Final EDGE 2005 Issue II
- 1. Product Round-up G lobal—Corporate Payment Services has entered into an agreement with Nedbank Limited of Johannesburg to expand corporate card coverage to South Africa. Nedbank is South Africa's largest commercial bank. The signing of this agreement further broadens Corporate Payment Services’ ability to support customer needs in the most significant economies around the world. N etService—Have you ever closed an account to block access temporarily and need to quickly reinstate it? Perhaps an employee has returned to work and it's time to re-open their account for use? Now you can through NetService. Program managers now have the ability to re-open closed accounts in real-time via NetService. B usiness Card—GE ProductivitySM Business Card offers solutions to help small- to mid-sized businesses operate, make purchases, and meet financial needs more productively. With the GE Productivity card your business can: - Streamline accounting - Save on goods and services - Set purchase limits by amount or merchant type for each cardholder - Track cardholder activity using management information reporting The GE Productivity card is branded MasterCard® and is accepted by millions of locations worldwide. For more information on any of our products and services contact your National Account Manager. Or send an email to www.slcmarketing@ge.com. Corporate Payment Services 2005—Issue II EdgeNewsletter In this issue • How One Organization is Using vPayment On-Demand • Best Advice for Program Managers • Payment Solutions for Corporate Meeting Planners vPayment On-Demand is a supplier-friendly way to wean organizations from the time-consuming check writing process. vPayment On-Demand offers the controls of a check, the float of a purchasing card, and the efficiency of electronic funds transfer. Learn how Emory University has put it to use. See inside for more details . . . higher education Keep Us in Mind www.slcmarketing@ge.com Corporate Payment Services Attn: Marketing 4246 South Riverboat Rd. Salt Lake City, UT 84123 www.slcmarketing@ge.com www.gebusinessmarketplace.com Aimee Stewart Corporate Payment Services 4246 South Riverboat Road Salt Lake City, UT 84123 P: (801) 517-5757 F: (866) 283-1263 I f you have suggestions please forward your comments to: 2005 Corporate Payment Services. All Rights Reserved This document and its contents are provided for information purposes only, and do not constitute an offer, promise, or warranty. © 2005 Corporate Payment Services. T HE EDGE is published for the benefit of our customers. The views expressed herein reflect the opinions of Corporate Payment Services. Actual results may vary by user. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. 8 I f you are considering a change to your corporate travel or purchasing card program, please include us on your issuer bid list. Send inquiries or proposal documentation to:
- 2. 72 vPayment On-Demand Improves Control F or Loette King the goal was improving Accounts Payable (AP) efficiencies. She wanted to reduce the need for "rush" checks and streamline processes. To achieve those goals she needed to gain trust. To gain trust she needed control. To get that control, she needed the right tools. Corporate Payment Services' vPayment technology had just what she was looking for. It's called vPayment On-Demand, a streamlined, web-accessible version of vPayment that does not require system integration. Through a secure web site, vPayment On-Demand lets authorized users pay invoices by MasterCard®. Like integrated vPayment, the supplier is limited by date- and dollar-range restrictions. As Senior Director, Procurement and Payment Services, for Emory University, King has long been focused on transitioning her organization's transaction settlement activities away from a paper-based check process to more electronic means. When she heard about vPayment On-Demand during a Corporate Payment Services customer User Group conference, she realized it was just the thing she needed to drive growth. "Learning about vPayment On-Demand was very timely because we were already trying to figure out how to push more usage to our purchasing card program," recounted King. "We'd gone through the process of gathering feedback from our internal customers—which included a cross-section of cardholders across the campus, ranging from faculty members to professors to researchers, to desk level administrative assistants. As a result, we had developed an understanding of their business needs," said King. From those discussions, King determined that she was going to have to overcome her customers' fear of losing control over their program spend. This included the ability to prevent out- of-compliance spending and to make purchases quickly and easily. "Our internal customers were concerned about the approval process—to whom the cards would be issued. They were nervous about the possibility of a cardholder going on a spending spree, " explained King. "There was a perception among our internal customers that if they had an invoice, they had more control." Further complicating matters was the non-mandate culture, common to Emory and many universities. "We couldn't make them use other means, so we had to find ways that made it attractive to our internal customers. We had to find ways to increase that comfort level, to show them that there were other settlement methods that would give them the same, if not more, control over those dollars going out the door," King said. Higher Education for vPayment On-Demand Tried and True When it comes to advice she has received on program management, Jessica Kephart of Catholic Healthcare West has several favorites, ranging from the procedural to the inter-personal. Among her favorites is a tip a GE Authorizations representative once shared with her. “The advice was actually more of a suggestion on how we could improve program administration by consolidating our Merchant Category Code (MCC) tables,” said Kephart. An MCC is a code used by the MasterCard® network to describe the type of merchandise sold or service provided. The code is actually contained in the point of sale device used by the merchant to authorize transactions. An organization can use MCCs to restrict cardholder spending based on merchant type or transaction amount. An example is restricting the code for gambling and massage parlors, or restricting restaurant spend to $50.00. “Every time an individual cardholder needed an MCC unblocked, we would add the code to their card. This eventually resulted in us having hundreds of MCC tables, some with just one code,” Kephart explained. Acting upon the Authorizations representative’s recommendation, Kephart and her team decided it was time to perform an analysis. “We went through and identified which MCCs we needed, as well as to which tables they should be attached. This allowed us to pare down the number of tables we had to just six,” Kephart said. They also developed guidelines for adding new MCCs. “The use of the six MCC tables has been a huge time–saver and is so easy to track. It’s definitely one of our best practices,” Kephart said. Which leads to another important lesson she has learned. “It’s not enough to just implement the change; you must also document it,” she said. “We have one policy and procedures manual that clearly outlines program processes and policies, including card issuance procedures, as well as how to handle declines, audits, or exceptions. We’ve been through two internal audits, and both times our manual was considered to be a program-plus.” Kephart recognizes, however, that even the best advice isn’t worth much if you don’t know how to get the word out. “It’s important to communicate with the cardholders,” she said. “We routinely send out basic reminders about software and expense report due dates.” On a monthly basis, she also sends out email updates on such things as cycles dates and staffing or coding changes. “I receive more responses thanking me for this, than I ever imagined I would—cardholders and their assistants love to know what is happening with the program,” she said. While Kephart is very appreciative of the feedback she receives thanking her for her efforts, she recommends not taking it personally when feedback is negative. “Regardless of what happens, whether people are thrilled or not thrilled with the program, whether more doors are closing than opening, it’s important to remember that it’s not a personal issue. Things will eventually get better.” Patience is a Virtue Kendall Jackson program manager, Barbara Seymour's advice is simple, "Be patient." It may seem like a little thing, but there is a lot that can be gained by taking her suggestion. "When you're interacting with people on a daily basis, you are going to have those moments of frustration—maybe the cardholder is upset that they were declined. Just stay calm. Handle the situation with patience and understanding," she recommends. "I just think you have to focus on the needs of the cardholder. If you get short-tempered with your cardholders, you run the risk of upsetting them. Remember, your cardholders are representatives of the corporate card program; you don't want to give them a reason to say bad things about it. You never know to whom they are talking," she points out. Don’t Miss vPayment 101—An Introduction, on page 4, for a full description of Corporate Payment Services’ vPayment technology
- 3. past due invoices for the vendors, and for the cardholders, the ability to purchase what they need when they need it," King elaborated. Commented King, "We are putting just about anything you can on the card, and we're looking into expanding it for use in paying our utilities." Since vPayment On-Demand leverages the MasterCard network, King found that driving usage with external vendors was fairly straightforward. Merchants need no special training to accept any vPayment transaction and can follow the standard credit card process to receive payment. Recalled King, "It was more difficult to get our internal customers set up than it was our external vendors. Our vendors liked it because they got paid faster and it also meant fewer past due invoices for them to deal with. Vendors are really more open to things than you might think," said King. Using your tools in a way that makes it more efficient for vendors is a key way to increase that acceptance. So, what advice would King give other program managers who might be interested in implementing vPayment technology? "Jump at it! It makes things so much simpler. Things go much more smoothly," she said. "It's really been a great partnership between Emory and GE," said King. Want to learn more about Emory's experience, make sure to attend this years' User Group Conference in Mystic, CT September 11th to 14th. An Emory representative, along with several keynote Corporate Payment Services’ customers, will be on hand to present program best practices and lessons learned. Contact your National Account Manager for more information or visit: www.gebusinessmarketplace.com. 3 Lessons Learned Quick Tips for the New Program Manager With help from their GE National Account Manager, Marc Jackson, Emory implemented vPayment On- Demand to help allay some of those concerns. vPayment On-Demand is a good way to give employees the ability to pay by MasterCard without actually giving them a physical plastic card. With vPayment On- Demand, an authorized user accesses the vPayment On- Demand web site and specifies date and dollar parameters that will limit the anticipated transaction. The system draws a MasterCard account number from a pool that can only be used within the limits placed by the user. The user then communicates the account number to the merchant. If the merchant attempts to charge above the dollar amount or beyond the date range, the transaction is declined. "We're currently using vPayment On-Demand pretty much as a check replacement tool. When we get rush requests for checks, and if the vendor will accept credit cards, we just go online and request a vPayment number. That eliminates a lot of the instances of having to set up a vendor in the system and having to type up a manual check, " explained King. "We put approximately $300,000 through vPayment On-Demand within the first few weeks of implementing the tool, " said King. These tools also helped King address the concerns her internal customers had of not being able to purchase goods quickly and easily. "Our internal customers don't want to wait," said King. " Tools like vPayment On-Demand have eased the process of purchasing goods." "From an AP perspective the biggest win for us all is that we have fewer invoices for the AP department to process, less paper flowing around, fewer Extra Credit vPayment also aids an organization's reconciliation efforts. vPayment On-Demand captures unique accounting information, input by the user, regardless of the supplier's data capture level. Like traditional vPayment, the On-Demand option is accepted at millions of MasterCard merchants worldwide. vPayment On-Demand prevents suppliers from overcharging. vPayment On-Demand requires no special computer system integration. Once a user is set up to access the secure web site, inputting a vPayment On-Demand transaction and receiving a valid account number takes only seconds. In addition, no set-up is required on the merchant side. vPayment passes unique accounting data regardless of the merchant's data capture capability (Level 1, 2, or 3). Tools like vPayment On-Demand have eased the process of purchasing goods. —LoetteKing R emember your first days on the job as a program manager? The newness, the nervousness, the desire to make a good first impression. Looking back, were there things that you know now about being a program manager that you wish you knew then? Things that might have made it a little easier to do the job. Or, was it quite the opposite? Did you already have a sound piece of advice, culled from your experience in a previous job, or from your predecessor, that you were able to apply to your new position? And, as someone who has been there before, what advice would you share with someone in the same situation; what's the one thing you would advise them NOT to do? We asked several of our corporate card customers the same questions, and here's what they had to say! 6 From Education to Entertainment For Andy Epstein, of Universal Music Group, there were times when the world of corporate card management was completely different from his previous experience as a seventh grade teacher. Yet there were instances when those worlds were a little too similar! One thing that transcended both cultures was Epstein's approach to handling tense situations. Like the time he had to deal with a VIP whose card had declined. "They weren't able to pay for a helicopter, and they were VERY upset," recalled Epstein. To make matters worse, the call came in at the end of the day, Epstein was due to attend a pre-wedding ceremony for his sister, and . . . he'd once been advised by his manager to make sure that cards for certain people were never declined. So, Epstein did what any good program manager would do. He stayed calm. And, that is exactly what he'd advise anyone else to do in that situation. "Take a deep breath, relax, and do what needs to be done. Understand that not everything is going to be perfect. Just try your best to take care of things before they become a big issue," he said. "What you don't want to do is freak-out. I don't know where that's going to get you. If you find yourself in a situation where a mistake has been made, accept responsibility, and apologize." The approach certainly worked for Epstein. After several nerve-wracking moments, he solved the problem with the VIP's card, and made it to the ceremony—just a few minutes late.
- 4. 5 A n innovative payment automation tool, vPayment works in procurement, Accounts Payable (AP), and other environments. With vPayment, you'll only be charged exactly what you agreed to pay. Your charge will only be authorized during the time period you specify. Your payment will be accepted by any of the millions of suppliers who already accept MasterCard®. And every cent will automatically post to your general ledger without manual intervention. vPayment features patented pre-authorization and account pool technology and is available exclusively through Corporate Payment Services. For all of the options below, each vPayment request dynamically extracts an account number from a large, regularly cycled pool. Each transaction has an associated pre- authorization request that validates transaction parameters before payment proceeds. Whether you pay on shipment or pay on receipt, vPayment can plug and play. vPayment provides a flexible, efficient settlement option, at any point in your process. vPayment AP—Pay using existing AP processes without paper checks. An organization's existing AP system is set up to include vPayment as a standard settlement option. A vPayment account number is automatically appended to the remittance advice. vPayment Procurement—Eliminate the paper invoicing process. Through an interface with vPayment, your existing procurement system adds the account number to the purchase order without manual effort. This vPayment option integrates with leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and e-procurement systems. vPayment On-Demand—Requiring no system integration, the vPayment On-Demand option can augment or replace your check-request process. Authorized buyers can request an account number via a secured web site. The user inputs the accounting information, and provides the account to the merchant. Personalized limits by buyer offer additional control. vPayment Intermediary— Automate the intermediary payment process to improve float. Accept your customer's payment, fulfill the value chain contribution, and pass the remaining payment to the supplier at a later date with vPayment. Insurance and travel are just some of the industries that benefit from this option. vPayment 4 W hile studies show budgets for corporate meetings and events to be on the rise, so is the need to track and control expenditures. Corporate Payment Services has developed a suite of payment solutions for corporate meeting planners. The different options provide increased control and streamlined accounting for complex, large-budget events. The solutions include special purpose credit cards as well as vPayment On- Demand, an electronic settlement tool that uses virtual accounts without physical cards. “More than ever, businesses need controllership and transparency when it comes to events and meetings,” said Jeffery R. Dye, president and CEO of Corporate Payment Services. “With good payment controls and accounting processes in place, organizations can keep costs down and within policy. Our payment suite helps meet these needs.” The Corporate Payment Services’ Meeting Planning suite includes the following three options. With all options, the client organization can specify restrictions, such as certain merchant codes or dollar amounts. Set-up options can also ensure that all transactions are coded to a limited set of general ledger accounts, for efficient cost accounting. Special Purpose Account (SPA)—A high-limit credit card, the SPA card is a centrally billed MasterCard® embossed with the meeting planner’s name. It has adjusted velocity controls, meaning it can handle dozens and dozens of transactions per day without being blocked. The card’s limits refresh on a monthly basis, making it convenient for planners organizing multiple events on an ongoing basis. Controlled Value Card—The Controlled Value Card is a credit-based payment tool that caps the amount of funds available on the account. Limits decrease with use and do not refresh at the monthly cycle, effectively providing a meeting planner with a card that sticks to a budget. These cards are typically used to manage one event before the card limit is refreshed for a subsequent project. For added control, the account can be set to expire in as little as two months. vPayment On-Demand—The newest addition to the Meeting Planning suite, vPayment On-Demand uses GE-patented technology comprised of a virtual credit account with single-transaction limits for increased control. An authorized user accesses the vPayment system via a secured web site and requests an account number for a specific transaction. In the set-up, the user inputs the dollar value allowed and a date range. If the merchant attempts to charge more than the amount allowed or attempts to charge to the account after the approved date, the transaction is declined. vPayment On-Demand also captures an exact meeting identifier and appends it to the transaction record, regardless of the merchant’s data capture capability (Level 1, 2, or 3). This greatly increases accounting accuracy and efficient transaction reconciliation. “In combination with our SAM™ reporting system and other technology, these options give the meeting planner the ability to control and track meeting spending in an efficient manner,” Dye said. C orporate Payment Services’ customer, Emory University, uses the Controlled Value card to control spending in areas like the University’s student government. “We’ve used the Controlled Value Card to keep spending limited within the student government’s allocated budget.” “For example, if the student government is given a budget of $2,000 for a semester, either the whole amount or a portion of that amount can be allocated to the Controlled Value card. This allows an authorized user the flexibility to make purchases on behalf of the student government as needed, and in a timely manner.” “Once that amount is used up, the card is no longer active,” said Loette King, Senior Director, Procurement and Payment Services, for Emory University. C orporate Payment Services has secured a U.S. patent covering aspects of vPayment’s account pool feature. It is the third and latest patent associated with vPayment. "vPayment is a supplier-friendly way to reduce your organization's dependence on the time-consuming check writing process. It offers the controls of a check, the float of a purchasing card, and the efficiency of electronic funds transfer," said Jeffery R. Dye, Corporate Payment Services president and CEO. "The account pool patent further strengthens vPayment's advantages for organizations looking for added control and efficiency." "Organizations and suppliers alike can benefit from vPayment," Dye said. "Unlike electronic funds transfer (EFT), merchants need no special training or set-up and can follow the standard credit card process to receive payment. Organizations enjoy improved controllership, automated reconciliation, reduced administration, and better cash flow." Other features and benefits include: - Accepted at millions of MasterCard® merchants - vPayment accounts use no physical plastic for increased controllership - Exception reporting Patents associated with vPayment are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,991,750, 6,226,624, and this latest—6,901,387. A riba®, Inc. has integrated vPayment into the Ariba® Supplier Network™. The new payment option will enable Ariba Buyer customers to further automate, expedite, and control their spend management processes. The integration will also help customers reduce processing time and costs, and maximize collaboration with a global network of trading partners. "vPayment will prove attractive to Ariba customers because it offers financial incentives similar to purchasing cards, but it delivers more capabilities for control and data capture,” said Jeffery R. Dye, Corporate Payment Services president and CEO. The vPayment integration delivers several benefits, including: · Speed - vPayment offers rapid and simple implementation. It follows the standard MasterCard® settlement process and can shorten the order-to-payment cycle. · Coverage - vPayment is accepted by more than 23 million suppliers worldwide, making it an effective solution for a diverse supplier base. Suppliers looking for an alternative to checks can be paid through vPayment. It also includes online maintenance/reporting tools and toll-free support. · Sustainability - vPayment increases accuracy of payment data and reduces manual processes through automation, for example eliminating paper checks. "The Ariba Supplier Network is currently serving more than 110,000 members who transact more than $70 billion in purchase orders annually through the network," said Bob Solomon, General Manager, Ariba Supplier Network. "By enabling this feature, we have given our customers the means to take advantage of vPayment through an established interface for buyers and suppliers." Payment Options STREAMLINE Corporate Meetings and Event Management In the News 101—An Introduction With vPayment, the penny stops here.