The sweet and sour of B2B payments.

February 22, 2016 Lynn Larson

In food and drink, a delectable balance of sweet and sour is desirable. Not so in business-to-business (B2B) payments, as the sour represents things like continued prominence of checks and costly manual processes. With so many sweet options available today, such as technology advancements and growing electronic payments, it is time to turn the sour lemons into lemonade. The sweet are getting sweeter and, unfortunately, the sour might never transform. I saw it all this month while analyzing responses to AP Now’s 2016 Payment Survey. Here is a sampling of what I learned.

Preliminary Payment Survey Results

A decent percentage of organizations now use checks for less than half of their B2B payments (sweet!) and they all aspire to drive their success further. Sadly, for a larger percentage of organizations, checks still comprise at least 75% of payments. (The rest are in between.) Among these heavy check users, nearly half are satisfied as-is.

As for Commercial Card usage, sweet and sour again emerge. Most organizations have Purchasing Card programs in place and the prevalence of electronic accounts payable (EAP) solutions is in double digits. However, strategies for increasing card usage are generally lacking. This might be a reason for the nearly equal split between those reporting little to no change in card usage in 2015 (compared to previous years) and those noting higher usage.

For more information about the research, please refer to the press release from AP Now.

Where are We Headed and Why?

In the past year, I have had the opportunity to analyze data from a few different industry surveys. I’m sure I’m not alone in seeing a widening gap between organizations who are basically building sweet state-of-the art lemonade stands with efficient purchase-to-pay practices and those who have failed to progress. Why?

Sweeten a sour payment strategy through greater use of technology and electronic payments.

Survey results have shown that success is not limited to the largest organizations, so the difference could be knowledge. A lack thereof also likely fuels resistance to change. Through the AP Now survey, I saw firsthand that many organizations lack internal knowledge, as in their internal payments-related costs. For tips, see last month’s post on rating your payments strategy and building or refining a metrics plan. Internal knowledge is a good starting point, serving as the catalyst for change.

Then there is industry knowledge. Take advantage of the multitude of options, such as subscriptions to content, research surveys, webinars, and provider technology demonstrations. Of course you cannot do and read everything, but you will gain exposure to what is possible.

About the Author

Blog post author Lynn Larson, CPCP, is the founder of Recharged Education. With more than 15 years of Commercial Card experience, her mission is to make industry education readily accessible to all. Learn more…

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Making a global card program pay off.

February 9, 2016 Lynn Larson

When building a global Commercial Card program, a solid internal foundation, including executive support, sets the stage. However, plans can still go awry if you overlook an important element that influences every region/country on your expansion list. Industry veteran Bogdan Roman describes the impact of local culture and provides some country-specific examples. The following content (part two) concludes my recent interview with him; see also part one.

Bogdan Roman has more than seven years of Commercial Card experience. His specialty is managing and growing global card programs. In addition to the United States and Canada, his experience spans multiple regions/countries including India, Singapore, Australia, UK, France, Germany, Israel, and Brazil. He is currently seeking new opportunities to apply his expertise in helping other companies avoid common pitfalls when embarking on global programs. Email Bogdan or get in touch through LinkedIn.

Cultural Differences

Q: What advice do you have for managing cultural differences?

A: Always be open to multiple methodologies for implementing changes within other countries. In my experience, communication, change management and training must be well thought out. For example, in a previous system upgrade for the North America employees, the core team decided to use a great infographic poster in all locations, but the language had to be customized to make sense in each country. The fun and exciting way to communicate the changes didn’t translate well in India, so the team had to localize the language to each location to ensure the intended message wasn’t lost in translation. The best way to think about it is a global card program with a local touch.

Q: What are some other country-specific recommendations?

A: In Brazil, I would focus on language requirements and also ensure one’s organization is doing its own diligence, receiving input from a legal counsel that is in line with the organization’s risk appetite.

With respect to India, I learned that automated emails from the global card program office didn’t garner the same attention as the ones received from the local executives. I had to engage with our local executives and ask them to send critical messages. Stop trying something that culturally doesn’t work and employ what does work for that culture.

Another global example is doing business in Israel. Due to network partner agreements, I experienced that some global P-Cards might have limited acceptance. As a program manager, what is your backup plan? Have you considered an agreement with a local bank?

In the UK or any other country with a value added tax (VAT) system, I found the tendency of the local finance/accounting teams was to ignore P-Card as a payment method due to cumbersome VAT amount capture. They would move the procurement/payment to a traditional purchase order (PO). I reiterate my earlier recommendation for continuous communication, training and change management with these remote teams to highlight the true P-Card potential, such as speed and convenience. One should always consider what is important to the customer, not just what is important to the administration team.

To make your global card program pay off, understand cultural differences, tailoring your actions and communications accordingly. — To make your global card program pay off, understand cultural differences, tailoring your actions and communications accordingly.

“Stop trying something that culturally doesn’t work and employ what does work for that culture.”

— Bogdan Roman, industry veteran

Final Advice

Q: What else would you add in conjunction with global Commercial Card program success?

A: The best advice I can offer without jumping into too many details is to use your existing resources like your specific bank and network providers. I managed many Commercial Card programs with many different banks and networks. All of them were eager to help and extend as much information as possible.

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Global Commercial Card program advice.

February 1, 2016 Lynn Larson

Challenges, considerations, tips. My recent interview with industry veteran Bogdan Roman covered all of these aspects related to global Commercial Card program implementation and management. Whether your organization is considering global expansion or is already on this path, gain insight from someone who has been there. Following is part one of two.

Considerations

Q: What should an organization consider before it expands its card program outside North America?

A: It is important to focus and make informed decisions, with key stakeholders aware of, and on board with, the global milestones. I should not answer a question with many questions, but answers to the following are important for global expansion:

What should the program look like? Be specific in defining this.
What is the program architecture (e.g., One Card program, segregated travel and P-Card programs)?
What is the management structure—centralized or decentralized?
What is the global support model?
What is the global policy?
What is the communication, training and change management model?
What technology should be deployed?
What would success look like and how should it be measured?
What resources are available in the organization and what should be employed/contracted in case country-specific challenges arise?

Keys to Success

Q: What do you see as common challenges or critical elements in building a global Commercial Card program?

A: It would take a book to answer this, but it is important to address it because it is raised frequently when contemplating the challenge of building a global program. For simplicity, I am limiting my answer to three main things, but there are more.

1. Executive Support

Executive support at the corporate level is paramount. Any executive sponsor ought to understand and believe in the value derived from building a global card program. This is accomplished by answering the why. Why do we need such a program? Why is there value in it for the organization? The key sponsors should be able to understand and measure the value.

2. Technology

Technology is also a key part of building a great program. Card spend, data centralization and controls are made easier with tools available today. The administration challenge to capture and report spend in multiple currencies could be easily accomplished by many existing travel and expense management systems. The trend in software as a service (SaaS) is influencing this market with many strong offerings, but large enterprise systems have great options as well.

Widen your Commercial Card lens and consider additional countries or regions to add to your program.

3. Appropriate Expectations

One could view this as proper mindset. A global program isn’t as simple as replicating a U.S. card program in another country/region, whether Asia, South America or EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). The reality and challenges of the financial and global legal card requirements vary from country to country. It is important to understand that a card program in the U.S. might not have the same impact, expectation, support and acceptance in another country. Mindset and localization are always hot topics at NAPCP conferences, and the stories and experiences from many colleagues in the Commercial Card industry are insightful.

Program Management Tip

Q: What tips can you share regarding program management? For example, does it work well to have a central person who oversees all countries in addition to some type of local program manager in each?

A: The size of the company, its culture and perhaps industry come into play. I believe a centralized person to oversee all countries makes sense, but the executive support has to be already in place and well understood by all stakeholders. In the technology space for global organizations that are best-in-class or striving to become best-in-class, the centralized global program manager role works well.

The next blog post features the rest of Bogdan’s advice.

Opportunity for Providers

If you are an industry provider who can support Commercial Card programs outside North America, please submit a contact form about having your company listed in a future blog post.

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