Saturday, May 17, 2025

Digitizing B2B Payment Flows Across Asia Pacific’s Supply Chains

At SAP’s flagship regional conference, SAP NOW, the enterprise application software provider announced a line-up of solutions in collaboration with customers and partners—we are talking about big name brands SAP headlined on stage with like Petronas Digital, ST Logistics, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), VISA, Google Cloud, B Capital, and Petrosea. 

But what is also exciting is what these partnerships can enable for the larger ecosystem. 

Take VISA, for example.

With SAP, VISA unveiled simplified and streamlined B2B payments via embedded technologies into the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), while CxOs from MPIC, ST Logistics, and Petronas Digital, shared about the business benefits they experienced on their journey with SAP.

Visa Technology, SAP Platform

SAP’s APAC MD, Paul Marriot, and Visa’s Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions in APAC, Chavi Jafa, took to the stage to talk about their initiatives together. Chavi kicked things off with her observation about pain points and payment challenges that businesses across the world actually have – these challenges tend to be similar all around.

She also said, “A fun fact about me which I haven’t shared yet… for over a year I also ran a small business. 

“So, I lived through some of the pain that is required to run a business, and the things that that you need to deal with, whether it’s financing, or payments, or business processes.”

Who Is It For, and What Does It Mean?

What does the collaboration mean for businesses that want to drive financial transformation, supply chain transformation, or are simply looking to be more agile and to make better financing decisions?

Chavi also pointed out that the procurement process that happens today is a little fragmented. The  embedded technologies into the Business Technology Platform (BTP) can achieve two things – one, digitize the process so that the payment is completed at the time when the actual invoice is ready to be paid.

Almost 99% of the world’s largest companies use SAP solutions to run their daily operations, and now these enterprises can use their Visa cards, a payment method they trust, directly on the SAP BTP, an enterprise solution they rely on.

Second, provide a 16-digit credential (which could come with a credit line) to the buyer, so they will be able to make the payment. 

“Suppliers will also get paid faster because that is the benefit of using credentials,” she said, adding that both sides of the supply chain could benefit from working capital efficiencies, which are now possible via a single platform, that is the BTP.

 “Almost 99% of the world’s largest companies use SAP solutions to run their daily operations, and now these enterprises can use their Visa cards, a payment method they trust, directly on the SAP BTP, an enterprise solution they rely on. 

“Enterprises will no longer need to grapple with the various payment methods accepted by their suppliers, as Visa’s payment solutions that are integrated into SAP BTP will route commercial card payments to all suppliers, whether they accept card payments or not,” Chavi said.

Cat Yong
Cat Yong
Cat Yong is Editor-in-Chief of Enterprise IT News, a regional news website which began in Malaysia circa 2011. A common theme in all of her work - opinions, analysis, features and more - is how technology and innovation drives business and outcomes. A career tech journalist for 22 years, her work has evolved to also encompass narratives of tech powering human potential.

Read more

News