30 Mar 2010 Dynamic Discounting – Kicking the Banks When They Are Down
Accountis published a really good article recently – “Why e-Invoicing Belongs to the Banks”
And if this were 2005, I’d have whole heartedly agreed.
The Banks’ brands were amongst the strongest in the world and their existing reach was universal and their existing trust network unquestionable. This was before they began to topple of course. The Banks still have trust in the sense that we all have no choice but to trust them and when the worst happens governments will – within limits – bail them out.
And core competence – absolutely. The Banks’ core competence is to facilitate trade and they have built impressive platforms on which global transaction services are delivered every second of every day..
And finally finance opportunities? In 2005, the Banks had a blank piece of paper. It is now 2010 and the paper is no longer blank. But worse for the Banks, even if they got their act together and started to deliver an e-invoicing product, constrained liquidity is preventing them from providing product to the market that is hungry for them.
Dynamic Discounting is Disintermediating the Banks
The market need not look to the Banks to satisfy their hunger. Organizations like Taulia, OB10 and Ariba can happily facilitate a healthy financial supply chain that allows buyers and seller to collaborate to reduce the cost of doing business without the financial products that the banks struggle to offer these days.
Dynamic Discounting is disintermediating the Banks – kicking them when they’re down – and the small and medium sized businesses that are taking advantage won’t be losing any sleep over it.
