Previse, the instant supplier payment decision company, and Virtualstock, the leading provider of digital supply chain solutions are partnering to deliver the first fully integrated purchase to pay supply chain system with cash on delivery for suppliers in the UK.
The two British supply chain technology companies will enable clients to merge their accounts payable and procurement functions seamlessly, enabling suppliers to get cash-on-delivery. Buyers can now manage their catalogues, contract pricing, inventory and purchases as well as track deliveries through Virtualstock’s The EdgeTM platform, while also ensuring their suppliers are paid instantly with Previse’s advanced machine learning technology and network of readily available funding.
Virtualstock has a partnership with NHS Shared Business Services and The EdgeTM platform is used by some of the UK’s leading retailers, including Tesco, John Lewis and Argos.
Supply chains are becoming ever more complex, with more products than ever being moved faster than ever. This requires seamless real-time data exchange between large organisations and their suppliers, provided through The EdgeTM.
Previse’s artificial intelligence will utilise the rich seam of real-time data on The EdgeTM platform to facilitate instant payment from participating buyers to their suppliers as soon as an invoice is issued. With its ability to instantly and accurately score the risk level of each invoice, Previse’s technology will also massively reduce the costs of back-office administration for buyers by allowing them to focus on the invoices which are most likely to require human attention.
Finally, the business to business purchasing landscape is beginning to look like the world of consumer payments that we all enjoy in our daily lives. Through this partnership, companies will be able to see what they’ve bought and where it is in real time, while suppliers will instantly receive payment for delivering their goods. This is how transactions between businesses should be in the 21st century, fast and efficient from procurement to payment. Through the expert channelling and analysis of data which our two companies provide, that can now be a reality for businesses globally.
David Brown, Chief Product Officer at Previse
Our aim is to enable frictionless commerce between B2B buyers and suppliers. When we came across Previse’s unique model, we instantly saw the synergies with The EdgeTM and the clear benefits for our clients. Now, for the first time, the buyers who use our platform can enable all their suppliers, even the smallest SME they work with, to be paid instantly. The combination of The EdgeTM and Previse is a powerful and highly disruptive proposition, and will be a key partnership as we look to expand together into new markets over the coming years.
Andrew Mills, CEO and Chairman at Virtualstock
About Previse
Previse uses artificial intelligence to give large corporates the tools and incentives to have their suppliers paid instantly on receipt of invoice, in a genuine win/win, and without requiring process changes. Previse’s scalable artificial intelligence technology flips the standard model of supply chain finance on its head. The true risk in the payments chain is the small number of problematic invoices which won’t get paid, not the credit risk of SME suppliers. Previse’s algorithms allow the risk to be identified, measured and controlled. Funding can then be extended to the suppliers instantly, pre-invoice-approval, without having to wait for the buyer’s approval of the invoice.
Previse was founded in 2016 by a team of world-class experts in trade finance, artificial intelligence and enterprise technology.
About Virtualstock
Virtualstock is a leading, British SaaS company that is transforming global enterprise supply chains and marketplaces. Its game-changing product, The EdgeTM, has been successful in delivering supply chain optimisation for leading retailers, the NHS, suppliers and, ultimately, their customers.
The EdgeTM delivers best-in-class eProcurement functionality, including a consumer-style B2B marketplace, full procure-to-pay (P2P), product information management (PIM), catalogue management, order management, inventory and stock management, e-invoicing, track and trace, and analytics. The platform includes a GS1 certified Product Information Management (PIM) module.