Are we there yet? The ongoing move toward paperless business.(Bank clearinghouses and NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association)

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Excluding recent examples like the rapid and widespread acceptance of DVDs in the final years of the 20th Century, history's supply of technologies that, when introduced, were suddenly and readily embraced by businesses is exceedingly scarce. The FM radio band that most people listen to on the way to work was invented in 1933 but only started to dominate in the late '60s and '70s after decades of litigation and a heated patent fight. Regularly scheduled television service actually started in 1928, but the TV didn't become a staple of every American living room until the '40s and '50s. One can only speculate on how long it took cavemen to adopt the wheel but, it modern man is any indication, it probably took a bit longer than it should have.

In terms of credit management, one of the most visible and tangible technological changes taking place is the move toward business conducted almost entirely without paper: No receipts. No invoices. No nothing. For some this might augur a decline in the importance of credit management and, by extension, the credit professional. Paperless transactions like electronic funds transfer (EFT), automated clearing house payments (ACH), check conversions and B2B credit card payments stand to make all transactions immediate and, perhaps more importantly, much more secure. Some would say that with the increase in security and the more stringent payment requirements imposed on customers, the relevance of the credit decision process might decrease. Others have levied several other complaints and even more have resisted the switch to quicker, more computer-based payment technologies simply because it isn't what they're used to. All of these complaints and preoccupations with the way it was in the "old days" are perfectly explainable but, at the same time, aren't slowing the trend down in any sense of the word.

"It's changing folks, whether we like it or not," said Rudet Fountain, national sales manager at American Check Management (ACM). "We're kind of powerless. There are a lot of forces driving the trend and unfortunately it's not our companies, nor is it us individually."

That being said, Fountain noted that there are a number of things credit managers stand to gain from the proper leverage of these new technologies and ways to ease the gradual transition to a predominantly paperless payment environment, which, although pressing, still has a way to go before it becomes the mode of operation in the B2B arena.

Where It Is and Isn't Going

While a number of paperless instruments currently exist to help businesses speed up transactions, the development of these instruments in the B2B world is ongoing. A non-profit organization called NACHA-The Electronic Payments Organization governs the rules associated with ACH payments and other forms of electronic payment, and has a corporate subgroup whose responsibility it is to advance the cause of B2B payment processing.