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Last week, Supply & Demand Chain Executive featured an excellent article on how organizations can leverage enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to positively affect the efficiency of the supply chain.

Written by Eric Kimberling, an ERP consultant based in Denver, the article outlines reasons ERP must be more effective, differentiates between ERP solutions and shares best practices for selecting and implementing ERP.  As Eric states in the article:

"Managing receivables is more important than ever.  For most businesses, the next best thing to cash is receivables.  Although not directly related to supply chain management, robust financial and receivables management in an ERP system will help better finance inventory investment needs in the long-term..."

While Metafile is not an ERP solution provider, our MetaViewer product integrates with ERP solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics to create true workflow efficiency, achieve true process visibility and promote truly intelligent automation.  As the excerpts from the article above illustrate, robust financial management, rooted in process visibility, should be a top priority for companies looking to establish a leaner supply chain.

For more on this topic, read the full article here.

When organizations plan to implement new accounts payable (AP) technology, education surrounding AP best practices is essential in ensuring ultimate value for technology investment.  As part of our commitment to industry education, in tandem with The Accounts Payable Channel (TAPC), Metafile is offering free access to the "Accounts Payable Best Practices" on-demand multimedia seminar.

Hosted by Tom Nichols, consultant to The Accounts Payable Network (TAPN) and president of Process Management Improvement, Inc., this seminar provides insights and realistic approaches to process improvements that can bring positive change to accounts payable operations.  Nichols provides best practices for:

• Enforcing your company's ethical guidelines
• Redefining internal customer satisfaction
• Strengthening control of your vendor master file
• Maximizing the benefits of P-cards
• Tightening T&E controls
• Improving invoice processing efficiency
• Performance measurement

This 60-minute seminar is available free of charge to registered users of The Accounts Payable Channel for a limited time only and provides a flexible way to learn all about proven best practices that will help make operations more efficient.  Click here to access the seminar.

Recently, the Aberdeen Group conducted a survey of more than 150 enterprises serving a wide range of industries and developed a research report entitled, “Invoicing and Workflow: Transforming Process Automation into Operational Cost Control.” The report serves as an overview of the AP function’s current state, and offers strategies organizations can employ to improve invoice-processing efficiency and visibility.

We've always believed technology is a critical tool in delivering business value and confidence in decision making to the C-suite, but only in concert with an invoice-processing framework that is truly efficient. Among other findings, the research report indicates:

• The most common factors driving participants’ focus on AP improvement  are a lack of visibility into invoices and AP documents (575) and corporate directives to lower overall costs (43%).
• Relative to invoice processing performance, the Best-in-Class maturity class (the top 20%) of respondents averaged a $4.84-per-invoice processing cost and a 3.7-day cycle time to process a single invoice, while the Laggard maturity class (the bottom 30%) averaged a $27.83-per-invoice processing cost and a 41.3-day cycle time to process a single invoice

To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, click here.

With more than 20 years' experience implementing AP document management technology, Jim Mandt knows just how impactful AP technology investment can be to organizations in every industry.  Beyond the expense, the technology that organizations select will touch every internal and external player in the procure-to-pay process.

In a recent blog post on The Accounts Payable Channel, Jim shared five simple, yet critical, questions that organizations should ask their technology provider to help them avoid the all-too-common pitfalls of choosing AP technology "flash" over substance:

• PROCESS:  How in-depth will your evaluation of my organization's P2P process be before implementation of AP document management technology?
• CUSTOMIZATION:  How will your solution adapt to my organization's particular operating environment and supplier ecosystem?
• WORKFLOW CAPABILITIES:  How will your solution move my organization beyond only eliminating paper to also addressing the workflow behind it?
• ERP INTEGRATION:  How will your technology integrate with my ERP solution to boost my organization's return on investment?
• SERVICE AND SUPPORT:  How will you ensure that your solution continues to deliver value long after the sale?

By asking these and other tough questions, organizations can make sure their AP technology choice reflects a long-term, value-driven commitment to true automation across the P2P spectrum.

Read Jim's full blog post as it appears on The Accounts Payable Channel.

Often when discussing accounts payable technology, industry trends, and our products, we will talk about achieving "intelligent automation."

Intelligent automation is rooted in accounting systems that deliver built-in intelligence across the customer and supplier landscape, ensure that once information is entered at any point in the procure-to-pay process, it will never need to be rekeyed but will appear automatically as work and data flow through the process.

So what is the benefit of intelligent automation? It helps organizations introduce visibility into accounting processes and identify system breakdowns.  This increased visibility allows accounting department leaders and C-level executives to make highly strategic decisions based on increased awareness of their companies' processes, and the impact of those processes on the bottom line.

For more true automation and how it is achieved, read our article that appears on Manufacturing.net..

Here at Metafile, we feel that when decision makers consider implementing accounts payable (AP) technology or maximizing their existing investment, one of the most important steps is taking the time to learn as much as possible – not only about the technology they’re considering, but also about the path to automation – in order to make a well-informed decision.

This year, we are partnering with The Aberdeen Group to present a series of webinars designed to inform those who are considering AP technology solutions, may have already implemented them and want to maximize their investment, or are considering switching to a new AP automation solution.

The second webinar in the series, “Overcome Roadblocks – Turn Your Accounts Payable into a Revenue Generator” will be held Thursday, June 17 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. Supported by Aberdeen’s latest research, this webinar will evaluate the current state of AP automation, explore the roadblocks to AP process automation improvement and offer recommendations for overcoming those roadblocks in order to maximize the value of their AP technology investment.

The session will be presented by Metafile’s own Doug Bertram and Aberdeen’s Nasreen Quibria, a senior research analyst, along with Scott Pezza, a senior research associate with Aberdeen. For more information on the webinar, we recommend reading Scott Pezza’s blog.

Register here.

By Nick Sprau, Vice President of Marketing, Metafile, Inc., and Chris Evanoff, President and Managing Director, Soltec, Inc.

Adapted from an article that appears in the May-June issue of AP Matters

No matter what the industry, every accounts payable (AP) professional understands their success lies in efficiently managing and executing their role in the procure-to-pay (P2P) process.  Beyond ensuring cost control, an efficient P2P process contributes to customer satisfaction that can help generate revenue and grow the bottom line.  But with thousands of transactions among thousands of suppliers and customers in thousands of locations, getting to that bottom-line growth can seem all but impossible. 

For organizations in many industries, supplier portals can extend automation across the supply chain and provide the “bottom-line value acceleration” accounts payable professionals seek. Understanding if a supplier portal is the right investment decision means assessing the portal’s application and potential value, and thinking strategically about the P2P process.&When AP professionals begin to consider portals for their organization, it is essential to ask the right questions:

• Deciding which portal path is right for your organization requires evaluating the resources of your IT staff – from software technicians to core IT systems personnel and others.  Are they willing and able to develop, support, maintain, and upgrade the organization’s own supplier portal?
• Organizations must gain portal participation among their supplier ecosystems to ensure ultimate value. They must ask themselves: how much detail are they willing to share on an individual and collective basis? While small to midsized suppliers are best positioned to reap efficiencies from the use of supplier portals, some may deem adapting their processes to match the portal’s requirements too costly per transaction.
• Which transactions will the supplier portal make possible?  Technology is available that makes multiple P2P transactions possible, maximizing potential for across-the-board efficiency and ROI.

The advent of supplier portal technology has proved immensely valuable, tremendously efficient, and widely popular for organizations in a variety of industries, as the adoption and use of supplier portals continues to increase.

It’s this success that also breeds the supplier portal’s next challenge: enabling automatic transaction processing and helping suppliers efficiently manage the ever-growing number of unique portals they may be required to access on a daily basis. After all, true automation exists when data can be accessed, shared, and processed seamlessly, without the need for rekeying or other human intervention.

Last week we attended another great and informative conference, IAPP Fusion 2010 in Grapevine, TX.  Focused on collaboration between accounts payable and accounts receivable professionals, IAPP Fusion 2010 provided us with the opportunity to meet with a lot of great people representing organizations that are striving to achieve efficiency in their business processes.

Metafile served as a "stop" on several FUSION 2010 tour visits, including the future of AP technology and ways to create efficient  AP automation.  Metafile's David Danner also presented a well-received session on how AP departments can achieve efficiency and visibility by implementing new technology in well thought-out steps.

As discussed in a previous post, Jim Mandt, our vice president of technical services,  firmly believes in the philosophy of thoroughly evaluating and troubleshooting an organization’s AP process before implementing technology in order to maximize value and efficiency, and shared his philosophy with the manufacturing sector on Manufacturing.net.

Throughout Jim’s more than 20 years working with mid-market and large organizations in manufacturing and a variety of other industries, Jim has seen firsthand the positive impact of AP document management technology that eliminates paper, reduces costs, and introduces greater efficiency and accountability. Jim also knows even the best technology is only as powerful as the AP best practices that support it. 

He recently shared his thoughts on this topic with a wide spectrum of accounts payable professionals in a blog post he wrote for The Accounts Payable Channel entitled, “Think Process before Technology to Get to AP Value.”

Next weekend, several of us will be attending Convergence 2010 Atlanta, the premier Microsoft Dynamics event where Dynamics users and partners come together to share best practices and network.

If you'll be attending, feel free to visit us at booth 1137 for a chance to win an XBox 360!  We'll also be able to share insight into the real results companies are experiencing from the seamless integration of MetaViewer with Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

Hope to see you there!

A recent AP Matters article covered the challenges AP departments face when looking to adopt automation technology. One of these challenges is capturing information on the front-end, before paper invoices ever get created. It can often be difficult for AP departments to approach clients about switching to electronic invoices, but in most cases the clients notice the end-benefits too.

Other obstacles include existing ERP solutions and their compatability with paperless document management systems. Companies tend to view ERP solutions as the sole financial solution that is needed, but what many don’t realize is that document management automation in the AP department can seamlessly integrate with ERP, increasing the effectiveness of their existing system.

One of our customers, Gary Churchill, assistant vice president of IT for Perishable Distributors of Iowa (PDI) was highlighted in the article and discussed the challenges that PDI faced in its AP processes, the implementation of MetaViewer, and the benefits and results they’ve experienced ever since.

Read more on this topic in the AP Matters article “AP automation dilemma.”

If you're reading this, you may already be a friend of MetaViewer (perhaps a partner or customer).  If that's the case, welcome!  We look forward to strengthening our relationship with you by sharing what's happening at Metafile and within the accounts payable and accounts receivable document management industry.

We encourage you to visit our blog often, where we'll be sharing our perspectives on AP and AR document management and workflow solutions, and the trends supporting them.  We'll also be bringing you engaging and informative stories about how our paperless automation solutions are solving real business problems for partners and customers like you.

If you're new to MetaViewer, thanks for visiting our blog.  Stick around for a lot of great information coming your way in the near future, including relevant news and trends in the AP and AR document management realm, and how we're helping our customers achieve efficiency and visibility for the accounting function.  In the meantime, take a look around our web site for information on our products, our company history, and industries we serve.

Our goal is to share, inform, and talk with you about the power, promise, and results that can be achieved using AP and AR technology.  Feel free to comment on our posts or contact us with any questions you have, we look forward to hearing from you.  Look for more soon!