Tuesday 10th March, 2015

A new supplier portal solution, introduced today by PaymentWorks takes aim at traditional supplier/buyer invoice interaction with plans to disrupt it. The PaymentWorks Solution, optimises the secure exchange of information between large and mid-sized companies and their suppliers to ensure efficiency throughout the invoicing and payment process. 

CEO, Thayer Stewart,  said that:“The appeal of self-service, which is prevalent in the consumer world, is finally trending in the corporate world. Companies are tired of manual, routine communications that tie up valuable resources, and suppliers increasingly prefer to exchange information online.”

Stewart, who previously headed up Global Marketing for OB10 (Tungsten), pointed to a recent survey the company's carried out in conjunction with Sharedserviceslink, which identified three trends:

1. Growth - There is significant growth in the use of supplier portals. According to the report, 39% of respondents have deployed supplier portals, and 49% are likely to deploy one over the next two years. 48% expressed a preference for 3^rd party portals.
2. Objective -  Increased productivity was cited by 63% of respondents as the primary objective for portal implementation.
3. Satisfaction - High adoption and utilisation is essential for high satisfaction. Dissatisfied respondents eliminated fewer than 25% of communications. A direct correlation was identified between the reduction in number of routine supplier communications and satisfaction with supplier portals. Factors impacting adoption include ease of onboarding, ease of use, support, and training.

Portals are often just considered part of a bolt on to an existing solution, and in some cases only "talk" to others using the same network. This new solution plans to overcome that, using a simple UI (which certainly looks easy to use) the company aims to make communication as easy as LinkedIn or Facebook. As Stewart added “Portals currently in use are likely to have dated, cumbersome user interfaces, impeding onboarding and adoption. PaymentWorks is easy to use, does not require a large investment of time or money to deploy, and enables companies and their suppliers to connect and communicate with each other."

PaymentWorks and sharedserviceslink are hosting a webinar on April 14^th at 1PM EST to introduce the full results of the survey and all registrants will receive a copy of the report. 

Register at http://www.sharedserviceslink.com/event/5-ways-to-make-your-supplier-portal-a-success