Electronic Payments Gain Ground

"Electronic utopia" might sound like the name of an alternative rock band, but in the world of accounts payable and receivable, it's the state many treasurers dream of attaining once they have eliminated paper from their processes and are moving both data and funds entirely electronically. "The biggest drive that we're focusing on right now is moving from the paper to the electronic realm," says Michael Cross, director of marketing with Mellon Working Capital Solutions, Mellon Financial Corp., in Pittsburgh. "Customers see the electronic realm as nirvana."

Treasury executives are looking forward to straight-through processing, seamlessly linked systems, more vendor discounts and reduced exception processing. "Electronification is the path to payments prosperity," says Craig T. Vaream, vice president and ACH product executive with JPMorgan Chase in New York City.

Many companies appear to be moving along that path. Results of a September 2006 survey of finance executives by PayStream Advisors Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., show that 47 percent of respondents are using imaging and document management applications in their procure-to-pay processes. Of these, 46 percent use imaging and document management with approval workflow applications to accelerate invoice-processing time.