Opportunities in Payables Process Technologies
Don’t look now but digital technology is creeping into every corner of our lives, both personally and professionally. In business, despite the challenges and frustrations of change, it’s really a good thing. The digital age is bringing swifter communications, saving time and increasing productivity.
In our personal lives, the change is usually more fun, though not always without some frustration in moving up the learning curve. Perhaps that’s because we’re choosing the technology we want to try — we already believe it will be worth it!
At the office, however, it may be a different story. Often it’s someone else choosing the technology for us, so we’re less invested. But if you’re a manager, you have the chance to find and propose digital tools that will help you and your team improve processes, gain time and dollar savings and boost your productivity.
The good news there is that CIOs are looking for help in identifying profitable projects that can cut costs or generate revenue. Smart CIOs work closely with CFOs and others in the C-suite to identify and coordinate the company’s IT strategies large and small. That means opportunities for managers in F&A to speak up about opportunities they see that often escape the notice of the CFO. Just as the CIO looks for input from the CFO, the CFO needs input from the team of managers in F&A. Translation: Now’s your chance!
Back at the turn of the century, it was not unwise to hesitate and let the “early adopters” try and falter in implementing business process automation. That was then. If you haven’t automated key processes today, you’re well behind the curve and costing your organization money.
Moore’s Law on the doubling of processing speed every 18 months was a signifier: Technology keeps improving and advancing, more swiftly with each step. And it’s not waiting for you.
Even if you completed a significant process technology implementation last year (congratulations!), you cannot just sit back. You eliminated moving paper invoices through the office? So last decade! You’ve integrated your procure-to-pay process to remove blockages and speed processing for on-time payments? Great! What’s next?
Maybe now that you’re able to pay on time, it’s getting a handle on timing and early-pay discounts. Maybe it’s eliminating checks in favor of electronic payments. Or maybe it’s eliminating paper around supplier onboarding or implementing supplier self-service for vendor invoice inquiries.
The latter two are very easy solutions that can save your team time — time to work on some of the other areas. Supplier self-service is actually a thing! Suppliers appreciate the ability to easily get answers to the payment questions they have, when they have them, without having to go through a drawn-out contact process of phone tag or e-mail. They’d much prefer to go online to quickly and easily see that their invoice is in your system or that payment has been scheduled or even made.
And when they do it themselves, your team members don’t have to interrupt what they’re working on to answer supplier questions — a huge timesaver. All that is possible without a big impact on your IT team, and benefits your supplier relations.
Likewise, you can implement a solution that makes supplier onboarding — including supplier validation — a digital process. Automate validation checks and eliminate rekeying (with the potential of introducing errors).
These are a couple examples of technology available today that provide easy steps forward that will save you time, effort and money so you can get on to the next thing!
To see how vendor self-service solutions can benefit your operations and your company click here to request more information or call (678) 335-5735.
