In a recent white paper, Balfour Beatty details the considerable impact Causeway’s Tradex e-invoicing platform is having on its invoicing processes and how the platform is enabling the business to build and strengthen relationships with its supply chain.
Summarised here, the white paper is a timely addition to a growing conversation around both the efficacy of electronic invoicing in general, and the exciting future Tradex promises its members. Early in October, Causeway took steps to facilitate this conversation with its members, inviting dozens of community members to the second Tradex Strategic Customer Forum (you can read a summary of the event here). Interestingly, many of the benefits Balfour Beatty is experiencing after implementing Tradex - streamlined processes, minimised administrative burden, and reduced errors and delays for instance - mirror those reported by the forum’s delegates.
To appreciate just how encouraging this is, it’s important to consider context. While the Tradex forum is designed to be an open conversation around the future and potential of the platform, Balfour Beatty’s white paper is an impartial piece of research conducted independently by ComRes to highlight the most pertinent challenges Balfour Beatty’s supply chain is facing, how the supply chain is overcoming these challenges, and how key suppliers view the company.
One of these challenges is optimising invoicing and procurement processes to drive down cost and drive out inefficiencies. Viewed through this lens, both Tradex’s explicit mention in the paper and the below comments from Balfour Beatty CEO, Leo Quinn, hold additional gravitas:
“In an increasingly competitive environment, the cash flow impact of a reliable, timely invoicing process has never been more important. This is why Balfour Beatty... is making it easier to work with us and receive payment. One of the ways we have done this is to introduce mandatory electronic, or “e-invoicing” for all suppliers (excluding sub-contractors) early in 2017: to streamline the process from the point when we receive the invoice, to payment – so our suppliers get paid on time...
“E-invoicing is faster, easier, more precise and saves both Balfour Beatty and our suppliers administrative hassle [by] standardising the format invoices are received in, meaning that they can be processed more quickly and with fewer errors and delays, rendering redundant the time and costs associated with other ways of invoicing, ensuring prompt payment of our invoices.
“The programme, called Procure to Pay (P2P), is a key part of Balfour Beatty’s strategy for building our relationship with our supply chain [and] is run via Tradex’s secure online platform. Since Tradex is the largest construction-based e-trading connection in the UK, using it means that suppliers are able to use the same system of paperless invoicing with other customers.”
In crediting Tradex, the paper has helped demonstrate how well recognised the platform is across industry at a time when it is rapidly building on its position as the number one e-invoicing platform in the UK.
For more information about Tradex’s role in Balfour Beatty’s supply chain strategy, download the full white paper here.
