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: Basware announced a new scan and capture product, a new executive took over U.S. Bank’s corporate payments division, and AvidXchange gained a new partner in KeyBank. Read on to find out more about these and all the other impactful news from around the accounts payable world.
Basware Launches CloudScan
Basware announced recently the launch of CloudScan, a cloud-based solution designed to simplifying the scan and capture of paper invoices. The new Basware product allows AP users to scan paper invoices at their desk quickly and easily, and then ship the scanned invoice along to Basware for outsourced data capture. CloudScan also allows for self-validation, meaning AP could do the capture and invoice validation itself, or allow Basware to take care of the entire process from start to finish.
CloudScan presents a valuable self-service option for scan and capture invoicing on the Basware Commerce Network. Since it is a cloud solution, there are low set-up costs and no on-site technical requirements. With transaction-based pricing, CloudScan appears like it could be a solid solution for enterprises looking to make their first forays into electronic invoicing without making too much of an upfront investment.
Tradeshift Enters the eProcurement Market
Tradeshift this week announced the launch of a new eProcurement solution, Tradeshift Buy, a solution that includes product catalogs, a virtual store, and the collaboration capabilities that are commonplace in Tradeshift products. This is the first procurement-specific solution released on the Tradeshift network, and joins its supplier risk management, accounts payable automation, and application solutions. The solution also includes the capability for users to requisition and buy from other online stores while staying within policy.
Tradeshift Buy represents the company’s first real foray into the Procurement market, which could mean that customers using Tradeshift solutions can could eventually manage both their procurement and accounts payable processes using a Tradeshift P2P suite.
Jeff Jones Named President of U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems
U.S. Bank announced recently that Jeff Jones is the new president of the bank’s corporate payment systems group. Jones until recently led the bank’s corporate treasury management group, and is replacing former Corporate Payment Systems President Kurt Adams, who left U.S. Bank in early September. Jones, a 32-year veteran of the bank, held a variety of roles in wholesale banking before he took over the treasury management team in 2001. U.S. Bank’s corporate payments group processed $53.6 billion of payments in 2014 between Europe and North America.
KeyBank Partners with AvidXchange to Provide Best-in-Class Payments Automation
KeyBank announced recently a minority investment and strategic partnership with AvidXchange, which allows KeyBank clients to access Avid’s AP automation solutions. KeyBank was part of the minority investment round that Avid closed several weeks ago, along with Bain Capital Ventures and Foundry Group among others. The partnership gives Key access to the Avid platform, which will be used in conjunction with KeyBank’s current range of payment capabilities.
This blended partnership and investment is the latest in a long line of deals for the AvidXchange team. Between two major acquisitions in the past year and the investment round Ardent Partners reported a few short weeks ago, Avid certainly appears to be a solution provider on its way up. The partnership also puts Avid’s solution in front of KeyBank’s entire customer base, providing a market expansion with little marketing expense on Avid’s part. All in all, it is a very good deal for the North Carolina-based AP automation solution provider.
Federal Reserve Approves NACHA’s Same-Day Payments Rule
American Banker reported recently that the Federal Reserve had approved NACHA’s same-day payments rule for the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) system in the U.S. The FedACH SameDay Service, due to fully go into effect on September 23, 2016, will require Fed banks to process morning payments by 1 p.m. and afternoon payments by 5 p.m. Under the new plan, originating banks will pay a 5.2-cent fee to receiving banks for each same-day ACH payment.
These new ACH protocols are potentially a game-changer for electronic payments; ACH transactions have historically settled the day after the transaction, but with this new same-day service in the U.S., ACH usage could potentially explode in business-to-business transactions. That said, American Banker noted that fewer than 100 financial institutions have signed up for the FedACH Same Day Service since it first became available. It will be interesting to see how many financial institutions end up signing onto this new service—if the numbers spike at all, it will an indication that more financial institutions truly are interested in faster payments.
Bank of America Files Patent for Cryptocurrency Wire Transfer System
CoinDesk reported recently that Bank of America filed a U.S. patent application for a cryptocurrency wire transfer system. The system would operate by converting customer funds at a cryptocurrency exchange, sending the money to a second cryptocurrency exchange, and then converting the funds back in local currency. The system appears to be designed as a method of wire transfer, but one that circumvents the established wire transfer model and negates the need to transfer customer information to a third party vendor (i.e., SWIFT).
Bank of America is the latest major bank to take a liking to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies as a potential salve to many of the challenges facing cross-border payments. Back in July, news broke that Citigroup had created three internal digital currencies to use for testing, and with this Bank of America patent application, the usage of cryptocurrencies for international payments becomes a little more real. It will be interesting to see who gets to market first with a workable solution to using cryptocurrencies for international payments.
SciQuest Expands Global Supplier Network
In other technology news, SciQuest announced recently that it had opened up its global supplier network to include all vendors. Now, any supplier can request to join the SciQuest supplier network and become part of the searchable directory that SciQuest customers currently use to discover new suppliers. SciQuest also announced that they had streamlined the vendor registration process in a bid to make it easier for suppliers to join the directory.
Interest in supplier networks has grown in recent years, with 34% of respondents to recent Ardent Partners ePayables research having a supplier network currently in place and 28% planning to implement such a solution in the next 12 to 24 months. Supplier networks in general allow for greater visibility into transactions as well as include capabilities to streamline the sourcing and AP processes. This expansion is good news for SciQuest, and it will be intriguing to see how the company updates the supplier network in the future.
Fujitsu Announces Availability of PaperStream Capture Pro in U.S. Channel
Fujitsu Computer Products of America, the U.S. arm of Japan-based Fujitsu, an information and communication company, announced recently that its PaperStream Capture Pro product is now available in the United States through authorized resellers and channel partners. The scan and capture invoicing solution can come paired with Fujitsu’s fi series of scanners, and is designed to allow for simplified data extraction and capture from scanned documents. The solution also includes support for multi-station licensing as well as pre-defined templates.
While not an AP-specific solution, the availability of PaperStream Capture Pro in the U.S. nevertheless adds a strong player to the marketplace. Fujitsu has a long history as the top computer manufacturer in Japan, and has had a presence in the U.S. since 1981 when it opened a semiconductor manufacturing plant in San Diego, Calif. It remains to be seen how much of the document imaging and capture market Fujitsu can snag given the competition already extant in the space from other document imaging and capture providers.
Check out these related articles for more:
Payables News Weekly: Perfect Commerce Finalizes Acquisition; NACHA Unveils Mobile Wallet Initiative
Payables News Weekly: China Cuts Reference Rate; Federal Reserve May Delay September Rate Hike
Payables News Weekly: Invoiceware and Lexmark Ink Deal; FBI Says Wire Transfer Fraud on the Rise
Payables News Weekly: Ariba Launches Total User Experience; Hubwoo Reports Q2 Revenues
