It's time to come clean: The B2B payments process is broken. From shopping to socializing, nearly every aspect of our lives has been digitized, mobilized and automated. Yet, when it comes to the world of business, antiquated methods of payment continue to be the norm. More than 60 percent of payments between businesses in the U.S. are still made using checks.

For buyers, that means lots of paper and inefficiencies that cost their companies billions each year. For sellers, it means little visibility into when they will actually be paid and what they are being paid for – making it difficult to effectively manage cash and reconcile payments. It's a vexing problem on both sides of the equation.

But the move is on to solve this problem. By automating the billing and settlement process and digitizing the "pay" in procure-to-pay, companies can effectively change the game, and IT can lead the charge. In this slideshow, Drew Hofler, director, Solutions Marketing for SAP Cloud & Network Solutions, explains how to go about doing this.