The document summarizes research from Ardent Partners on strategies for automating accounts payable (AP) operations. Key findings include: AP professionals prioritize getting the basics right like accurate data and effective processes to drive automation and collaboration; collaboration between AP and procurement is increasing to realize more savings; and best-in-class AP performance is achieved through prioritizing reduction of invoice exceptions, collaboration between functions, and leveraging intelligence. The document recommends all enterprises prioritize these areas and that AP professionals focus on business networks, the "payment" portion of ePayables, and promoting business agility.

1. Proven strategies for automating your AP Operations
Justin Slade, Ariba Customer Organisation, ANZ
October 21-22, 2015 Public

2. Introduction

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Introduction
Ardent Partners is a research and
advisory firm focused on defining and
advancing the accounts payable and
supply management strategies,
processes, and technologies that drive
business value and accelerate
organizational transformation within
the enterprise.
The following research was presented at AribaLive 2015 and available on the Payables Place website.
Undertaken by Ardent Partners and underwritten, in part, by Ariba.

4. © 2015 Ariba – an SAP company. All rights reserved. 4Public
Report demographics
Job Function Accounts Payable 57%
Finance /
Treasury
21% Procurement 14% Other 8%
Job Role VP-level or higher 20% Director-level 29% Manager-level 36% Other 15%
Company
Revenue
Large
(Revenue >$1bn)
58% Mid-market
(Rev: $250m - $1bn)
21% Small
(Revenue < $250m)
21%
Region NA 71% EMEA 19% APAC 9% SA 1%
Industry
More than 20 distinct industries are represented.
Public sector, Health Care, Financial Services, Education and Manufacturing are largest in survey pool.
No industry represents more than 15%
The research in this presentation represents: 175 business professionals via web-based survey and
interviews with AP and Finance Executives
Focus on AP, large enterprises, in NA, across all levels of management and all industry sectors.

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Proven strategies for automating your AP Operations
The research report has been structured into the following sections
1. The State of AP
2. The State of ePayables
3. AP Performance
4. Strategies for Success

6. State of AP

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APs Top Priorities in 2015
What will it take to take AP to the “next level” of performance?
Get the basics right with accurate data, effective processes and systems to drive
automation and collaboration.

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APs Top Priorities in 2015
How does that compare to 2014?
Focus shifted from reducing costs to getting value from analytics.

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Evolving role of collaboration
Level of collaboration between AP and Procurement
Closing the AP/Procurement loop increases the value of earlier investment – resulting in more savings,
better compliance and cash management.

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The Path Ahead
Goals for Today’s AP Organisations: for the next 24 months
Ardent expects that technology will become more seamless and available to enterprises that
previously did not have the resources, budget and/or aptitude to deploy it.

11. State of ePayables

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The State of ePayables
The Ardent Partners ePayables Framework
Enabling enterprises to evaluate their processes, systems and optimise their investment.

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Process Improvement Priorities for 2015
ePayables Priorities for 2015 to 2016
Process improvement work on a performance continuum over multi-years to embed the transformation
and make the change sustainable.

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Top AP Challenges in 2015
Each hurdle can be directly addressed with some level of technology.

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ePayables Current and Planned Usage
How does current usage relate to planned usage in the future
Focus shifting to delivering more complete solutions requiring greater investment.

16. Best in Class Performance

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Best in Class Performance
The 2015 AP Benchmarks
Key metrics required to drive change in behaviour.

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AP Performance Comparison – Best-in-class vs. All Others
Need to set realistic targets and timeframes to build momentum.
Significant improvement and value can be achieved.

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Key AP Capabilities, Best-in-class vs. All Others
Best practise is about doing the right things across all spend, across all of the business.

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ePayables Adoption – Best-in-class vs. All Others
Digging deeper into best-in-class AP Operations
Biggest gap shown in self-service suppliers portal, eInvoicing and complete P2P solution.

21. Strategies for Success

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Recommendations for ALL Enterprises
1. Prioritise the reduction of invoice exceptions
2. Bridge the collaboration gap and ensure that AP and Procurement work in unison
3. Intelligence is king, now and in the future
4. Efficiency first, value added tasks later

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Next Level Recommendations for AP Professionals and Execs
1. Understand the value of Business Networks and make a push to becoming part of the
interconnectivity
2. Focus on the “payment” portion of the ePayables Framework as the next opportunity for strategic
growth and value
3. Build AP into a function that promotes business agility

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How does AP get to “Higher Ground”?
1. Drive efficiency and collaboration
2. Technology and Automation
3. Payments: the Next Frontier of AP