Seeking_#4: SRM that follows up on C-suite promises

High-profile translators often receive special requests directly from the personal assistants of C-suite executives with special translation needs. This type of job usually has to be done immediately, overnight or over a weekend and it must be highly polished to suit the end purpose, typically a high-profile presentation or press conference. Translators who know their worth then negotiate special rates to cover out-of-hours work and an additional reviser or two as well as the payment deadline.

I would be keen to hear from others who have had an experience similar to mine. First,  the C-suite assistant earnestly, and probably sincerely, promises that people at his/her level can guarantee faster-than-normal payment. Then what happens? When the payment is already several weeks late, you enquire to discover that the company's supplier relationship management (SRM) system cannot, I was told, be configured for faster-than-normal payments.

Does anyone know if this is likely to be true? Are SRMs really this limited?

On one occasion, I spent a long night honing a C-suite document to near perfection. The document explained how relations between my customer and its suppliers (I presume they meant the industrial kind, not service providers working directly for senior executives) were moving from traditional supplier relationships to new-generation partnerships.

From my perspective, the relationship with the C-suite assistant in question felt like a partnership in every respect, except one. Apparently I failed completely in my efforts to explain that a translator working directly for the CEO on a special project of special interest would have appreciated proper follow-up to the assurances given regarding how long I would have to wait before receiving payment for the job.

Perhaps this contains the germ of an idea for an SRM software house. Produce an add-on enabling C-suite teams to guarantee follow-up on promises made to selected suppliers.

Well, either than or I'm just poor duffer who is silly enough to think that because I honour my promises to deliver on time, the customer should honour his to pay on time.