Earlier this year, I attended and presented at the IOFM AP Expo in Las Vegas. The event has grown to become one of the main attractions in the AP space. The speakers and their topics were right on point and made for a very educational event. In fact, it was just announced recently that The Institute Of Finance And Management (IOFM) acquired The Accounts Payable Network (TAPN) and The Accounts Receivable Network (TARN) – stay tuned for more on this next week.
I wanted to focus specifically on a presentation that I sat in on at the event. The reason I’m highlighting this is for the benefit of those that are still skeptical about the value of automating the AP process. This presentation highlighted what a Best-in-Class AP operation can look like and Disney is certainly in that category. The AP group at Disney is part of a larger shared service organization which includes various aspects such as HR, IT, Travel, Financial Services, etc.
Here are a few key metrics for Disney’s AP operation: 
Clearly, Disney’s AP group is performing well above the average. Just to give you an idea of how much above the average, according to Ardent’s research (ePayables 2013: AP’s New Dawn), the cost per invoice for the average enterprise is $13.10 and the number of invoices per FTE / year is approximately 25,000.
Key for Disney going forward is to continuously improve its operations and part of this strategy involves utilizing automation where possible, reducing headcount in areas that are low value-add (e.g., data entry) and transition them to higher value-add activities and eliminating exceptions and disputes.
