At the risk of sounding like Steve Martin in The Jerk (”The new phonebooks are here! The new phonebooks are here! I’m somebody!”), I am happy to report that I was invited to a press-only event for the launch of American Express’ new Electronic Invoice and Payment (EIPP) offering. When delivering the invitation, Amex’s PR manager said that Supply Excellence has “great influence among the purchasing community and technology marketplace.” I told him that his sources must be mistaken, but he persisted. And I graciously accepted.

Setting aside ego, I am particularly interested in hearing Amex’s plans in the EIPP arena, as this is a hot topic of late among the supply management executives with whom I’ve been meeting. And leading organizations, like Alliant Techsystems, have prioritized investment in EIPP as the second phase of their supply management transformation — right after investments in strategic supply management solutions but before investments in requisition-to-order (i.e., e-procurement).

Why should you care about EIPP? Well, cash flow, for one. In addition, EIPP has been proven to deliver benefits in terms of improved payment accuracy, productivity, and process efficiencies. Oh yeah, and you can begin to capture those volume, pricing, and early-payment rebates you spent so much time negotiating. Some companies are leveraging improved and timely visibility into reconciled invoice data to negotiate additional rebates with suppliers in return for even earlier payment.

In a recent press release, Amex cites industry research into EIPP:

“At large companies, their overall source-to-settle process is still fragmented with multiple manual, paper-based steps, particularly for invoicing and payment. According to the Aberdeen Group’s 2006 Invoice Reconciliation and Payment Benchmark Report, more than 80% of companies’ invoices are still received in paper format, and 66% of payments are made via check. The report also notes that companies that have adopted the full scope of automated purchasing and payment can process invoices, on average, seven times faster – at one-tenth of the cost.”

I look forward to speaking to some of Harbor Payments….er….American Express’ EIPP customers tomorrow. Check back here for my report and tips you can use to streamline invoice reconciliation and payment for cost and cash flow advantages.