Lori Messana, BancTec
Today’s post is from Lori Messana, Managing Director, P2P Portfolio, at BancTec.
A common mistake during the transition to AP automation is thinking you can do it all. So be realistic and prioritize what your business really needs when it comes to accounts payable.
And while it’s natural to explore the “what-ifs” with potential BPO vendors during the evaluation process, take the time to determine your goals and objectives for AP automation. Also remember that vendors will want to say “yes” to everything, and don’t get starstruck by flashy demos with functionality you’ll never use.
Prioritize Your AP Automation Requirements
Sure, your key stakeholders will want to provide specific business requirements that cover all possible scenarios, with everything being “top priority.” But determine which requirements will get you the biggest bang for the buck.
Go for quick wins to establish momentum, and divide the AP automation project into phases. Add in the nice-to-haves only after you’ve capitalized on the low-hanging fruit.
Make sure all of your listed requirements tie back to the original objectives for the project, and don’t put up with scope creep. With the right BPO company, you can maintain control and watch your business grow.
BancTec will be heading to Nashville this weekend to talk business process outsourcing (BPO) at the Fusion 2012 conference that opens Sunday at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
A BancTec team will be at Booth #927 to discuss BPO services specifically designed for financial transaction processing and document management. During the conference, BancTec will present three educational sessions:
-
Lies My P2P Automation Vendor Told Me
- Presented by BancTec’s Lori Messana and Tami Kight, AP Manager with BMW,
- Tuesday, May 15, 3 – 4 p.m.
-
A 360 Degree Perspective of AR
- Presented by Michael Alfonsi, BancTec
- Tuesday, May 15, 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
-
The Challenges of Inbound Mail Processing, Are You Ready?
- Presented by Pamela Wu, BancTec
- Thursday, May 17, 9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
These sessions will lead conference attendees through the common struggles businesses face when managing P2P automation, accounts receivables and inbound mail services.
In the face of these challenges, BancTec’s Intelligent BPO (iBPO) services can enhance a variety of business processes, including invoice processing, AP automation, remittance processing, inbound mail services and image archive.
BancTec sponsored a new report from PayStream Advisors that provides benchmark data and analysis of critical trends facing the AP automation industry.
Titled “2012 Invoice Workflow Automation Technology Insight,” the report describes how the number of paper invoices has been declining by 5 percent annually for a number of years. In line with this trend, BancTec and its technology partner, Palette, have developed an end-to-end AP automation solution, coined AP Master.
Highlighted in the report, the hybrid AP Master automation solution begins with Palette Arena’s multitenant, web-based application for accounts payable and purchasing automation. Palette is headquartered in Sweden and is a market leader in enterprise purchase-to-pay and invoice processing solutions. Palette Arena handles multiple languages, currencies and tax calculations, and it supports all the capture solutions from BancTec.
BancTec uses its data extraction process to convert invoices to electronic images for accurate capture and routing. Invoices are automatically released into their corresponding workflow for routing and matching.
BancTec’s IntelliScan XDS speeds the process by scanning images at up to 550 pages per minute. When AP automation is outsourced, BancTec BPO Centers of Excellence use IntelliScan scanners to ensure an efficient, accurate and validated data capture process.
Lori Messana, BancTec
Today’s post is from Lori Messana, Managing Director, P2P Portfolio, at BancTec.
When it comes to automating your accounts payable, change management plays an important role, so it can’t be an afterthought. Automating AP affects a large group of stakeholders, and for some of them, change can be intimidating. Change management has to focus on countering resistance that can impede the project.
It is best to acknowledge both the positive and negative impacts of transitioning to business process outsourcing, and then communicate the ultimate benefits of an improved business process to your employees and customers. Affecting change at an emotional level is important. After all, if you change people’s feelings, you will change their behavior.
Outsourcing Accounts Payable, the Right Way
Once you and your BPO company identify all the procedural changes, change management should begin with communicating to the team what’s going to change. Discuss the benefits to employees, and include some of your “tough customers” in the early discussions. Your biggest critics can become your biggest fans.
It is also important to communicate to vendors before, during and after the BPO transition stages.
Communicate twice as much as you think is enough. And make doing things the right way easy, even fun.
Today’s post is from Lori Messana, Vice President/Managing Director, P2P Portfolio, at BancTec.
When meeting with a potential BPO provider and its team of “Subject Matter Experts” it is important to determine if the provider actually understands the corporate world, especially when it comes to procurement and accounts payable. After all, knowing how to drive a car doesn’t make someone a mechanic.
Has the Provider Walked in Your Shoes?
Someone who has done what you do will be in a much better position to understand the key issues involved in your business processes. With a provider that can act as a consultant and work with you, the best technology solution can be developed.
Of course the whole provider team does not have to understand your entire business, but be sure that someone there understands your typical day and how to solve the issues you confront.
Get to Know Your P2P Vendor
Simple research of a P2P provider and looking up the individual team members on LinkedIn and other public sources will help you get to know your potential partner. Asking the vendor team directly to tell you more about themselves is another good way to learn about their experience with P2P and AP automation.
Learn more about AP automation services, and see how BancTec offers smarter business processes through Intelligent BPO.
BancTec’s healthcare business analyst, Arvella Hill, will present an educational session Friday titled “Maximizing Healthcare Payment Automation” at the Healthcare Payments Automation Summit in Orlando, Fla.
Hill will discuss the major challenges that hinder the healthcare industry’s efforts to automate payment processing and offer solutions to achieve full automation.
Arvella Hill, healthcare business analyst for BancTec
“More than half of U.S. healthcare transactions are still paper-based. Additionally, there’s a processing lag if the payment is paper and the remittance electronic,” said Hill. “This represents one of the most costly and time-consuming challenges facing healthcare providers, billing companies and banks serving providers today.”
The session will demonstrate how BPO services can be a viable alternative for providers to improve remittance payment management. Optimizing the process through outsourcing can result in accelerated cash flow, increased recovery rate on denied claims and reductions in back-office expenses.
Learn more by visiting BancTec at Booth #155 during the summit, Jan. 26-28, at the Disney Contemporary Resort.
[Read more…]
Today’s post is from Lori Messana, Vice President/Managing Director, P2P Portfolio, at BancTec.
Does this sound familiar: Your P2P vendor proudly says, “We’ve got the perfect solution for an organization like yours!” before he or she has learned the first thing about your processes.
Vendors of P2P automation have to be about more than salesmanship. Finding the right solution for the customer requires in-depth knowledge of the accounts payable process and an understanding of the roles of the people involved.
A good AP automation vendor recognizes that even though the accounts payable function is a transactional process, it’s a unique process in each organization, based on its business structure, industry-specific roles, and regulatory requirements. If a vendor cannot commit to taking the time to understand your AP processes from the start, you may want to re-evaluate that vendor.
P2P Automation Beyond the Standard Benefits
The benefits of automation usually highlighted by solution providers include cost reduction, increased efficiency, fraud prevention, discount capture, and working capital improvements. However, those benefits alone will not guarantee a solution will meet your specific business needs.
[Read more…]
