Amping up the Use of AP Automation
The need to fully utilize technological advances is the latest elephant in the room for the business sector. No longer are businesses lagging because they haven’t acquired the latest technology. Now they are simply slow in using what is already in their possession.
Like a late-model auto that is forever kept hidden in the garage, businesses have yet to completely utilize the untapped potential of the technology they now own. The acquisition of it may give them a feeling of confidence and superiority, but the feeling doesn’t line up with the facts: the companies that are winning the race in terms of hard profits are those that are using their technology to the fullest capacity.
These businesses are described as the “have-mores” in an article titled “The Most Digital Companies Are Leaving All The Rest Behind”, collaboratively written by James Manyika, Gary Pinkus and Sree Ramaswamy.
The link between technology and success should come as no surprise to savvy business leaders. Artificial intelligence is a bit like human intelligence; it performs at its highest degree when it is properly used.
Electronic Advances in Accounts Payable
Accounts payable is not immune to this slowness to adapt. AP Automation offers many innovative tools that can be used to increase the speed and efficiency of today’s accounts payable department.
To what extent are these tools being used? Recent statistics would indicate that for the average business, they are not being used enough. For instance, how many businesses are fully automated, removing paper documents from the equation entirely, from procurement to payment? To do so would require a greater understanding between the vendors and the buyers, with a steely insistence that certain policies must be adhered to.
One of the greatest tools produced by Electronic Invoicing is that of Dynamic Discounting. As beneficial as this tool is acknowledged to be, it can still only be of weak support if it is not used efficiently. Vendor requirements and buyer needs change daily. Consistent evaluation and tweaking of current methods is needed to make Dynamic Discounting perform at its best for the average business. Long-held relationships with vendors who are no longer serving current needs may have to be let go, for E-invoicing to do its most perfect work.
Another point of evaluation is the overall connectedness of accounts payable within the organization. How helpful is accounts payable in defining and working towards the expressed goals of the company? Is interdepartmental communication of these goals as efficient as it needs to be? What about interdepartmental cooperation? An organization cannot fully benefit from automation without increased cooperation and a transparent process, because separate departments must be working together to achieve common goals.
For companies with divisions outside the country, the question of how well automation is working becomes even more acute. Connectedness to this degree may require more of a hands-on approach by upper level management.
Accounts Payable Automation is an ingenious technical creation for accounts payable, destined to literally transform the workplace. Like other technology, the more it is used, the greater the realized benefit to the average business.