Changing Roles when Automating P2P

Transcription

1 Changing Roles when Automating P2P The Case for Strategy How Automation Changes the Role of Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) Featuring insights on...»» Current Market Trends in P2P Processes Across Different Roles»» The Benefits of P2P Automation for Roles Across an Organization»» A Few Leading P2P Software Providers Underwritten in part by

2 Contents Introduction 3 P2P Before and After 4 Achieving Strategic P2P 12 Corcentric 15 Xeeva 18 About PayStream Advisors 21 2

3 Introduction Purchase-to-Pay automation has many benefits for back-office departments, including improved efficiency, lower processing costs, and more visibility into and control over spend. However, what is not always as evident is how beneficial P2P automation is for an organization s employees. Overlooking this value can sometimes keep organizations from adopting the right solution or any solution at all. Today s P2P solutions create a more open and collaborative environment in back-office departments. They allow procurement and AP managers to maintain consistent communication with staff, suppliers, and the company s stakeholders in real time. They improve employees productivity and they reduce time spent on non-value added tasks. Perhaps most importantly, modern P2P solutions enable executive members of an organization to strategically manage spend. This report explores some current trends in P2P management among P2P professionals of different roles, and shows how P2P automation affects different departments and positions. It also offers information on today s leading P2P features and services, and highlights some of the ways P2P automation brings strategic value and enablement to professionals in upper management and the C-suite. 3

4 P2P Before and After In order to show organizations the impact that P2P software can have on different back-office environments and roles, the following items offer typical examples of P2P processes before and after automation. Research comes from PayStream Advisors 2016 market surveys, which include responses from several hundred procurement and AP professionals across a variety of industries and market segments. Procurement Before: Under a manual process, procurement professionals select and purchase indirect goods either from a static list of suppliers, through one-off purchasing from online searches, or even directly from the phone book. This often leads to haphazard and unregulated purchasing from stagnant supplier contracts with unchecked or outof-date pricing. As a result, employees have little insight into market prices, the value of suppliers goods, or the success of past interactions with suppliers. Without an electronic system in place to apply purchasing controls on the front end, organizations also experience a great deal of rogue or inefficient spend. There is a lack of visibility into the status of order lifecycles, and procurement professionals must call suppliers if an order is late or they need to make changes to the order. Considering procurement from the management level, a manual process does not lend itself well to budgeting, project management, or inventory control; it requires managers to spend more energy monitoring spend to maintain balance in those areas. 4

5 Research shows that manual procurement issues are reflected in organizations improvement goals. Survey respondents would like more control over costs and contracts, more visibility into spend, and improved interaction between back-office departments, see Figure 1. ORGANIZATIONS TOP PROCUREMENT IMPROVEMENT GOALS Cost control and supplier negotiations 30% Spend visibility 20% Figure 1 Most Organizations Want More Control, Visibility, and Synchronization in Procurement Integration of AP within the procurement process Contract compliance Data accuracy Off-contract spend reduction 8% 15% 14% 13% In what area would you like to see the greatest improvement to your procurement process? After: With procurement technology, purchasing professionals can handle all their procurement and order management tasks from one electronic platform. Employees in purchasing, as well as other departments, can log on to fill out a purchase request for a good or service, and then send that requisition through a pre-configured approval workflow for review. They no longer have to search through vendor lists, websites, or the phone book for the right vendor with the right product. They now have access to dynamic catalogs of updated supplier product information, which are integrated with supplier contracts and/or maintained by suppliers. Some solutions also offer access to web-based, punch-out catalogs, which are suppliermaintained catalogs that are hosted outside of the solution, but are integrated with the user s ERP in order to transfer purchasing information quickly back to the hosted system. Purchasing approvers can easily review purchase requests and drill down into product and supplier information, as well as make changes to requests and orders. Once requests are approved, the system will automatically issue purchase orders to suppliers, and provide full visibility into the status of orders at all times, allowing procurement professionals to quickly check on orders without having to call suppliers. Some solutions even create an advanced shipping notice (ASN) to give procurement confirmation that their orders are fulfilled and on time. 5 The solution also reduces paperwork when orders are fulfilled. When organizations receive the goods or services, the system automatically creates a goods receipt, and many solutions also integrate with

6 inventory systems to record the orders. The receiver can note any issues with the order in the system, which sends an alert to the appropriate staff in the AP department. These solutions also create smoother synchronization between purchasing and payment by automatically flipping POs to invoices after receipt, and enabling realtime communication between the departments. AP / Invoice Management Before: Under a manual process, AP clerks manually key invoice data from paper and invoices into an accounting system before physically storing a paper document. When AP associates validate invoices, they must track down any POs, shipping notices, goods receipts, or other related documents to match against the invoice. To gain approval on invoices, associates must hand off, mail, or invoices to the appropriate AP manager, who must often perform additional verification. This supervisor prepares or approves paperwork for any exceptions for short delivery, damaged items, wrong items shipped, or other issues. Finally, the invoice is submitted to payables for payment and reconciliation. Manual invoice management causes a variety of problems in the AP department. Research shows that organizations top challenges include manual routing, data entry, and high paper volume, see Figure 2. Figure 2 TOP CHALLENGES IN INVOICE WORKFLOW PROCESS The Lack of AP Automation Causes Manual Process Challenges Manual routing of invoices for approval Manual data entry and inefficient processes 23% 25% What are the top three biggest pain points you experience in your workflow process? Majority of invoices received in paper format Lost or missing invoices 9% 18% Lack of visibility into outstanding liabilities 8% Decentralized invoice receipt 8% High number of discrepancies and exceptions 7% Inability to approve invoices in time to capture discounts 2% 6

7 Manual processing is also much more costly than when an organization automates AP and invoice management PayStream estimates that the average fully loaded cost per invoice under manual processes is $15.00, compared to $3.00 per invoice under a completely automated AP process. Manual invoice management results in slow approval times and offers little visibility into invoice details and status both of which tend to create issues between buyers and suppliers. If something is wrong with an invoice and it fails validation such as if the data is incorrect, it is a duplicate, or an amount is different than expected AP staff must handle the resolution of the invoice themselves. These employees spend a great deal of time contacting suppliers to ask for clarification or a new invoice, receiving calls from suppliers inquiring about payments, and resolving general process issues, see Figure 3. Figure 3 Two-Thirds of Companies Spend Between 1 and 8 Hours a Week Resolving AP Issues TIME SPENT RESOLVING AP PROCESS ISSUES 1-3 hours per week 4-8 hours per week 36% 35% How many hours each week do you estimate you spend on resolving AP process issues? (invoice errors, duplicate invoices/ payments, supplier calls, etc.) 9-20 hours per week None It is my job to resolve these issues 4% 8% 14% Over half my time 3% Dispute resolution time can add up, and some organizations are spending thousands of dollars each year solely on damage control. Table 1 contains calculations of organizations labor costs for dispute management, assuming an average annual salary of $45,000 per AP staff member, three weeks of PTO, two weeks of combined holiday and sick leave, and 20 percent overhead calculation. Table 1 Annual AP Issue Resolution Costs Hours Spent Annual Costs Per Employee 1-3 $1,350 $4, $5,400 $10, $12,150 $27,000 7

8 After: With AP Automation, invoices are received in one central location, regardless of whether they were sent as an electronic invoice (EDI format), , or paper. Paper invoices can be converted to electronic format with an OCR scanning tool, which captures the content from a paper invoice and converts it to an easily readable document, eliminating manual data entry. This process can also be outsourced to a third-party scanning service that will capture the data via OCR or physical keying and submit the invoice to the client s AP system. With this step being taken away from the AP staff, they can focus on exception management, such as when items ordered do not match items received or items invoiced. The department s einvoicing software receives an electronic version of the vendor s invoice, and the system automatically matches the the invoices against various related documents. This starts with 2-way matching (PO to invoice), and can extend to 3-way (PO to receipt to invoice) and 4-way (PO to ASN to receipt to invoice) matching. Invoices are automatically routed for approval based on configurable business rules, and escalations and forwarding rules ensure that invoices do not sit in a supervisor s inbox for an indeterminate amount of time. Managers can also approve invoices more easily with transparent approval dashboards that clearly display the status and priority of invoices, and with mobile applications that allow them to approve invoices on the go from any device. Approval times greatly decrease under an automated system invoices are sometimes received and approved for payment in as little as one day. Automation minimizes the need for AP clerks to spend hours on manual tasks such as keying in data and handling and filing physical documents. AP specialists can focus on higher-level tasks such as verifying data for accuracy, handling exceptions, answering questions from suppliers, maintaining the master vendor file, and analyzing data. Automation improves transparency through the AP processing lifecycle, and greatly reduces process errors and time spent on dispute resolution. The system automatically flags exceptions and routes them to an AP associate, who determines whether to call the vendor or research the issue further. Many solutions also automatically return invoices to suppliers if an AP supervisor finds an exception, eliminating calls to suppliers for invoice corrections. These AP process improvements greatly reduce the costs of processing an invoice and can save organizations millions each year. They also speed up approval times and improve organizations ability to capture early payment discounts on invoices, sometimes on as much as 30 percent of their invoices. 8

9 Payments Before: Under a manual process, the AP team prepares payment for approved invoices either by writing a check or setting up a transaction via Automated Clearing House (ACH) or electronic funds transfer (EFT). An AP manager approves the payment, authorizing the department to take an early pay discount for a supplier if the payment is being made within the date range specified in the terms. The payment is sent via U.S. mail, wire transfer, ACH/EFT, shipping company, or courier. After: With P2P automation, once an invoice is approved, staff is no longer simply determining which type of payment the vendor will select and submitting an OK-to-pay file. In order to complete the P2P lifecycle, many solutions either offer in-house payment capabilities or directly integrate with leading payment solution providers. Leading epayments providers allow clients to use a mixture of payment methods, including ACH, wire transfers, and commercial card payments. Commercial cards come in a variety of types, including corporate cards, traditional purchasing cards, ghost cards, and Virtual Account (VA) programs. With an automated payments process, AP staff spend less time writing and mailing checks and checking the status of payments. These employees have increased control and visibility into payment status, and simpler reconciliation which is especially important when working with overseas suppliers. Many epayments providers also verify bank account information and other supplier data to ensure that buyers are making secure, legal payments. Since invoices are approved sooner, AP staff has the ability to submit payment in time for early-payment discounts. Many AP solutions come packaged with working capital tools, including dynamic discounting and supply chain financing (SCF) offerings to improve DPO, increase revenue, and promote faster supplier payments. Vendor Management Before: In a typical manual P2P process, buyers and suppliers communicate frequently by phone and . A common interaction entails suppliers calling the AP department to ask where the payment stands, and the AP staff member determining whether the invoice is on someone s desk or the payment is in the mail. Supplier and buyer interactions are often frustratingly slow and troublesome, and are made worse by the lack of visibility inherent in manual processes. 9

10 AP departments must also manage supplier information, manually collecting important supplier documents related to tax and legal regulations. They must consistently monitor these records to make sure nothing has expired or is no longer compliant. They must also check supplier information against internal sources, such as the master vendor file, and external sources, such as the IRS TIN matching service and the U.S. Treasury Department s Office of Foreign Control (OFAC) list of organizations that are banned from business in the United States. Research shows that when organizations do not efficiently manage supplier information, it damages supplier relationships, see Figure 4. Figure 4 Poor Supplier Data Management Is a Top Concern Among Organizations TOP PAINS THAT DAMAGE SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS Problems that arise from poor supplier data management 36% What is the pain that causes the most damage to your organization s supplier relationships? Late payments Poor supplier dispute/ query response time 30% 34% After: Most P2P solutions include supplier self-service portals that enable suppliers to check on invoice and payment statuses via the platform, and offer help desk support features like online ticketing systems for supplier queries. When AP managers use the P2P system to send payments, the supplier is notified, and can log into a selfservice portal with any questions or to submit new invoices. AP departments often notice a reduction in supplier inquiries when they adopt a P2P solution, as the system sends automatic notifications to suppliers when payments are pending. By moving dispute resolution from the phone to the portal, and by giving suppliers the chance to maintain their own information and solve their own problems, buyerside staff can spend more time on higher priority issues. These tools also remove much of the document collection work for AP staff, as they give suppliers the ability to update their profile information, enter payment information, and import documents such as contracts, insurance certificates, and tax forms. 10

11 Reporting and Analyzing Before: Under a manual process, the AP department prepares and studies spreadsheets analyzing all transactions, monitoring the department s performance and metrics, including days payable outstanding (DPO). The CFO monitors the organization s cash flow through conversations with the AP director. The CEO receives written and verbal reports from the CFO on the performance of the organization. After: Reporting and analytics tools allow Purchasing, AP, and Legal departments to pinpoint inefficient spend activity and identify areas for improvement. Features include out-of-the-box and/or ad-hoc reporting, interactive reporting dashboards with drill-down capabilities, integration with other analytics tools, and industry benchmarking for data analysis. With a P2P solution that offers robust reporting and analytics tools, AP staff can log into the system to study dashboards, drill down into data, create custom reports, and export reports for presentations to colleagues and key stakeholders. Many solutions allow companies to customize access and report types by user and roles. This means that an AP associate might have access to reports on transactions, while supervisors see reports on team performance, and the C-suite sees daily, weekly, or periodic metrics on DSO and cash flow. Some solution providers partner with advanced business intelligence partners to further improve their analytics offerings; this speeds up the reporting process for P2P professionals and providers more strategic analysis for the C-suite. 11

12 Achieving Strategic P2P P2P automation is beneficial to employees at all levels. From an AP analyst to the CFO, the features and services offered in a P2P solution remove non-value-added tasks from staff s agendas, and can improve employees satisfaction with their work life. However, at each level in an organization, employees have different improvement goals that they wish to accomplish with automation. For example, Figure 5 shows that lower-tiered staff members are most concerned with practical, handson goals, such as getting rid of paper in the back office and increasing the use of mobile applications for work-related activities. Professionals in higher positions are focused on more big-picture initiatives, such as improving supplier participation in automation and receiving more early payment discounts. Fortunately, P2P automation enables organizations to achieve all of their goals, as well as to strategically optimize processes to improve long-term productivity and success. Figure 5 Workplace Goals Vary Across Different Roles Which of the following workplace goals/ achievements are most important to you? (Select top 3) Completely paperless AP WORKPLACE GOALS BY ROLE Same-day invoice approvals Early payment discount capture 30% Increased employee use of mobile applications Increased supplier participation in AP software programs 33% 26% 21% 21% 18% 15% 19% 18% 20% 23% 22% 15% 15% 24% 17% 17% 25% 11% 8% Staff (Analyst, Assistant) Middle Management (Manager, Junior Partner, Junior Associate) Upper Management (SVP, Associate, Assistant Director, C-Suite, Principal) Owner, Founder, CEO, Director 12

13 One of the most prominent reasons why organizations do not adopt P2P software is due to a lack of executive sponsorship, often resulting from budget concerns or satisfaction with current processes. For a P2P automation overhaul to be successful, the entire organization must be in agreement about the value, need, and primary use of the software. An effective way of accomplishing this is by showcasing the different ways that P2P automation improves the productivity and strategic advantage for higher-tiered employees and how it helps them accomplish the goals that are most important to them. For example, with an invoice management tool, AP supervisors can approve payments in batches, and are alerted automatically when any issues arise, such as payment disputes with suppliers. This gives supervisors time to focus on higher-level tasks such as overseeing the AP staff. It may also enable them to spend more time researching solutions that can save the organization money, such as dynamic discounting or supply chain financing, or even bring in added revenue, such as p-card rebate programs. Other valuable tools for supervisors and directors can be found in the reporting and analytics dashboards. These tools monitor activities throughout the P2P system, eliminating the need to pore over spreadsheets and reports to gain insight into operations. Instead, dashboards allow a real-time view of all of the metrics involved in the company s cash flow. Directors can focus on strategic tasks such as improving the department s productivity and championing new initiatives that will save the company time and money, thus impacting the bottom line. In the C-suite, the benefits go beyond P2P process improvement. Many modern automated systems are cloud-based, which removes the IT team s need to research, plan, and execute implementation of each new update a very appealing factor to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The CFO can study the solution s financial operations dashboards to see and compare real-time metrics such as DPO from the AP team and days sales outstanding (DSO) from the AR team for a complete view of the organization s financial health. Dashboards are also valuable to CEOs, as they give them the ability to check on the status of the organization s finances at any time. 13

14 P2P solutions collaborative tools help to foster a strategic, creative, and proactive environment across all departments and roles. Users can discuss P2P activities through and chat functions, and they can collaborate on P2P documents via authoring tools and comments. Mobile technology further promotes this collaboration by allowing strategic P2P professionals to communicate on the go using the software s mobile application. In all, the advantages of P2P automation permeate an organization s entire workforce. The following profiles explore the features and services of a few leading P2P automation software providers. These providers have experience tailoring their solutions to the needs of their clients entire organizations. 14

15 Corcentric Corcentric provides cloud-based financial process automation that enables global organizations to manage and protect their financial assets. Corcentric s Purchase-to-Pay solutions help Accounts Payable and Procurement departments reduce business costs, streamline processes, and provide the visibility needed to make critical business decisions. The software allows companies to manage 100 percent of their invoices electronically, creating a conduit between Procurement, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and suppliers. Corcentric has customers ranging in size from Fortune 200 to small independentlyowned businesses. Founded 1998 Headquarters McLean, Virginia Other Locations Cherry Hill, NJ; Fairfield, NJ; Downers Grove, IL; Coral Springs and Naples, FL Number of Employees 230 Target Verticals Any Vertical Awards / Recognitions SSAE16 Type II SOC 1 certified; PCI Compliant Solution Overview Corcentric s solutions are built on a multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that requires no software or hardware to buy, install, or maintain. The system can integrate with any ERP or financial system, and it seamlessly transmits data to and from a client s financial system through proprietary ERP Business Connectors. The COR360 solution offers mobile approval functionality using any smartphone or tablet. The solution also provides multi-lingual and multi-currency capability. Corcentric offers easy-to-use tools that allow administrators to make changes in the solution without the need to contact Corcentric or their own IT departments. Administrators can set role-based access controls by user, administer invoice matching and workflow rules, restrict IP address security, and more. 15

16 Purchase-to-Pay The Corcentric purchasing system supports requisition creation, workflow approval, and electronic PO creation. It enables users to send advanced shipment notices, track purchase orders and shipping status, and manage discrepancies. It also provides dispute resolution support and reporting and analysis of historical trends. Corcentric s purchasing system integrates directly with its AP solution, COR360, for full invoice-match automation. COR360 offers a complete end-to-end automation, including invoice receipt, scan and capture, electronic invoicing, workflow approval, and payment. Administrators can customize a variety of approval workflow configurations, including delegation of authority routing, step routing, skip routing, and project routing. COR360 gives AP managers the ability to track staff productivity via detailed reporting, and allows them to reassign invoices for processing beyond the AP department. COR360 automates 2- and 3-way matching and the matching process for blanket purchase orders, and enables straight-through processing when document matches fall within predefined rules and tolerances. Invoices that fail the matching process enter COR360 s automated exception handling workflow, which can route the exception to the appropriate user for proper resolution. Additionally, all users can easily make inquiries on invoice, orders and paments. The Corcentric Supplier Network provides a self-service supplier portal solution for checking payment status, dispute resolution, and electronic invoicing. Clients can control how much information is revealed on the supplier portal regarding invoice disputes. Corcentric also provides clients with supplier onboarding services and supplier information management tools. There are no fees for suppliers to connect to the Corcentric Supplier Network to send electronic invoices or to use the COR360 supplier portal. The Corcentric epayment solution allows customers to outsource their entire payment process to Corcentric. Corcentric works with suppliers to transition payments from checks to electronic payments via ACH, wire, or payment card. Corcentric also offers a group purchasing capability that allows Corcentric to negotiate up-front discounts with various suppliers. The COR360 solution includes robust reporting and analysis tools, available through drill-down, graphical dashboard reporting on key 16

17 performance indicators (KPIs); standard reports like accrual, user metrics, and system administration; and an ad-hoc reporting feature. All COR360 reports can be exported to CSV file formats. Corcentric offers several reporting features customized for different roles within an organization. Executives can access an executive dashboard that provides KPI reports like Average Days to Process Invoices by Month, Days Payable Outstanding by User, Straight- Through Processing Rate, Top Suppliers by Spend, and Top Suppliers by Invoice Volume. The ad-hoc reporting tools allow any user to create custom reports according to their role and interests all without any IT involvement. COR360 s audit history report tracks and maintains all actions for each invoice processed, and the Audit RE-view feature creates online audit folders that clients can make available to external auditors. The solution s accrual reporting feature expedites the month-end process by listing liabilities and GL allocations associated to expenses. Implementation and Pricing The average COR360 implementation time is between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on system complexity and client availability to meet and gather requirements for system configuration. Corcentric provides a 24/7 hotline to all clients for post-implementation support. There is a one-time configuration fee, as well as recurring fees based on the number of invoices processed through COR360. There are no per-user fees, as COR360 allows for unlimited users, approvers, reviewers, and suppliers at no additional cost. 17

18 Xeeva Xeeva provides cloud procurement and financial solutions for indirect spend. The company s technology addresses the entire indirect procurement value chain, from sourcing to procurement to payment. Xeeva s offerings also include several value-added solutions, including spend analysis, category management, and strategic sourcing. Xeeva provides P2P solutions for some of the world s largest global brands across a range of industries. Founded 2007 Headquarters Detroit, MI Other Locations San Francisco, New Delhi, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo Number of Employees 350 Number of Customers 35 Target Verticals Automotive, Industrials, Aerospace, Services, Manufacturing, CPG, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities Partners / Resellers Xerox; EDS Technologies; Netlink, Inc. Awards / Recognitions American Axle Key Supplier Award; Lear Automotive Supplier of the Year; Beechcraft Supplier of the Year Solution Overview Xeeva s eprocurement solution is based on an intelligent catalog approach, with catalogs tailored by location or business unit to reflect context-specific pricing and available services and materials. Catalogs can be hosted or punch-out catalogs, locally or globally. Users can combine standard catalog items, RFQ items, and off-catalog requests in the same shopping cart, all of which are routed through the appropriate approval workflow. Supplier and buyer collaboration takes place directly through the eprocurement platform and the Marketplace, which is an online portal that allows suppliers to receive and acknowledge orders, send shipping notices, and flip orders to invoices. 18

19 The solution s system access and controls are entirely role-based and can be configured in Xeeva s self-service administrator module. Users have access across all the data and functionality needed to execute the multiple roles they may play, (e.g. requestor, approver, or buyer), while the system maintains required controls. Approval policies and hierarchies can be imported into the system from the customer s ERP, HRMS, or other third party systems as needed. Once a purchase is approved, POs are automatically generated and submitted to suppliers via the vendor portal as an online document, as a PDF, or via EDI. The solution tracks transactions from the shopping cart to the approved invoice, supporting order acknowledgements, advanced shipping notices, and goods receipts providing stakeholders with full order visibility throughout the process. After shipment and the posting of a goods receipt, suppliers or AP staff can initiate an invoice. The Xeeva system pre-populates invoices and sends them through 2- or 3-way matching and approval workflows. Both suppliers and AP departments can create, track, and manage non-po invoices and debit/credit memos. The AP Invoice dashboard summarizes the state of all current and pending invoices. The system gathers approved invoices in an OK-to-Pay queue, and the appropriate signals are sent to the ERP/payment system or a third-party epayment provider according to the client s desired frequency. Xeeva provides dashboards (Value Charts) and reporting features for all P2P processes. These reports and analytics summarize the current status of shopping carts, POs, and invoices as appropriate for the user s role. Customers can use the audit trail from transactions to support SOX compliance. Configurable reporting capabilities enable the creation of detailed reports, which can be presented online or exported. User-tailored reporting can be configured during implementation, and dashboard views can be based on user-specific permissions. Executive and strategic roles also have access to rich financial and operational KPIs recorded and reported through a configurable dashboard with drill-down capability. Xeeva provides benchmarking insights to help clients identify improvement opportunities and process comparisons based on prevailing category and market trends and pricing data points. Xeeva also provides robust vendor management capabilities that include user authorization, permissions management, and supplier analysis tools. 19

20 Implementation and Pricing Xeeva s implementation approach emphasizes change management and training, all aimed at increasing user adoption. Xeeva s typical implementation time ranges between 30 and 90 days for companies with a small footprint; for larger global organizations, a longer-phase approach is recommended either by region or business unit, or both. Implementation time generally depends upon aspects of scope such as number of sites, locations, number of users, and state of clients existing data. After implementation, customers have three levels of support options. Clients also experience a hyper-care period after implementation along with a functional support desk called the Results Desk, which can help drive adoption and maximize system benefits. Xeeva s solution pricing consists of an annual subscription fee for the technology and one-time costs for implementation and training. For customers interested in value-added services such as strategic sourcing or category management, these additional options are typically charged on a time and material basis, or are transaction-fee based. 20

21 About PayStream Advisors PayStream Advisors is a research and advisory rm focused on business process automation in sourcing, supply chain management, procurement, accounts payable, payments, and expense management. PayStream s team of experts provide targeted research and consulting services to address the changing needs of nance and procurement professionals. In short, PayStream is dedicated to maximizing returns and minimizing risks associated with technology investment. PayStream s research reports, white papers, webinars, and tools are available free of charge at PayStream Advisors is a division of Levvel, an IT consulting rm specializing in technology strategy, design, architecture, and DevOps. 21