New Benchmark for Accounts Payable Efficiency and Effectiveness Unveiled at FUSION 2010

GRAPEVINE, Texas, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking accounts payable (AP) benchmarking survey finds that company size, level of automation, and use of financial shared services are among the key drivers of top-performing AP organizations.  The AP Productivity Index, developed by International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP), PRGX Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRGX), and APQC, is believed to be the first tool of its kind to gauge the impact of AP metrics such as operations costs, staff productivity, turnaround time, and error rates on the two most critical components to the health of the AP operations: efficiency and effectiveness.  The index will be updated quarterly and provides finance leaders with a unique, actionable benchmark, along with insights into the practices used in highly productive AP operations or AP Top Performers.  

The AP Productivity Index revealed that AP Top Performers tend to be larger organizations with annual revenues of more than $5 billion.  This is likely the result of the economies of scale available to these organizations.  The index also found that AP Top Performers are highly automated, resulting in a higher percentage of invoices received electronically and a lower percentage of manual keying, among other things.  Additionally, 62 percent of AP Top Performers use shared services centers.

Interestingly, the AP Productivity Index revealed no correlation between AP Top Performance and AP outsourcing.  In fact, outsourcing is relatively rare among AP Top Performers, the index showed.

"IAPP is pleased to partner with PRGX and APQC on the AP Productivity Index," said IAPP CEO Tom Bohn.  "The index will provide a unique, actionable tool for helping CFOs and AP leaders play a more informed role in advancing their organizational objectives."

Among the other key findings of the AP Productivity Index:

• AP Top Performers are found in all industries, but industries with particularly high index scores include petroleum/chemical, and retail/wholesale.
• AP Top Performers reside primarily in the Americas, with U.S.-based operations having an especially high percentage of companies with high index values.
• There is a direct correlation between AP Top Performance and shorter cycle times to enter invoice data into the system and approve and schedule T&E reimbursements.
• AP Top Performers make greater use of purchasing cards (p-cards) than other organizations.
• There is no correlation between AP Top Performance and automated disbursement methods.

The AP Productivity Index was unveiled by PRGX President and CEO Romil Bahl, during a breakfast presentation at FUSION, the largest event of its kind, where more than 1,400 document automation and financial shared services professionals are meeting at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.  

"Our clients tell us that delivering continuous improvements is an absolute requirement for today's finance leaders," said Bahl.  "The AP Productivity Index will be a valuable tool in helping these leaders unlock some of the untapped value and profits hidden in their procure-to-pay business processes."

The AP Productivity Index is the result of a true for-profit/non-profit collaboration between IAPP, PRGX and APQC.  IAPP is internationally recognized as a trustworthy guidance-setting organization for AP, AR, payments and document automation professionals.  PRGX, the world's leader in recovery audit and the pioneer in a new category of services called Profit Discovery, is providing financial support and subject matter expertise for the index.  APQC, one of the world's leading proponents of benchmarking and best practices for performance and process improvement, is providing data for the Index, as well as technical and analytic assistance.

"The AP Productivity Index stands on a solid foundation of performance data from leading global organizations.  These AP performance metrics originate from hundreds of organizations of varying industries, sizes and geographies that are housed in APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking database, the world's largest performance measurement database with more than 1,200 metrics across the enterprise.  That diverse data set has allowed this partnership to produce a valuable tool for AP professionals and CFOs," said Chris Gardner, director, performance improvement, APQC.

Using data provided to APQC by AP operations nationwide, the AP Productivity Index is comprised of the two metrics most critical to the health of AP operations: efficiency and effectiveness.  APQC applies a sophisticated algorithm and weighting model to its data on these metrics to determine the AP Productivity Index.  The Index was calculated using a sample of 218 responding organizations.

For more information on the AP Productivity Index, visit www.theiapp.org/apindex.

About IAPP and IARP

International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP) is internationally recognized as the trustworthy guidance-setting association for the accounts payable profession. Serving members throughout the world, IAPP is the AP professional's global voice, chief advocate, recognized authority, acknowledged leader, and principal educator on all AP operational, regulatory, leadership, tax, control, and fraud-related topics. Together, the IAPP and its sister organization, International Accounts Receivable Professionals (IARP), have more than 5,000 members in 70 chapters throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and provide training, conferences, knowledge sharing, certification, online resources, AP Matters and AR Matters magazines, and more. For more information, visit www.TheIAPP.org and www.TheIARP.org.

About PRGX Global, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, PRGX Global, Inc. is pioneering "profit discovery," the combination of audit, analytics and advisory services to improve client financial performance. PRGX remains the world's leader in recovery auditing. It serves a majority of the top 50 global retailers and many other leading companies, and is active in an expanding range of markets, including healthcare. Until January 2010, PRGX was known as PRG-Schultz International, Inc.

SOURCE IAPP