Research

Financially knowledgeable SMBs understand the value of optimizing their cash and having a level of predictability around their cash inflow and outflow – this is where automating AP proves to be valuable for the SMB. Too often, SMBs operate using manual processes resulting in high operational costs, errors and delays and a general lack of [...]

Ardent Partners recently completed its annual market research report focused on accounts payable – ePayables 2013: AP’s New Dawn. The report is based on survey data collected from approximately 245 enterprises and one of the key themes of the report is the evolving role of AP and that is the focus of today’s article. The [...]

When it comes to selecting the right ePayables solution to automate the accounting function, there are certain factors that are going to be more important to a mid-market enterprise (MME) than to a larger one. The following are aspects that are likely to impact an MME’s decision-making process and will also help to differentiate between [...]

Another great contribution from the author of CPO Rising, Andrew Bartolini We started in Part 1 of this series with a look at the European business network landscape and some of the primary challenges and opportunities facing it. We also highlighted a few of the different European network providers as a way to provide a [...]

Andrew Bartolini is co-author of today’s article A quick trip back to the late nineties and we would see the online B2B marketplace craze that was just beginning was ahead of its time – Then business networks were over-hyped – the result of (1) having a technology that failed to keep pace with the vision [...]

Continuing with Ardent Partners’ ePayables Solution Spotlight series, here is the latest one that focuses on the ePayment market and a solution from American Express – PAYVE (access the full report here). The report contains recent market research around electronic payments as well as insights into the technologies and payment mechanisms that are used to [...]

It was not so long ago that a trip to the grocery store could be ruined by a single action: having the person at the front of the checkout line decide to pay by check (a decision that was seemingly always made at the last second). From an uncertainty in knowing current account balances, to [...]

Following my previous article on an Ariba Commerce Summit, here is Part II of the discussion we had at the event around connecting processes and systems within the P2P cycle and fostering collaboration. Benefits of collaboration between procurement and AP Procurement and AP are already linked by two parts of the same transaction and while [...]

Last week I participated in an Ariba Commerce Summit in Boston, this one day event (that is taking place in other locations – see here) brought together procurement professionals from the New England area to network and learn from each other as well as other industry experts. A key theme for this event was collaboration [...]

In my several years as an analyst in this space, it has always been apparent to me that the AP automation solution landscape is quite crowded and confusing with multiple providers offering different and varied capabilities to automate all or part of the AP process, making it that much more difficult for enterprises to select [...]