Complex supply networks create commercial risks.

• Position: BUSINESS PLANNING - Brief article

Global finance executives say they are worried about the interdependency of suppliers, partners and customers resulting from increasingly complex supply networks, and that it's creating commercial risks for buyer organizations.

Those conclusions were part of a recent report from Basware, a Stamford, Conn.-based provider of e-invoicing and purchase-to-pay solutions, entitled Cost of Control--Disrupted Networks.

Buyers are beginning to recognize suppliers as equals and are taking into account their future commitments to their own suppliers, according to one positive finding from the study. But there is concern about the impact of tight credit lines and late or erroneous payments, as they put pressure on suppliers and directly impact the buyer.

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According to the report, finance executives believe 15 percent of invoices remain unpaid past their payment terms--even though two-thirds understand late payments cause problems for their suppliers and 38 percent acknowledge their late or erroneous payments to suppliers affect the suppliers' commercial performance to the same degree it would their own.

The...