To ensure your e-invoicing strategy is on the pathway to success it is vital to consider your procure to pay process as an end to end process and to consider your supplier’s perspective.
In a recent infographic report written by sharedserviceslink and Tradeshift: 3 Procure-to-Pay zones that are overlooked, and 3 solutions to get you in the zone, the results showed that only 19% of people have more than 50% of their suppliers on their invoicing solution.
The procure-to-pay process starts and ends with your suppliers and the success of your e-invoicing program relies on supplier adoption.
Here are 5 tips to put your suppliers first which can help maximise your on boarding strategy, drive process efficiency and keep your suppliers happy:
- Enable end-to-end visibility in the payments process. Software which offers a view into the status of the invoice with information on potential delays is important for suppliers and facilitates accurate up to date insight into the progress of a payment.
- Adopt intuitive, user friendly technology that is easy to use and efficient. This will encourage suppliers to on board and make them enthusiastic about your e-invoicing programme.
- Offer dynamic discounting or early payment discounts. Cash flow is increasingly important especially for small businesses and early payment solutions are appealing to suppliers encouraging participation in your technology program.
- Provide new and modern technology that adds value to the supplier. Mobile ready technology and SaaS applications add value for suppliers and offer futureproof solutions which are convenient and pain free to use.
- Maintain good communication with your suppliers through online tools, chats, newsfeeds and social network like features to sustain good supplier relationships and drive progress.
Procure to Pay professionals must consider and address the above pain points in order to get the most out of supplier relationships and capitalize on the extensive savings, advancements in technology and efficiency that e-invoicing enables. If shared services continue to fail to achieve supplier compliance and widespread adoption of technology programmes, they will continue to underachieve and cost saving efficiencies will not be realized.
Download the infographic for more insight into some of these overlooked zones:
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