Posts Tagged ‘IAPP’

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IAPP FUSION

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

IAPP’s annual event for AP professionals is scheduled for May 9-13 just outside of Dallas, TX.  Two months remain to register and make your plans to attend.  (Lavante will be there demonstrating solutions for profit recovery, TIN management and Vendor File Management) 

I am impressed with IAPP’s resilience in creating this event.  It is no secret that trade show attendance is down this year and many shows are running at about 30% of their participation levels from only a few years ago.  IAPP has done a couple of clever things to battle this trend and I have to say that I am genuinely impressed. 

They have partnered with a like-minded association, TAWPI to pull together resources and to broaden the offering to all attendees.  They have introduced a sister company IARP to bring more connectivity throughout the Shared Service group.  They have broadened their offering to become more relevant to Shared Service Directors and CFOs.  This will increase then number of interested parties and it will add more value at the decision maker level.  (Directors are more likely to approve budget for show attendance if the material is relevant to them.) IAPP has also made a very public effort to add more content and value to the show.  They have even added a guided tour of the trade show floor to help call out and demonstrate specific vendor solutions for outsourcing, technology, document management, imaging and almost anything else you can think of. 

To date I understand attendance for the event is ahead of last years numbers and there is a very strong buzz in the industry about this show.  Can’t wait to see you all there.

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Posted in IAPP, Profit Recovery, Technology | No Comments »

An Introduction and Some Thoughts on Shared Service Centers

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Before I get to the heart of this post, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I’m a business and financial writer who’s been covering the AP space, and have been working with Lavante for several months. I’m looking forward to weighing in here on a range of topics, and hearing your thoughts on the issues as well. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

Now, onto the post:

If your company is like most, management continually is hunting for ways to cut costs and streamline operations. One way a growing number of firms are doing this is by establishing shared service centers (SSCs). In fact, more than half the organizations responding to the IAPP/TAWPI 2009 Document Management Benchmark Study indicated that they either plan to combine payments and document processing functions or they already have done so, as this article points out.   (more…)

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Posted in IAPP, Shared Services | No Comments »

Sacramento IAPP Chapter Meeting. Networkers Wanted!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Thursday saw a very dynamic and interactive session for a small but passionate group of Accounts Payable professionals. 

Gail K. from UCSF (who is now one of my favorite AP networking buddies) led an informal discussion about filing 1099’s.  She used a narrative approach and talked about evey step in the process including vendor setup, how P-cards payed into the scenario/headache, the process she inherited, and her constant negotiations with IT.  She was stopped several times along the way with very thoughtful questions.  The group would scrum on the topic and then Gail would pick back up where she left off.  With a strong “project management” background Gail made really good points throughout about learning from mistakes, training her staff the “right way” and about empowering her people on a go-forward basis.

The group was small, but represented a number of big companies and unfortunately I do not believe today’s meeting attendees will be traveling to Dallas for tha annual IAPP conference.  This saddens me, because I can clearly see that there is a huge need for more networking. 

This is a very difficult landscape for Accounts Payable and I think the need to connect with with peers has grown in parallel with constantly expanding job duties.  In my opinion it is more necessary now to force the time into your schedule to attend chapter meetings or webinars or even to log on and follow a LinkedIn conversation.  You will not only benefit from the information that is circulating, you will be suprised by how much other people need to hear what you have to say.

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Posted in IAPP, Industry Associations | No Comments »

Accounts Payable Departments Using Social Media

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Tomorrow I will be presenting a workshop on the use of social media in the Accounts Payable (AP) space at the Sacramento chapter of IAPP.  This is a presentation I have given several times before and I am always curious about the many mis-perceptions of the business application of social media tools. 

Too often, professionals in the AP community (as well as many other communities) assume that social media sites are inhabited only by young people with nothing better to do than “tweet” about what they are having for lunch.  Although there is an element of that…  that is not the prevailing application of social media.  I have seen many incredibly powerful instances when people that would otherwise not communicate have been able to connect and collaborate over an internet connection.

As a great example of this… I have been following a fantastic string on IAPP’s LinkedIn board:  http://tinyurl.com/ygfjx3n  please take a look.   Much like trade shows and trade association chapter meetings, social networking tools enable a dialogue between multiple people.

Please comment or contact me for any questions about the application of social tools in our industry.  This is a subject I care deeply about and something that I hink we can all benefit from.

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Posted in Profit Recovery | No Comments »

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