ICG: Thinking Different to Make a Difference
For most rapidly ameliorating organizations, manual procurement processes are not viable any more to meet the evolving needs of their growing staff members and supplier base. And when both size and complexity tends to reach a tipping point it springs forward a change. This involves the automation of some or all of the internal processes.
With a vision of automating your procure to pay processes and turning complex into simple and simple into something awesome, Innovation Centric Group (ICG) was incepted. The company’s motto of daring to be different has led it towards success and meet the evolving needs and requirements of its clients.
Herein, we look at the journey, the story, and innovation that ICG stirs through its products and solutions.
Thinking Different; Thinking Out of the Box
It was during the time when Lory Troche, the CEO of ICG, worked as a consultant for a medium-sized oil and gas company in Alberta that the story started. The company found themselves in the need of specific systems to provide a level of automation that was not found readily available in the market. ICG decided at this point to develop these systems for their clients to close this market gap.
The company believes in coming out with something awesome. However, awesome requires different thinking and thinking out of the box is a specialty that ICG is synonymous with.
According to the company, we do not go where the path may lead, we go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. The culture of the company is different as it cares. At the same time, the company accepts that its life is complicated. “We are bombarded with data, reports, information, deadlines and agendas from different groups. We make the complicated simple, we make the hidden, transparent, the manual, automated,” mentions Lory.
ICG saves both time and money of the enterprises by digitalizing all the data, automating all the processes, and integrating the disparate data sources of the P2P process. The company avoids expensive duplications of invoices and late payments and identifies opportunities for cost-cutting.
Ensuring Optimal Client Satisfaction
ICG provides Procure to Pay outsourcing solutions. It helps organizations grow their businesses on demand by simplifying their entire P2P process. It specializes in complex P2P processes i.e. Oil and Gas explicit/non-explicit, HSE compliance, etc. ICG ensures its clients satisfaction by providing outstanding personalized service and helping business to scale on demand.
ICG handles all aspects of the implementation process from change management to integration support. “The ball is always on our court. We are not an ERP, we simply help companies maximize the ROI of their existing systems from SAP to Quickbooks,” exclaims Lory
An Incredible Platform by all Means
ICG works with an amazing team of professionals and together they have built an incredible Procure to Pay SaaS platform that helps companies break down the silos between their existing systems. When speaking about her team, Lory mentions “Our team is our family. We help each other grow personally and professionally whatever everyone’s goals are. We offer innovative learning experiences and we foster a learning culture.”
ICG makes systems talk to each other for a fully-automated experience that allows companies to have real-time information that can easily display in personalized and interactive dashboards. Through this, everyone within the company has the requisite information that they need to work more efficiently without spending time in non-value-added tasks.
ICG’s biggest achievement was having its products and services market ready for industries other than Oil and Gas. However, the biggest challenge for the company is breaking through the ‘bigger is better’ myth in most industries. “In our case, being small is an advantage that allows us to innovate and move faster than big technology companies,” she adds.
At present, the company is working on several strategic partnerships and has recently joined SAP as one of its partners (only ones in the world in the P2P field), KPMG (implementer), Fujitsu (Implementer) and Accenture (Implementer). Spearheaded by Lory, the team at ICG has been working relentlessly to take the company to the next level.
Turning Experience into Success
Lory Troche brings to ICG system both knowledge and innovation mixed with years of expertise across different industries. She has spent 4 years as the Director of Procure-to-Pay at a communications company. Therein she was the director of operations, purchasing and payables manager, supplier relationship manager, Six Sigma Black Belt Cost Reduction Lead and reduced company bottom line cost by 31%. She managed contract negotiation, business intelligence, business process automation, and strategic sourcing. Add to that, she has spent 4 more years as the Sr. Management Consultant – Project Manager for a Canadian gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company. She managed the following: business process automation, business process re-engineering (Six Sigma), systems integration, software development, change management, strategic sourcing and procure to pay automation, and data warehouse implementation project.
