Technological change in procure-to-pay

Procure-to-pay circle

Every month, many companies struggle with processing of hundreds or even thousands of paper documents. Therefore, many companies are searching for solutions that allow a comprehensive approach to the process of e-invoicing, which allows to quickly replace paper invoices with their electronic counterparts. Nevertheless, a process of reducing paper documents starts earlier. To understand the whole process of procure-to-pay we should consider the following stages:

• E-sourcing
• Contract management
• Partner onboarding
• Master data management
• E-procurement
• Supply chain management
• E-invoicing and account payable automation
• Supply chain financing with dynamic discounting
• Reporting

Contracts in digital era

Technology is allowing to use electronic version not only of documents, but also of electronic signatures. International law is adapting to these opportunities. Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 Of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (eIDAS Regulation), which came into effect on July 1, 2016 established (among other thing) an EU-wide legal framework for electronic signatures.

An electronic signature is a very capacious term and includes within its scope a variety of technologies. There are many kinds of electronic signatures, and e-documents signed electronically have a different legal effect, depending on the internal legal regulations adopted in a particular country.

This Regulation lays down foundations for more predictable legal framework in EU setting in order the definitions of electronic signatures indicating three signature levels:

1) ‘electronic signature’ means data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form and which is used by the signatory to sign;
2) ‘advanced electronic signature’ means an electronic signature which meets the requirements set out in Article 26 of eIDAS Regulation, which are as follows:
a) it is uniquely linked to the signatory;
b) it is capable of identifying the signatory;
c) it is created using electronic signature creation data that the signatory can, with a high level of confidence, use under his sole control; and
d) it is linked to the data signed therewith in such a way that any subsequent change in the data is detectable;
3) ‘qualified electronic signature’ means an advanced electronic signature that is created by a qualified electronic signature creation device, and which is based on a qualified certificate for electronic signatures

Contracts should be tightly linked to other documents that are connected with the contract subject like correspondence with vendors, protocols, schedules or invoices. Contracts of the expenditure type are often treated as a budget where each invoice connected via our accounts payable solution will update the remaining money left to spend on any given project.

P2P benefits

When business partner is not up to date

There are situations in which we are not able to change our partner’s pattern. A solution for it is the Optical Character Recognition. The use of self-learning OCR engine ensures a noticeable reduction of time spent on registration. Thanks to sophisticated and self-learning algorithms you do not need to bother about many invoice layouts. Scanning in the mixed model (branches and HQ), indexing in the context of domain systems, use of barcodes 2D codes or QR mechanisms.

About Maciej Dudek

Maciej Dudek – Consulting Director of Contract LifeCycle Management Solutions in Comarch. Head Business Analyst of Contract Management project in British Petroleum, Castrol, CEMEX and Pfeifer und Langen. Comarch is a global software provider since 1993. Mr. Dudek has joined the Comarch Group in 2010. He spent the year 2015 in LATAM region, responsible for consulting legal counsels of emerging markets in regards to a smooth transition from traditional to digital management of their departments.

About Comarch ECM

Comarch ECM provides consistent and effective management of documents and related business processes. The company has the ability to register documents regardless of format, safely archive and quickly access the content, especially in context of tasks arising from the conduct of the business process.
Comarch ECM allows the user to design and manage document-related aspects of business processes such as billing invoices, purchase processes, HR processes, contract management and master data management. This allows the user to simplify and automate processes based on the circulation of documents, while maintaining compliance with the requirements of the law.