Automated Payments Gains Ground in Business Sector

The B2B landscape represents one of the last true innovation greenspace areas.

That is the good news.

The bad news, or the other side of the greenspace opportunity, is the fact that it only exists because the inertia at play in the B2B landscape is so strong that many businesses — of all shapes, sectors and sizes — are still playing with the same hand of B2B payments and systems technology cards they were dealt decades ago.

Each week, PYMNTS tracks the innovations reshaping the B2B landscape. And what these innovations consistently show is that change is coming for B2B workflows and data, with solutions increasingly focused on ensuring that B2B payments are reliable, at the right cost points and with the funds flowing safely and securely.

Modernizing global B2B payments is an enormous opportunity, and the top news PYMNTS heard this week was around driving digital transformation and automation forward, unlocking the instant payments opportunity, keeping an eye on provider consolidation, and looking toward the future with artificial intelligence (AI) and even the industrial B2B metaverse. 

Driving Digital Transformation Forward

There exists a growing appetite among B2B firms for digital payments and the benefits they bring. More and more, the marketplace is responding.

Otelier on Tuesday (June 18) launched a product that automates accounts payable (AP) workflows for hotel operators. The new DigiPay product streamlines back-office operations by eliminating time spent processing invoices and cutting checks to suppliers.

On Thursday (June 20), news broke that TreviPay’s s B2B payments and invoicing network will provide payments and invoicing solutions to a new program offered by HDA Truck Pride, an independent provider of parts and services to the commercial vehicle aftermarket.

It isn’t just digitization that is transforming the commercial vehicle sector. Faster payments are already having an impact across the transportation industry.

“For these businesses, instant payments are really about precision,” Cheryl Gurz, vice president, RTP product development at The Clearing House (TCH), told PYMNTS, noting that previously small businesses and independent truckers especially have relied heavily on traditional payment mechanisms such as checks and Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers.

Elsewhere in faster payments, on Thursday Adyen and SumUp joined forces to enable accelerated settlements for small businesses in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Checking on the Pulse of the B2B Marketplace

On Tuesday, PYMNTS unpacked how embracing customized invoicing and payment options, integrating customer payment history and preferences into the order-to-pay cycle, developing client-specific portals and dashboards, and offering a dedicated, high-touch support team, all represent ways B2B businesses can optimize transactions and build better B2B relationships. 

The variety of ways that B2B payments, and B2B operations more broadly, can be optimized means that the marketplace itself is never standing still.

It was announced Tuesday that TravelPerk is expanding into the U.S. by acquiring fellow business travel platform, Chicago-based AmTrav.

On Wednesday (June 19), corporate payments company Corpay said they were acquiring business-to-business cross-border/treasury management firm GPS Capital Markets.

Elsewhere, as it relates to literal B2B marketplaces, PYMNTS reported Thursday that Amazon Business, Amazon’s online business-to-business procurement store, has announced a number of new technology features designed to help large business customers simplify the way they shop for business supplies. That’s why, we wrote, unlocking operational leverage through tighter control over sourcing and procurement is top of mind for forward-thinking B2B firms.

Embracing and Unlocking Opportunities

As exciting as all the change and innovation in the B2B landscape is now, the capacity for change and innovation in the future is even more exciting.

That’s why PYMNTS recently explored why the killer use case of the metaverse, it may turn out, may not be consumer-focused at all. 

That’s because industrial metaverse solutions can help streamline B2B processes and global commerce by allowing suppliers to showcase their products in a virtual space and giving buyers a chance to interact with products in a simulated environment. At the same time, digital twins can enable suppliers to offer highly customized products and services by simulating and adjusting to specific buyer requirements before physical production.

And according to a new report by Citi, the banking sector will be significantly impacted by AI. The bank found that 54%  of jobs in the banking sector have a higher potential for automation, while another 12% could be augmented by AI.

Still, any future innovation will need to be built by balancing data security with the need for data sharing. After all, driving B2B operations forward is an area where data protection and collaboration are both paramount.

“Companies and enterprises are increasingly facing a dilemma between how much they want to leverage their data versus how much they want to keep it secure and protected,” Sadegh Riazi, CEO and founder at Pyte, told PYMNTS during a discussion for the “AI Effect” series. 

But as more companies recognize the value of privacy and security in data collaboration, techniques like secure multiparty computation (SMPC) — a cryptographic way of protecting information that allows businesses to operate directly on encrypted data without the need for decryption — are emerging to allow multiple parties to work together on their data without revealing any sensitive information. 

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