M.C. Dean Leverages APIs and HSBC Virtual Cards to Streamline Vendor Payments

M.C. Dean designs, builds, and operates cyber-physical solutions for the nation’s most recognizable mission-critical facilities, secure environments, complex infrastructure, and global enterprises.

The company’s capabilities include electronic security, telecommunications, life-safety instrumentation, and command and control systems.

M.C. Dean is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia and employs more than 5,100 professionals who engineer and deploy automated, secure and resilient power and technology systems; and deliver management platforms essential for long-term system sustainability.

M.C. Dean was looking to build a custom solution that fully utilized virtual card capabilities to solve a multitude of payment challenges across buying channels. Additionally, they aimed to reduce the number of Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) for suppliers, improving their relationships with vendors. M.C. Dean’s additional goals included:

• Automate the company's procure-to-pay practices to drive responsible and efficient buying practices.
• Streamline the Accounts Payable process by reducing manual transactions and approvals, a significant time commitment.
• Simplify their employee travel expenses and strategic procurement processes.
• Reduce the need for accrual adjustments with timely and robust spend data metrics for their budget review process.
• Decrease the usage of paper checks which delays payment posting, impacting budget accuracy.

M.C. Dean's solution utilizes the HSBC virtual card solution to streamline the procure-to-pay process in a way that few other organizations have contemplated, let alone implemented due to the complexity of the challenge.

Central to the M.C. Dean front-end tool design, the team integrated APIs with virtual cards to support a multitude of buying needs that allow for secure, instant card issuance tied to approved purchases.

As a result, employee and purchasing details are authorized by HSBC for the generation of a single-use virtual card number that is instantly passed on to the supplier for payment.

The integrated pre-authorization design features financial controls such as monthly and single purchase credit limits, approved commodity types and requestor accounting details at the front end of any transaction.

Included in this best practice design is a daily auto-reconciliation capability, supplemented with accounting details and card billing data automatically delivered to M.C. Dean's ERP system. As part of this process, transactions are approved and automatically posted to the general ledger without any human involvement.

Harnessing the power of real-time APIs, M.C. Dean's proprietary procurement platform now directly connects to HSBC’s virtual card system to solve multiple payment challenges across its different company entities.

With HSBC, the company unlocked the full potential of the virtual card product – year-over-year spend grew by 68%. Additionally, M.C. Dean has achieved the following outcomes:

• Simplified purchasing processes for buyers and travelers, eliminating wait times and promoting responsible corporate purchases aligned with company policies
• Automated manual processes that have reduced the number of hours spent on Accounts Payable reconciliation tasks
• Expedited electronic payments to suppliers
• The use of plastic cards has been reduced, providing direct sustainability benefits
• Reducing the risk of unintended card use, fraud and mistakes

The collaborative partnership with HSBC allowed M.C. Dean to explore and implement a multitude of uses of the virtual card product based on specific internal requirements. Each business challenge has been solved with a unique use of HSBC’s Virtual Card solution. As a result of M.C. Dean’s custom payment front-end they were able to meet company objectives of responsible and simplified buying, as well as unlock the full potential of the virtual card product. With HSBC’s strong credit relationship and unrivaled global footprint, M.C. Dean was able realize their procurement technology and efficiency ambitions.