As you probably know, getting your suppliers to enroll, and actually use your portal is the first step to ensuring effectiveness and the highest ROI.
Most of the times, suppliers are too busy running their businesses to start actively using an e-invoicing and early payment portal. In other words: who has time to learn a new platform?
That’s where the intuitive nature of a simple, yet beautifully designed portal comes in. While you will achieve high adoption through a portal policy and communicating the benefits of being paid early, your suppliers’ experience and sentiment of the portal is what will really drive active usage.
Take a look at Timmy, a young supplier whose customer has a user-friendly portal. It’s so easy for him to submit an electronic invoice and get paid early!
Warning signs of a portal that will cause low supplier adoption
How can you tell if a portal is bound to receive low supplier adoption? Here are three key warning signs you should look for.
From an operational and financial standpoint, there’s nothing more inefficient than implementing a new solution that doesn’t fully integrate with your current systems. What’s the point of giving your suppliers visibility into their invoice if they can’t submit electronic inquiries and request to be paid early?
When you have thousands of suppliers, flexibility is key for adoption. If one of your suppliers prefers to upload a batch list of invoices instead of submitting them individually, your chances of that supplier accelerating invoices to be paid early and actively using the portal are much higher if your portal supports their current receivables process.
As we mentioned, the first step in maximizing ROI is getting your suppliers to use the portal. But where you can receive true financial benefits is through your portal’s ability to capture early payment discounts. Beyond your suppliers’ awareness of this feature, it must be easy for them to take advantage of being paid early in the portal.
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