Visa Inc. released today an updated and expanded commercial payment card best practices study that reveals procure-to-pay (P2P) automation is among leading factors contributing to more efficient business processes and cost savings at today's companies across the globe. The study, conducted by Deloitte Consulting on behalf of Visa Commercial Solutions, found that utilizing the latest P2P technologies and integrating commercial payment card usage with those systems can result in better process efficiency, improved spend visibility, optimization of resources and increased cost savings.
"Automating corporate expense management through the elimination of paper-based processes and labor-intensive activities is becoming an increasingly important source of new efficiencies and cost savings for today's business," said Darren Parslow, Global Head of Commercial Solutions, Visa Inc. "The P2P best practices can help companies identify needed improvements and boost the efficiency of their expense management processes so they can actually realize those cost savings."
Key Findings
The P2P process is defined as a procurement spectrum that includes sourcing, order placement, payment, settlement, reconciliation, control, audit and reporting. More than 60 individual best practices identify several factors contributing to the improvement of the P2P process, including:
- Automate the P2P process from start to finish
- Create visibility and mainstream commercial payment initiatives with active senior management support
- Make P2P a center of excellence within the organization
- Establish a commercial card program management framework
- Integrate the card program into enterprise-wide performance management initiatives
- Designate a commercial card for company meetings-related expenditures
- Create a formal supplier management function
- Develop an integrated controls strategy
- Use sophisticated reporting and spend analysis tools
"As a leading B2B payments provider, Visa is committed to monitoring current trends and developing best practices relating to the use of commercial cards as an effective corporate expense management tool," said Jennifer Steinman, Principal, Deloitte Consulting. "This study, conducted by Deloitte Consulting on behalf of Visa, provides a current view of what leading edge companies from across the globe are doing to streamline their internal processes and maximize the return from their commercial card programs."
Study Methodology: Visa's 2008 Global Procure-to-Pay and Commercial Card Best Practices Study builds upon an original Visa best practices study from 2002. It was conducted by Deloitte Consulting in 2007 and included 90 in-depth interviews at more than 60 large and mid-sized companies worldwide. The evaluation of the P2P process included sourcing, order placement, payment, settlement, reconciliation, control, audit and reporting activities. Fifty two percent of study participants were from the United States with the remaining participants representing regions from across the globe. The majority of study participants were from the manufacturing, consumer products and healthcare industries, followed in descending order by technology, energy/utilities, financial services, transportation, public sector and communications. A summary of the study results can be found at www.visa.com/procuretopaybestpracticestudy.
Source: BUSINESS WIRE