International banking group Standard Chartered has teamed up with cloud software specialist Infor to digitise the financial supply chain in a bid to improve liquidity and reduce supply risk.
A new strategic agreement between the two will introduce the Infor Nexus network to the Bank’s clients, helping businesses to minimise supply chain delays and friction, while suppliers can benefit from improved access to capital.
The Infor Nexus network automates the traditionally manual process of data matching across multiple commercial documents including purchase orders, invoices and transport documents. This helps to speed up trade financing cycles, allowing suppliers to access capital faster and at more critical points in the transaction cycle, and as a result ensure on-time delivery of goods.
“Invoice approvals in a traditional non-automated environment often take weeks to complete, putting a squeeze on suppliers and bringing contention to the buyer-supplier relationship,” says Rod Johnson, general manager and head of Americas at Infor. “Slow invoice matching delays the trade financing cycle, preventing suppliers from obtaining capital they need to deliver quality and compliant goods on time.”
“While large corporates have achieved some level of automation through sophisticated enterprise resource planning systems, around 80% of data used in matching are sourced from documents residing with external parties,” adds Michael Sugirin, global head of open account trade product management, at Standard Chartered.
“This manual matching process is time-consuming, often resulting in a delay of the trade financing cycle which impacts the supplier’s ability to meet their working capital needs, most of whom tend to be small and medium-sized businesses. This strategic partnership addresses this gap and reduces capital related costs and risk from the supply chain.”
Standard Chartered will refer clients to Infor and its Infor Nexus network, based on specific needs, enabling them to benefit from automated matching and digitised documentation and processes delivered on Infor’s network of 65,000 businesses around the world.
In addition to delivering broader financial services to clients, the Infor Nexus network provides global on-boarding and ongoing service and support to suppliers without requiring the involvement of the anchor buyer.
The agreement also enables Standard Chartered to expand client relationships through digital transformation solutions that address sourcing and payables inefficiencies while enabling innovation and growth.
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