Payment solutions ■


Betty Low


Team players


Payment solutions link a lot of functions and departments – so collaboration is needed when choosing the right tools for your business


talking about open-plan offices. We’re talking about the trend of departments that work as independent silos now disappearing. Autonomy is out and collaboration is in. And this is most evident in functions that affect multiple departments like, say, payments. Much of this change is attributable to technology and especially the rise of big data and data-driven enterprises – companies in which all departments use data-based analytics in their decision-making. When all depart-


A 10 BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2017


t the same time that some politicians are advocating building walls, businesses around the world are dis- mantling them. We’re not


ments are tackling their tasks using information from the same platforms in a similar way, it means the artificial walls that separated departments are not as thick as they once were.


WORKING TOGETHER Collaboration is most evident in areas in which more than one department has an interest. Payments has always had two poten- tial owners: travel & expenses (T&E), whose payment requirements are complex, and finance which is respon- sible for ensuring the bills are paid. However, paying for travel is differ-


ent from paying for production inputs or plant and machinery. The use of


intermediaries is inevitable with so many potential suppliers (think of the number of airlines and accom- modation providers used in a year). Moreover, those that actually consume the product (the passenger, the hotel guest) are usually unknown entities so there is a necessity to have a means of demonstrating credit-worthiness. It is why network carriers only honour bookings done by a process they trust, say either a licensed TMC or a valid card. A card is merely a valida- tion of a promise to pay. Cards are today used by consum-


ers around the world as a universal method of payment, but they started life as a T&E card.


In association with


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36