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Companies that increasingly operate their supply chains on a global basis feel heightened pressure to revise their strategies for managing working capital, finds a report from Aite Group.

The report says that supply chain finance (SCF) solutions can help companies meet their working-capital objectives by improving accounts payable (A/P), accounts receivable (A/R), and inventory ratios.

Aite notes that today's SCF solutions address new needs that have arisen post-financial crisis, such as the ability to track A/P, A/R and inventory value. Banks, eager to adopt SCF technology to satisfy corporate-client needs, find themselves seeking increasingly robust solutions.

"Today's SCF solutions are marked by open account trade finance instruments that are available and executable via a web platform," said Enrico Camerinelli, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of the report.

"Capabilities that allow companies to exchange trade transactions on web platforms, electronically match invoices with purchase orders, and initiate financial services triggered by events in the physical supply chain remove much of the risk from supply chain finance."

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