Payable Strategies for the Long Tail Suppliers — Stage 5: Getting to a Decision

Now it is time to get to a payable strategies decision.

In this five-part Spend Matters PRO series, we have provided a way to help companies address how to approach paying suppliers early given a company’s current baseline and legacy situations.

The mandate was simple. The mandate was clear. Find a way to offer ALL suppliers a way to take early payment.

All companies with that mandate start from a different baseline of solutions, technology, processes and agreements. This series has provided a way to think deeper about this journey.

“Payable strategies can be incredibly confusing for companies of all sizes,” said Jason Busch, Managing Director of Azul Partners and Founder of Spend Matters. “This series has struck me as an ideal primer for procurement and finance organizations to not only discover all of the early payment options at their disposal, but to understand that making the worlds of technology and working capital come together requires a set of steps that must come before driving to a solution. In the wake of the Greensill Capital fallout and the continued future of supply chain finance (SCF) as one of many options available for early payment and working capital programs, it is essential that companies take a step back to understand all of the options at their disposal.”

For this series, here are the five stages for tackling your payables strategy:

• Stage 1 — Assessing Your Current Situation
• Stage 2 — Understanding Addressable Spend & Early Pay Options
• Stage 3 — Addressing Operational Challenges Early
• Stage 4 — Selection Process and Key Issues to Address
• Stage 5 — Getting to a Decision

Let’s jump into the details for Stage 4.

We’ll discuss core RFP components and sample questions, use of a decision matrix for making the call, setting executive management expectations, and the supplier optimization approach once a decision has been made.