Today marks the end of the first full week of 2015, and the second week that Payables Place has posted every weekday. We’re planning to keep this schedule going, so make sure to check back every weekday for fresh news and research articles from the Ardent Partners team.
That bit of self-promotion aside, we’ve covered significant ground in the past two weeks: closing out the year with a collection of our five best articles from 2014, as well as starting things off right with some important ePayments stats from Andrew Bartolini and a collection of business travel articles from our own Christopher Dwyer. Take a look below for the entire list of articles you may have missed.
Best of 2014: ePayables 2014: The State of ePayables Technology
We kicked off our Best of 2014 series on December 29 by re-publishing our August look at the state of ePayables technology. Technology and process automation is here to stay, and in this article we outlined a bit of the current state of the technology environment that accounts payable professionals find themselves in. Read the complete article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2014/12/best-2014-epayables-2014-state-epayables-technology/.
Best of 2014: What are Virtual Payment Cards?
Next in the “Best of” series was my introduction to the world of virtual payment cards. While they share many characteristics with garden-variety commercial cards, virtual cards add an additional layer of security to transactions. The reason for this is simple: the real card number is never revealed, so anyone who would steal the virtual number is out of luck. Read the full piece at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2014/12/best-2014-virtual-payment-cards/.
Best of 2014: The CFO’s View of Contingent Workforce Management
The third installment in the “Best of 2014” series comes from Chris Dwyer. In this popular installment of his occasional CFO’s View column, Chris took a high-level view of contingent workforce management. Given that CWM is critical for modern enterprises, it makes sense for CFOs to get involved in the discussion–particularly from a budgetary perspective. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2014/12/best-2014-cfos-view-contingent-workforce-management/.
Best of 2014: AribaPay Looks to Simplify, Improve B2B ePayments
From early October, we pulled our look at AribaPay–the new payments solution from Ariba–as the first article of 2015. Ariba partnered with Discover to begin offering the AribaPay product to buyers using its business network, which adds its hat into the ring of payments solutions. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/best-2014-aribapay-looks-simplify-improve-b2b-epayments/.
Best of 2014: Why Does the SupplierPay Pledge Matter?
Rounding out the “Best of 2014” series is my look at the SupplierPay pledge from August. You’ll recall that President Obama over the summer outlined the pledge as a method to ensure that large enterprises paid their small suppliers sooner or provided better access to working capital. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/best-2014-supplierpay-pledge/.
Where Do We Start? An SMB Primer for Travel and Expense Management
For the first new post of 2015, Andrew Bartolini took small and mid-sized businesses through a brief primer on travel and expense management. “For the typical SMB, a robust travel and expense management program may not fit into the strategic purview of the greater organization,” Andrew writes, “and, in fact, most companies in this sector do not often consider it a value-add series of processes.” SMBs would be wise, however, to include T&E management into their strategic thinking. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/start-smb-primer-travel-expense-management/.
The Future of Travel and Expense Management: The Mobility Perplexity
The second article in Chris Dwyer’s “Future of Travel and Expense” series launched Tuesday. This time around, Chris examined the problem of mobility in the business travel world. Many executives, Chris writes, still don’t see the value in mobility when it comes to T&E. They’re wrong, of course, and Chris details several very good reasons why in his article. Read the full piece at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/future-travel-expense-management-mobility-perplexity/.
Digging into the Data: Big Data’s Emergence into Travel and Expense Management
On Wednesday, Chris dug into the importance of the Big Data phenomenon in the travel and expense management world. Long story short, there’s a plethora of travel data that business have only recently begun to collect. Now, with the advent of Big Data tools, Chris argues that organizations can finally make real use of all the data they’ve gathered. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/digging-data-big-datas-emergence-travel-expense-management/.
Three Must Know Stats about Electronic Payments
To round out the past two weeks, Andrew Bartolini outlined three important statistics from our recent ePayments research that financial professionals need to know about. Given that AP teams are under more and more pressure every year to become of greater strategic importance, the statistics Andrew notes in his article can be powerful in helping AP teams garner more executive attention. Read the full article at https://payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2015/01/three-must-know-stats-about-electronic-payments-2/.
That’s what you may have missed since December 29 on Payables Place. Remember to check back every weekday for more great news and research articles on accounts payable, cash management, travel and expense, and everything in between.
