Ariba and Discover to transform B2B payments with cloud-based AribaPay
Ariba, an SAP Company, and Discover Financial Services unveiled on Wednesday AribaPay. The new service, to be offered by Ariba, is expected to transform B2B payments by eliminating paper transactions, providing better visibility into cash flow, and producing rich remittance information to improve reconciliation processes for buyers and sellers.
The cloud-based service, announced at the Ariba Live conference, will combine the applications and insights embedded in the Ariba Network, and deliver them through a trusted and secure global-payments infrastructure to streamline and enhance settlement and reconciliation of business commerce. The service is expected to be generally available in 2014.
"It's the classic joke: The check is in the mail. But few companies find it funny," said Kevin Costello, president of Ariba. "Buyers are drowning in paper, and sellers have no idea when — or how much — they will be paid. AribaPay will effectively eliminate these issues."
AribaPay will provide a way for buyers to create purchase orders, receive invoices, and send payments, while sellers will receive more detailed remittance information in a fast, secure, electronic environment.
Improving commerce
"Ariba and Discover are seizing the opportunity to digitize a share of the estimated $30 trillion in B2B payments that are still mostly made with paper checks," said Roger Hochschild, president and chief operating officer for Discover. "Discover is broadening its network capabilities and infrastructure, and choosing diverse business partners like Ariba to move beyond facilitating payments to enabling and improving business commerce."
For buyers and sellers connected to the Ariba Network, AribaPay will deliver data that shows what payments represent at the invoice and line-item level, fueling faster, more accurate reconciliation on both sides.
Other benefits include:
Lower processing cost
Richer remittance advice
Reduced fraud risk
Elimination of paper checks and invoices
Fewer payments lost to escheatment
Ability to track and trace transactions
Faster reconciliation and dispute resolution.
To learn more about AribaPay and the benefits it is expected to deliver, visit the AribaPay website.
Disclosure: Ariba is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.
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