Basware, the leading provider of purchase-to-pay solutions, has today announced its annual predictions for the key trends and issues that will dominate the CFO agenda in 2012. This year, themes are driven by the potential changes to the global economy, in particular the potential collapse of the Eurozone, a move to adopting cloud services and further compulsory e-invoicing mandates across the globe.
1. Global economic changes "´ 2012 will see the global economy change drastically with the potential collapse of the Eurozone, and at the very least a dramatic change in the way Europe operates, to the continued rise of China as a superpower. With the increased interdependencies of financial systems, not only internally within a business but also externally on a global scale, these changes could impact businesses and finance functions dramatically if there is not a clear understanding of how these systems interlink. Without the processes / strategies in place to respond to these periods of retraction or sharp growth, it will become difficult for businesses to manage spend, consequently impacting cash flow visibility.
2. Harnessing the Cloud "´ Those businesses that harness the cloud opportunity will reap the benefits. Process-as-a-Service, in particular, enables accounts payable and finance departments to be agile and flexible in response to fast changing economic conditions and demands placed upon the business in terms of driving cost savings and identifying new market opportunities to trade. Forrester predicts that "cloud delivery as-a-service is a growing part of the market, reaching 41% of total vendor revenues by 2012".
3. Compulsory e-invoicing "´ 2012 will continue to see further compulsory e-invoicing mandates globally. If e-invoicing is not compulsory in the country the business operates in, it still needs to be taken into consideration to ensure they can trade with other companies on an international scale. E-invoicing services should acknowledge not just country legislation but also different tax criteria and the complexity surrounding multiple formats. These are complicated issues that affect a company´s ability to trade globally and within their own markets, and are difficult for businesses to manage manually.
4. Accurate Cash Flow Forecasting: a strategic priority "´ Financial systems have become increasingly interdependent, within a business and on a global scale, and subsequently the primary objective for finance departments in 2012 is achieving visibility of cash flow. The 2011 Cost of Control Fuzzy Finance research, commissioned by Basware, indicated that 71% of global CFOs and finance directors are concerned that greater levels of reliance between different finance systems present cash flow visibility challenges and 68% think greater levels of e-invoicing and payment automation would improve cash flow visibility for their organisation. Without a clear visibility of cash flow within an organisation, finance is operating blind when it comes to reporting back to the business. With finance under increasing pressure, it is paramount the information needed is accurate and readily available.
5. The criticality of the network "´ An open network, within which buyers and suppliers can do business, will become increasingly important in 2012. More organizations are looking at trade partners as true partners, and businesses will expect an environment that enables collaboration between these parties, one without restrictions. Without this, it hinders the ability for businesses to work with external parties and slows down business processes, ultimately impacting revenue.
Esa Tihilä, CEO, Basware comments: "In 2012, businesses will look to drive their way through a tough economic climate by making processes more efficient. Investing in e-invoicing technology to increase productivity was ranked as the top activity that 52% of businesses are more likely to do now than 12 months ago, according to the 2011 Cost of Control Fuzzy Finance report, showing that businesses recognize the business value of automated services. Cloud solutions, including Process-as-a-Service, will play a key part in CFOs strategies for the coming year. Cloud technology will enable accounts payable and accounts receivables departments to improve its agility and responsiveness to business demands and fast changing market conditions as companies look to strengthen their position in increasingly competitive markets."
About Basware
Basware is the global leader in purchase-to-pay solutions with more than 1,000,000 users in over 60 countries. The Basware Open Network for e-invoice and purchase message transactions today connects more than 320,000 companies globally. With Basware, an organization can reduce the cost of buying and paying for goods and services and gain visibility and control of its entire spending process by automating manual processes, from sourcing, contract management, purchasing and supplier collaboration to invoice automation. Basware solutions and services enable a company to improve its cash position, optimize working capital and maximize the agility of its finance operation across the purchase-to-pay cycle. The solutions are distributed and implemented, either on site or as a service, in Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific through an extensive network of Basware offices and business partners. www.basware.com
