Exploring the Consumer-led Transformation of Corporate Mobile Payment Technology

In the B2C marketplace, mobile payment technology is moving at lightning speed. A recent eMarketer report predicts total mobile payments in the U.S. will reach $118 billion by 2018—that’s up from $3.5 billion in 2014. And considering the recent launch of Apple Pay and near-constant headlines on the advancements of app-based and even wearable tech payment solutions, it’s only a matter of time before we’re seeing significant mobile payments growth in the commercial arena.

Today, whenever we have access to a mobile device and Internet connection, business tends to happen, whether we’re checking our e-mail or snapping a picture of a receipt for an expense report. Mobile technology is widely tapped by marketing and human resources professionals to engage internal and external customers, and executives in the C-suite are taking advantage of mobile ERP and BI tools. Yet for as many questions corporate finance executives may still have about this evolving technology—from security-related to international business concerns—there’s no denying that what’s becoming commonplace in people’s personal lives (and across the office) is driving trends in the finance department as well.

Meeting Corporate Demand For Mobile Support

More financial institutions are upgrading their strategies to meet the demand for mobile payments technology. Still in a relatively “young” market, their services support a range of payment processes to accommodate the various payment technologies, devices, and delivery channels utilized by their corporate clients—who themselves are adjusting their business practices to cater to their customers’ evolving preferences.

The goal is to “go digital” wherever possible and provide customers with a seamless experience that makes it easy to stay productive and move away from cumbersome and oftentimes more expensive manual processes. Finance executives are now able to access information and perform transactions like these on their smartphones and tablets:

• Deposit checks
• Monitor accounts
• Run reports
• View, initiate, approve, or reject wires or ACH transactions
• Release of payroll batches

The Value Prop For Today’s Corporate Customer

While the digital mobile payment ecosystem is evolving, it will take time and education before mobile tech becomes a mainstay in the supply chain and corporate payments space like it has in the retail consumer marketplace. But at this stage, the functionality clearly enables business users to manage business spending 24/7, and get work done anytime and anywhere. They’re able to take advantage of faster processing and more secure payments without being tied to their office or computer. And when it comes to implementing mobile payment plans with business partners—today or in the future—they’re finding new ways to integrate the technology into their day-to-day processes and gaining comfort with the mobile platform.

Change is happening fast, and every organization is at a unique spot along the curve of adopting new technologies. As companies continue to upgrade their internal technology systems, move from paper-based to digital administrative processes, and embrace more cloud and mobile-based enterprise solutions, their capacity to transform their payment processes will take giant leaps ahead. Like the retail consumers laying much of the groundwork before them, most business users will get on board eventually. That’s why even if they aren’t currently using mobile technology to meet their banking and supply chain/payment needs, it’s important that they stay informed of what’s “next” on the horizon so they can keep pace—when they’re ready.

Additional resources include these informative white papers:

Corporate Mobile Payments from Mobile Money Consulting

The Future of Corporate Payments from the Payments Innovation Alliance (NACHA and Lipis Advisors)

Transforming Payment Systems from Payments Industry Intelligence, NCR, and Alaric Systems

Mobile Payments: the Future is Here from Wells Fargo