Supply chain payment analytics can give businesses greater visibility into supplier relationships while helping procurement teams identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve working capital. As companies place greater emphasis on digitizing financial operations, the ability to combine accounts payable information with broader supplier data can support more informed payment decisions.
Barclaycard Payment Intelligence is designed to provide that visibility by analyzing multiple sources of payment and supplier information. The service can help businesses categorize suppliers, evaluate transaction activity, identify potential early-payment savings, and determine which payment approaches may be appropriate across complex supplier networks.
This release discusses a new service from Barclaycard that provides some additional capabilities around supply chain data. The service is called Barclaycard Payment Intelligence (BPI). As readers will know, supply chain management, working capital, cash cycle automation and other forms of digitalization have gained a high degree of corporate re-focus due to the pandemic.
In the case of AI, the prerequisite is capturing useful data, so without modernizing financial operations, using AI is a limited success proposition (or a non-starter). The cash cycle runs from procurement to reconciliation. In this case, Barclaycard is providing improved visibility and analytics into supply chains. Here’s more from the press release:
‘Barclaycard has launched Barclaycard Payment Intelligence (BPI), a new service which uses in-depth data analytics to provide procurement departments with the most comprehensive picture of their supply chain – driving cost efficiencies as result….The service combines hundreds of accounts payable data points with internal and third-party data. This helps customers develop the right payment solutions for their various suppliers in a fraction of the time it would take to do manually….The technology helps businesses catalogue their suppliers based on the number and value of transactions as well as their size, location, industry and whether early payment is likely to generate savings, to create a comprehensive overview of the entire supplier framework. For companies with thousands of suppliers – big and small – on their books, the new product can offer a significant time and cost saving for key decision makers.’
Procure-to-Pay Technology Becomes More Integrated
As Mercator Advisory Group has been saying for quite some time now, the procure-to-pay space has been undergoing a gradual convergence during the past several years, as former point solutions across the cycle are becoming more integrated through acquisitions, partnerships, and APIs. So as solidifying supply chains and creating more flexible and effective payment options is under critical review, the service should meet with some eager companies’ needs.
Data Analytics Could Improve Supplier Payment Decisions
We have not yet received a briefing, but by its description, it would seem that Barclaycard uses machine learning and combines both client transactional data with 3rd party information to create best choice scenarios. In effect, it is least cost routing on steroids, with situational analytics to create intelligent choices.
‘Anna Porra, Commercial Strategy Director for Barclaycard, said: “Clunky and complex supplier payments processes mean that businesses of all sizes are losing out on time and money….“Barclaycard has looked to make use payments data to identify opportunities for improvements across the procure to pay process and drive actionable insights for both buyers and suppliers. Barclaycard Payment Intelligence is a new suite of tools that harness state-of-the-art data analytics and financial modelling to devise tailored, actionable solutions for our customers.’
As procure-to-pay platforms become more integrated, businesses have an opportunity to use payment data for more than simply completing transactions. Combining accounts payable information with supplier characteristics and external data can provide procurement teams with actionable insights into how and when suppliers should be paid.
Supply chain payment analytics could be particularly valuable for large organizations managing thousands of supplier relationships and multiple payment options. Barclaycard Payment Intelligence illustrates how analytics and financial modeling can help automate decisions that would otherwise require substantial manual analysis. As companies continue modernizing their financial operations, tools that improve supplier visibility, working capital management, and payment optimization could become an increasingly important part of the procure-to-pay process.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group