Tag Archives: SCF

PayStream 2014 Recap

cropped-website_version.jpgIt’s been an impressive year at PayStream Advisors. Among our 2014 developments and achievements, we published 22 research reports—many of which explore new territory that includes Human Resource Management, VAT compliance in Latin America, Budgeting and Forecasting solutions, and more. We welcomed 125 business professionals to this year’s summit, INNOVATE 2014. We saw our Senior Analysts attend over 25 industry conferences from London to San Diego. We launched the exciting P2P Academy, which is now offered online via a self-study course.

In all, we’ve been working hard to broaden and enhance our educational offerings for our readers. The amazing AP, Procurement, and P2P automation trends that have been evident in businesses and industries throughout the world have inspired much of these improvements.

Among these trends, there has been a great increase in global eInvoicing and eProcurement Globe-225x225initiatives. While Latin America has been the leader in national eInvoicing adoption for several years now, much of the rest of the world is starting to catch up in back-office automation. For example, Kenya adopted a national eProcurement system in an effort to bring the use of public money under greater transparency and accountability. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, among other Middle Eastern countries, are moving towards more uniform eInvoicing initiatives. The EU has been identifying issues with their current tax and trade systems, and is moving to make eInvoicing more appealing and accessible in order to correct these problems.

This past year has also seen more global movement to provide small to medium-sized enterprises with access to eInvoicing and working capital optimization programs. President Obama passed the second version of the Supplier Pay Initiative to promote expedited payments from large corporations to their smaller vendors. The UK launched several initiatives to spur small business growth, including revamped VAT tax returns and more releases of educational market material on small business financing. GT Nexus, IFC, and Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co) have partnered to create a new supply chain finance program that provides financial incentives for garment suppliers in developing countries.

taulia_logoOther vendors have taken note of SME initiatives and the widening middle market—in response they have also been creating unique financing programs and solutions. To complement SupplierPay, Taulia Inc. launched the Early Payment Quick Start Initiative, a program that encourages and simplifies early payment financing. TradeShift has also taken a stand to help the small and big business connection with their expansive supplier onboarding techniques. PayPal’s new Working Capital will offer cash-advances for smaller companies who cannot as easily utilize bank loans and lending services.

There were many other instances when software providers, organizations, and governments took great steps towards better understanding automation possibilities this year, and towards making room for more widespread and optimized adoption (readers are encouraged to browse 2014 posts from our blog, PayStream Voices, for more). We are looking forward to 2015, and we are confident that it will bring us even greater and more inspirational P2P innovation.

PayStream Briefing: Tungsten Network’s Early Payment

A PayStream Partner, Tungsten Network, recently announced a very interesting new functionality tungwith their invoice financing services—they have extended it to include Tungsten Early Payment. This feature offers control to suppliers that is both simple and innovative, enabling them to determine when they receive invoice payments.

Tungsten Early Payment pays suppliers for invoices when they need it most. With this solution, suppliers can select the invoice and payment date that suits their working capital needs, and Tungsten will pay the invoice amount, minus a discount charge. This is designed to be an alternative to traditional forms of bank finance, and its focus is on low costs and ease of use.

PayStream recognizes this solution as one more in a long string of dynamic offerings that have recently emerged on the financial automation market. These offerings share the same focus towards improving buyer and supplier control, prioritizing and optimizing approvals, and building the health of the supply chain.

images-3Working capital optimization and Supply Chain Financing (SCF) have been especially important in our recent research. As we prepared for our 2014 Global eInvoicing report, we found that the development of SCF options is increasing around the world, and that the availability of these features in conjunction with eInvoicing networks is largely motivating global eInvoicing adoption. One particularly interesting initiative was seen from GT Nexus, IFC, and Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co)—these companies have partnered to create a new supply chain finance program, the Global Trade Supplier Finance initiative. This program provides financial incentives for garment suppliers in developing countries, and ultimately works to upgrade environmental, health and safety, and labor standards.

Like GT Nexus, IFC, and LS&Co, Tungsten Network is also known for their focus on improving environmental conditions along with their financing options. This year, they were once again recognized for their operations’ environmental best practices with their eighth Green Apple Award. This is no surprise, as Tungsten reports they have to date saved more than 203 million sheets of paper, or 24,375 trees, as well as 5.8 million kilowatts of energy – enough to run the average home for 717 years.

Tungsten Early Payment is now live in the UK and US. We are excited to watch the success of their2000px-Location_North_America.svg initiative, and to see how working capital enhancements continue to increase in the months and years to come. For more information on SCF and eInvoicing initiatives around the world, be sure to attend our free upcoming webinar on Global eInvoicing.