A recent study done by Byline Research found:

Access to timely, accurate financial information, cost savings and good relations with suppliers are the top priorities for finance managers. But few large organizations have adopted automation strategies consistent with these goals. Consequently they run highly inefficient accounts payable operations, settle their bills late, and cannot marshal the resources they need to manage the supply chain effectively.

As for those organizations turning in average or below-average performance, the evidence suggests significant opportunities for savings, process efficiencies and improved supplier relations. This group could expect to make savings of at least 50% of the running costs of the A/P department.

The AP function is now a focus because technology is changing the way this department functions. Automation is driving productivity and efficiency, as well as cost reduction. Corporate executives are beginning to view the AP department as a revenue source, rather than a cost center. Finance managers see how their AP department could be viewed as a strategic asset - strengthening relationships with suppliers and vendors, enhancing customer service and providing significant cost savings.

To ensure invoices are promptly paid and mishandling does not compromise hard-earned business relationships, organizations are increasingly depending on the benefits of an integrated AP solution with their ERP, accounting, workflow and/or document management business applications.

Silicon Plains has an accounts payable solution that brings this automation and integration into AP. AP.Sphere leverages Kofax's Ascent for Payables to capture the invoices and related documents, IBM Content Management software as the document image repository and DotSphere as the workflow engine to provide automatic image capture, automatic OCR and data entry as well as pre-built workflows for managing a company's accounts payable process.