In its extension to finance, the purchasing information system incorporates features to reduce supplier risk while generating additional gains. More and more publishers are offering Reverse factoring and dynamic discounting management solutions.
In recent years, the "financialization" of the Purchasing function, and therefore its tools, is on the move. In turn, the leading publishers in the e-purchase market are integrating payment services to help contractors prevent the risk of financial failure of their suppliers, especially the most fragile. How? By minimizing settlement times. These offers from supply chain financing would resonate with contractors: the need for liquidity in a context of chronic crisis, combined with more difficult access to credit, would be the main explanation. In France, the LME (Economic Modernization Act) would also have stimulated the market. Not to mention the rise in the maturity of purchases, more attentive to suppliers and sensitive to new levers of optimization of their performance.
In this functional opening movement, two types of services are particularly popular: Reverse factoring, dynamic discounting, on the other. Reverse factoring is the reverse form of traditional factoring based on a simple principle: at the request of the client, a partner financial organization (factor) pays part of its invoices in cash, the repayment being made at the normal due date. Operating costs are usually made up of a service commission, paid by the buyer, and a special financing commission, at the expense of the supplier. In addition to preserving its BFR (Working Capital Need), the client has a new lever for negotiations (price, quality level, etc.) or supplier loyalty, while respecting the payment deadlines. Suppliers, on the other hand, also improve their BFR by reducing their receivables, and secure payments through a framework process.
What does a source-to-pay tool provide for reverse factoring management? It can first manage the process, when it is implemented to identify eligible suppliers and manage their enlistment, and then at the time of execution to monitor operations. A tool also allows, during the negotiation process, to monetize the deadlines through a discount according to the level of optimization of the payment cycle. Finally, above all, it facilitates the connection with the electronic platforms that banks generally have that offer Reverse factoring, allowing to exchange and process invoices as quickly as possible, via traditional EDI links. Or with the platforms of providers positioned as intermediaries, which propose to manage all the problems: data exchange standards, security, financial mechanisms, etc. It is also in the logic of expanding their portfolio of services that specialists in dematerialization or flow management, especially around electronic invoices (Basware, Determine, Esker, SAP Ariba, Taulia, Tradeshift), have positioned themselves in this market segment.
The other popular payment service, Dynamic discounting, has appeared more recently. Although generally proposed in the continuation of Reverse factoring, it responds more directly to purchasing problems, without the intervention of a financial organization. Its principle is based on the calculation of discounts in real time, based on terms negotiated with suppliers, according to different prepayment scenarios. SAP Ariba Basware had been among the first to offer it, particularly through the range of services available on their Business network, as well as publishers historically positioned on the procure-to-pay process such as Determine and SynerTrade. Logically, others followed. Dynamic discount management is thus included in the billing-payment features of the latest version of Coupa and Ivalua's solutions, which presented it as one of their main innovations at the end of 2015. It is also offered by smaller players, such as Purchasing Group (Performance Purchases) or Oalia. And even by some ERP publishers. The new book " Digitalisation of purchases acxias, to be published in June, will present a comparison of solutions on these two topics and other features in the financial field.