It became known that American Express and SAP AG have partnered to launch a new service allowing SAP customers in the USA to process electronic payments more seamlessly with American Express. Through this collaboration, the companies aim to clear roadblocks that can delay or deter corporate adoption of electronic payments, such as high costs of deploying and connecting a myriad of third-party systems. 

Designed to help organizations drive process efficiencies without the need for large-scale, up-front development investments, the combined solution will feature a “plug-and-play” utility to enable SAP customers to adopt electronic payments quickly and easily. By integrating payments solutions with the underlying technology that powers an organization’s business processes, corporations can enhance controls and optimize the timing of their payments, thereby improving their working capital. The integrated solution combines the power of the Buyer Initiated Payments solution from American Express with process integration (PI) technology from the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform. PI technology will maintain payment data integrity and the workflows and approval processes that customers are already running on SAP software.

As part of the agreement, American Express will license SAP NetWeaver PI technology and SAP will be the first company to deploy the new integrated Buyer Initiated Payments/PI solution. The companies plan to make the solution available in the first quarter of 2011.