Medius Launches AP Automation Partnership With UK VARs

Accounts payable (AP) automation provider Medius has launched partnerships with several British value-added resellers (VARs).

The collaborations, announced last week, involve partners that are experts in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

These companies — including The Access Group, Acuity Solutions, Anthesis, Escone Solutions, and Kamarin Computers — have developed “pre-packaged connectors between Medius AP Automation and the ERP solutions they represent,” Medius said in a news release.

“The UK market represents a large and growing market for Medius,” the release added. “These business partners make it easy for customers to integrate their ERP solution with Medius AP so that they can have accurate financial information.”

The partnership comes at a time when 93% of middle-market companies say that their AP automation solutions aren’t sufficient, as PYMNTS wrote last month.

“However, 96% of mid-size firms encounter barriers to entry, including implementation costs that can be significant,” that report said. “As a result, automation represents a journey: Just 5% have completely automated all processes.”

Those figures come from the report “Accounts Payable and Receivable Trends: The Journey to Automation,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express collaboration.

The report also found that while about 25% of mid-sized firms start automation with regularly scheduled payments and those of consistent amounts, smaller firms depart from this trend.

Those companies seem to be looking for financial benefits through automation, like discounts for faster, on-time or automatic payments.

“This choice can yield immediate returns and reward these smaller firms focusing on near-term financial benefits,” PYMNTS wrote.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke last month with Kat Battle, product manager for Complete AP at Bank of America, about  the benefits of AP automation.

“Traditional AP programs take a lot of people, a lot of processes and a lot of labor,” Battle said. “All of that carries a significant cost for businesses. Companies very often have those historical, manual, paper-based processes and relatively small teams to manage them. They would love to digitize those invoices. They would love to turn those costly check payments into virtual cards or ACHs, but they might not have the staff or the capacity to do that. And that’s where they turn to AP automation to cut those costs across the board.”

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