2011 has beena very important year.We learnedabout new ideas, applied them toour processes and envisioned better ones. Today, we share our top 10 automation ideas for theaccounts payable (AP) process. We implemented many of these ideas in 2011 and are exploring and executingothers in 2012

The fact that the quality of people in an organization is a key differentiator and a competitive advantage is no longer a topic for debate but a well-accepted ground reality. As a consequence, most companies with aspirations to grow in scale and size make significant investments in talent development to satisfy the hunger for performance improvements from all their stakeholders. According to a Monster.com report: “73% of the CEOs in India spend more than one-fourth of their time directly on talent-related activities.” That is some serious investment! The report also states: “While 68% acknowledge that this time has increased in recent years, 79% also affirm...

If you are financing your business by Factoring, you had better factor in the possibility of being hit by chargebacks and deductions issued by major retailers, specialty stores and catalogues.

“Physician, heal thyself” is an adage that can well be applied to today’s stressed finance leaders. In a global business environment in which every item of spend is under the microscope and every cent of revenue is increasingly hard fought, the finance and accounting (F&A) organization is no longer outside the purview of review for both performance and cost effectiveness. 

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) recently announced the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) mechanism as its new strategic initiative in the area of trade finance. SWIFT BPO is similar to the familiar letter of credit (LC). However, BPO has an edge over LCs as it is transmitted electronically between two banks (the BPO advising and issuing banks). The BPO issuing bank makes the promised payment on behalf of the buyer to the BPO advising bank. In other words, a BPO is a binding bank-to-bank payment obligation based on the presentation of compliant data. It supports all types of financing (buyer centric and seller centric)...

In my previous blog post I addressed the question of how Procurement needs to build and sustain capabilities. There is a great deal to learn from best-in-class companies who are well on the road to strategic transformation of their Procurement functions. A lot of people have asked me the next question— Is it becoming easier or harder to get the necessary funding; and what can be outsourced? Thankfully, funding is often not a problem as long as you have a business case for driving effectiveness and velocity. Anything that is non-core and low risk can be outsourced. In many cases, core “support” activities are also outsourced. Outsourcing is about cost optimization...

In my previous blog post in this series, we looked at how the Procurement function could partner with the business to create value. How large is the bottom-line impact that procurement can have? Does it have the potential to bring about significant business transformation? Not only in terms of the quantum of profitability but also in the “quality of profit”. A lot of organizations struggle with this question — which is question #3 in our series. It’s no surprise that reducing costs and expenses has a positive effect on the bottom-line and the impact is faster than increasing revenues. It is a fact of business: It’s just easier to save money than to make money...

In my previous blog post of this series, I addressed the question: What challenges and pressures do organizations face in optimizing spend? There are a couple of key questions we need to answer on the road to best-in-class procurement transformation. Firstly, how can the Procurement function partner with business units in delivering value? What are the challenges and pressures organizations face in optimizing spend? Far too often, Procurement has the reputation of being a low-value control function existing for primarily two reasons – cost reduction and policy enforcement. This narrow perspective often leads to dubious working relationships...

In my introductory blog post of the series I defined the seven golden steps to best-in-class procurement transformation. Next I will address the key questions that every enterprise needs to answer in order to get there. As part of my talk in the IQPC seminar, I will be answering these questions in greater detail However, for those who can’t wait to transform their Procurement function, here’s a sneak preview…! The first question to address is: What are the challenges and pressures organizations faces in optimizing spend? Multiple...

Recently, I was invited to speak at the 10th Annual Procurement, Outsourcing & Vendor Management Forum on optimizing your procurement, outsourcing and vendor management processes and minimizing risks to your supply in a volatile marketplace. As I got down to preparing for it, I thought of starting with the fundamentals – the raison-d’être of procurement. At the highest level, the goal of procurement is to obtain the right product or service, at the right quality, price, and place, with utmost efficiency and speed. And, very simply, since procurement directly impacts Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), an efficient and effective procurement function makes an organization.