Top 5 Take-Away’s From SSON’s AP Automation Virtual Summit

Last month, SSON Digital held one of its largest events of the year, the AP Automation Virtual Summit. Over 1,200 AP, Finance, and P2P professionals registered to hear experts from Nokia, 3M, Warner Music Group, Zalora, Sonoco, FIS, AppZen, Airbase, OpenEnvoy, Oversight, TrustMi, Rossum and Kohler discuss their AP transformations. So, what key takeaways came out of the event?
 
1. Manual Data Entry Remains the #1 Problem!
Polling at the event showed that despite years of discussion about automation, when asked about their biggest challenge, 56% of respondents listed “too much manual data entry.” This was followed by: invoice-matching errors, invoice processing delays and a lack of vendor communication.

2. Invoice Receipt and Capture Automation Leads the Way
39% of attendees stated that they had automated 50-74% of their processes, the biggest subsection. Invoice receipt and capture was far and away the most automated sub-process with a staggering 66.7% of attendees having already automated. In second place was data validation, and then, purchase order matching was tied with approval workflows.
 
3.  The Hunger For AI Advice Is Not Yet Sated!
Despite the huge number of webinars, events and articles available on AI (many by SSON), the AP profession appeared hungry for more! Speakers from Oversight, Open Envoy, Limbach, 3M, AppZen and TrustMi, all gave well-attended, presentations on AI’s use in the Accounts Payable function. Key questions from the audience included getting buy-in and proving quick ROI. Business leaders seem willing to experiment with AI tools, but funding is cut if results aren’t seen within approximately 18 months. Interestingly less than 20% of the audience rated themselves as knowledgeable and ready for AI adoption, so there appears a long way to go in upskilling.
 
4. Fraud is Everywhere and it’s AP’s Job To Stop It!
During TrustMi’s insightful session on preventing and detecting AP Fraud, only 16% of respondents said no when asked “Has your organization experienced any AP fraud attempts in the past 12 months?.”  And thieves are only getting more innovative!  During the session, speaker Vincent Geffray demonstrated how fraudsters exploit the complexity and siloes which are so common in finance functions. The top tips were to assess your payment process for vulnerabilities and adopt AI-powered real-time fraud detection.

5. Automation Success Is Measured In Many Different Ways
In Rossum’s fantastic session (Debunking 3 Myths About AP Automation), speaker Zach Low explored the different ways automation is measured. Answers from the audience included: accuracy, FTE reduction, hours optimized, cost savings, task completion time, error rate reduction and percentage of touchless activity. Low emphasized that measuring the impact of AP Automation using the wrong metrics can lead to missed opportunities and efficiency gains. Context is key and AP Automation needs to look beyond surface-level accuracy to match important data such as payment terms and PO information. As Low states, the focus should be on strategic value and metrics that reflect operational health and supplier satisfaction.  
 
For more fantastic advice on AP Automation, AI and more, join one of our upcoming events the Autonomous Finance Virtual Summit and the AP Automation Virtual Summit, March.