This Week in B2B: Junking Clunky Systems and Embracing Innovation

Where the consumer space is nimble and flexible, the B2B landscape can be comparatively stiff.

But when momentum builds in B2B, it can be hard to stop. And that’s what is happening — as new tech continues driving massive gains across the B2B landscape by automating away legacy inefficiencies and opening up new growth channels by turning slow, manual processes into history.

What once took days — or even weeks — can now be accomplished in mere minutes, thanks to a wave of digital transformation. From supply chain management to invoicing, businesses are ditching old-school, manual methods for automated solutions that are cutting costs and boosting efficiency.

For companies entrenched in outdated B2B workflows, the message is clear: evolve or get left behind.

That, at least, was the dominant theme that PYMNTS tracked this week, spanning advances in small business solutions, B2B processes, business identity and procurement, automation and global trade.

Small Business Solutions and Innovations

Small businesses represent a big opportunity for solutions providers across payments, as evidenced by the slew of marketplace news this week.

FinTech startup iWallet now enables small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use Zelle for invoicing, per a Wednesday (Sept. 25) announcement.

Elsewhere, BILL, also on Wednesday, introduced new cross-border instant payment offerings for small businesses and accountants, while TreviPay that same day introduced enhancements for dealer management systems for commercial equipment dealers servicing fleets.

And Wednesday remained a busy day for SMB solutions, as Klarna and Xero partnered to enable the users of Xero’s small business platform to offer their customers a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option; while on Monday (Sept. 23) the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Phacet raised $4.4 million for its small business-based solutions.

The company’s funding round comes at a moment where AI is no longer just the domain of large, deep-pocketed companies, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this year in a look at SMB adoption of the technology.

Rounding out the big week for small businesses solutions, digital origination/decisioning company Amount debuted a small-business-focused lending suite for banks and credit unions. The new SMB Suite, announced Tuesday (Sept. 24), is designed to support secured and unsecured lending, while streamlining deposit account origination, among other benefits.

Better B2B Payments 

Not all the innovations launched this week centered around small business growth.

Cross River Bank announced Tuesday (Sept. 24) it has formed a partnership with embedded payments company Forward. The collaboration is designed to use embedded payments to address payment challenges the companies say are stunting the growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, helping them boost revenue, improve customer experience and increase product stickiness.

And the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) across operations was another key theme, with PYMNTS finding B2B businesses are increasingly looking to AI solutions in support of process excellence. Across marketing, customer success, compliance, payments and beyond, AI innovations are reshaping traditional workflows.

Against that backdrop, the rise of AI prompt engineering for B2B operations is becoming crucial to unlocking the capabilities of AI in automating tasks, deriving insights and transforming how B2B companies interact with their data.

Within B2B marketing specifically, that engagement funnel, for decades, has been linear: awareness led to consideration, and finally, a purchase decision. But in today’s business-to-business landscape, it’s no longer about who you know — it’s how well you can target, track, and convert using data-driven insights. Just like across B2B payments, the “consumerization” of B2B marketing is surging. That’s why, on Thursday (Sept. 26), PYMNTS covered the major forces driving the modernization of B2B marketing.

Business Identity, Supplier Relationships and Procurement

On Wednesday (Sept. 25), PYMNTS wrote about how the need to define a single, authoritative source of truth for business identity has emerged as a critical issue — finding that from securing transactions to navigating regulatory landscapes, a unified business identity is vital not only for maintaining credibility but also for operations such as securing loans and working capital.

PYMNTS also reported on how, with B2B platforms continuing to mature and gain share relative to legacy procurement channels, their ability to enable faster, more secure and customizable payment options has become a differentiator.

“Understanding your supplier relationships, what’s best for you as a company, and what best supports your size and growth goals is crucial,” Eric Frankovic, general manager of corporate payments at WEX, told PYMNTS this week, noting that B2B firms are increasingly cutting costs by optimizing their business payments.

And in an interview posted here Monday (Sept. 23), Donald Polansky, senior manager of corporate systems development at GlassCraft Door Company, told PYMNTS that the company’s own B2B marketplace has plans to utilize custom APIs and integrate with third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, automating the quote-to-order process.

Moving Key Workflows From Analog to Digital

Manual accounts payable (AP) operations can cost firms more than they might think.

“It’s a serious problem within these AP departments. Completely inefficient manual processes compounded by fragmented systems,” Ernest Rolfson, CEO and founder at Finexio, told PYMNTS. That’s why firms are ditching the paper and cashing in on the savings and efficiencies AP automation can bring, transforming how companies operate and driving strategic value beyond cost savings.

And it isn’t just the AP department that is ripe for digital transformation. Duncan Lodge, global head of supply chain finance and EMEA head of trade at Bank of America, told PYMNTS that the global trade landscape is ripe for change.

“Eradicating paper brings significant benefits in terms of speed, reduced processing risks and improved visibility between counterparties,” he said, noting this visibility is crucial for managing counterparty and performance risks — both key concerns in international trade.

Against that backdrop, PYMNTS covered Thursday how, while challenge of bringing disparate systems up to speed is multifaceted, with the right strategy, institutions across legacy sectors can navigate this transformation effectively.

And in macro news, last week, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point, and now small business owners reportedly aren’t sure how to proceed. But for chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasurers at least, PYMNTS dug into how the move introduces new complexities — and opportunities — in financial management.

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