BOSTON, September 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Innovations in Supply Chain Finance Technology and Financing Are Helping Companies Gain an End-to-end Cost Advantage

Supply Chain Finance is the next cost battleground for companies, according to a new Aberdeen Group report. Fully 69% of companies surveyed are investigating how to use new Supply Chain Finance techniques to lower their end-to-end costs.

Supply Chain Finance can help large companies as well as smaller suppliers and international vendors lower their product costs, improve cash flow, and build a lower risk supply chain.

"Supply Chain Finance is the next battlefield for competitive advantage for companies," says Beth Enslow, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Research for Aberdeen Group. "Too many companies are still stuck in the old mind-set of simply squeezing their suppliers without understanding that there is a better way."

The Aberdeen Group study, The Supply Chain Finance Benchmark Report, is based on research into the practices of 110 manufacturing, distribution, and retail companies. The study found that just 13% of companies are actively using Supply Chain Finance techniques to improve cash flow and access to capital for their supply chains - and they are achieving significant advantage.

"Finance, procurement, and supply chain professionals need to educate themselves about the new innovations occurring in trade financing and enabling technology," continues Enslow. "Early Supply Chain Finance adopters are gaining an end-to-end cost advantage while building a lower-risk supply chain."

The Aberdeen study includes benchmark metrics of companies' current maturity levels and Supply Chain Finance success stories. Topics covered include:

-- The financial conflict between buyers and suppliers - and how Supply Chain Finance techniques and technology can resolve it -- How suppliers can use Supply Chain Finance to ease cash-flow issues and increase customer sales -- How buyers can use Supply Chain Finance to reduce unit costs, extend payment terms, and create a lower-risk supply base -- How supply chain visibility is being leveraged to free up the value of goods throughout their lifecycle

Download a complimentary report copy at: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3380

About Aberdeen Group, Inc.

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and insights focused on the global, technology-driven value chain. Aberdeen's benchmarking, market and solution assessments, sales acceleration programs, and conferences support Global 5000 value chain and technology executives--and the solution providers who serve them. For more information, visit http://www.aberdeen.com or call +1-617-723-7890.

Contact: Beth Enslow, Aberdeen Group +1-519-883-1430, beth.enslow@aberdeen.com

Web site: http://www.aberdeen.com

Beth Enslow of Aberdeen Group, +1-519-883-1430, beth.enslow@aberdeen.com