Tag Archives: PayStream Advisors

PayStream Briefing: Standouts in Sourcing Automation

Next year, PayStream will be enhancing our research and education projects. While several things will be expanded in our company design and presentation, one of the major changes will be the addition of several new report topics. We are all very excited about this (especially the research analysts!) and we are looking forward to diving deeper in the world of business process software.

One of the new releases we will be adding to our roster is the 2015 Sourcing Report. Among other things, this report will include research on the trends of sourcing solutions within today’s procurement procedures, as well as various functionalities in high-quality sourcing offerings, including the management of RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, and reverse auctions; auction, bidding, and pricing controls; and more.

As we prepare for this report, we’ve discovered some really innovative companies among sourcing software developers. One of these is GEP—a global provider of procurement consulting, outsourcing, and software. Their new product, SMART, really has us intrigued: it delivers comprehensive spend, sourcing, and procurement functionality in a single, cloud-based platform. Its functionality is native to the platform and includes spend analytics, sourcing, contract management, supplier management, and P2P—all of which users can access on any device, anywhere. In all, we are impressed by the holistic, intuitive, and adaptable nature of its design.

Another company that caught our eye is SynerTrade, a purchasing services developer located in Paris, France. Their advanced procurement offerings are made more valuable with their consulting services, partner program, and impressive client list. Not only does their application suite include sourcing, contract management, catalog management, and ordering and inventory management, but they also provide vendor management and vendor performance solutions to ensure a smooth streamlined process from all sides of purchasing.

One more frontrunner in sourcing solutions is b-Pack, a procurement and P2P services provider. Ranked as a Top 5 eProcurement Vendor by Gartner Magic Quadrant, we did our own evaluation of their products and found they deserve the recognition. Their focus is not only on sourcing, but on automating the entire Purchase to Pay cycle—from procurement and budget management, all the way to invoicing.

In all, as we look closer at sourcing technology and its developers, we are recognizing that the top providers don’t simply focus on parts of procurement, purchasing, and P2P separately—they build links between each area until there is a productive, connected, and powerful system. We are looking forward to researching and working with more companies like b-Pack, SynerTrade, and GEP—as well as benchmarking them against one another—as we assemble our 2015 Sourcing Report.

Upcoming Webinar: Curing ERP Challenges with Datamatics and La Quinta

Next week, PayStream Advisors will be teaming up with Datamatics in a webinar entitled“How a Cloud-Based P2P Solution Cured Our ERP Challenges”. The main purpose of this webinar is to tell a story about a very innovative company that strategically used technology to bring AP transformation. This company’s journey shows the correlation between strong goals and lasting success, and it also relevant to some of our recent research on how today’s cloud-based technology is curing ERP challenges. We think it is very important that AP and finance professionals learn from that success.

The story that PayStream’s Henry Ijams and Datamatics’ Roshan Halwai will be telling is centered on La Quinta Inns & Suites. One of the leading franchises of select-service hotels, La Quinta operates more than 800 locations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Their company culture is based upon excellence, and they strive to “do ordinary things extraordinarily well”—and challenge the status quo along the way.

This mentality seeps into La Quinta’s accounting goals as well: the company’s AP focus is to make all their processes better, faster, and cheaper and to structure their activity in a way that will consistently support corporate goals. A few years ago, they looked at their AP condition and compared it with their standards for excellence—they saw a lot of room for improvement. They were losing time, money, and security due to their dependence on their existing ERP and its inadequate native business process solutions.

The first step La Quinta took towards change was structuring a plan. Next, they began a search for an appropriate solution provider that could help them migrate from their current in-house applications to versatile cloud-based software. La Quinta eventually turned to Datamatics for a holistic AP solution.

Of course, our readers can probably guess where this story is going. A company with clear goals and a strong desire for change combined with an innovative financial software company—it’s a recipe for success, and success was what it produced.

Attendees of next week’s webinar will hear the full story of how Datamatics was able to ultimately reduce costs, raise visibility, and implement highly customized, cloud-based applications. We will tell you now, however: a great determinant in La Quinta and Datamatics’ success was their careful planning and calculated execution. Join us on November 13^th to find out the specific strategies La Quinta took to formulate and follow an automation plan, and to fill the gaps between process efficiency and inadequate ERP business applications.

Basware: Building Strong Solutions

Basware has renewed their agreement with a financial services group in Finland this week. Basware has been providing the Travel & Expense Management solution for the Finnish company since 2008, and the renewal will feature new services to aide in the centralized processing and automation of travel and expense reports throughout the organization. The value of the agreement is EUR 400,000 over three years.

This is the second extension of services for Basware in the past few weeks. Their business relationship with a brewing company was renewed in the beginning of June, and Basware’s top goal in the new contract will be to supply the delivery of accounts payable automation and e-invoicing services for the company’s North American operations. Basware’s first contract with the company involved the implementation of solutions for accounts payable at their headquarters in Europe. The value of this latest agreement is approximately EUR 300,000 over three years.

Esa Tihilä, Basware CEO, believes that this continued relationship is the result of the high level of connection Basware is able to offer to its customers. “The customer is able to easily collaborate across the Basware Commerce Network, the largest open business network in the world, whilst driving efficiency, scale and strengthening supplier-buyer relationships.”

The services that help in strengthening these supplier-buyer relationships are powered by Alusta, Basware’s unified cloud-based platform for purchase-to-pay that is flexible and intuitive, allowing for easy user experience. Alusta has been the backbone of many successful business dealings for Basware, including a recent contract with a UK hospitality retail provider who hired Basware for the automation solutions the platform supports. Not only t Alusta: The Architecture of the Basware Commerce Network hat, but Alusta is strong enough to inspire and create partnerships with excellent potential—like the one between Basware and India-based IT solution provider, Mphasis. Basware’s platform and commerce network will be embedded within Mphasis’ own portfolio to provide transaction based e-procurement and invoice automation services to its clients.

From their recent ventures, it is clear that Basware is a respected and successful business partner. PayStream Advisors believes the strength behind these business relationships has a lot to do with the strength upon which Basware has built their solutions.

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