Tradeshift launched Tradeshift Engage, its seller engagement platform designed to build true digital collaboration between suppliers and buyers by delivering value on both sides from day one.
According to a recent study by Ardent partners, nearly half of all invoices are sent manually on paper. The study revealed that digitization of this process ranks as one of the top priorities among AP departments.
With the current social distance measures making paper invoice processing unworkable, many businesses are now looking to accelerate digitization projects. But complex, cumbersome and buyer-centric onboarding processes mean such projects are often slow-moving and prone to failure due to a lack of supplier buy-in.
For enterprise companies that want to fully digitize their supply chain relationships at speed, Tradeshift Engage flips the challenge of supplier onboarding on its head. Rather than coming to sellers with a lengthy to-do list, buyers looking to encourage suppliers to connect with them digitally can come with a value proposition that offers immediate and tangible benefits without any of the heavy-lift associated with traditional onboarding initiatives.
Delivered to sellers as a cloud and mobile app solution, which takes just a few minutes to activate, Engage offers sellers data-driven insights based on their relationship with the buyer by providing real-time visibility into transactions and the ability to finance payables on-the-go.
“A lot of businesses are trying to get their heads around the impact that social distancing measures are having on their day to day operations. Despite rapid advances in technology that are enabling many businesses to carry on under a semblance of business as usual, the connectivity between buyers and sellers remains an outlier. Heavily paper-based, the processes which underpin these relationships are starting to break down,” says Tony Alvarez, VP Network, Tradeshift.
The Tradeshift Engage app provides sellers with a full set of eInvoicing, ordering and fulfilment tools, such as digital Invoice and Credit Note creation, responding to POs and PO changes, sending shipping notices and being informed of receipt status. Sellers can easily engage and collaborate with multiple buyers through a single interface that enables real-time issue resolution. An intuitive Dashboard also allows sellers to maintain an overview of everything in-flight.
The unique approach Tradeshift has taken to seller engagement promises an end to the form-filling, data integrations, portal wrangling and data discrepancies that so often derail large-scale supplier onboarding initiatives. Instead, the system draws on existing data from the buyer’s ERP or system of record to complete a supplier profile that includes a full and accurate history of transactions.
Early adopters of Tradeshift Engage have seen unparalleled levels of uptake by their seller communities. One major international buyer was able to connect with 5000 suppliers in just four weeks while reducing seller support calls to zero.
“Businesses we’re talking to want to digitise at speed. But the traditional approach to supplier onboarding remains slow and cumbersome. These are unique times, and we’re not claiming to have all the answers. What we can do is make it quick and easy for buyers and sellers to establish a digital connection, get money flowing again and stay close to one another during a turbulent period,” Alvarez says.
