A New Approach to P2P – Ecosystem and AP First

Procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions have changed drastically in the past year. With the onset of the pandemic requiring many businesses to go digital, many realised that it was time to trade in their on-premise P2P solutions and manual processes for automation. In the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Procure-to-Pay Suites, our market responsiveness in the wake of the pandemic was noted as a strength, as well as our AP Automation. Read to learn more.

A new look at P2P 

Procure-to-pay ecosystems are changing the way businesses look at their processes. Why use a mediocre suite when you can hand pick the right specialists for your specific needs? At Basware, we’re an advocate for this approach. And though our cloud P2P has notably been rising in adoption, so has our AP Automation solution.

The 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites named us as a Visionary and highlighted our strength in this particular area and others. Through the use of our intelligent workflows and innovative technologies that power our solutions (and our AP solution in particular), we offer an easy, compliant, and quick way to process invoices of all types, which is all the more important given we process a significantly high number of invoices annually as compared to other P2P vendors.

And this is important given that many of our customers are geographically diverse and large enterprises. With so many different invoice mandates varying across borders and firms transacting with suppliers worldwide, it’s a full-time job (and then some) to keep up with the variability – especially when it comes with such great risks. Basware helps companies remain compliant and ensures suppliers get paid quickly and correctly.

Basware’s solution to the pandemic disruption

Given the way the pandemic disrupted supply chains globally, we at Basware jumped at the opportunity to provide our customers as many ways as possible to stabilise and ensure business continuity. In order to do so, we introduced a number of new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to ensure our customers remained in business.

Additionally, we realised that many businesses would feel the urge to digitise operations since massive shutdowns and quarantine measures were taken and many companies were unable to get into the office. With the rise of digitisation paired with the disruption of the supply chain, cost containment became a high priority. So, we wanted to ensure our pricing remained flexible and that new customers were given the ability to create a solution layout that worked for them, within their budget.

AP-first approach

This is another reason why we advocate for the ecosystem approach. It’s a way to realise quick ROI, phase in your digital solutions on a timeline and budget that works for you and start with the soul of your P2P operations – AP Automation. By starting with AP first, companies have the ability to pay suppliers quicker, collect financial data, use that data to inform more strategic business decisions, and get total visibility across all the flows of money and goods.

Once your AP is totally automated, you’ll reap benefits such as:

• All your invoice data will be captured automatically, without any human involvement

• The percentage of straight-through touchless, processed invoices will be above 80%

• You’ll have a way to easily manage non-PO recurring invoices

• Historical data recognition will automate your invoice coding

• You’ll be able to automatically match invoices to purchase orders generated in other systems

• You’ll be able to automatically match invoices that span multiple POs or multiple invoices for one PO

• Your invoice processing time will be less than eight days

More about AP-first

To learn more about how an AP-first approach to your digital P2P transformation project will set your firm up for automation success, read more here.