PYMNTS B2B Month: 4 Themes Set to Shape the Years Ahead

Traditionally characterized by clunky checks, faxed invoices and siloed financial functions, the B2B landscape is being reshaped by digital innovation.

The monthlong PYMNTS event, “B2B Payments: Outlook 2030,” has revealed that the transformation of B2B payments is being led by four themes: the digitization of B2B payments, cash flow and treasury enablement, automation for optimization and growing the role of emerging technologies and new payments innovations.

Payments industry experts told PYMNTS that, led by the promise of improved efficiency and cost savings, companies are embracing automated payment gateways, cash flow management solutions and a slew of emerging technologies.

This emerging reality doesn’t mean that many companies aren’t still struggling with inefficiencies of manual processes that can lead to delayed payments, high error rates and increased operational costs, it just means that, more and more, they don’t have to be.

Read more: 3 Things We’ve Learned From PYMNTS B2B Month

The Digital Transformation of B2B Payments

We heard during B2B Payments: Outlook 2030 that the digital transformation of B2B payments is reshaping finance from top to bottom, driven by an industry-wide move toward platform and network models. This new approach emphasizes interoperability, real-time data, and payment gateways as vital assets in optimizing payment flows and connecting businesses. With these innovations, firms can now process payments with speed and efficiency, creating seamless links between various payment services.

With the emergence of new technologies — particularly APIs and payments automation — gateways can be used strategically to improve cash flow and commerce itself, Bank of America Managing Director, Head of Global Banking Merchant Product Juan Garrido told PYMNTS.

“We’ve seen a tremendous evolution as payment gateways have now become a one-stop shop, giving you the ability to connect to all payment services with easy integration through an API, which gives you the ability to optimize your business,” Garrido said. “There are a lot of merchants out there that are leveraging unique APIs for the data, for the reporting to ingest a lot of what you see from a payment gateway into their internal processes, so that way they have a better view into what’s to come.”

In addition to APIs, instant payment options and automated reconciliation are helping companies manage cash flow, procure-to-pay functions and the customer experience with greater control.

“When it comes to B2B, it will bring the ability to digitize the whole payments infrastructure on the procure-to-pay front. Basically, the whole journey for their customers becomes a very powerful payment experience,” Eduardo de Abreu, VP of product at EBANX, told PYMNTS about the emergence of instant payments like Pix Automático.

Interoperability remains central to these advancements, with emerging models that not only connect multiple systems but also make room for innovative payment methods that streamline international and cross-border transactions.

Cash Flow and Treasury: Empowering CFOs and Treasurers

Amid this transformation, chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasurers are finding themselves with powerful new tools to optimize cash management. In a financial landscape increasingly marked by volatility, tools that provide real-time visibility into cash flow are no longer a luxury but a necessity. Digital solutions focused on cash flow predictability and reducing day sales outstanding (DSO) are essential to maintaining financial agility.

“As companies grow in size, they’re often manually trying to match payments and remittance through Excel spreadsheets and things that aren’t that efficient,” Corrie DeCamp, chief product officer at Billtrust, told PYMNTS, noting that automation in accounts receivable is helping companies predict and control cash flow with greater accuracy.

Rajiv Ramachandran, senior VP product strategy and management at Coupa, emphasized the importance of breaking down data silos in financial processes to unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in cash flow optimization.

“To truly unlock the power of AI, especially in a B2B world, you really need to have tremendous amounts of real-world business data to train the AI,” he said,  adding one of the most significant challenges that treasurers face is the fragmentation of financial functions. Traditionally, procurement, accounts payable (AP), treasury and supply chain teams each operate in silos, with their own sets of data. “Teams responsible for looking at this data and learning from it were completely siloed. Procurement did not talk to AP, AP did not talk to treasury,” Ramachandran said.

Automation and the Elimination of Manual Processes

Despite these advancements, many companies still struggle with inefficiencies tied to manual processes. These outdated methods introduce delays, raise error rates and increase operational costs.

“The B2B money movement space has not yet benefited from some of the real innovations,” Seamus Smith, EVP group president at FIS, told PYMNTS, noting that checks still account for “nearly 40%” of B2B payment volume in the U.S., even though they are prone to fraud and reconciliation errors.

Smith said that with more companies actively working to replace manual payment processes with automated and secure electronic solutions, such as integrated payables and virtual cards, the B2B sector can achieve the same efficiencies and security benefits seen in consumer payments. This shift, he added, is not only modernizing how businesses move money but is also redefining the role of the CFO.

APIs, Blockchain and a Digital Future

As automation and digital platforms redefine payments, emerging technologies are laying the groundwork for a more connected, efficient and secure financial landscape.

“If you think about where financial services is going, which is more tech-enabled and more software-enabled, it’s creating these new platforms and these new ecosystems,” Jon Briggs, executive vice president of commercial products and innovation at KeyBank, told PYMNTS. “I think those FinTechs that have robust risk policies, procedures and apparatuses that they use to run their business will be differentiated as we go forward.”

Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards referred to this process and experience as “embedded money mobility.”

Blockchain and digital assets such as stablecoins are also entering the mix, with the financial world at a pivotal moment, balancing excitement and skepticism around blockchain technology.

PYMNTS sat down with Ran Goldi, SVP, payments and network at Fireblocks, and Nikola Plecas, head of commercialization, Visa Crypto, to dissect the benefits and myths surrounding blockchain-based payments, how to think about real-world applications and how to unlock new revenue streams using blockchain. Stablecoins, the panelists said, offer advantages over existing payment systems, including native programmability, strong auditability, fast settlement, self-custody options and seamless interoperability.

Of course, as with all advancements, testing is crucial before bringing them to market.

“Typically, 2 in 10 digital transactions fail,” Testlio CEO Steve Semelsberger told PYMNTS during a conversation for the B2B Payments 2024 event. “Payment failure at time of purchase, whether it’s a B2B transaction or B2C transaction, is a really big problem. It’s a trillion-dollar problem for companies.”

That’s where payment testing comes in — running systems through rigorous checks to catch every hiccup before it hits the market. From compliance challenges to software bugs, any minor issue can have major repercussions.

Register now to access all streaming and on-demand videos from the B2B Payments 2024 event series.