One of the observations we came away with at the recent TAWPI Forum and Expo in Washington, D.C., is that the accounts payable and accounts receivable capture markets are moving closer together. Historically, payment capture specialists, whether it be service bureaus or ISVs, have focused on A/R, while traditional document capture guys have handled the A/P side of the house. This started to change a couple years ago with the introduction of full-page IDR technology into the wholesale remittance capture space. Then, our colleague Harvey Spencer, as well as some others, started extolling on the importance of a unified view of A/P and A/R data for the CFO. While this is the nirvana of the convergence of A/P and A/R capture, it’s starting to show up on less-integrated levels as well. For example, at the TAWPI event, Pepsi Bottling Group was cited for its payment capture application, which was installed by VAR KeyMark and ISV AnyDoc–both of which traditionally come from the document capture space. We’ve also seen an increasing interest in applying advanced workflow, another traditional full-page imaging technology, to A/R and payment processing environments.
In fact, last issue, we ran a feature on J&B Software, traditionally a payment processing vendor, fleshing out its offering with full-page document capture and advanced workflow.
Finally, we’d just like remind you that Harvey Spencer Associates annual capture conference, where this concept of converging A/P and A/R capture has been discussed for at least two years, is scheduled to run Sept. 9-10 at the Glen Cove Mansion on Long Island. It’s not only a great forum where cutting edge capture markets and concepts are covered, it’s a great networking event, with several high-powered capture and imaging executives attending annually.
