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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How to build a B2B payments behemoth
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Bottomline Technologies sells business payments and digital banking services to banks, which in turn use them to offer corporate customers non-branded technology for online banking and cash-management services. Bottomline says about one million companies use its platforms to make $16 trillion in annual payments, with customers including 90% of the Fortune 100 businesses. It also contends it's the world's third-largest Swift service bureau owing to a large cross-border payments business in Europe. In May, Bottomline introduced embedded access for banks to offer a proprietary payment network, Paymode, as part of their digital banking platforms. This network for large companies contains about 600,000 vendors for which Bottomline has verified the identity and bank account details of each. That information allows for any company to pay these vendors, regardless of the bank they use, and prevents fraud, CEO Craig Saks said, calling the 'closed loop environment' Bottomline's 'most interesting business.' Bottomline has 2,500 employees and dual headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Theale, England, with its operations focused on North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. Saks, a former ACI Worldwide senior executive, joined Bottomline as chief executive officer in May 2022, when private equity firm Thoma Bravo closed on its $2.6 billion cash purchase of the company and took it private. Saks spoke with Payments Dive on July 23. Editor's note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. There is a massive opportunity. The U.S. business payments volume in aggregate, is tens and tens and tens of trillions of dollars. No one has got a material share of that. We're pretty big and we still think we've got so much headroom to go. We are still growing incredibly fast, because there's this huge white space in the addressable market. The U.S. does need at least one or two large-scale business payment networks to emerge. It doesn't have a large scale, de facto standard for a business payment network like it has in the card brands or in the big merchant acquirers. There just isn't anyone who's got to that breakthrough scale. And I think that is necessary in the U.S., and it's inevitable. There are a lot of reasons why payment networks emerge at different speeds around the world. One is the level of regulatory push. The U.S. doesn't have a history or culture of decree: This is the new business-payment standard, and thou shalt all do it. Europe and the rest of the world tends to do that. The other thing that slows these things down a little bit in the U.S. is just the pure scale and complexity. Building payment networks takes a lot longer when there are thousands of banks than if there are dozens of banks. It takes a lot longer with millions of businesses. It obviously takes a lot longer when there are lots of states with different state regulations and so on. And so I think the scale and complexity of the U.S. just makes it take a little bit longer to gel together. I'd say it's inevitable for a few reasons. First of all, the efficiency that a scaled payment network brings to an economy is undeniable. When I look at where we play best, it's in the upper part of the mid-market enterprise and above, and typically in the larger bank ecosystem. And it's also not dependent on cards. It's dependent on any type of electronic payment. In that realm, relatively few (companies) play, and there are relatively few that have advanced as far as we have, but absolutely some of the names you threw out there. Fiserv and FIS, or the big card associations or some of the big ERP (enterprise resource planning) players, they all expressed interest at serving that community with different strategies...I think the U.S. is big enough for a small handful. I get asked this question a lot, and it's obviously speculative in terms of who would find us attractive and who wouldn't. Our company is fairly sizable and very rapidly growing and a very profitable company. And so it would absolutely need to be bought by a larger player. This is going to be a fairly significant acquisition for someone. I think the ideal player would be someone who is interested in an industrywide network and in network dynamics. They could be anyone who's got a payment network or a network of customers within the banking or commercial corporate space. I think it's unlikely that any one of the big (bank) participants in the network would want to buy it, because that would then turn you from being a 'member of the club' to a competitor in the club. And I think that that would actually probably not work for the other banks. It's not to say that it's impossible, and it's not to say that some wouldn't think about it, but I do think that it's more likely that it will be a third party that serves the banking industry and has the opportunity to bring more scale and more amplification to the industry level value proposition, because of the network dynamic that we have. Do I think that stablecoin could make inroads into Swift volumes or other cross border volumes? Absolutely, it's a better widget. And the reason I say it's a better widget is it's still just dollars at the end of the day, if it's backed by dollars, right? So it's got certain technological and security advantages and all the other good things about a modern technology. What people often forget is that payment types and methods are not just about the rail. It's about 10 million other things that happen in the institutions on each side and in all of their customers, and around security rules and protocols and around trust. Nothing's going to just walk in and say, 'I'm going to replace the trust for the Swift correspondent banking network.' And 'I'm going to just replace all the understanding of the 10,000 ways people have tried to steal money from Swift in the last five decades,' instantly. I've always seen that the evolution of payment types is actually a very long and drawn out journey. So do I think that it could end up being a dominant payment type? Absolutely. Do I think it'll take as long to get rid of everything else as it's taken us to get rid of checks? Most likely. Correction: This story has been updated to correct the current number of vendors within Bottomline's payment network. Recommended Reading Same-day ACH payments soar Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
State and Federal Communications Works With One-Third of America's Fortune 100 Companies; Launches Enhanced, Secure Client Portal
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / July 23, 2025 / State and Federal Communications, Inc., a national leader in lobbying, campaign finance, and procurement lobbying compliance, is proud to announce its partnership with one-third of Fortune 100 companies in America, representing industries from technology and finance to healthcare and energy. A powerful testament to the trust major corporations place in the firm's expertise and commitment to excellence, five of those on Fortune's Top 10 list rely on State and Federal Communications for clear, reliable, and timely compliance guidance. As part of its ongoing commitment to innovation and service for those it serves, State and Federal Communications has launched a new client portal designed for greater ease of use, increased speed, and best-in-class security. The platform is built with advanced encryption and multi-factor authentication, providing clients with a seamless experience and enhanced backend capabilities, including improved browser functionality and increased ease of use. 'For over 30 years, our firm has built trusted relationships by delivering customized compliance solutions with integrity,' said Elizabeth Bartz, President & CEO. 'Our new client portal is just the latest example of how we're investing in technology to better serve the companies that shape the national and global economy.' The State and Federal Communications team of experts provides tailored consulting and access to comprehensive online guidebooks covering compliance laws across the federal government, all 50 states, more than 300 municipalities, and internationally in Canada, Europe, Australia, and Latin America. For more information on State and Federal Communications and its new client portal, visit # # # Contact InformationKat Allen Martucci 3307142274 SOURCE: State & Federal Communications, Inc. press release
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Brilliance With A Body Count: When Your Star Performer Turns Toxic
Alla Adam, Investor | 3X Founder | Negotiator | Mentor | Pilot | Author at Adam Impact Institute. Liam and Alice had been thinking about it for too long. They'd spent years at a Fortune 100—he in compliance, she in strategy—talking about 'someday' building something of their own. Then came the moment. They left their jobs, incorporated a consumer tech startup, raised early capital from a well-known VC fund and started hiring. And that's when the trouble began. The Narcissist In Startup Clothing Jason didn't have formal power, but he had something stronger—exclusive knowledge. At first, the team admired him. Then they walked on eggshells around him. Finally, they avoided him altogether. Still, his dashboards glowed. His Slack replies were fast and straight to the point. His numbers made you proud. Liam and Alice weren't naive. They'd worked with mentors, read the books, gone through founder school and sat in board committees for years. But nothing prepared them for the emotional blackmail of brilliance. If you have a group of 30 people together, the room knows where the pockets of quality are. And the problem is when quality becomes a weapon. Jason dismissed new ideas before they had a chance to fully form. He bulldozed meetings, contradicted colleagues mid-sentence and trained no one. He was a bottleneck disguised as a rocket engine. Liam once said to me, 'If he left, the whole function would collapse.' That's when I knew they weren't managing a person—they were managing a capability gap. Why Coaching Doesn't Fix Serial Narcissists Founders love a good fix. Coach them. Frame the feedback. Mediate the tension. Except this isn't a growth issue. It's a control issue. Serial narcissists don't want to evolve—they want to win. So, they weaponize the very tools meant to help them: quoting frameworks back at teammates, performing self-awareness without changing behavior and positioning themselves as misunderstood geniuses. You know who else can be misunderstood geniuses? Actual geniuses. The difference? Quiet ego. Benjamin Graham—one of the best investors who ever lived—had this trait in spades. 'If you told him a new piece of information,' a colleague once said, 'he'd drop his previous notion without hesitation.' Serial narcissists have the opposite reflex. They'd burn three bridges before admitting one blind spot. They don't grow from coaching—they just become more cunning. And by the time you realize it, they've already built a trap that makes them indispensable. What You're Really Dealing With You're not stuck because a serial narcissist on your team is brilliant. You're stuck because your company depends on what they know—and only they know it. This isn't a one-person problem. It's a systems failure. A toxic top performer doesn't make themselves indispensable. You do. You fail to codify brilliance. You rely on tribal knowledge from the head, not from the whiteboard accessible to everyone. You optimize for speed and pay in culture. You leave your team on their own with a narcissist, all of them in different stages of self-destruction. And the longer you tolerate it, the more it signals that culture and teamwork are optional. So, now what? From Brilliance To Blueprint There's a strategic move that can be used in this exact spot. I call it Code3. It's fast and human, and it quietly dismantles the narcissist trap. Here's how it works: 1. Pick the topic. The toxic top performer dominates—say 'enterprise deals' or 'analytics architecture.' 2. Break it into three pillars. This is your teaching scaffold. Three is memorable. Three is enough. It's the Goldilocks zone. 3. Add three examples per pillar. Choose observable, real-life behaviors—no nice-to-haves, only what actually moves the work forward. 4. Draft a rough version. Hand it to your toxic top performer, and tell them it's your attempt at mapping the process. 5. Wait. If they are truly narcissistic, they'll say, 'This is garbage—I'll show you how it's done.' Perfect. Now they're rewriting the system in their own voice, and you're extracting what your company needs to survive them. Bonus move? Call it a 'masterclass.' Let them teach it. Record it. Turn it into onboarding content. Then let them go—or keep them, now optional. Code3 can both preserve knowledge and remove leverage. It shifts power from personality to team—and makes sure no one's brilliance holds your company hostage again. The Real Fear Liam and Alice (whose names have been changed for confidentiality) once said, 'We can't lose him. There's no one else.' But that wasn't the truth. The truth was that they were afraid to prove they could survive without him. Just like a friend of yours who stayed too long in a toxic relationship. 'He's all I have,' they said. But when it ended, they admit, 'The worst part wasn't losing him. It was realizing how long I believed I couldn't.' Jason (whose name has been changed for confidentiality) wasn't the function. He was a placeholder for what the company hadn't built yet. If You're In This Spot You don't need to fire your toxic top performer today. But you do need to make sure that when they leave—by choice or by demand—they don't take your company with them. Start by extracting the brilliance. Codify it. Share it. And stop building your business on the backs of people who don't want anyone else to succeed. Eventually, the moment comes when performance isn't enough to prevent the damage. Your job isn't to be held hostage by narcissistic top performers. It's to build a business that can outlast even the most brilliant of them. Confidence creates confidence. If you don't decide what your company needs, the serial narcissist will decide for you. Founders must lead, but they also must own. Own the strategy. Own the systems. Own the exits. And build something that never depends on someone who can't bear to share the win. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tide turns against return-to-office refuseniks
For the first time since the pandemic more than half of Fortune 100 companies now demand staff be present in the office five days a week. It is a decisive repositioning with only 5 percent of the same companies demanding a total return to the office just two years ago in 2023. Now 54 percent of companies that make up the Fortune 100 - the biggest companies in America - are fully in-office and 41 percent are flexible. Larger companies are leading the charge, with smaller operations still favoring flexible work, new data has revealed. Starbucks has been among the recent household names that have demanded its corporate workers return to its Seattle headquarters for at least four days a week. Google and Amazon have also pushed their employees to come back to in-person work, citing alleged productivity benefits. Corporate real estate remains a tale of two markets with high end rents in Miami, New York City and San Francisco at record highs, according to the report. However, office vacancies across the country continue to persist at more than 22 percent. The amount of office space available has fallen by 700,000 square feet in the last quarter alone, the report from commercial real estate and investment management company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) revealed. The dramatic drop indicates the effect of demolitions and the growing number of office buildings that have been converted into apartment blocks. The largest companies can afford to pay for slick buildings with luxury amenities to lure their workers back. Smaller companies, on the other hand, are less inclined to pay rents for an older building their staff are reluctant to visit. Other than the biggest companies in the country, most firms are actually maintaining their flexible working policies. Some 51 percent of employees with remote-capable jobs were working hybrid in 2025, down slightly from 52 percent in 2023, according to recent data from Gallup Poll. The story looks similar for those working completely remotely, with 28 percent working exclusively at home now compared to 29 percent in 2023. Experts argue that the biggest companies in America are pushing for workers to return to the office even if they lose talent because they can afford to do so. 'Amazon can lose 1,000 talented IT workers with no problem,' Mark Ma, associate professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh, told Fortune. 'There is still a lineup of young college graduates from maybe Carnegie Mellon or other excellent universities who still want to work for Amazon because that's the Magnificent Seven,' he explained. 'But the smaller firms, it is harder for them to do it because once they lose some important employees, maybe no one else in their firm can do the job.' It comes as separate data from JLL revealed that Gen Z, who have been characterized by many as work shy, are actually the most eager to get back into the office. Those born between 1997 and 2012 attend the office 3.1 days a week, compared to older age groups who show up between 2.5 and 2.7 days a week, a survey from the company found.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Qualys to Report Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results on August 5, 2025
FOSTER CITY, Calif., July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS), a pioneer and leading provider of disruptive cloud-based IT, security and compliance solutions, today announced that the company will report its financial results for the second quarter 2025 after the market closes on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. Qualys will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss its second quarter 2025 financial results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. To access the conference call, please register here. A live webcast of the earnings conference call, investor presentation, and prepared remarks can be accessed at A replay of the conference call will be available through the same webcast link following the end of the call. About QualysQualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) is a pioneer and leading provider of disruptive cloud-based Security, Compliance and IT solutions with more than 10,000 subscription customers worldwide, including a majority of the Forbes Global 100 and Fortune 100. Qualys helps organizations streamline and automate their security and compliance solutions onto a single platform for greater agility, better business outcomes, and substantial cost savings. The Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Platform leverages a single agent to continuously deliver critical security intelligence while enabling enterprises to automate the full spectrum of vulnerability detection, compliance, and protection for IT systems, workloads and web applications across on premises, endpoints, servers, public and private clouds, containers, and mobile devices. Founded in 1999 as one of the first SaaS security companies, Qualys has strategic partnerships and seamlessly integrates its vulnerability management capabilities into security offerings from cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, the Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, along with a number of leading managed service providers and global consulting organizations. For more information, please visit Qualys and the Qualys logo are proprietary trademarks of Qualys, Inc. All other products or names may be trademarks of their respective companies. Investor ContactBlair KingSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, Financial Planning & Analysis(650) 538-2088ir@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Qualys, Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
