How to Future-Proof Your P2P Organization

In a recent webcast hosted by Tradeshift, Andrew Bartolini of Ardent Parnters spoke with Vishal Patel of Tradeshift to discuss what the future of AP and P2P will look like, and which of the Future of Business trends are a “must have” for AP organizations.

Here are some key takeaways from the session and tips on how to future-proof your P2P organization:

1. Get finance and procurement truly aligned

The way businesses regard their P2P organization and the technologies they adopt to enable collaboration between the two ‘P’s is changing. To ensure your P2P department is relevant now, and fit for purpose for the future, P2P must be seen as an end-to-end activity and finance and procurement must collaborate.  In rejecting the siloed approach, organizations are able to tap into greater efficiencies by taking a more holistic approach to P2P.

What to do about it: Communication between AP and procurement is key. Working to build a strong relationship between the two will help AP and procurement to understand their respective needs and can help ensure that a finance transformation is implemented smoothly.
    
For example, an AP organisation looking to implement e-invoicing and on-board their suppliers may benefit from procurement’s knowledge of the supplier landscape and their existing relationships with suppliers.

2. Reassess your relationship with suppliers

Another significant area of change in P2P organizations is the growing role of procurement in assuming a more strategic role within the business. Organizations are beginning to look at the relationships with their suppliers as a “single relationship”, as opposed to many individual ones.

This is permitting P2P organizations to take more strategic decisions with their supplier base; focusing more on the direction of supply management transformation, and less on micromanaging individual relationships.

What to do about it: Enabling procurement to take a more strategic role in the business can be an excellent way to ensure that they take an active interest in ensuring the success of a transformation that will require their participation.

3. Cloud and mobile technologies

The role of cloud and mobile technologies are also expected to change the way P2P organizations operate; tapping into automated processes to speed up payments and enabling greater flexibility and ease of access to multiple users. The adoption of these technologies may also be accelerated by the market entry of the millennial generation who are considered both natives and advocates of cloud and mobile technologies.  

What to do about it:  Businesses today are adapting to markets that are changing even faster. Failure to keep up with the latest technology can have serious consequences on an organization’s competitiveness, so it’s worth thinking about what the future of payments technology could look like in your organization and asking your provider about their cloud and mobile capabilities.

Click here to watch the 10-minute clip between Andrew Bartolini from Ardent Partners and Vishal Patel from Tradeshift, as they discuss what the future holds for P2P.