SAP and Visa Digitalize B2B Payments for APAC Enterprises

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Visa announced that they are collaborating to streamline and simplify business-to-business (B2B) payments for businesses of all sizes.

Starting with the Asia-Pacific market, the collaboration will embed payments into the SAP ecosystem through SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), further digitalizing and speeding up B2B payments across Asia-Pacific’s supply chains.

This is the first time that Visa and SAP will join forces to explore embedded finance in the B2B market through SAP BTP to offer convenient B2B payment services to SAP customers. Many businesses in Asia Pacific, especially smaller ones, lack the resources to digitalize B2B payment acceptance and are unable to accept commercial card payments. Through this collaboration, the B2B payment services running on SAP BTP will inject more automation into payments and help enterprises drive further efficiency in their purchasing as they make payments securely with just a few clicks.

“The movement of money is becoming increasingly digital, but the bulk of transformation has been focused on the consumer space,” said Stephen Karpin, Regional President, Asia Pacific, Visa. “Our collaboration with SAP is an exciting step in making B2B payments simpler and more intuitive as organizations can make payments immediately on SAP software platforms with their Visa corporate cards, instead of having to leave their existing enterprise ecosystem and navigate the different payment methods that their vendors accept. B2B payments need to be intuitive and fuss-free, so organizations can maximize time and resources on other aspects of their businesses.”

SAP BTP provides a secure innovation platform to allow Visa and SAP to help bridge working capital gaps in the supply chain. Under its suite of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, Visa will deliver capabilities through SAP BTP to route commercial payments to all suppliers, whether or not they accept card payments. Businesses that are Visa cardholders will be able to make payments seamlessly and utilize their cardholder benefits both domestically and cross-border. Businesses will no longer need to resort to manual and time-consuming payments, such as cash and cheques, reducing the time needed to process and complete transactions and increasing cash flow for both payers and suppliers.

“Our collaboration with Visa endeavors to streamline and simplify the B2B payment process and drive further efficiencies for our joint customers,” said Paul Marriott, President, Asia Pacific Japan, SAP. “Embedding Visa payment solutions into the SAP ecosystem aims to scale and accelerate digital commerce, together empowering enterprises – from small businesses to government agencies and nonprofit organizations – to make secure payments quickly, transforming the last mile of procurement.”

The embedded finance solution will be offered initially to SAP customers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with plans to roll out across other markets in the region.

Source: SAP