As we discussed last week over on Payables Place, AP’s reliance on paper has left many organizations struggling to adapt and overcome to our new reality of having to work from home while we shelter in place. If there is a silver lining for accounts payable, it’s the fact that technology exists to help organizations of all sizes solve their current challenges. Additionally, automating AP will continue to pay dividends long into the future. Now, let’s start taking a look at how to solve AP’s reliance on paper beginning with how invoices are received into an organization.
Over a decade ago, the Ardent Partners’ ePayables Framework™ (see figure below) was developed to aid AP departments of any size improve their processes by segmenting their workflows into three smaller, more manageable pieces: Invoice Receipt, Invoice Processing, and Payments. This segmentation makes it easier for an AP department to establish a clear view into the current state of operations and then improve upon it. The Framework also helps AP teams laboring under manual, paper-based processes, understand how to optimize their automation and transformation initiatives. Since its creation in 2010, Ardent Partners’ ePayables Framework has been used by thousands of AP organizations to streamline and automate processes, create best practices, and improve overall performance.
Ardent Partners’ ePayables Framework™
The three phases of the ePayables Framework are not discrete stages, but rather pieces of one coherent whole. This means that changes in one area will have a direct, and often immediate, impact on the others. The scope of an AP automation initiative should ideally be viewed holistically and include all three phases of the ePayables Framework. In future weeks we will dive into what is covered in each of the phases as well as solution providers who cover each space. Interested parties can also find more information in the Ardent Partners’ ePayables Technology Advisor research report which covers all of these topics along with a sampling of solution providers who cover the space. If you would like a copy sent to you, please email me here.
CPO RISING 2K20 VIRTUAL SERIES – UPCOMING SESSIONS
Instead of our typical related research section, we are inviting our readers to investigate our new virtual series, CPO Rising 2K20 – The Resiliency Imperative. Click on the session titles below to learn more and register for them – or visit this site regularly as new sessions are still being added.
- April 20 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET – The Three Pillars of Managing a Remote (& Productive) Workforce
- April 21 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET – The Role of Sustainability in the Post-COVID-19 Supply Chain
- April 24 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET – Provenance Management: Protecting Your Supply Chain from Counterfeits
- April 28 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET – Paving the Road to Recovery
- April 29 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET – Leveraging Your Network To Ensure Supply in the Age of Corona
- April 30 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET – The Power of Predictive Insights for a More Resilient Supply Chain
- April 30 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET – CPO Rising: The State of Procurement in 2020**
- May 7 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET – The CPO Rising 2K20 Virtual Summit – The Resiliency Imperative – Registration Page**
- VIEW ON-DEMAND (no registration) – Welcome to the Resiliency Imperative
- VIEW ON-DEMAND – Prevent, Manage, Recover: Key Strategies to Execute a Business Continuity Plan
- VIEW ON-DEMAND – A New World (of) Orders: Rethinking the Global Supply Chain
- VIEW ON-DEMAND – Increased Technology Risks in the Age of COVID-19
- VIEW ON-DEMAND – What the Pandemic Means for Your Workforce
- VIEW ON-DEMAND – CPO Leadership in Times of Crisis
** If you are interested in the themes of this article, we highly recommend this session for you.
Tagged in: AP Automation, Ardent Partners Research, ePayables, Strategy, Technology
