As payments giants like Visa and Mastercard shift the innovation spotlight onto B2B transactions, developers of new accounts payable solutions are ushering in a growing trend: designing payment tools not just for the payer, but for the B2B supplier as well.
It’s a shift that may have risen out of the B2B payments industry’s commercial card conundrum. While corporate buyers would like to use commercial card products to make payments, due in large part to their ability to offer rewards and incentives, as well as lengthen payment times, vendors struggle to see the value in accepting the interchange fees and absorbing the costs of adopting their infrastructure and back-office processes.
Today, emerging accounts payable (AP) solutions that wield payment tools, including commercial cards and more, are beginning to design solutions with the vendor in mind. Below, PYMNTS looks at the latest in AP that does exactly that.
Discover Targets Reconciliation Data
This week, Discover announced a new partnership with procure-to-pay firm JAGGAER, whose JAGGAER ONE platform will integrate Discover technologies to enable businesses to make payments to their suppliers using Discover virtual cards and, eventually, other payment methods.
While the announcement almost exclusively focuses on the integration’s benefits for corporate payers, the companies noted that their collaboration enables vendors to receive “more detailed remittance data.”
Vroozi Pay Eyes Vendor Relations
Last week, spend management solution provider Vroozi debuted its own accounts payable solution, Vroozi Pay, the culmination of a collaboration with Nvoicepay.
Together, the companies enable automated invoice payments from within the Vroozi platform once invoices have been approved. But in addition to providing greater visibility, control and speed for corporate payers, Vroozi and Nvoicepay highlighted the features of their partnership that address key friction points for suppliers.
“In addition to automatically processing invoices and payments, Vroozi Pay manages the payment process based on the preferred payment method selected by suppliers,” the companies said in their press release, adding that Vroozi Pay has also deployed experts to work with business users as well as their supplier base to support vendors’ migration to accept electronic payments.
In a statement, Nvoicepay CEO Karla Friede pointed to the ability for such accounts payable capabilities to “improve supplier relationship management” while strengthening operations on the buyer-side, too.
Hire Ground Turns to SMB Suppliers
Hire Ground, a Software-as-a-Service company that develops solutions to help corporates diversify their supply chains, announced last week the next phase of its initiative. While Hire Ground first rolled out its supply chain diversity offering with a focus on large corporate buyers, the company has commenced the supplier side of that program.
The firm will work with small and medium-sized B2B suppliers directly, enabling these companies to connect to large corporate buyers and expand globally. While collaborating with SMBs can enable a large corporate to mitigate risk across its supply chain, small businesses can struggle with new customer outreach, particularly when they operate globally, and particularly as they lack negotiating power when attempting to work with large conglomerates.
Although the Hire Ground solution does not include payment functionality, it highlights the shift that traditionally buyer-focused solution providers in the B2B space are making to include a focus on the supplier.
Boost Payment Solutions Expands Globally
Commercial card payment solution provider Boost Payment Solutions announced a recent global expansion that brings the number of markets in which it operates to nearly 30. As the company grows across borders, Boost said it will not only focus on commercial card solutions that enable businesses to adopt cards for supplier payments, but also on solutions that make it easier for vendors to accept cards.
The firms commercial card platform, Boost Intercept, addresses the friction of supplier acceptance by enabling straight-through processing of card payments for B2B sellers.
“Boost Intercept eliminates the need for suppliers to extract card data from email payment requests or through manual processing,” Boost said in its announcement, pointing to two key hurdles for suppliers that make card acceptance a friction-filled experience.
While Boost connects corporate buyers to card solutions that allow them to take advantage of rebates and expanded working capital, the company’s focus on vendor acceptance is also key to its growth strategy.