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Updated 11:29 AM, Nov 6, 2026
Three’s Company – Lives in End-to-End Procure to Pay
In this edition of the Finance and Procurement People Podcast PPN CEO Ellen Leith talks to Founder of Sharedserviceslink.com, Susie West and Founder of EBG Network, Anna Bjarkerud about what it takes to run a community and why after coming up to two decades for the three of us, we keep doing it!
As Anna points out for her it's about bringing people together and have real conversations and a platform to acknowledge what is tough but also what's inspiring and helping each other in the art of the possible. While the topics themselves evolve, the idea of being able to learn from a real human never goes away.
Which is something that Susie agrees with and adds that there's something very collegiate about the community that we work in - the idea that Coca-Cola, for example, can sit around a table with PepsiCo and they want to help each other. There's something about that which is quite addictive and nourishing at the same time.
But some things stay the same. Or almost the same. And one of those things for Anna is the level of collaboration and the breaking down of silos. Between the three of us it was one of the main reasons for forming our communities, but as Anna points out, one of the biggest surprises for her over the years has been that those gaps between the silos have not narrowed more than they have. And it's inbetween those gaps, she points out, that opportunities and value fall.
And on that point Susie reminisced about a time back in her days selling eInvoicing solutions that she had on occasion been surprised to discover that meeting to showcase the solution was the very first time procurement professionals in the business had met anyone from payables! But these days, she says, with eInvoicing taking its place in our organisational development; procurement, IT, Tax and Finance have to be the best of friends and share a vision to get things done.
Susie went on to say that one of her biggest surprises over the years has been that she would have thought that the UK would be further down the road to more widespread adoption on a voluntary basis and states that it would have taken decades without the mandate.
But what about the businesses we run themselves... would we do it all again if we knew then what we know now?
Find out in our conversation below:
Episode Summary
- Communities bring people together to have real conversations and focus on the art of the possible.
- Something very collegiate about the end-to-end Procure to Pay community. We want to help each other out
- Give hope and connect people to others who might be able to inspire them. Which is a privilege to be able to do.
- Silos still exist between the different areas of Procure to Pay. Value and opportunities fall between those gaps
- Soft persuasion and voluntary codes go some way to changing behaviour, but regulations lead to results.
- In the UK's eInvoicing mandate in 2029, HMRC will need to carefully consider the SME approach
- Global VAT gap considered to be 1/2 trillion dollars. With B2B eInvoicing mandate Mexico and Chile have halved theirs.
- Managing risk is crucial. Procurement these days need a crystal ball to manage the next disruption. So control is essential.
- AI is a time saver and many realise it offers a golden opportunity to free up time to do more strategic work.
- Running a community is not easy, but 100% we'd do it again!
Quotes From the Episode:
"The idea of being able to learn from a real human never goes away."
"In this community there's a feeling that we want to help each other. That's quite addictive and nourishing at the same time."
"There are still organisational gaps where opportunities and value escape and I would have hoped for even more cross function collaboration by now."
"I would have thought eInvoicing would have moved on a bit more under the voluntary era."
"I had a manager say I should focus more on where the money is. I said, not - I'm so interested in everything that's so tough for the people and their companies!"
"You definitely go through ups and downs. But then it starts to get fun!"
