By Mark Brousseau
According to the results of the Federal Reserve’s last two Payments Studies, electronic payments have risen from 43 percent of all non-cash payments to 66 percent of such payments over the period of 2000 to 2006. Conversely, checks have gone from 67 percent to 34 percent during this same period.
The message is clear: electronic payments are replacing check payments at a very rapid rate. So, it may surprise you to learn that one of the most common questions heard by providers of electronic payment solutions is, “do you have any capabilities for handling our paper-based payments?”
Why the continued interest in paper? Larry Jones of Cash Management Solutions, Inc. (larry.jones@cashmgmt.com) says the answer is simple: Although there are literally billions of payments that have migrated to electronic methods, the majority of high dollar and business-to-business payments are still made by check. This means that paper-based payment processing continues to be of great importance to many of the financial industry’s most prized clients, their corporate customers, Jones said.
Jones believes payments service providers must maintain their paper-based capabilities as they add alternative electronic channels. And, it is a well-known fact, he adds, that there is no system so efficient that it can overcome the inefficiencies of having to run it separately from, and simultaneously with, the system it is replacing.
“Until the landscape changes to the point where electronics replace all paper-payments, billers will continue to ask for methods and technologies that can affect a seamless convergence of these two distinct payment types,” Jones predicts. “Any payments service provider who is currently offering only paper processing should definitely be looking for the ability to offer on-line, direct to biller, bill payment services to their customers in a seamlessly merged deliverable.”
Likewise, any company that makes their living providing on-line bill payment systems or services should be looking for capabilities or partners who process paper payments and provide outputs that can be merged and delivered in a similarly seamless fashion, Jones adds.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Beware Poor Project Management
By Mark Brousseau
What is the biggest mistake end-users make when deploying a document management solution? It’s poor internal project management, according to Dana Showers, president of Capture Sage, LLC (717-732-9531/dana@capturesage.com), a provider of comprehensive capture solutions.
“Everybody talks about choosing the right vendor, or hiring the right consultant. These are extremely important,” Showers said. “However, if an organization wants to protect itself, to ensure that it gets maximum return on investment from its document management solution, it needs to pay close attention to internal project management.”
Showers explained that insufficient project management can result in poor vendor selection, a poorly written contract, missing functionality, and a poorly implemented system.
To avoid these pitfalls, Showers offers the following recommendations:
… Ask prospective vendors to provide you with copies of the resumes of each person who will be working on your project. Once you get these, be sure to check their references. “A vendor trying to quickly ramp-up for a large project will often bring in highly intelligent, highly skilled people who have absolutely no experience with capture solutions. Inevitably, the resulting system will be deficient in the areas that matter most to end-users: usability and visibility. The user interface will be inefficient, and the system probably won’t have the types of reports the user needs,” Showers explained.
… Build into your contract system performance metrics for availability, image and text quality, and operator throughput rates. And be sure to include penalties for failure to deliver. Showers cited an example where an organization bought a system that crashed at least once a month.
… Build into your contract dates for system delivery, with progressive penalties for late delivery.
… Steer clear of vendors who under-bid to win your business. “This will undoubtedly cause problems during project execution,” Showers warned, noting that these vendors will typically look for ways to cut corners. “In most of these cases, the relationship between the end-user and the vendor quickly sours.”
… Be leery of vendors who are too agreeable. “There are vendors out there that promise anything to win your business,” Showers said, noting that he has seen one vendor promise two functionality points which were actually mutually exclusive at the product level.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
What is the biggest mistake end-users make when deploying a document management solution? It’s poor internal project management, according to Dana Showers, president of Capture Sage, LLC (717-732-9531/dana@capturesage.com), a provider of comprehensive capture solutions.
“Everybody talks about choosing the right vendor, or hiring the right consultant. These are extremely important,” Showers said. “However, if an organization wants to protect itself, to ensure that it gets maximum return on investment from its document management solution, it needs to pay close attention to internal project management.”
Showers explained that insufficient project management can result in poor vendor selection, a poorly written contract, missing functionality, and a poorly implemented system.
To avoid these pitfalls, Showers offers the following recommendations:
… Ask prospective vendors to provide you with copies of the resumes of each person who will be working on your project. Once you get these, be sure to check their references. “A vendor trying to quickly ramp-up for a large project will often bring in highly intelligent, highly skilled people who have absolutely no experience with capture solutions. Inevitably, the resulting system will be deficient in the areas that matter most to end-users: usability and visibility. The user interface will be inefficient, and the system probably won’t have the types of reports the user needs,” Showers explained.
… Build into your contract system performance metrics for availability, image and text quality, and operator throughput rates. And be sure to include penalties for failure to deliver. Showers cited an example where an organization bought a system that crashed at least once a month.
… Build into your contract dates for system delivery, with progressive penalties for late delivery.
… Steer clear of vendors who under-bid to win your business. “This will undoubtedly cause problems during project execution,” Showers warned, noting that these vendors will typically look for ways to cut corners. “In most of these cases, the relationship between the end-user and the vendor quickly sours.”
… Be leery of vendors who are too agreeable. “There are vendors out there that promise anything to win your business,” Showers said, noting that he has seen one vendor promise two functionality points which were actually mutually exclusive at the product level.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Finance Executives Refocus Attention
By Mark Brousseau
The economic downturn has forced finance executives to refocus their attention on wringing cash from their business, looking beyond conventional improvements in working capital management, and making sure no opportunity for keeping their company well funded goes unexplored. That's according to a research report conducted in November 2008 by American Express and CFO Research Services.
Finance teams have prioritized spending more time on the following activities:
85 percent - Cutting cost of operations
83 percent - Improving cash management processes
81 percent - Developing better budgets, plans and forecasts
When asked about growth strategies in the face of a challenging credit market, nearly three-quarters of executives who responded to the question say they will pay more attention to the customer:
... Organic growth through improved customer relations
... Continued customer contact and service
... Focus on our core business, leveraging existing relationships
What is your perspective? Post a comment below.
The economic downturn has forced finance executives to refocus their attention on wringing cash from their business, looking beyond conventional improvements in working capital management, and making sure no opportunity for keeping their company well funded goes unexplored. That's according to a research report conducted in November 2008 by American Express and CFO Research Services.
Finance teams have prioritized spending more time on the following activities:
85 percent - Cutting cost of operations
83 percent - Improving cash management processes
81 percent - Developing better budgets, plans and forecasts
When asked about growth strategies in the face of a challenging credit market, nearly three-quarters of executives who responded to the question say they will pay more attention to the customer:
... Organic growth through improved customer relations
... Continued customer contact and service
... Focus on our core business, leveraging existing relationships
What is your perspective? Post a comment below.
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