Summary: During the past two years, banks and technology solution providers have focused on creating Internet-based solutions to integrate and automate business-to-business (B2B) invoicing and payment processes. Banks, enterprise resource planning(ERP) vendors, and myriad other technology solution providers have crowded into the B2B payments arena with sophisticated new products that promise to bind corporations more closely to their suppliers and customers, and deliver tangible benefits up and down the business supply chain.

Thanks to this burst of development, corporations now have compelling reasons to adopt electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) solutions to streamline their financial operations and embrace the Internet as a powerful new business channel.

The only problem is that finance, treasury, and e-commerce managers at most corporations are still having difficulty evaluating the basic merits of treasury automation.

This paper will draw on recent PayStream Advisors research to address this knowledge gap. Following an explanation of the drawbacks of the paper-based payment system and the limitations of existing electronic payment tools, it will provide a concise introduction to EIPP that includes two real-world case studies. It will conclude with a five-step migration strategy that corporations can use to guide their own transition to electronic invoicing and payment.