Friday, December 16, 2022
Part 1 of this series shares informed perspectives on critical issues facing financial service providers in 2023. Further installments of this series will appear under Breaking News on our homepage in the coming weeks.
Elizabeth Kowal, COO of MineralTree, believes back-office finance processes will continue to be a priority for businesses looking to streamline operations, optimize supply chains and accelerate cash flow. To this end, AP automation will enable organizations to compress invoice-to-payment cycles while strengthening vendor relationships, reducing costs and errors and enhancing visibility and cashflow management, she stated.
"The more automated an AP department is, the greater its competitive advantage," she said. "Companies investing in full, end-to-end AP digitization realize compounded benefits – greater than the sum of its parts – by eliminating friction and gaining synergies and insights across each of the individual processes. These AP teams achieve significantly higher efficiencies, cost-savings, and visibility across their invoice-to-pay process, while reducing payment timelines."
A 2022 MineralTree survey found only 16 percent of respondents have fully automated AP processes, but overall, end-to-end automation increased by 9 percent over the previous year, Kowal noted, adding that she expects finance teams to continue to close the gap in 2023.
Sanjay Gupta, head of the biller segment for ACI Worldwide, observed that checks are still a dominant payment method in the B2B sector, with numerous organizations struggling to modernize payments infrastructures.
"Too many B2B payments sent in the United States are still on a paper check, which not only is costly for the payer, it's also costly to process the payment for the payee in addition to slowing down cash flow for the receiving business," he said. "Billers that send outbound payments to other businesses will look for payment providers who can digitize their B2B payments and reduce costs for both sides of the payment."
Jack Newton, CEO of Clio, agreed outdated processes cause friction. Citing The B2B Ecommerce Buyer Report," published Nov. 1, 2022, by Balance, Newton noted half of the 451 B2B buyers surveyed complained about legacy AP and AR systems. "50 percent of buyers say slow or lengthy approval for payment terms would be the top reason to change to another supplier," he said. "On the flip side, 83 percent of buyers stated that a smooth payment and checkout experience was a top priority when choosing an online store to shop from." Commenting on the Balance report, Dan Saltzman, vice president, client services at MRM Commerce, suggested B2B providers will continue to borrow from the B2C commerce playbook.
"Building on the explosive growth of B2C digital commerce revenues over the last three years, B2B digital commerce will see significant growth across categories in 2023," he said. "Businesses that prioritize their customer's complete digital commerce experience, from awareness through conversion, payment, and into loyalty and retention, will be the new winners." 
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
