SAP has announced an agreement with Visa to streamline and simplify business-to-business (B2B) payments for enterprises.

Benefiting form the collaboration will be businesses from small to big size; from Government agencies to non-profit organisations.

The collaboration, led out of Asia Pacific, marks the first time that Visa and SAP join forces to bring to life an innovation to embed payments into the SAP ecosystem through SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

The embedded finance solution will be offered initially to SAP customers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam, with plans to roll it out across other markets in the region.

For Visa, the move is in line with its strategy to increase its footprint in the B2B space, supporting broader money movement flows between individuals, businesses and governments beyond consumer payments. This includes accounts receivable and payable flows, corporate payments with card-based solutions and cross-border payments.

“The movement of money is becoming increasingly digital, but the bulk of transformation has been focused on the consumer space,” Stephen Karpin, regional president of Asia Pacific, Visa, said.

B2B payments need to be intuitive, speedy and fuss-free, so organisations can spend time and resources on other aspects of their businesses,” he said.

For SAP, this move is meant to enhance its customers’ experience in using SAP’s software to run their businesses.

Around 99 per cent of the world’s largest companies are SAP customers. This collaboration sets the stage for Visa and SAP to explore embedded finance in the B2B market, helping integrate a financial journey into business operations.

The collaboration will also help to further digitise and speed up B2B payments across Asia Pacific’s supply chains. — VNS