core business objectives, making the purchasing process for a new commerce platform longer and more complex than needed.
Our report, The 52% Wake Up Call: When Commerce Fails, CFOs Foot the Bill, goes further:
52% of the surveyed financial leaders report that their current commerce technology software relies on manual or inefficient processes. Similarly, 52% of them said their commerce technology stack will reach its end of life within the next two years.
What’s more, a whopping 64% of financial leaders say that their organization’s legacy commerce systems are the biggest barrier to digital success.
The challenge is clear: For B2B organizations to move faster in deciding their commerce future, they must ensure that CFOs are an integral part of the decision-making process from the outset. Such an approach helps financial leaders avoid three key issues:
Sign off without a thorough investigation. This risks repeating the same cycle within a few years, potentially falling even further behind. A poorly scoped, rushed decision could lead to wasted money and resources, compounding existing setbacks.
Send the team back to square one. Financial leaders may need to reevaluate the proposed solution’s fit with long-term strategy, which could frustrate stakeholders, eroding the momentum for change and further delaying progress. This could even lead to internal dissatisfaction, with digital champions losing faith in the process or leaving the company altogether.
Prolong the procurement process. Late involvement forces financial leaders to add critical steps like risk mitigation, due diligence and comprehensive financial analysis that should have been planned for earlier. These delays can lead to missed market opportunities for the business, causing it to fall even further behind competitors.
As legacy systems approach end-of-life over the next two years, prompting B2B organizations to adopt modern commerce tech, simplifying the buying process has become mission-critical. After all, financial leaders recognize that the commerce platform directly impacts core business performance, from boosting employee productivity (61%) to driving sales and revenue through better customer experiences (57%).
Bottom line: Choosing your next commerce platform is a high-stakes decision. For B2B teams preparing for a replatforming project, involving financial leadership early might seem like a hurdle, but it’s actually a strategic advantage. It speeds up decision-making, aligns priorities and ensures long-term value beyond just budget approval.
Explore the in-depth data of the report in the infographic below, and discover how partnering with your finance leaders can streamline your procurement process and lead to smarter decisions.
Read the full report, The 52% Wake Up Call: When Commerce Fails, CFOs Foot the Bill, in partnership with Cascade Insights.
Manuela Marques Tchoe is a Content Writer at commercetools. She was a Content and Product Marketing Director at conversational commerce provider tyntec. She has written content in partnership with Facebook, Rakuten Viber and other social media platforms.