2024 has been a year of milestones.

We kicked off the year with a celebration of 15 years of our Network. Back in those early days we were known as AP News and were the first community in the UK to support accounts payable as a profession. Since those early days, the community has grown to support the wider finance function, end-to-end P2P and procurement as well as Accounts Payable.

Next came the announcement that Major Tim Peake was going to be the keynote speaker for our next approaching milestone - the 10th Anniversary of our P2P Transformation Summit event in June!? And we were delighted to have our friends and partners at Tradeshift alongside us introducing, and Headlining our main event of the year.

At PPN we do a lot with just a few of us. But even for us, it’s not possible to do everything! So, in February we welcomed in the fabulous Laura Elizabeth Quelch in our Social Media team and the equally fabulous Beccy Sheller to our events and data team. Data and the proper analysis of it is an important part of any organisation, crucial in fact if you want to understand and get to the heart of your business. So we were excited to launch our 13th Annual P2P Survey in February alongside our friends at Avalara Europe . While a business might promote a policy, such as No P O No Pay, or have combined AP teams with Procurement or implemented new technology for example, our Annual Survey explores why and if those changes have been successful.

March saw the reemergence of that perennial spectre at the supply chain feast, late payments. We took the opportunity to talk with Causeway Technologies and Finance Shared Services Director, Kier Dan Foley about the problems, causes and opportunities for change when using the right processes and technology. In fact, being able to master technology along the AP process is crucial and we were delighted to be joined later in the month by award-winning Finance Director Becky Glover and wonderful industry expert, Shelsea Adrian and share those "lessons from the leaders" with the community. And technology was top of the agenda at the very first meeting of our newly formed UK eInvoicing Advocacy Lab that we held at the Shard, alongside my fellow co-founders Charles Bryant and Carmen Ciciriello , with the aim of driving eInvoicing as a public policy priority for the UK.

Because the world can’t turn on Excel. And while many hands might still go up when we ask who is still using it, if a company’s serious about transformation, success lies elsewhere. Which was why April’s conversation with Kefron and their customer at Friends of the Elderly was so interesting, looking at the challenges and opportunities of going from Excel to excellence. But one of the real challenges for transformative results is the “but we’ve always done it this way” mentality of some individuals, and the culture of some organisation. Partly though, that’s fear. Fear of asking the wrong questions, fear of looking daft. Which was why our “Ask Me Anything” Masterclass with Former VP FinOps Paul Bryanhill and our friends at Documation Software Ltd was so well received. Part of moving forward is first understanding current process.

And with the economy and geo-political events still presenting multiple challenges, organisations need to gain stability and control where they can. Which is why we were delighted to host a conversation with our friends at Bottomline around optimising working capital. And it’s not just about generating efficiencies, it’s around making smarter decisions too. If an organisation’s still mired in manual process, it’s just not possible to have the clarity business leaders need to be able to take decisive action when necessary. And of course technology and controls across P2P are crucial in the battle to combat and prevent fraud, something that we discussed in our session, Fridays, Fraud and Your Finance Team, in collaboration with our friends at Shared Services Forum UK Limited .

And then no sooner had we tipped midway into the year, our 10th Annual P2P Transformation Summit was upon us! We swung open the doors to the beautiful Hurlingham Club with its peacocks, fountains and tennis courts and celebrated our community while showcasing a day of learning, networking, collaboration, awards and most of all, friendship.

A word on the lips of many this year has been AI, and more specifically GenAI, and in July we lifted the lid on what’s really going on in finance and procurement teams in our conversation with Corcentric discussing whether AI has the capacity to truly transform the way teams operate. In fact, it was something that was causing a buzz over at the Ivalua Symposium at the Tower of London with the audience getting to grip with how their new GenAI tool, IVA can be a new robot colleague by your side.

And at the height of summer in August, we were over the moon to be awarded with Finance Education Platform of the Year! Such a lot of effort, teamwork and determination goes into creating our events and activities, it was so rewarding to be on the other side of the award giving! A real surprise and boost to us and to the team!

Autumn brought with it a chance to talk about new upcoming regulations likely to affect those in Finance, P2P and Procurement, from the Procurement Act and new Fair Payment Code to eInvoicing mandates alongside our friends at Open ECX in Manchester for their customer day. And in fact, some of those topics formed the basis of our conversations at our 5th Annual Focus Week, where from 23rd to 27th September we hosted interviews, podcasts, research, executive jobs, trends, PPN award winners and shared insights with our community, headlined by our friends at Pagero and supported by our partners at FISCAL Technologies .

AI and Machine Learning remained a topic of conversation into October with a conversation with our partners at Proactis UK&I where we discussed how the application of the technology was actually shaping how Finance and Procurement are being operated and how the effect that will have on our working lives in the future. And that future was very much on the table for all to see at SAP Connect over in Las Vegas. From SAP Spend Control Tower to SAP Ariba Intake Management, the innovative ideas flowed like the canal running through the Venetian, and highlighted an attempt by SAP to close the gap between multiple systems and raise visibility and efficiency levels.

We were barely into November before it was time for our Future of Finance Lectures held in the wonderful Soho Hotel, London. A wonderful opportunity for the PPN community to get together in a more intimate setting and get involved with a series of fireside chats with some of the most respected names in the industry today. And alongside conversations about technology, GenAI and trust, the talk was also about compliance and trends, a theme we continued in our webinar with Coupa Software and Barkers - Procurement & Commercial Practitioners a little later in the month.

And then as soon as December was upon us, it was time to host our final #UKeLab meeting of the year at the House of Commons at the kind invitation of Bill Esterson MP, supported by our friends at Avalara. Held on the same day as the launch of the new Fair Payment Code, we discussed the importance of eInvoicing in its capacity to act as a catalyst for deep digitisational change and capacity to drive the UK economy forward. And we rounded up the year talking to the wonderful Susan Ní Chríodáin looking at the role empathy plays in leadership, talking about the benefits of leveraging emotional intelligence in our organisations and, yes within reason, the importance of being able to bring our whole selves to work.

Well what a year it’s been! Busy, full and demanding. But as usual, we do what we do for our community, and being able to bring everyone together to connect, learn and grow, whether that’s in a virtual environment or at one of our in-person events, makes it all worthwhile. So, here’s to a fantastic festive season and best wishes from us all here at PPN for a wonderful and fulfilling 2025!

And if you can’t wait to connect with us in the New Year, you can sign up now for our January webinar – Walking the Finance Tightrope: How to Balance Risk and Reward with the wonderful Stephen King (PTP, Prince2 and Change Practitioner) and industry expert, John Rodgers https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4773651121687288151

So here's a very big thank you to all the Purchase to Pay Network community and our partners in 2024 and of course a special thanks to Helen Everest and the rest of the PPN team for all your support this year.

See you all soon!

Ellen

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