By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Susan Spence, Co-founder and Executive Chair of SoftCo
Susan Spence is the Business & Finance Business Person of the Month for June 2021, in association with KPMG.
Susan Spence is the Business & Finance Business Person of the Month for June 2021. Ms Spence is co-founder and Executive Chair of SoftCo, the provider of financial process automation solutions that aim to increase productivity, reduce costs, and ensure organisations meet their compliance obligations.
Founded in 1990, SoftCo is one of the most successful native Irish Software companies with more than 2 million business users worldwide. It is headquartered in Dublin and has offices in the UK, Finland and the US.
Throughout its history, its client-base has included Patagonia, The Finnish Government, Smyth’s Toys, Crown Agents Bank, Primark, Irish Life, Lloyd’s Bank, Argos, and Bulmers.
In June of this year, SoftCo announced a number of new productivity and integration features in the latest release of SoftCo ExpressAP, a cloud-based accounts payable automation solution which delivers 100% touchless invoice processing, supports remote working and reduces operational costs by 80%. The system automates vendor invoice processing including capture, registration, coding, approval and query, as well as reporting and ERP payment via a simple output.
Commenting on the new product release, Robert Hickey, Chief Technology Officer at SoftCo, said: “At SoftCo, we work with organisations across the globe who are acutely aware of the challenges that their AP teams regularly face. Customer feedback plays a crucial role in the development of our products and we are delighted to announce a number of improvements to our SoftCo ExpressAP product that will both enhance our customers’ experience of the platform and enable them to optimise their AP process by providing better control and visibility and the tools to increase productivity.”
Ms Spence is also the Chairperson driving the Regional Enterprise Plan for the Dublin region. There will be 9 new Regional Enterprise Plans for the country, as part of the government’s commitment to bring good jobs and a strong post-pandemic economic recovery to every part of Ireland.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD, said of her appointment to this position: “I’d like to welcome Susan Spence, co-founder of SoftCo, who is the new Chairperson guiding the development of the Dublin region’s plan. I know Susan’s experience and energy will be a huge benefit to the development of this new plan for the Dublin region.”
Ms Spence is the Irish Tatler Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 and a former recipient of the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year and Irish Exporter of the Year awards. On her initiative, SoftCo sponsored the Irish women’s hockey team that won silver in the World Cup of summer 2018.
Business & Finance, Business Person of the Month
Business & Finance, in association with KPMG, rewards excellence in business through the ‘Business Person of the Month’ award. This award seeks to recognise noteworthy achievements in business leadership, and, particularly, those that make a telling contribution to the wider business community in Ireland.
