The AP Automation Challenge
The Right Time for Automating AP
Under increased pressure to improve efficiency,
manage cash and tackle regulatory compliance,
for many the time is now.
Raise your hand. How many of you looked for an accounts payable automation solution - with workflow or a vendor portal - in 2001? In 2003? How about this year?
Increased pressure to manage costs, ensure regulatory compliance and squeeze the most out of every vendor relationship can certainly have that effect on anyone. Particularly with reports that an organization may spend between $7 and $20 to pay a single bill - a sum that includes the cost of handling and receiving invoices, verifying them, approving payment and cutting a paper check.*
Like most of your finance and AP peers, thoughts have quickly turned to innovative ways of achieving more efficient purchase-to-pay processes. As business re-engineering continues to happen all around you - in procurement, sales, customer service and manufacturing - the process of AP re-engineering remains a complex endeavor. For a majority of mid- to large-sized AP departments, removing the biggest obstacle to improving efficiency means reducing or eliminating the manual handling and routing of paper invoices on their winding trail from receipt to approval.
Why Now?
In addition to mounting business pressures already described, the confluence of two critical technology factors is leading the industry toward a shared conclusion: The time for AP process automation is now.
The first factor is maturing Web technology. Solution providers have embraced Web technologies to deliver real business benefits, including scalability, ease of deployment and accessibility to dispersed users, while enabling customers to maintain centralized control and visibility.
The second factor involves the widespread adoption of industry standards, such as JSR 168, which greatly simplifies interoperability between business applications and provides organizations the opportunity to deploy purchase-to-pay functionality rapidly within the portals of major ERP systems.
The Purchase-to-Pay Challenge
While most technology vendors today draw up complicated, proprietary blueprints for achieving a paperless AP valhalla, the key to success lies in finding a partner that will help you leverage IT investments already in place - whether it's an online procurement system, trading network, ERP, electronic payment system, or a simple OCR/image capture and archiving package. During the transition to this paperless vision of tomorrow, Bottomline can be that partner - starting today.
inView AP™ from Bottomline Technologies is the industry's first automated purchase-to-pay solution to embrace the systems and processes you already use, adding capabilities for routing and workflow of both paper and electronic invoices, while delivering the reporting required to ensure maximum cash visibility and compliance with evolving regulatory invoicing and payment documentation requirements.
Best-in-Class Modular Solution
Having helped thousands of customers across the globe to solve their payments challenges during the last 15 years, Bottomline is moving aggressively to capitalize on its experience and users' desire for automation solutions upstream of the electronic payment processes they may already enjoy.
Bottomline's inView AP solution addresses the full purchase-to-pay business cycle, including comprehensive support for invoice processing phases such as purchase order flipping, matching and dispute resolution. Most importantly, the solution's open, modular design allows customers to purchase and implement inView AP in a single cycle, or to take a strategically phased approach to deployment.
inView AP is comprised of four main components. Each "module" maps to the way you work today, eliminating complex business re-engineering required by other solutions.
Requisition Processing Module- Supports requisition generation, approval workflow, general ledger coding and purchase order creation.
- Optional Online Purchasing Gateway integrates with CXML-enabled vendors (Dell, Staples, etc.) and links to other online vendors specific to customers' business processes.
- Includes invoice creation, submission, validation, matching, routing, adjustment, general ledger coding and reporting. Options for payment and full remittance delivery are also available.
Captures paper invoices through scanning and/or data entry via an:
- Imaging Package - Integrates with optical character recognition (OCR) software and scanner technology.
- Advanced Data Capture Package
- Outsourced paper invoice receipt services - Both off-shore and full on-shore services available.
Enables more efficient electronic trading relationships with vendors, including:
- Purchase order receipt and flip to invoice, invoice entry and file upload, AP process and payment status visibility, as well as remittance data and file for download.
- Vendor recruitment, enrollment, enablement, training and ongoing support.
- Ability to capture off-contract spending, lost vendor/supplier discounts and duplicate payments.
- Control over shipping and accounting code assignments.
Roadmap to Rapid Adoption
Bottomline understands that in order to succeed, any application for AP must be simple to learn, easy use, and able to support the way that AP processes work today. inView AP provides unprecedented flexibility, enabling users to configure for invoice-only environments or in support of established purchase order processes - without costly or lengthy customization cycles. Unlike most other solutions available today, inView AP can be hosted or customer-installed onsite.
To see if inView AP is right for you? Visit http://www.bottomline.com/products_services_fbpm/irm.shtml or contact Clyde Logue, Bottomline's Director of Purchase-to-Pay Solutions at 603-501-5325.
Free Webinar, June 22, 2005 Featuring PayStream Advisors
Explore the business value of automating your purchase-to-pay processes. Register today for Bottomline's AP Process Automation Webinar, June 22, featuring Henry Ijams, Managing Director of PayStream Advisors.
*"The ePayment Advantage," Canadian Treasurer Magazine, Oct/Nov. 2003. Converted from Canadian dollars.