India Energy Utility Launches AR Tracking App For Suppliers

State-run NTPC, India’s largest energy utility, is rolling out a mobile solution for its suppliers to track the progress of payments on their way to accounts receivable.

Reports in The Economic Times of India on Wednesday (May 9) said NTPC announced its mobile app for micro and small vendors that sell raw materials to the utility, allowing them to track incoming payments made by NTPC.

According to the publication, NTPC works with an estimated 3,500 vendors every year. The firm’s Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh announced the app during an official meeting with suppliers earlier this week, reports said.

India’s financial services market has taken notice of suppliers’ struggle to collect payments. Last year, the nation’s third-largest non-life insurance company, HDFC ERGO, announced a new insurance product for B2B suppliers that offers them trade credit insurance. The product provides credit for suppliers in instances in which their corporate customers have failed to pay an invoice.

“With the advent of globalization, trading opportunities have grown manifold, which, in turn, has made managing receivables even more complex,” said HDFC ERGO Executive Director Anuj Tyagi at the time. “No industry or company is immune from trade credit risk, and the failure of a buyer to pay for the goods or services purchased can have a catastrophic impact on the viability of a supplier.”

The utility’s mobile tool is among several similar solutions designed to aid suppliers in accounts receivable management.

In the U.K., Best4DebtCollection.co.uk introduced its own debt collection app for suppliers in 2015. That tool enables firms to send “Notice Before Action” alerts to customers that are past-due on their invoices and grants them access to more than 400 debt collection agencies that can provide debt collection services should a vendor wish to take further action.