To support companies with further optimising their purchase to pay (P2P) process and their working capital management, ING, a global financial institution of Dutch origin, will start to offer an automated invoice payment solution that can be easily added to the existing P2P workflow.
This solution will address buyers’ payment challenges ranging from funding, to forecasting short term cash flow, as well as managing their suppliers with respect to payment.
The introduction of the new e-payment solution comes at a time that many companies are moving to e-invoicing and automating their procurement processes. E-invoicing is reaching critical mass. According to the latest industry research, the global market growth of e-invoicing is estimated to be approximately 20 percent globally and upwards of 40 percent in the most mature markets (Billentis 2014 & EESPA 2014).
The e-payment solution makes early payment to suppliers easier while leading to direct cost savings for buyers. An initial estimate shows that buyers could save up to 1% of their indirect spend while suppliers’ liquidity improves as they are paid within 3-5 working days.
The service will be provided in cooperation with Basware, and is based on MasterCard’s global payment network.
Mark Buitenhek, ING Commercial Banking Global Head of Transaction Services comments: “Extending the benefits of electronic invoicing to include payment is an integral part of our strategy of taking advantage of innovation in order to serve the changing needs of our customers. Electronic financial services and e-payments improve financial processes overall, increase visibility and improve cash flow for our customers and is relevant for companies of all sizes. We are pleased to link our purchase control platform to the Basware Commerce Network as it supports our objective of delivering a comprehensive integrated solution encompassing the entire financial supply chain.” Ad van der Poel, SVP, Financing Services at Basware says: “We are excited to be working with ING, one of the globally leading financial institutions, as our first partner to offer Basware Pay to customers worldwide. The solution connects buyer and supplier purchasing and invoicing processes via the open Basware Commerce Network. With the solution, buyers enjoy easy access to funding for early payment, while suppliers can choose to get paid faster with greater certainty and less hassle. Both parties benefit also from richer settlement data and full process and payment visibility.”