To put it crisply, “the traditional office is disappearing as more staff work from home, and businesses must roll out advanced digital payments technologies and processes to sustain their employees. Determining which innovations to adopt can be difficult for businesses that have yet to make the digital leap.”
So says Enabling B2B Payments for the Virtual Workforce, done in collaboration with Conferma Pay, which scouts the ways virtual card products help businesses smooth accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) issues and align with digitization raging around the payments space.
We’re reminded that empty buildings will be an emblem of these odd times, as Enabling B2B Payments for the Virtual Workforce notes, “one recent report found that 45 percent of staff now work from home, and 38 percent of businesses plan to allow at least some of their staff members to work remotely for good. This new — and seemingly permanent — arrangement all but cements that the future workforce will be digital, and that virtual businesses must adopt new digital payment methods to match.”
The Race Is On For Virtual B2B
Maintaining virtual operations over time and nurturing teams at a remove is the way things are done now — a fact that touches everything from secure communications to digital transactions.
Given predictions that 80 percent of buyer-supplier transactions will be digital by 2025, the pressure is on to change now – especially regarding consumerization of business payments.
“In a B2B context, making an innovative, consumer-like payment process available to your procurement department must be balanced with corporate governance requirements. Of course, it can be hard to balance the two,” Nick Reid, director of B2B partner development at Conferma Pay, told PYMNTS. “Buyers should consider digital alternatives, such as virtual cards, instead. Extended days payable outstanding for buyers and reduced days sales outstanding for suppliers are key attributes of commercial cards, regardless of whether they are virtual or not. But virtual cards and their inherent qualities give corporate buyers the confidence to adopt commercial cards more extensively, since they combine perfectly the business requirements of convenience and corporate governance.”
Reid added that “the consequent boost to their own liquidity and that of the supply chain is invaluable, especially in today’s business environment.”
It’s a powerful argument in favor of virtual cards and the platforms supporting them, as B2B payments are catching up to far more intuitive, seamless consumer payments experiences.
Benefits Beyond Spend Management
Revisiting and revamping B2B payments is the driving mission owners and CFOs have been on this entire year, partly because digital modernization was often deprioritized pre-COVID.
Enabling B2B Payments for the Virtual Workforce notes that “businesses have long relied on traditional tools, such as credit cards, to manage business expenses. Credit cards may seem convenient, but using them often results in challenges when reconciling transactions and fixing errors.”
But the old rationale doesn’t fly anymore. Hence, the blur of transformation. It’s for the best.
“The benefits of utilizing virtual cards extend far beyond spend management. Access to virtual cards’ real-time spending data can also improve how businesses manage their quarterly budgets. More businesses will leverage this key benefit in the future,” Enabling B2B Payments For The Virtual Workforce states, adding that “these issues have dramatically boosted companies’ interests in digital B2B innovations that can quickly provide cash-strapped firms with needed funds.”
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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