Today’s article is based on research from Ardent’s latest report – ePayables 2013: AP’s New Dawn, which surveyed 245 AP and finance leaders. More on the report very soon.

When enterprises launch transformation initiatives within the accounts payable process or within the larger P2P process, one of the stakeholders that often gets left out is the supplier.  More and more, however, the perception of the supplier is changing. Traditionally, they were considered external parties that offered little strategic value except to deliver better pricing. Today, more and more suppliers are considered an important component of the extended enterprise and are viewed as partners.

Ardent believes that when organizations travel down the path of automation, it is important to consider the suppliers’ needs and capabilities. In fact, research found that buying organizations that transact with their suppliers via a network are increasingly concerned about the cost to the supplier. The bottom line is that for an AP transformation to really take hold, AP must also seek to improve the processes of its trading partners.

One Fortune 500 company takes an innovative approach to its supplier relationships as its Global AP Director explains, “As we move to digitize everything we do in AP, we are putting our suppliers first. However, if the supplier wishes to connect to us, we have to be open to it. If companies like ours want suppliers to adopt technology, we have to be willing to pay the network fee on their behalf. If the supplier is already connected to a network, we’re going to connect to them [network-to-network interoperability], and if they’re not connected to a network we’re going to provide a menu of options that includes ERS, EDI / XML, eInvoicing, email a PDF, load PDF into a portal, or eFax a PDF of the invoice.”

Tagged in: Accounts Payable, ePayables, P2P, Suppliers