P-Card Success Story

Part 1 of 3

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Note: This success story was originally written in the fourth quarter of 2014. Tiffany Lovelace has since moved on in her career, but her advice is timeless.

Many P-Card professionals land in the industry unintentionally, finding themselves tasked with managing and growing a card program when they lack a Commercial Card background. This was the experience of Tiffany Lovelace, CPCP, Kansas City Southern (railroad lines), who, in the past four years, has taken a P-Card program from stagnant to sensational. Her background was rooted in marketing and financial analysis, so, when she assumed her current role of senior manager, she initially wondered how to transform the card program into a value-add entity for the company.

Read about Tiffany’s journey—in her own words—and secrets of P-Card program management success, which could be just what you need to take your program to the next level. 

Entering the Commercial Card Arena

My original introduction to the world of Commercial Cards was in June of 2010. At that time, my involvement was limited; it entailed developing a dashboard and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for the card program. Three months later, I was charged with the mission to optimize and re-engineer core program elements. Currently, I serve as Senior Manager within our Purchasing and Planning and Analysis business units. My team is responsible for creating the strategic vision for our Commercial Card, corporate travel, and spend analytics program, and leading the indirect spend strategic sourcing function.

Going into it, fear, excitement, and a swarm of other thoughts paraded into my mind daily! I had no experience in Commercial Card payments or in the accounts payable arena. What I did possess was the knowledge and fortitude to successfully evaluate and market programs and products.

Using Previous Experience to My Advantage

My professional background centered on transforming data into meaningful business intelligence and funneling information to sales and marketing teams to uncover untapped markets, garner market share, and increase revenue. This served as the foundation required to rebuild our card program. For those of you who have inherited a program, but lack direct Commercial Card experience, don’t let that be a barrier to success. Embrace your inherent skill sets and transition them to the world of Commercial Card payments!

Lacking Card Experience?

“Embrace your inherent skill sets and transition them to the world of Commercial Card payments!”
— Tiffany Lovelace, CPCP