Technology is a powerful driver for economic growth from two perspectives. First, as Tom Peters observed it “allows organizations to create business models in ways never dreamed of in earlier times.” Examples of this include electronic commerce (the fastest growing retail segment), virtual corporations and cross-continental project collaboration. These business models could not exist without the use of computer technology. In addition, they replaced business models that were more costly and less productive. Beyond creating new business models, technology has fostered the ability of organizations to be faster, better and cheaper in everything they do. Financial management was an early adopter of computer technology and large gains in productivity were quickly realized. Big accounting staffs postings large amounts of transactions were replaced by computers. Not only is the work performed more efficiently but with greater accuracy. Despite these advances some areas of finance remain very much rooted in manual processes. Accounts Payable is a prime example where despite the technical ability to exchange information electronically, 78% of all invoices are paper based. AP staffs transform the information from the paper into computers for processing and payment. This process requires significant labor and is error prone. The irony is that almost all of these paper invoices were first created in a computer and then transformed to paper
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Tomorrow’s Promise of e-Invoicing is Delivered Today for a Quarter
