Navigating the SAP Invoice Management Solution Landscape
SAP have no less than 5 solutions that can at some level be described as supporting AP Automation. They arrived at this situation due to various acquisitions and should be applauded for their commitment to support customers who invested in these solutions, but that is not much comfort to anyone trying to make a strategic decision on their AP Automation platform, particularly those who are at the threshold of migrating from SAP ECC to S/4HANA.
While the current default go-to for SAP ERP customers is Vendor Invoive Management (VIM) by OpenText, we increasingly see this as a questionable option. At least, we urge our customers to take a step back and review all their options in light of the full range of solutions available on the market and how these fit with their strategic imperatives.
SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management (CIM) is clearly an interesting and important development from SAP, however it is still largely a roadmap solution that currently lacks important capability. If you are starting your AP Automation journey from scratch and you are confident in SAP’s ability to develop the solution quickly then this might be worth evaluating, however right now it is not a viable solution for customers with typical AP Automation requirements.
At a Glance Summary – SAP Invoice Management Solutions
Looking beyond SAP: Best-of-Breed AP Automation Solutions
The AP solution set available from SAP is confusing and there are scenarios where, if we compare back to the AP Automation Guiding Principles, SAP has no clear option for customers who need a fully, featured leading edge solution that covers all spend categories, e.g., those with a disparate ERP landscape or a cloud-first strategy.
To this end, best-of-breed AP solutions such as Basware should also be a consideration as an alternative option to the solutions in the SAP stable.
