Research

Accounts Receivable management is a crucial aspect of financial operations within businesses, representing the money owed to a company by its customers for goods or services delivered but not yet paid for. Effective accounts receivable management ensures that businesses maintain a healthy cash flow, reduce the risk of bad debts, and optimize working capital.

The value of accounts payable (AP) research and benchmarking to companies is multifaceted, offering insights that can significantly enhance operational efficiency, financial management, and strategic positioning. Thus, APQC is conducting new research to understand the current state of broad accounts payable processes. By understanding and applying industry best practices, companies can streamline their AP processes, mitigate risks, and position themselves for sustainable growth.

APQC partners with ScottMadden to conduct a bi-annual Finance Shard Service Benchmarking Study that collects measures and best practices concerning: • Characteristics of top-performing SSOs • Ways automation and GenAI are changing the traditional FM SSO • Trends with governance, globalization, and hybrid work models

A Delegation of Authority (DOA) policy is a formal document that outlines the decision-making powers and responsibilities delegated to various levels of management within an organization. This policy ensures that decisions are made efficiently and by the appropriate individuals, promoting accountability and operational effectiveness. This research project aims to analyze and evaluate the delegation of authority process within an organization. This involves understanding how decision-making powers are distributed across various levels of the organization, identifying the key principles and policies guiding delegation, and accessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the delegation framework.

Advances in technology has created an increasing amount of interest in integrating Artificial Intelligence into the finance function. APQC has conducted research to examine how organizations are implementing AI and what results they are seeing. Topics will include how AI changes end-to-end processes, FTE count and utilization, and the effectiveness of the finance function.

This collection curates content that will enable learning and development (L&D) leaders to develop a foundation of L&D knowledge, tools, and strategy. It includes guidance on: -Choosing the best L&D structure for your organization -Investing in L&D technology for different learning needs and budgets -Selecting and using L&D measures to measure success

What does it take to successfully onboard workers today? As younger generations make up a greater portion of the workforce and remote and hybrid work becomes more common, employers are questioning whether their current onboarding programs are effective. To help answer this question, APQC surveyed employees about their onboarding experiences. In early 2025, employees who had been working in their current role for two years or less responded to survey questions about onboarding approaches, timelines, learning approaches, delivery methods, overall effectiveness, and employee satisfaction. The research findings reveal what the ideal onboarding experience looks like for today's workforce.

What kind of employee experience engages employees today? With more generations in the workforce; a mix of remote, hybrid, and in-office employees; and reports that employees are over-burdened and burned out, employers are uncertain about what it will take to engage and retain all of their employees. To help answer this question, APQC surveyed more than 600 workers asking what motivates them to perform their best work and whether they are receiving the things they find most important from their employers today. The research findings included clear moments that matter in the employee experience today that HR professionals and leaders can focus on to improve the employee experience at their organization.

These toolkit collections provide guidance, tools, and downloadable templates to help organizations carry-out workforce planning and HR transformation.

KM programs continue to use APQC’s flagship KM benchmarking survey to level-set and evaluate their KM programs. In 2025, APQC expanded and enhanced this survey in response to shifts in enterprise knowledge needs, workforce structure, and technology capabilities. The current assessment provides today’s KM programs with the data and insights they need to make smart decisions about how KM should be staffed and structured, the resources KM needs and how they should be allocated, the tools and approaches needed to enable the flow of knowledge, how success should be measured, and what kind of results to expect. This collection highlights results from the research, including benchmarking data and related insights.

In early 2025, APQC surveyed KM professionals to assess the role of leaders and practitioners working in the discipline of knowledge management. This report includes their demographics, education, experience and skillsets now and what is expected in the future. In addition, this research includes a focus on the role of subject matter experts within organizations as the impetus for effective knowledge transfer and the successful implementation and adoption of KM approaches overall.

This research explores the role of KM teams in driving digital transformation and the effectiveness of various technologies, such as virtual collaboration, machine learning, and AI, in knowledge management. The research aims to provide insights into current trends, deployment strategies, and the impact of technology on knowledge management capabilities.

APQC's Knowledge Management Essentials series explores key KM topics and offers introductory content, best practices, and tools and templates. The research collections provide a wealth of information about knowledge management techniques and approaches, along with practical tips for getting started and staying updated on new resources.

The content within the collection will teach you about key performance indicators (KPIs) for information technology, as well as proven performance improvement drivers and best practices. This content is derived from an analysis of APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking® in Information Technology Organization Performance assessment and is a collection of benchmarks and metrics, as well as best practices and business drivers.

At the close of 2025, APQC's process and performance management group conducted its annual survey to understand the common challenges and priorities of practitioners in 2026. The survey looked at the top five priorities and challenges in key process and performance topics like business process management, continuous improvement, strategic planning, and data and measurement. It also explores potential changes in the process management discipline, how organizations utilize operational key performance indicators (KPIs), and their thoughts on digital transformation and AI.

At its core, change management is the act of proactively managing change and minimizing the resistance to organizational change through a set of structured processes or set of approaches to transition employees, teams, or an entire organization to a desired future state. However, as you may have heard before, change is hard. Organizations continue to struggle with effectively implementing change. In August of 2025, APQC conducted a survey to explore the common practices and effectiveness of key change management components. This research collection explores the results of the survey.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, organizations need flexibility in their decision-making practices and responsiveness to the implementation of new initiatives. APQC conducted a survey in July of 2025 to explore strategic planning practices and identify the key characteristics that drive organizational agility. This collection examines trends in organizational agility, strategic planning practices, inputs and assessments for the planning process, implementation practices, and measures of success.

In March 2025, APQC conducted its bi-annual “Best Practices in Process Frameworks” survey to learn how organizations are using process frameworks, the common adoption practices, implementation practices, and the challenges involved.

APQC has collaborated with DSCI (Digital Supply Chain Institute) to develop a strategic guide (Operationalize AI in Supply Chain: Turn Hype Into Results) for senior supply chain leaders. The topics include resources for getting started on AI, specific use cases for AI in supply chain, vendor selection criteria, barriers and opportunities for adopting AI in supply chain, and lessons learned.

APQC recently conducted research in supply chain analytics and data management to gather insights from supply chain professionals into the current state of analytics and data management practices in global organizations. This research provides an overview of practices in supply chain analytics, such as the use of analytics in supply chain processes and benefits of and obstacles to using analytics in supply chain, and practices in supply chain data management, such as data management integration approaches and tools and technologies used for data management.

Supply chain planning has made strides in becoming a strategic business partner in many organizations. Recognizing that supply chain can significantly impact the bottom line, many organizations are re-examining the processes and skills needed by supply chain planning professionals for future success.

In 2025, APQC conducted research in supply chain resilience to learn from supply chain professionals about the current state of adoption of supply chain resilience practices in global organizations. This research collection provides a snapshot of practices in supply chain resilience, including postponement strategies, approach to multi-sourcing, flexibility of manufacturing sites, labor issues in manufacturing plants and warehouses, and more.