The NAPCP provides a forum to guide, educate, and support Purchasing Card professionals. The synergies created will result in a more robust product and effective application of the product.
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (PRWEB) April 04, 2019
Twenty years ago, two P-Card managers at Cargill, a global agricultural commodities corporation, took everything they knew from an award-winning Commercial Card and Payments program, and launched the NAPCP, the industry's professional association based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Laura Flandrick, CPCP, and Diane McGuire, MBA, CPCP, knew there was a void in the industry, but more importantly, knew the proposed organization could fill it.
Peers across the industry were seeking education, tools, resources and networking opportunities to grow programs, learn from others, research trends, and take advantage of emerging technologies and new products and services. While many of those resources existed, there was no conduit to pass on into the hands of the people with the need. Flandrick and McGuire took this singular vision and began.
In the original introductory message to the industry, Flandrick and McGuire, NAPCP Managing Directors, wrote: "The NAPCP will provide a forum to guide, educate, and support Purchasing Card professionals. The synergies created will result in a more robust product and effective application of the product. Members of the NAPCP will be able to network with the entire Purchasing Card community, receive the latest news on products and services, and have an impact on the industry.”
Since then, the Commercial Card and Payments industry has experienced major payments innovation, a historical financial crisis, unprecedented globalization, social media evolution, intricate domestic and global regulation, and data and artificial intelligence domination. Through it all, the NAPCP continually provided up-to-date and timely support in the form of new research, resources, and events.
And as everything about the industry has changed, the NAPCP has kept pace, and for two decades, the NAPCP has provided fresh tactics, innovation, and philosophies to help maximize programs and navigate the ever-changing payments landscape.
"Key to the evolution of the NAPCP has been being able to figure out new ways to share the knowledge, to share the expertise that’s out there," said Flandrick. "That’s been our model ever since, is to get out there and understand what are the practitioners’ needs, how is the industry evolving on the provider side of things and then take that back and churn it."
The NAPCP has created a vibrant community—both face-to-face and virtually—where members can collaborate with like minds.
"One of the things I’m most proud about as it relates to the NAPCP is the community that we’ve established, the way people engage and promote one another, whether it’s through task forces or pulling together an event or on advisory teams where they are trying to help us solve a problem," said McGuire.
To learn more about the NAPCP's twenty years of service, visit the NAPCP website.