We have our conference agenda ready and posted on the PayStream Summit website! The agenda describes the pre-conference learning labs and the executive workshops that the event is offering to its attendees. There are workshops for healthcare professionals who are looking to optimize their supply chain, for finance professionals who are interested in learning how to develop and implement electronic invoicing, and for buyers who want to understand the suppliers’ perspective on eInvoicing and early payment discounting. Additionally, PayStream Summit will have case studies explaining how other innovative companies adopted purchase-to-pay strategies, maximized working capital through payables automation and what information you should know before making your promises to administration.

One of our more notable workshops is “Cash Flow Diplomacy: The Role of the Working Capital Czar” presented by Larry Williams of Procter & Gamble. This session will ask questions such as, “Who is responsible for coordinating P2P initiatives impacting corporate…

When the economy faces down times companies strive to find ways to eliminate excess costs. Financial professionals can help their company navigate through the down times by making improvements in their Accounts Payable, Supply Chains and Treasury operations.

As one of these finance professionals, you may be asking yourself, “Ok, sounds good. But how do I continue to make these improvements? What is the next level? How do I get there?”

PayStream Advisors, Inc. delivers unbiased, third-party market trend information, assessments of financial automation technology and innovative ideas to business leaders in consumer billing, finance and treasury, accounts receivable and accounts payable.

PayStream Advisors is hosting the PayStream Summit 2008 this June 9th – 11th in Orlando, Florida, that will focus on informative and innovative ways to revamp your current financial systems. There will be workshops, case studies and faculty roundtables that…

As the world moves forward at an accelerating pace, many companies are seeking new and innovative ways to remain competitive. One of the more innovative ways Fortune 500 companies are staying on top of the competitive edge is by riding the wave of new innovations. Many companies are using techniques such as discount management and supply chain finance to optimize their working capital.

Maybe you’re reading this and you think, “Man, that sounds like a good idea, but I don’t have the faintest idea how to begin the using processes such as discount management” Understandably, you are not alone. That is why PayStream Advisors, Inc. is hosting the PayStream Summit this June, to answer questions financial executives may have.

The Summit is a two-day educational conference that will focus on invoice efficiency and working capital optimization in purchase-to-pay automation. It is at this Summit that questions may be asked, answers will be…

In today’s world, almost anything can be done electronically: banking, buying clothing, and even ordering take out! It seems like everyone is doing everything that they can electronically.

It makes me wonder then why many large companies with enormous staff, divisions, and revenue still choose to use paper invoicing? All that paper is labor intensive and inefficient; it only slows down the organization’s business-to-business accounts payable payments.

Human beings are creatures of habit. It often takes some persuading, question and answer sessions, opinions from family, friends, colleagues and a little bit of research for a human to make a decision that can affect them or the work they do.

People in some innovative companies have accepted change and use change as a competitive advantage. Technologies like discount management and supply chain finance have created lower DPOs, DSOs and lower unit costs for these companies by automating the payment exchange process, related documents and…

Company: Orange County Public Schools

Implementation: PayStream’s Payment Process Analysis™

Industry: Education

Company size: 12th largest of 16,000 school districts in the United States

“Exceptions like missing GR’s are killing our productivity.” — AP Department

The problem

• Explosive growth in student population
• Entirely manual document management system
• Approval process inconsistent with current leading practices
• Limited visibility with current ERP deployment
• Missing available discounts
• Invoicing process costs 60% above industry average
• Poor communication between departments
• Poorly trained AP staff

The solution

• Conduct an automation assessment of accounts payable process
• Document metrics with PayStream’s methodology and benchmarking data
• Introduce document imaging technology to the system
• Exploit PayStream’s library of best practices across the industries
• Expand electronic payment options (P-Card, EFT & EDI)
• Apply workflow to enhance approval process and communication
• Specialize AP tasks and training

The benefits

• Scalable AP department to accommodate explosive growth
• Imaged documents only mouse-clicks away from all departments
• Invoicing costs in line with industry average
• Reduce exception handling commitment by 50%
• Efficient approval process from workflow
• Productivity gains from AP training and specialization
• Improve financials from

…

Healthcare providers are under increasing pressure to improve patient satisfaction. However, allocating the necessary resources to achieve these goals means that hospital administrators must seek greater revenue cycle process efficiency through cost cutting strategies and technology investments. Healthcare Document Management (HCDM) solutions are uniquely positioned to deliver key benefits to administrators and clinicians alike.

Hospital administrators and Revenue Cycle Managers are turning to HCDM solutions for process improvements and direct cost savings. HCDM delivers results through the replacement of manual, paper-based processes with more efficient, automated, computer-based processes.

HCDM is comprised of core technologies including document scanning, centralized electronic storage, and workflow automation. Healthcare industry innovators are deploying HCDM systems as organization-wide enterprise solutions, while others choose an iterative, department-by-department, model.

You have to agree that the mirrors in stores are more flattering than the ones at home. How many times have you purchased something at The Gap or JC Penny, which looked great, only to come home and realize it didn’t quite suit you?  You must be wondering, what this has to do with selecting the right technology partner.

While clothes shopping, you have an option to return the item at the store. Luckily, merchants in the consumer world are very forgiving when it comes to our purchases. Unfortunately, the business world is not quite as flexible. We cannot imagine deploying a technology solution and then just “returning” because it did not deliver on the expected results.

PayStream has developed Seven Steps to help you supercharge your vendor evaluation process and help you select the right provider the first time around so you don’t have to deal with the “returns” conundrum:

Building a…

Supply Chain Finance and Payables Discount Management (SCF/DM) initiatives need a framework to ensure that programs are approached on a strategic basis that bridges both the Supply Chain and Finance organizations. PayStream’s analysts are working on such a framework to help enterprises implement an “integrated” Supply Chain Program, and have created the Eight Building Blocks of SCF/DM framework to get our clients started. Just as a map helps you understand the context of your journey (the roads you need to navigate and alternative routes), so the SCF/DM framework helps enterprises make decisions about the best route and objectives for their situation.

To build on this theme, PayStream will host an educational conference “Supply Chain Finance - Discount Management Summit” in June 2008 to bring together supply chain and finance executives to explore the future opportunities in working capital. The theme of this year’s SCF conference is Uncovering Working Capital…

I am pleased to announce that the White Paper for PayStream’s upcoming Imaging and Workflow Report is now available in our Research Library. This whitepaper presents an overview of IWA technologies, makes a case for adopting IWA solutions, and also presents a preview of what will be available in the full report. The full IWA Technology Insight Report will detail accounts payable automation, with particular attention to the exciting new IWA technologies available to AP, such as “straight-through processing,” enterprise content management, advanced analytics, on-line Vendor Portals, and Invoice Receipt and Capture.

Read the Press Release here.

The upcoming report will be the third go-around PayStream has had in providing our research on the IWA market to those looking to automate their workplaces and transform them into paperless environments. As such, PayStream has a lot of experience with this technology, and I am privileged to be drawing on that…

Every Supply Chain executive can tell you that sourcing strategy, category depth of expertise, negotiation prowess, and procurement execution are the critical components of a highly effective supply management initiative. If everyone knows the basics, why do we still see such an amazing opportunity in eProcurement? It’s all about visibility (or lack thereof) of procurment processes.

Lack of access to spend metrics and controlled processes has been a big block for many Source to Settlle process improvement efforts. The opportunity for the supply chain organization is enormous — combined with payables automation, it’s very enticing. Moreover, spend data is also vital for other business strategies, such as budgeting and planning, inventory control, and product development.

Data visibility is critical for identifying hard-dollar savings opportunities and developing sourcing, budgeting, planning, and product strategies. Most importantly, it is critical because with it, overall Spend Visibility will provide an important foundation for advanced strategic working…