Ardent Partners recently published our annual ePayables report, “ePayables 2014: The Quest,” and, like all of our payables reports this year, the research is geared toward AP leaders, financial managers, executives, and those who aspire to these roles. The report presents a comprehensive overview of the state of accounts payable, as well as focusing on ePayables technology and systems in addition to providing a way for accounts payable teams to benchmark themselves against the Best-in-Class and improve their overall performance.
We spoke with over 190 accounts payable, finance, and other professionals across 25 different industries to give our readers a complete picture of the state of the market. The report is available for free (registration required) at four report sponsor sites: Basware, Ariba, Taulia, and Tradeshift.
How to Get Noticed by Your Executive Team
Accounts payable/finance teams have traditionally focused on processing and paying invoices, and less so on strategic initiatives. This has changed in recent years, with AP automation tools that can save companies money in the short- and long-term serving as a key driver. Despite the many benefits delivered by automating AP processes, many groups still struggle to get noticed by executives (in a good way) and get the required budget to transform operations. Here are three tips to make that happen.
Create a Roadmap for AP Transformation
Accounts payable can add great value to the organization as an analytical and data-driven function, whether it’s to support working capital optimization or manage supplier relationships. This newfound possibility could change AP into a much more strategic partner for procurement and treasury, but only if the transformation is conducted properly. For that to happen, organizations need to create project plans, commonly called “roadmaps,” for this digital transition project, which include outlining the processes that AP conducts as well as current manual procedures and the digital solutions that can automate tasks like data entry or suppliers wanting to know the status of their invoices.
To create this roadmap, AP teams must first understand where the organization’s time is spent. From there, teams can streamline operations and ensure optimal efficiency through the strategic use of AP automation technologies such as eInvoicing, ePayments, and supplier networks. An effective roadmap can then be presented and easily explained to executives.
Establish or Enhance AP Performance Metrics
In today’s competitive business environment, having access to accurate and real-time metrics can be a game-changer. Establishing and measuring relevant metrics allows an organization to understand the present while also laying the groundwork for the future. Because of this, in order to get on an executive’s radar, AP leaders must develop new or enhance existing key performance metrics. These can be process-related metrics, financial metrics, or supplier-based metrics. The key is to select metrics that are actionable, relevant, and aligned with the larger enterprise’s corporate goals.
Think Globally, Act Locally
The phrase “think globally, act locally” here refers to the “global” procure-to-pay (P2P) process and the local AP workflow. If AP teams truly want to capture greater executive mindshare, AP leaders should put on a P2P hat, understand the underlying process, and become comfortable with it. AP leaders can better assess their group’s value when viewed from an overall P2P perspective. Today, many enterprises still persist with a procure-to-pay process that is disconnected from a process, systems, and organizational standpoint, making it difficult to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the current state. AP leaders, together with their procurement counterparts and Chief Procurement Officers, should re-evaluate the current P2P processes, systems, and organizations and identify the best opportunities to streamline and improve the P2P process and better align it with top enterprise objectives.
Final Thoughts
The accounts payable team has much more to offer a company than simply processing invoices and payments. An efficient, effective AP operation can act as a strategic business partner with both procurement and treasury on distinct goals such as simplifying the P2P process and improving working capital optimization. This can only happen, however, if AP is able to garner enough executive attention through creating a roadmap, tracking the right metrics, and thinking holistically about the procure-to-pay process instead of the one part—invoicing—that AP deals with on a direct basis. Gaining executive attention and investment isn’t easy, but it is possible.
Interested in more detail about the state of ePayables? Check out the Ardent Partners report “ePayables 2014: The Quest,” available free with registration from Ariba, Taulia, Basware, and Tradeshift.
