Customers Like It...

Many EIPP software vendors market their products to financial officers of supplier companies with the promise of faster payments and, as a result, improved cash flow. It may be a coincidence, but the technology started to flourish as the economy soured. "It fit into the business climate that we’re in," particularly after 9/11, says Bob Novaria, treasurer of BP North America and sponsor of the e-billing implementation project for the U.S. division of aviation fuel and lubricant seller Air BP. Customers using Air BP’s electronic billing and payment service, which is provided through Citibank, do pay faster, says Novaria, in part because Warrenville, Ill.-based Air BP and its customers can now identify billing mistakes before an invoice is past due.

But as with many e-commerce applications, it’s the purchasers of goods and services, rather than the suppliers, that are driving adoption. Jacquelyn Barretta, vice president of information services with Con-Way Transportation Services based in Portland, Ore., only began online invoicing in March after contending with mail delays caused by the anthrax scare. The logistics company, which logged nearly $2 billion in sales last year, hopes to cut invoicing costs by 90 percent by switching to electronic billing. But its customers, many of whom have received invoices via electronic data interchange for many years, had as their first priority getting copies of their shipping manifests online and being able to check the status of their shipments. "Just seeing an invoice electronically versus on paper doesn’t save [customers’] money," says Stewart McCutcheon, CTO with Elemica, a B2B exchange for the chemicals industry based in Wayne, Pa. The real payoff comes when companies can use their supply chain management systems to reconcile the invoice with purchase orders and delivery records, and net out what they owe without anyone having to rekey data or pick up the phone to dispute errors.

In May, Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric implemented software from DataCert that allows its legal department to receive electronic invoices from several hundred outside law firms that support the company. The project responds to a corporate mandate that GE’s business units eliminate paper from their purchasing and payment process, says Suzanne Hawkins, senior counsel for legal operations, whose job includes choosing information systems to support GE’s 930 in-house attorneys. Most of the lawyers already use a corporate purchasing system and pay their bills through a common accounts payable system. The EIPP software will integrate the two systems, says Hawkins.