EIPP : A win-win situation for banks

Accountis Sales Director Ifor Williams has written an article called “EIPP: Extending Payments to the Full Cycle” which looks at the opportunity e-invoicing holds for banks and discusses how they can take advantage of it. The article is currentlly on GTNews.com and here is an extract.

“The delivery of EIPP to corporates is a win-win situation for banks. Customers get the transparent, real-time liquidity management services they want. They also benefit from an outsourced service that covers everything, from purchase order initiation through to tailored financing based on the company’s accounts receivable. They receive rapid, accurate payment for their goods and services while lowering their operating costs.

From the bank’s perspective, services of this kind work because they create a ’stickier’ relationship that is mutually beneficial. Not only does the bank have a greater opportunity for cross-selling its products and services, it can also deliver a truly tailored lending portfolio while minimising risk. Additionally, banks have a unique advantage over in-house systems and business process outsourcers because they can combine e-invoicing services with their existing payment transactions.

Although e-invoicing is favoured by larger corporates typically serviced by the largest banks, there is no reason why smaller banks with SME customers cannot deliver similar services. Cost and complexity are key issues and smaller financial institutions must consider whether they have sufficient resources, for example IT support and infrastructure, to support an EIPP solution themselves or whether they can buy these services from a larger partner or provider. They may also need to be more creative about the nature of services they offer, perhaps concentrating on delivering a few core services to their SME clients.”