Guest article by Dermot McCauley, VP BPM & Case Management, Kofax - a Lexmark Company
A modern financial system is the foundation for automation. Complete accounts payable automation solutions are a relatively new product category for financial operations professionals. Advanced technologies such as mobile, social networking, and intelligent dashboards are very slowly being integrated into offerings and adopted by enterprises.
Given the profound benefits of e-Invoicing, it is remarkable that only a little over 8% of global invoices in 2014 will be processed electronically, according to Billentis’ 2014 E-Invoicing / E-Billing report.
For some time I’ve argued that what you call something doesn’t necessarily matter – it’s whether you get out of it what you expect, and what you need that’s important. Take making a cup of tea for example – I can put a pan on the hob and wait for the water to boil, or I can flick a switch on a kettle. Both processes are boiling water – one is just e-boiling... which process I follow depends on time, resources and a large helping of common sense.
In the days before the internet, AP departments dealt solely with paper and all transactions were manual – right? Well, not quite. In those days the new kid on the block was EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) which for the most part relied on VANs (Value Added Networks) to transmit data – such as purchase orders and invoices – between suppliers.