Visa announced that it has partnered with SAP to streamline and simplify business-to-business (B2B) payments for businesses.

The Asia-Pacific-focused partnership marks the first time Visa and SAP have teamed up to offer a way to integrate payments into the SAP ecosystem through the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). .

This partnership sets the stage for Visa and SAP to explore integrated finance in the B2B market, helping to integrate the financial journey into business operations.

For Visa, the move aligns with its strategy of growing its footprint in the B2B space, supporting broader cash flows between individuals, businesses and governments, beyond consumer payments. This includes customer and supplier account flows, corporate payments with card 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,”

“There is an urgent need to modernise the way enterprises pay and enhance the B2B payment experience. Our collaboration with SAP is an exciting step in making B2B payments simpler and more intuitive as organisations can make payments immediately on SAP platforms with their Visa corporate cards, instead of having to leave their existing enterprise ecosystem and to navigate the different payment methods that their vendors accept. B2B payments needs to be intuitive, speedy and fuss-free, so organisations can spend time and resources on other aspects of their businesses.”

Stephen Karpin, Regional President of Asia Pacific, Visa.

For SAP, this decision is intended to improve the customer experience when using SAP software to manage their business. Running on SAP BTP, B2B Payment Services will provide convenient Visa payment services to SAP customers. Bringing more automation to checkouts that mark the last mile of shopping will help businesses gain efficiency in the buying journey as they securely make payments with just a few clicks mouse.

“Our collaboration with Visa endeavours to streamline and simplify the B2B payment process and drive further efficiencies for our joint customers. Embedding Visa payment into the SAP ecosystem aims to scale and accelerate digital commerce; together empowering enterprises, from small businesses to government agencies and non-profit organisations, to make secure payments with just a few clicks, transforming the last mile of procurement,”

Paul Marriott, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

The integrated financial solution will initially be offered to SAP customers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with plans to roll out to other markets in the region.