MERCHANT SOLUTIONS
BRINGING
B2B PAYMENTS OUT OF THE DARK AGES By: BC Krishna President and CEO MineralTree
T
he expected renaissance in business-to-business payments is not here yet. And, the way things are going, it may never take place. We are in the middle of a major makeover in consumer payments, with an amazing array of situational payment choices. Online bill pay is convenient and ubiquitous. Uber has completely transformed the payments
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Payment Quarterly | Q4 2015
experience by eliminating the act of paying. And ApplePay appears to be setting down the foundation for the edifice of convenient, secure mobile payments.
check-based paper payments that need a stamp to be licked, an envelope to be sealed, and a mail carrier to slowly carry a payment to its destination?
In stark contrast to the bright, shiny world of consumer payments is the incredibly drab, old-as-Gutenberg, paper-based, antiquated world of businessto-business payments. How is it possible that we, the very same human beings that delight in the seamless payment experience of the Uber ride, can rationalize the use of ridiculously backward
Amazingly, the vast majority of businesses are mired in manual, paper-based, ad hoc, poorly controlled, insecure processes for processing invoices and paying bills. The so-called “Invoice-toPay� process usually consists of filing paper invoices, printing paper checks, stapling them to invoices, and passing them around the office to department heads,