Not everyone likes to negotiate. In the business-to-business (B2B) space, buyers and suppliers often face friction when negotiating which payment methods the supplier will accept.
Priority Technology Holdings is known to help solve this problem by offering vendor enablement. Today, the company also aims to do this with automation.
On March 2, Priority announced its participation in the Mastercard Track Business Payment Service (Track BPS) to improve the exchange of payment data between buyers and suppliers.
“By having the business rules available and available, it just becomes a hassle-free marketplace for payments,” Steve Tackett, executive vice president and head of the B2B division at Priority, told PYMNTS.
Reduce friction for buyers and suppliers
The pandemic has highlighted the need for a better way to make B2B payments. Today, when buyers want a supplier to accept an electronic form of payment, they need to contact the supplier and see if they are okay with it.
This has always been a painful process for Accounts Payable (AP) departments. This has been even more difficult over the past two years, when there was no one sitting at a vendor Accounts Receivable (AR) desk ready to take a call.
“The number of phone calls you have to make just to reach the right person and get them to return calls, which were much more reliable before, has really compounded a time-consuming process,” Tackett said.
It’s difficult for suppliers too. While accepting a credit card used to be a rare request, it is now a chore because in 2022 vendors who are open to receiving electronic forms of payment could receive several hundred or even a thousand or more e-payments. email each month.
“Then this thing that was sold to you as a way to speed up checkout and a better form of automation seems pretty manual,” Tackett said.
These have been real brakes on the growth of the electronic payments market. This is one of the reasons why there are still so many check payments made by businesses.
Related: How Digital Payment Adoption Drives Business Growth
Implementing Automation Strategies
He added that the breadth, depth, reach and influence of Mastercard will also help drive the adoption of electronic payments.
Track BPS is part of a solution that will make it easier for Priority to know not only whether a supplier will accept a card or EFT for payment, but also the company’s business rules. This will allow buyers to submit payments electronically following these business rules.
“We went from something opaque to something transparent, and it’s very, very powerful,” Tackett said.
Enabling market advancements
For the vendor, the automation will allow these transactions to automatically enter and show up in their bank accounts without them having to open emails, click on links, or copy and paste card numbers. and expiration dates.
“These are game-changing advances in the market that, if widely adopted, will yield great results,” Tackett said.
Comparing it to the direct deposit experience that consumers enjoy, Tackett said that if consumers only have to enter their routing number and bank account number into their employer’s system once, B2B companies have to do it again and again.
With the new system, on the other hand, it’s as if the numbers are there for everyone to see — without being compromised — so businesses can interact in a network effect.
Also, instead of getting a stack of installments, the provider will get them in a consolidated view, which they can reconcile.
This will improve a supplier’s cash flow as they will no longer have days of waiting for credit card payments. Instead – assuming there is no agreement to do otherwise – the money will go to the supplier immediately.
This type of automation will also improve the relationship between buyers and suppliers, as it will reduce the difficult negotiations between them on which payment methods will be accepted.
“You reduce costs, you reduce friction, and ultimately money moves much cleaner and more efficiently,” Tackett said.
See also: Integrated banking and digital payments help SMEs hedge inflation and increase cash flow
——————————
NEW PYMNTS DATA: 57% OF CONSUMERS PREFER ADVANCED IDENTITY VERIFICATION AFTER TRIING IT
On:Fifty-seven percent of consumers who used advanced identity verification methods such as voice recognition when contacting customer service say they would do it again. The Consumer Authentication Experiences report surveyed nearly 3,800 US consumers to find out how delivering innovative verification experiences helps businesses deliver superior customer service across all channels.
Comments are closed.