As purchasing and payment organizations face continued challenges of managing costs, mitigating risks, driving operational efficiencies, and identifying new sources of revenue, the need for understanding offerings provided by commercial card providers remains a daunting challenge. There is added pressure on educators, governmental entities, and finance leaders to find innovative ways to do more with much, much less.
Think of commercial cards as an opportunity to promote efficient purchasing and travel transactions with strong organizational controls and security plus the added benefit of creating a new source of revenue for your organization. Commercial cards offer organizations efficient and effective mechanisms to address low value purchases and costly travel reimbursements to employees, faculty, and staff.
U.S. Bank, through OMNIA Partners, provides industry-leading expertise in commercial payment cards to educational institutions, governmental and political subdivisions, and not-for-profit entities while their cooperative contract with OMNIA Partners offers streamlined purchasing of these solutions.
5 key factors in identifying the right commercial card provider:
1. Ensure provider offers a full suite of products and solutions.
To prevent having to manage multiple contracts, a prospective commercial card provider should offer a range of traditional commercial cards, including purchasing, travel and virtual cards, but also a host of specialized card solutions such as:
- Instant-issue cards
- Event planner cards
- Emergency cards
- Executive status cards
- One card solutions
- Declining balance cards
2. Confirm technical integration experience and capabilities.
Your financial systems must have connectivity to your card provider to facilitate the exchange of transaction amounts and information. As you make your evaluations, consider the provider’s experience and capability to connect with your systems and require that they address any necessary file formatting or delivery changes. The following are common technical considerations to consider:
- Insist on utilization of industry standard financial extracts.
- Validate reconciliation report delivery formats and locations.
- Investigate application programming interface (API) and card-as-a-service offerings.
- Evaluate card provider’s file mapper capabilities and willingness.
3. Evaluate administrative tools and processes.
Program administrators and support staff are the heart of any commercial card offering. Strongly investigate and understand how key administrative tasks and processes are accomplished in the provider’s technology platform. The objective is to find a comprehensive and proprietary administrative platform to effectively manage all aspects of the program.
4. Understand reporting capabilities.
Many organizations deal with limited resources to support their commercial card programs and understanding how your commercial cards are used is key to strong internal controls. Ensure your potential commercial card provider offers a robust menu of pre-developed or canned reports, including transaction data, diversity spend, and transaction declines.
5. Define expectations of short- and long-term support.
Understanding how your provider will support your program after implementation is just as important as the technical integrations themselves. Consider key questions such as who is my primary contact for business and technical support, where are they located, and what are their hours of operation? Additionally, explore how your provider proposes to support training of new and existing cardholders.
Considering these five factors when identifying and evaluating potential commercial card providers will better equip you to select a partner that best meets your organization’s procurement and payables needs. Click here to learn more about how to assess your purchasing and travel commercial card needs.
About U.S. Bank and OMNIA Partners
As your ally in the purchasing process, OMNIA Partners is dedicated to optimizing procurement for your organization. Your free membership provides full access to OMNIA’s portfolio of value-driven contracts, spend visibility, analytics, and subject matter experts. U.S. Bank is a leader and innovator in the commercial card industry that serves public agencies like state and local governments, K-12 schools, colleges, and universities through OMNIA Partners.
- TAGS:
- K-12 Education
- , Nonprofit
- , Higher Education
- , Government