One of the more important jobs of the accounts payable professional is keeping up with what is happening in the industry at large. This is critical for a few reasons, including skills development and the hunt for new technologies, but is sometimes difficult to do. That is why, each week, the team at Payables Place collects news stories and announcements on the people, companies, and events that can have the biggest impact on the accounts payable team; this cuts down on the amount of time that the AP professional needs to spend keeping up to date and makes it easier to get back to the task at hand—driving strategic value for the organization.
This week in payables news includes a few developments: Tradeshift acquired Merchantry for $30 million, American Express’s corporate cards now work on Apple Pay, and Basware named a new managing director for the United Kingdom. Read on to find out more about these and all the other impactful news from around the accounts payable world.
Tradeshift Accelerates Market Growth and Leadership with $30M Acquisition of Merchantry
Tradeshift announced recently that it had added product information management (PIM) capabilities to its portfolio with a $30 million acquisition of Merchantry, an eCommerce technology integration solution provider. Merchantry made a name for itself through managing extensive amounts of retail product information to simplify eCommerce for retailers, and includes Amazon.com, Marks & Spencer, and other major eCommerce businesses among its customers.
The acquisition brings a product information management tool streamlined through consumer-facing use under the Tradeshift umbrella. Merchantry has 11 years of experience building, managing, and streamlining eCommerce portals for consumer-facing retailers, but they also have supplier onboarding that simplifies catalog additions and SKU management for low-tech and high-tech suppliers. Tradeshift could use Merchantry’s PIM expertise to augment catalog management on its supplier network, which would be a worthwhile idea—effective PIM can make a difference in how well or poorly a catalog solution operates. It remains to be seen how Merchantry will be integrated, however.
AvidXchange and Viewpoint Form Strategic Partnership to Deliver Payment Solutions to the Construction Industry
AvidXchange announced recently it had inked a new partnership deal with Viewpoint Construction Software to integrate Avid’s payments solutions into Viewpoint’s ERP product and offer an integrated solution to the construction industry. The joint venture will see Avid’s payments solutions and Viewpoint’s construction software operating in a seamless experience for Viewpoint users, both current and in the future. This ends up placing Avid’s solution directly in the workflow for thousands of new customers in the construction industry, which is good news for them.
As of now, AvidXchange has announced five strategic partnerships in 2015, including this one, in a variety of segments—hospitality, real estate, accounting, and scan and capture—which places the solution in front of a wide variety of enterprises. This latest move into construction further deepens Avid’s penetration into the industry, and offers Viewpoint a payments solution without having to develop one in-house. Overall, the partnership looks to easily benefit both parties.
Basware Hires Amabel Grant as UK Managing Director
Basware announced this week that it had hired Amabel Grant to as managing director in the United Kingdom. Grant joined Basware as part of the recent Procserve acquisition, where she was Chief Operating Officer up until the acquisition closed in June. Grant’s new role as VP of network services and UK managing director will have her focus on growing the Basware Commerce Network in the UK, and particularly in the public sector. Grant has extensive experience in public sector procurement in the UK, including a stint leading eProcurement strategy for the London 2012 Olympics.
Oildex Releases Updates for OpenInvoice™ and Spendworks™ Supplier Engagement and Functionality Addressed
Oildex announced recently updates for both OpenInvoice and Spendworks, marking the first update to OpenInvoice since the product was acquired from ADP on June 29. The new OpenInvoice release, version 15.2, is designed to enhance supplier engagement with the platform and includes status updates for paper-based invoices. When a supplier submits a paper invoice to OpenInvoice, they receive an email that allows them to view the invoice’s status as it moves through the workflow. This new capability is also mobile-friendly. Spendworks 4.11.1, released earlier in August, consisted mostly of minor performance enhancements to Oildex’s flagship platform.
Updates to OpenInvoice so soon after the acquisition at the end of June makes clear Oildex’s promise to continue with business as usual as a combined company. The additional functionality for paper-based invoices is an interesting update, and could make it easier for OpenInvoice users to convince suppliers of the value inherent in making the technology investment to submit invoices electronically.
AMEX Activates Corporate Card Portfolio for Apple Pay
In one of the first moves for business-to-business (B2B) payments on Apple Pay, American Express announced recently that it had made its corporate card portfolio available on the mobile payment platform. Users of corporate cards issued in the United States can, as of August 10, load the corporate card into Apple Pay and use their card at any of the numerous retailers that have already started to accept the mobile payment solution. American Express consumer cards and OPEN small business cards were enabled on the platform in late 2014.
Apple Pay has garnered massive media attention on the consumer side of the card equation, with major banks such as Citi and Bank of America allowing for their cards to be loaded into the mobile payments solution. American Express is, so far, the first card provider to authorize any type of cards used by midmarket and large enterprises for the platform. This could be the start of the mobile transition for commercial card payments, but whether any other commercial card providers follow suit remains to be seen.
Transition to Electronic Invoicing, OMB Tells Agencies
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently told agencies to start the transition to electronic invoicing, FEDweek reported. According to OMB, only 40% of the more than 19 million invoices the federal government processes are done through electronic means. The remaining 60% of invoices are processed with a combination of electronic and manual means that, the OMB writes in memo M-15-19, “provide little visibility to businesses and can result in tax dollars being used for late payment fees rather than to support critical agency missions.”
The transition to eInvoicing by the federal government, which OMB mandates should be done by the end of fiscal year 2018, could result in huge savings on spending. Ardent research has found that enterprises save $13.00 per invoice, on average, when processing invoices electronically versus manually. As the largest purchaser of goods in the country, a transition to eInvoicing could result in the federal government savings tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. All in all, this is a good move.
Business Demand for Airbnb Surges as Company Sees Record Corporate Signups
Following on the heels of its business travel expansion, Airbnb announced recently that 500 new customers signed onto the program within 24 hours of its announcement on July 20. Since the expansion, Airbnb now has more than 1,000 enterprises in 35 countries using its solution to book lodging for business travel. As Payables Place wrote previously, the Airbnb product allows for business travelers to send lodging data directly back to the business and offers travel managers visibility into bookings.
The significant amount of sign-ups so quickly is a fairly strong proof-point for the viability of Airbnb as a business travel solution. Given the additional capabilities released a little over a month ago, it is understandable that more enterprises would show an interest in using Airbnb’s business travel program. In less than 10 years, Airbnb has already captured sizeable portions of both the leisure and business lodging markets, so it will be interesting to see where they go from here.
Check out these related articles for more:
Payables News Weekly: Ariba Launches Total User Experience; Hubwoo Reports Q2 Revenues
Payables News Weekly: Coupa Acquires TripScanner; Airbnb Launches Business Travel Product
Payables News Weekly: Coupa Acquires InvoiceSmash; China Falls Short on Cross-Border Payments
Payables News Weekly: China Cuts Interest Rates; Nvoicepay Launches First Event
Payables News Weekly: Basware Names New Customer Care Head; Federal Reserve Keeps Rates Low
Payables News Weekly: AvidXchange Inks a New Partnership; Russia Gets Homegrown Chip-and-Pin
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