Associations Form Strategic Partnership to Deliver New Resources for Finance, Operational Professionals

Boston and Orlando  — The Association for Work Process Improvement (TAWPI) and International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP) today announced a strategic partnership that will provide an unprecedented breadth of resources for senior-level executives, including CFOs, controllers, and directors of shared services, as well as practitioners in accounts payable, accounts receivable, and document management operations.

Today’s announcement comes as more companies move toward a shared services approach to finance functions – operating several functions under the same umbrella. Traditionally, finance functions operate independently. As evidence of this trend, a TAWPI survey conducted late last year showed a convergence of payments and document management functions at more than half of the responding organizations.

The partnership leverages the strengths of each association – IAPP’s expertise in accounts payable and finance and TAWPI’s leadership in payments automation and receivables automation- while allowing each association to continue to uniquely serve its members.

More than 5,000 members strong, IAPP provides events, resources, certification, and training for accounts payable and other finance practitioners, and beginning in August, will offer comparable benefits to accounts receivable professionals through a brand-new sister organization, International Accounts Receivable Professionals.

"A strategic partnership with TAWPI is a good fit for us right now as we venture into this new field," said Thomas Bohn, executive director of IAPP, based in Orlando. "Together we can focus on best meeting the needs of senior-level executives who oversee accounts payable, accounts receivable and documents management, helping to create exciting new changes in financial services worldwide."

TAWPI, with more than 1,000 members, delivers educational resources and events related to process improvement in the payments and document automation arenas.

"Through this partnership, IAPP and TAWPI will work collaboratively and strategically to add value for our core audiences, while jointly developing products and services that will appeal to new and existing association members alike," said Frank Moran, president of the Boston-based TAWPI.

As their first major initiative under the partnership announced today, TAWPI and IAPP will co-locate their annual conferences next year. Scheduled for May 9-13 at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas, the combined event is expected to draw nearly 2,000 finance and operations professionals from the United States and Canada, as well as internationally known keynote speakers, more than 150 learning labs in 15 learning tracks, and an expo of some 200 vendors.

TAWPI and IAPP expect to announce more strategic initiatives in the next few months.

The associations will jointly and individually provide more details on today’s announcement to members and business partners during a series of upcoming in-person and virtual events, including a reception at TAWPI’s Annual Forum & Expo August 2-5, in Washington, D.C.

About International Accounts Payable Professionals
IAPP is internationally recognized as the trustworthy guidance-setting association for the accounts payable profession. Serving members throughout the world, IAPP is the AP professional’s global voice, chief advocate, recognized authority, acknowledged leader, and principal educator on all AP operational, regulatory, leadership, tax, control and fraud-related topics. IAPP has more than 70 chapters throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and provides training, conferences, knowledge sharing, AP certification, online resources, AP Matters magazine and more. For more information, visit IAPP at TheIAPP.org (http://www.TheIAPP.org).

About The Association for Work Process Improvement
TAWPI is a membership association that facilitates the peer-to-peer exchange of actionable information, ideas and best practices on the converging technologies and processes that enable payments automation and document management. The TAWPI 2009 Forum & Expo is a highly interactive, multi-dimensional event featuring ideas, information and advice on payments automation, distributed capture, and document & forms automation. For more Information, visit TAWPI at tawpi.org (http://www.tawpi.org).