Tag Archives: innovate

A CFOs guide to the Black Box of IT

Apptio, a leader in Technology Business Management (TBM) software has recently joined PayStream for a new research report: Reinventing Technology Business Management: A CFOs Guide to the Black Box of IT. The underlying question here is “What if a CFO knew exactly why every dollar was spent on IT?” This report will focus on providing CFOs with a tool set to effectively analyze and influence IT spending.

Every CFO is told time and time over that increasing an organization’s technology is necessary. Often they are left with arduous decisions while being given little insight into the true value that new technologies bring to the table. New IT management solutions allow CFOs to effectively partner with CIOs to increase the ROIs of technology spending and improve IT workflow.

Technology Business Management software provides access to real-time, consumable data that illuminates the consumption and ROI of technology investments. CFOs often view IT spending as an uncontrollable or fixed cost. With the use of TBM software, IT departments can be transformed into profit centers at a granular level by decreasing the costs associated with server allocation, labor, and energy consumption. Going further, a breakdown of expenditures into unit costs provides CFOs with the necessary information to make sound IT spend decisions that decrease unnecessary spending and increase revenues.

PayStream is excited to work with Apptio on this educational report set to hit the presses this April.

Don’t forget to secure your spot at PayStream INNOVATE ‘14. Located at the beautiful Downtown River Walk in San Antonio, Texas. INNOVATE ’14 is the can’t-miss purchase to pay conference for industry best practices in automation, collaboration, and process improvement. Click here to register.

The Life of the Party? Attendees at PayStream INNOVATE 2013

What makes a great party? Good food helps, but it’s usually the people and sharing that make a party great. This years PayStream INNOVATE: Purchase to Pay Summit was truly memorable because of the wonderful collection of leaders that came together to learn, collaborate and grow. This year’s theme was focused on innovation and attracted more than 170 attendees from all over the globe.

Here’s a few of the takeaways I had from the conference:

Compelling Keynote Sessions

The two keynote sessions really challenged our attendees to think differently about the way they manage their operations.

Opening keynote speaker David Phillips is an Innovation Provocateur and teaches innovation strategies for a living. He kicked off the Summit with the thought-provoking session “Creating an Innovation Culture: It Starts with You!“ about how to overcome the barriers to innovation and how to drive change at your organization. The session really seemed to invigorate the audience and set the tone for the entire conference.

Our second keynote speaker was from a practitioner perspective. Kelly Coxon, Director of Procure to Pay at UPMC, stole the show with a session with “Using Simple Metrics and Benchmarking to Drive P2P Process Improvement.” A key message she shared with the audience is that it’s easy to get tunnel vision within your own organization and lose sight of how effective and efficient you are compared to other organizations. Kelly’s session really hit home with the audience and was one of the best received of the conference.

Honoring the Innovators

We believe it’s important to recognize the people and companies who are pushing the envelope in Purchase to Pay, so this year we awarded the practitioners and solution providers who are bringing innovation to the industry.

The practitioner winners:

  • Becky Walkinshaw, Procure to Pay Manager, Ohio State University Medical Center
  • Larry Williams, Global Payment Services Process Owner, Procter & Gamble

The solution provider winners:

  • Ariba for Contract Invoicing solution
  • Tradeshift for Collaborative Workflow solution

Congratulations to all the winners this year!

Valuable Case Studies from Leading P2P Managers

In between keynote sessions and coffee breaks in the exhibit hall, delegates were eager to learn from leading companies during breakout classroom style sessions. P2P leaders shared their successes (and challenges) on topics ranging from electronic invoicing to P-Cards to supplier onboarding. Attendees raved about the new concepts and ideas they were able to adapt and bring home to their own operations. Some of the top rated sessions included:

  •  “The Life of PIE: Payment Intelligence Evolution” presented by Gary Salek Financial Shared Services Manager and Wayne Rosenfeld, Corporate Procurement Manager at Snyder’s Lance
  • “The Path to Paperless at Procter & Gamble” presented by Larry Williams, Global Payment Services Process Owner at Procter & Gamble
  • “Supplier Risk Management: How Well Do You Know Your Suppliers” presented by Stephanie Matejka, Senior Manager Supply Chain Management at Mayo Clinic

10 Newly Certified Purchase to Pay Professionals

I’m pleased to announce the certification of 10 new P2P Professionals! The members, ranging from organizations such as PNC Bank, Cigna Corporation and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, successfully completed the 6 hour training course and passed the exam. We hope the questions weren’t too difficult! The certification program, known as PayStream’s P2P Academy, was developed to bridge the knowledge gap between payables and procurement.

Leading P2P Solution Providers

The conference would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors and exhibitors, so I’d like to thank all of them for their support. Tradeshift was the lead sponsor. Ariba, Direct Commerce, SciQuest and Hubwoo all contributed excellent case studies with their customers. AFI, Basware, Esker, Financial Operations Networks, Fundtech, Global Edge, IOFM, OB10 and Scan One all played key roles as exhibitors.

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in PayStream INNOVATE 2013 to make it such a huge success. We hope to see you again next year!