Companies Will Shift Their Focus to Profitability for Their Path to Success

 

All companies should look at automated purchasing and compliance in today’s marketplace. Tyler Kern, and co-host Hunter Austin, Managing Partner of Kelley Austin, got some hot tips on the latest trend in automated payment control solutions from James Thomas, CEO and Founder of Itemize. 

In the B2B space, where you need a lot more data in that transaction, that hasn’t effectively been automated the same way the consumer space has been automated,” Thomas said. 

The financial control software a company uses may be automated, but often getting the information into the system is still a manual effort. Thomas believes the AP (automated payment) world is ripe for digitization. “The data we need to automate business purchasing, so there’s not a lot of people involved in moving paper and workflow systems, that’s a problem most people probably thought was solved in the twentieth century. To make that happen, we need a lot more data coming in some manner into our financial control or expense management systems.”

The opportunity exists in payment control to reduce costs and mistakes and transform precious human resources to work on higher-value activities. Thomas, whose history with the payment industry is rich with experience, founded Itemize to provide solutions for B2B because the need is extensive. “We’ve all heard and seen about the labor shortages in the United States and globally,” Thomas said. “And that labor shortage is making it incumbent upon finance departments to look towards automation as a potential way to solve the problem.”

Hosts Tyler Kern and Hunter Austin sit down with Itemize CEO and founder James Thomas to talk about the future of automated payment control solutions. 

 

With the right automated solutions, an AP specialist can increase invoice processing volume and gain time elsewhere. “We can do five-to-ten invoices in a minute,” Thomas said. “So, that person can look at the data and use it for analysis and intelligence. That’s a welcome contribution to an accounts payable department.” 

More Episodes in This Series

Companies Are More Comfortable Embracing Emerging Technologies to Boost Efficiency

The Retail Sales Dilemma and How to Solve It

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

team
When Your Team Becomes the Bottleneck
February 25, 2026

In a candid take on organizational blind spots, Mollie Gaby, Principal at CG Infinity, highlights a hard truth many leaders avoid: sometimes your biggest pain point isn’t your technology or your strategy — it’s your staff. A common red flag is resistance to change. When team members are unwilling to explore new tools, automate…

Read More
asset visibility
Diagnosing Your Capital Asset Health: Why Asset Visibility Is the New Financial Imperative in Healthcare
February 25, 2026

Hospitals and surgery centers own millions of dollars in equipment — but owning assets and having actionable visibility into them are two different things. Most systems maintain inventories, yet many struggle with outdated records, fragmented tracking, and limited insight into useful life or service contracts. With nearly half of U.S. hospitals reporting negative operating…

Read More
CFO
From Public Accounting to CFO: The Leadership Wake-Up Call
February 25, 2026

The CFO seat is being rewritten in real time. Today’s finance leaders are expected to drive growth, lead enterprise-wide systems transformations, and shape AI strategy—while still keeping the close, controls, and capital story airtight. Gartner reports that 59% of finance leaders are already using AI in the finance function, underscoring how rapidly the role is…

Read More
restorative practices
Building Safer Schools Through Restorative Practices
February 24, 2026

School Safety Today podcast, presented by Raptor Technologies. In this episode of Principals of Change, host Dr. Amy Grosso sits down with D’Jon Pitchford, Assistant Principal at Kelly Lane Middle School in Pflugerville ISD, to explore what school safety really means. Pitchford reframes safety as more than physical security—emphasizing trust, restorative practices, campus culture,…

Read More