How AP automation can benefit your organization
Accounts payable automation continues to provide tremendous value to many organizations decades after tools such as OCR and electronic workflow were developed. With the advent of vendor portals, dynamic discounting, electronic invoices, advanced data capture tools, document assembly tools, and supplier networks, AP automation took another big step in reducing costs and enabling vendor self-service.
Most recently, robotics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology have appeared on the scene with promises of further automation and enhanced security. These technologies have already seen the predicted explosive growth and will continue to grow exponentially. For many, these systems seem out of reach due to the high cost, complexity, and significant in-house IT overhead they require.
Today, as cloud-hosted applications become more ubiquitous, AP automation, including many of the sophisticated technologies that were out of reach in the past, has become more affordable and available to many more companies.
Questions to ask when evaluating AP automation solutions:
Not all cloud-based AP automation applications are the same, so it is important to research alternatives that fit your goals. Some questions you can ask about your organization to determine this are:
- Is the solution a multi-tenant shared application or a single-tenant cloud-hosted application configurable to your specific requirements?
- Will I own all of the data, and will my company have access to that data 24/7/365?
- Can I easily add functionality and change configurations without going through the application provider to build or waiting months for the next major release?
- If I decide to change applications, how easy will it be to move my data?
- Can the AP solution easily integrate with my back-end ERP systems, no matter what they are?
These are just a few of the questions you should ask to ensure whatever solution you choose will meet your specific business needs, give you real-time, unrestricted access to your data, and provide the flexibility needed as you grow and change. ICG’s cloud-hosted solutions are entirely customizable to your organization and goals, meaning they can meet your needs both today and tomorrow!
ICG’s Vendor Management Automation Solutions
- Vendor Portal
- Vendor Onboarding
- Dynamic Discounting
- Workflow Management
- Data Capture/Document Capture/Document Assembly
- Non-PO and PO Invoice Processing
- Electronic Invoice Submission
- Web-based Payment Inquiry
- Payment Dispute Submission & Tracking
- Online Payment Requests
- PO Dispatch & Update
- ERP Integration
- Dashboards, Reporting, and Robust Search Engine
Recent significant events, such as the pandemic and the increasing frequency of cyberattacks on businesses of all sizes, have caused decision-makers to start evaluating technologies that support remote or hybrid financial back-office operations while simultaneously tightening the security of data and systems. ICG’s solutions are designed to operate in remote environments utilizing highly secure, cloud-based financial back-office applications.
Contact ICG today to see how ICG can help you understand the benefits of our AP and other financial back-office cloud applications or to see a demo of cloud-based AP Automation in action.