by Mark Brousseau, guest blogger
Making business processes more efficient and effective is the top objective of IT investments for 90 percent of the private companies surveyed for PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest Private Company Trendsetter Barometer. Streamlining business processes topped better management of enterprise data (identified by 75 percent of respondents), optimizing business information and analytics (73 percent), making business more agile (58 percent), and attracting new customers (58 percent).
And how do the companies hope to improve their business processes? Forty percent say they are likely to invest in cloud computing. What's more, over half of these companies stated that their investments in cloud-based solutions will be focused on "innovation," rather than "maintenance."
I think these companies have the right idea.
Technology plays a critical role in transforming operations and driving competitiveness for private and public companies. As companies look to better position themselves to take advantage of the economic recovery, they'll need a digital platform in place to capture, manage and deliver mission-critical data as efficiently and effectively as possible -- an area where cloud-based solutions shine.
Leveraging cloud-based solutions enables organizations to take a fresh approach to labor-intensive and error-prone document-driven business processes. For instance, eGistics' CloudDocs on-line document management solution eliminates the burden of determining where to store documents -- in terms of files and folders. It can recognize bar codes, which many businesses use to organize packets of documents, or even load documents into the system for indexing later. And once documents are loaded into CloudDocs, users don’t have to worry about where they are located; with a simple command, CloudDocs retrieves them instantly.
This type of functionality can streamline a wide range of applications -- accounts payable, accounts receivable, human resources and legal, to name a few -- freeing staff to focus more of their time on core competencies, servicing customers or developing innovative new products or services.
In my opinion, that makes IT investments in cloud computing money well spent.
_________________________________
Mark Brousseau, Brousseau & Associates
Mark Brousseau is a noted marketer, analyst, speaker, and writer, with more than 16 years of experience advising leading providers of payments and document automation solutions.
Brousseau is president of Brousseau & Associates, a full-service marketing, PR and business development firm based in Central Pennsylvania. With the largest client base of any independent marketing firm specializing in the payments and document automation arenas, Brousseau & Associates counts among its clients many top solutions and services providers.
You can follow Mark on Twitter @markbrousseau
A blog dedicated to the presentation and discussion of ideas about the storage and management of information for financial services.
Showing posts with label Mark Brousseau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Brousseau. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Changing the CFO’s Perception of AP
By R. Edwin Pearce
Historically, if you asked a CFO to tell you the first thing that popped into their mind when you mention accounts payable (AP) processing, they likely would have responded with some variation of “cost center.” The fact is, as a percentage of revenue, the costs associated with AP processing typically represent a small blip on the radar of most companies. But as companies have tightened their spending as a result of the recent economic downturn, that blip is now a significant opportunity.
More than 75 percent of AP departments report into the CFO, according to various studies. With CFOs keenly interested in cost containment and improved cash management, AP leaders would be well served to find ways to deliver strategic benefits to the organization. Notably, 56 percent of CFOs believe AP represents a more strategic opportunity for improvements than it did two years ago.
One reason CFOs are changing their tune on AP is that they are seeking ways to avoid further layoffs, while weathering the recession. To this end, most are tightening controls over employee spending and placing greater emphasis on measuring and monitoring the company’s financial health.
These types of activities are clearly in the AP department’s wheelhouse.
CFOs are looking past the traditional paper-encumbered stereotype of AP and focusing more closely on the tremendous amount of financial data that flows through AP. From this perspective, they see AP as a means to improving working capital management, reducing supply chain risk, and greatly reducing the incidence of fraud. Most importantly, CFOs recognize that AP can help a company improve its cash position by extending days payables outstanding, avoiding late payments, capturing early-pay and volume discounts, and ensuring that payments and orders are compliant with contracts.
At many companies, AP no longer is merely a back-office transaction function where efficiency and low cost of operations are the only requisites for success; AP processes are being more tightly linked with treasury functions to help maximize working capital management. This is part of an overall move to align core processes across business functions to support corporate strategic initiatives.
While this increased corporate standing is good news for AP departments, they must also be ready for CFOs to more closely assess their performance based on key criteria such as costs, service delivery, error rates, timeliness of responses to inquiries, compliance, and vendor relationships.
This makes it imperative that AP departments continue their automation initiatives. Not only does automation help AP departments improve on-time payment performance, reduce errors, slash costs and enable greater visibility into financial data. But it also delivers the quantifiable data on process performance that CFOs will require as AP evolves into more strategic partner for their organization.
R. Edwin Pearce is executive vice president of sales and corporate development for eGistics, Inc., a provider of e-document solutions. He can be reached at 214-256-4607 or via epearce@egisticsinc.com.
Historically, if you asked a CFO to tell you the first thing that popped into their mind when you mention accounts payable (AP) processing, they likely would have responded with some variation of “cost center.” The fact is, as a percentage of revenue, the costs associated with AP processing typically represent a small blip on the radar of most companies. But as companies have tightened their spending as a result of the recent economic downturn, that blip is now a significant opportunity.
More than 75 percent of AP departments report into the CFO, according to various studies. With CFOs keenly interested in cost containment and improved cash management, AP leaders would be well served to find ways to deliver strategic benefits to the organization. Notably, 56 percent of CFOs believe AP represents a more strategic opportunity for improvements than it did two years ago.
One reason CFOs are changing their tune on AP is that they are seeking ways to avoid further layoffs, while weathering the recession. To this end, most are tightening controls over employee spending and placing greater emphasis on measuring and monitoring the company’s financial health.
These types of activities are clearly in the AP department’s wheelhouse.
CFOs are looking past the traditional paper-encumbered stereotype of AP and focusing more closely on the tremendous amount of financial data that flows through AP. From this perspective, they see AP as a means to improving working capital management, reducing supply chain risk, and greatly reducing the incidence of fraud. Most importantly, CFOs recognize that AP can help a company improve its cash position by extending days payables outstanding, avoiding late payments, capturing early-pay and volume discounts, and ensuring that payments and orders are compliant with contracts.
At many companies, AP no longer is merely a back-office transaction function where efficiency and low cost of operations are the only requisites for success; AP processes are being more tightly linked with treasury functions to help maximize working capital management. This is part of an overall move to align core processes across business functions to support corporate strategic initiatives.
While this increased corporate standing is good news for AP departments, they must also be ready for CFOs to more closely assess their performance based on key criteria such as costs, service delivery, error rates, timeliness of responses to inquiries, compliance, and vendor relationships.
This makes it imperative that AP departments continue their automation initiatives. Not only does automation help AP departments improve on-time payment performance, reduce errors, slash costs and enable greater visibility into financial data. But it also delivers the quantifiable data on process performance that CFOs will require as AP evolves into more strategic partner for their organization.
R. Edwin Pearce is executive vice president of sales and corporate development for eGistics, Inc., a provider of e-document solutions. He can be reached at 214-256-4607 or via epearce@egisticsinc.com.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Healthcare Payables: From Bad to Worse?
By Amer Khan (akhan@egisticsinc.com) of eGistics (www.egisticsinc.com)
Effectively managing the payables process is a big job for most companies, but for healthcare organizations, it is a particularly tall order -- and it's about to get a lot more challenging.
The problem in managing healthcare payables stems from the byzantine network of buyer and seller relationships employed by most healthcare organizations, combined with the increasingly complex procurement processes and contracts that healthcare organizations use to purchase goods and services. Every day, the typical healthcare organization receives a mountain of invoices from many different suppliers, most under different contracts with potentially different payment arrangements.
When you mix in the unusually high number of suppliers that most healthcare organizations use -- a hospital might have thousands of suppliers compared to a few dozen for a big law firm -- you can see how the payables process can quickly become complicated. For instance, on a given day, a hospital might receive invoices for everything from Band-Aids to the pricey cardiology equipment it leases.
The healthcare industry's attempts to address the inefficiencies of the payables continuum have delivered mixed results. Several years ago, group purchasing organizations (GPOs) started sprouting up, allowing healthcare organizations to buy a range of goods and services from a single entity, rather than dealing with multiple vendors. While GPOs have enabled their customers to maximize discounts and reduce the number of vendors they do business with, there are still many cases where healthcare providers must source goods and services directly (such as buying from local suppliers), meaning they still must maintain a high number of supplier relationships.
Here's the scary part: the problem is likely to get worse. Every innovation in the healthcare industry -- whether it's new technologies, new devices or new drugs -- may create more suppliers, generating more invoices, contracts, payment arrangements, and, in some cases, acquisition channels. With our nation focusing like never before on innovations in healthcare, providers have no time to waste.
And while healthcare organizations are focusing tremendous amounts of time and resources on "big issues" such as meeting new requirements for electronic health records (EHRs) and ICD-10, driving down the costs associated with payables can deliver significant benefits as well, and in short order.
So, how can healthcare organizations accomplish this?
Since manual processes don't scale, the healthcare industry will need to rethink its approach to payables. The answer starts with eliminating paper at the earliest point possible in the process.
Whether it's converting paper invoices to electronic images, or convincing business partners to provide electronic invoices in the first place, eliminating paper simplifies and automates the payables process. It allows healthcare providers to apply automated rules for processing, and to initiate an electronic payment with detailed remittance information so the supplier can automatically post the receivables. With these types of solutions, providers can solve their current business challenges and lay a solid foundation to manage the increasingly complex payable environment that is sure to come.
What do you think?
Effectively managing the payables process is a big job for most companies, but for healthcare organizations, it is a particularly tall order -- and it's about to get a lot more challenging.
The problem in managing healthcare payables stems from the byzantine network of buyer and seller relationships employed by most healthcare organizations, combined with the increasingly complex procurement processes and contracts that healthcare organizations use to purchase goods and services. Every day, the typical healthcare organization receives a mountain of invoices from many different suppliers, most under different contracts with potentially different payment arrangements.
When you mix in the unusually high number of suppliers that most healthcare organizations use -- a hospital might have thousands of suppliers compared to a few dozen for a big law firm -- you can see how the payables process can quickly become complicated. For instance, on a given day, a hospital might receive invoices for everything from Band-Aids to the pricey cardiology equipment it leases.
The healthcare industry's attempts to address the inefficiencies of the payables continuum have delivered mixed results. Several years ago, group purchasing organizations (GPOs) started sprouting up, allowing healthcare organizations to buy a range of goods and services from a single entity, rather than dealing with multiple vendors. While GPOs have enabled their customers to maximize discounts and reduce the number of vendors they do business with, there are still many cases where healthcare providers must source goods and services directly (such as buying from local suppliers), meaning they still must maintain a high number of supplier relationships.
Here's the scary part: the problem is likely to get worse. Every innovation in the healthcare industry -- whether it's new technologies, new devices or new drugs -- may create more suppliers, generating more invoices, contracts, payment arrangements, and, in some cases, acquisition channels. With our nation focusing like never before on innovations in healthcare, providers have no time to waste.
And while healthcare organizations are focusing tremendous amounts of time and resources on "big issues" such as meeting new requirements for electronic health records (EHRs) and ICD-10, driving down the costs associated with payables can deliver significant benefits as well, and in short order.
So, how can healthcare organizations accomplish this?
Since manual processes don't scale, the healthcare industry will need to rethink its approach to payables. The answer starts with eliminating paper at the earliest point possible in the process.
Whether it's converting paper invoices to electronic images, or convincing business partners to provide electronic invoices in the first place, eliminating paper simplifies and automates the payables process. It allows healthcare providers to apply automated rules for processing, and to initiate an electronic payment with detailed remittance information so the supplier can automatically post the receivables. With these types of solutions, providers can solve their current business challenges and lay a solid foundation to manage the increasingly complex payable environment that is sure to come.
What do you think?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Trends in ACH Dispute Management
Trends in ACH Dispute Management
Thursday, August 12 at 1 p.m. eastern
As ACH volumes have grown, so too have the number of ACH transaction disputes that processors must manage. Expensive to handle, these disputes are subject to a complex mix of rules and regulations, and can lead to hefty charge-offs if improperly managed. Just how big a problem are ACH disputes? This webinar will share the results of an exclusive survey of ACH processors on trends in ACH dispute management, including volumes, costs, levels of automation, future plans and more. Attendees will be able to benchmark their operations, gain actionable insights from our panelists, and learn what some processors are doing to automate their ACH dispute processing.
To register, click this link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/589842392 or e-mail Dave Nitchman of IAPP-TAWPI at dnitchman@tawpi.org.
Panelists:
Rossana Salaris, principal, Radix Consulting
Amer Khan, senior vice president, product and sales support, eGistics
Moderator:
Mark Brousseau, facilitator, IAPP-TAWPI Payments and Receivables Council
Thursday, August 12 at 1 p.m. eastern
As ACH volumes have grown, so too have the number of ACH transaction disputes that processors must manage. Expensive to handle, these disputes are subject to a complex mix of rules and regulations, and can lead to hefty charge-offs if improperly managed. Just how big a problem are ACH disputes? This webinar will share the results of an exclusive survey of ACH processors on trends in ACH dispute management, including volumes, costs, levels of automation, future plans and more. Attendees will be able to benchmark their operations, gain actionable insights from our panelists, and learn what some processors are doing to automate their ACH dispute processing.
To register, click this link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/589842392 or e-mail Dave Nitchman of IAPP-TAWPI at dnitchman@tawpi.org.
Panelists:
Rossana Salaris, principal, Radix Consulting
Amer Khan, senior vice president, product and sales support, eGistics
Moderator:
Mark Brousseau, facilitator, IAPP-TAWPI Payments and Receivables Council
Monday, July 12, 2010
Economic risks of data overload
By Ed Pearce (epearce@egisticsinc.com) of eGistics (http://www.egisticsinc.com/)
When data pours in by the millisecond and the mountain of information builds continuously, professionals inevitably cut corners and go with their 'gut' when making decisions that can impact financial markets, medical treatments or any number of time sensitive matters, according to a new study from Thomson Reuters. The study indicates that when faced with unsorted, unverified "raw" data, 60 percent of decision-makers will make "intuitive" decisions that can lead to poor outcomes.
Many government regulators have flagged increased financial risk-taking, which can be traced in some degree to imperfectly managed data, as a contributor to the recent financial crisis. Moreover, the world is awash with data -- roughly 800 exabytes -- and the velocity of information is increasing, Thomson Reuters says.
The challenge is that the staffing and investment needed to ensure that information and information channels are trusted, reliable and useful is not keeping pace. In fact, it is estimated that the information universe will increase by a factor of 44; the number of managed files by a factor of 67; storage by a factor of 30 but staffing and investment in careful management by a factor of 1.4.
"The solution to data overload is to provide decision makers with what Thomson Reuters calls Intelligent Information: better organized and structured information, rapidly conveyed to the users preferred device," says David Craig, executive vice president and chief strategy officer.
Fortunately, as the Thomson Reuters study notes, the same technological revolution that has resulted in the explosion of information also opens the way to new and improved tools for providing intelligent information: better organized and structured information, rapidly conveyed to the user's preferred device.
"We must use the benefits of the information technology revolution to minimize its risks. This is a joint task that the private sector and governments must closely focus on if we are to avoid systemic crises, in the future, whether we speak of finance, healthcare delivery, international security and a myriad of other areas," comments Craig.
How is your organization managing information overload?
When data pours in by the millisecond and the mountain of information builds continuously, professionals inevitably cut corners and go with their 'gut' when making decisions that can impact financial markets, medical treatments or any number of time sensitive matters, according to a new study from Thomson Reuters. The study indicates that when faced with unsorted, unverified "raw" data, 60 percent of decision-makers will make "intuitive" decisions that can lead to poor outcomes.
Many government regulators have flagged increased financial risk-taking, which can be traced in some degree to imperfectly managed data, as a contributor to the recent financial crisis. Moreover, the world is awash with data -- roughly 800 exabytes -- and the velocity of information is increasing, Thomson Reuters says.
The challenge is that the staffing and investment needed to ensure that information and information channels are trusted, reliable and useful is not keeping pace. In fact, it is estimated that the information universe will increase by a factor of 44; the number of managed files by a factor of 67; storage by a factor of 30 but staffing and investment in careful management by a factor of 1.4.
"The solution to data overload is to provide decision makers with what Thomson Reuters calls Intelligent Information: better organized and structured information, rapidly conveyed to the users preferred device," says David Craig, executive vice president and chief strategy officer.Fortunately, as the Thomson Reuters study notes, the same technological revolution that has resulted in the explosion of information also opens the way to new and improved tools for providing intelligent information: better organized and structured information, rapidly conveyed to the user's preferred device.
"We must use the benefits of the information technology revolution to minimize its risks. This is a joint task that the private sector and governments must closely focus on if we are to avoid systemic crises, in the future, whether we speak of finance, healthcare delivery, international security and a myriad of other areas," comments Craig.
How is your organization managing information overload?
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