But moving in the opposite direction is the US$30 trillion of cash that pays for the whole show-grinding its way erratically across the globe, triggered by mountains of paper documents. Many of the payments are arranged by a 500-year-old system-the letter of credit-which entails a messenger presenting 30 or so documents to a bank to prove the 'compliance' of the consignment with the purchase order before the cash can be released. If three-quarters of the letters of credit have errors that delay payment, they've had a good day.

Automating purchase to payments

If billions of dollars can be saved by automating the financial supply chain with technology that already exists, what are we waiting for? A group of specialist vendors has answered the challenge by setting up hosted web-based systems able to convert all their clients' trade documents to electronic format, from purchase order-to-payment by EIPP (Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment) transfer. In 2005, Forrester Research chose nine "Accounts Payable EIPP" vendors to analyze in detail, and four of these stand out as leaders.

"On average, American vendors TradeCard, Xign and Ariba scored better than the European vendors in most areas, especially in terms of Accounts Payable features, security and architecture," said the survey. "European vendors scored highest on technology. Basware stands out among the European vendors with current offering scores that were equal or close to those of the American vendors."

Financial services