Amerinet is a national healthcare solutions organization. Amerinet decided to offer its 2,900 acute care hospital members a suite of procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions from healthcare technology and services company GHX. By doing this:

• members will be able to take advantage of the full range of (P2P) capabilities offered by GHX, including item master management, real-time contract and price management, requisitioning and workflow control, and invoice automation.
• hospitals should be able to improve procurement and accounts payable processes and drive contract compliance, resulting in up to 12 percent savings on medical-surgical supply spending.

Sears Canada selects ADP to automate AP processes

Sears Canada has selected ADP’s Invoice Automation Suite to automate its accounts payable (AP) processes. The electronic invoicing application is part of the ADP Procure-to-Pay Solution.

Sears Canada assessed various AP automation providers earlier this year and is said to have determined that the ADP solution was the best fit for its accounts payable department.

Or as they say at ADP: “By combining robust solution functionality around electronic invoice automation and approval workflow with a strong services component including supplier on-boarding, ADP’s holistic offering is well equipped to accommodate the complexities of a dynamic organization like Sears Canada.”

And of course ADP came up with a quote too: “On top of providing a platform with the features and functionalities that we need for our non-merchandise business, ADP’s solution will help move our accounts payable department from a paper-based operations to the ease and efficiency of electronic transactions,”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: US E-invoicing News: Amerinet selects GHX | Sears Canada selects ADP.

2011 was also the year in which a number of new Basware services was launched. Among other things, a new e-invoicingdienst for customers within the Finnish market was launched, which wasd developed together with Nordea Bank. In addition, Basware introduced InvoiceOut, an extension to the already existing Basware AP Automation service.

And they can add some more blessings to their list. On of those is that Basware Automation Services, including for SaaS and e-Invoicing, generated a growth of 32.2% compared with 2010.

The year 2011 in Basware facts and figures

And we have some more nice data for you:

• Net sales grew with 4.5% to EUR 107.7 million
• Operating profit decreased to EUR 12.2 million, which included a restructuring provision of EUR 1.2 million due to streamlining measures.
• Transaction volume in 2011 grew by 53% to 20.8 million
• Recurring revenue accounted for 48.9% of net sales.
• Basware saw the largest growth in net sales in Finland (4.5%) and Scandinavia (8.7%) .
• Maintenance revenues for 2011 increased by 8.9% compared with 2010, accounting for 33.6% of net sales.
• Professional Services revenue increased by 4.5%, accounting for 31.7% of net sales.

Basware in Q4 2011

We even have some facts on the results in Q4 2011:

• a slight growth in net sales to EUR 30 million, a growth of 0.3%.
• Operating profit in the quarter decreased by 30%, having included the restructuring provision of EUR 1.2 million.
• Automation Services, including SaaS and e-invoicing grew by 17.9%, with transaction volumes processed within the Automation Services business reaching 6.2 million in Q4.
• Basware estimates revenue for existing automation services agreements over the next 12 months to be EUR 18.3 million, a growth of 6.2%.
• In Q4, license sales decreased by 16.3%, as sales of SEPA (Single European Payments Area) related banking software decreased by 48.5% as the majority of customers had already implemented the SEPA update.
• Maintenance revenue in Q4 increased by 7.2%, accounting for 31% of net sales.

Basware expects its net sales to grow from 2011, and operating profit for 2012 is expected to be EUR 8-18 million. So, now you know.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware E-invoicing Services grows 32 percent. Transaction volume up 53 percent.

Sek Teong Lim, Global Ariba Buyer Deployment Manager for Caterpillar, returns in this second webinar to update you on how they have:

> Reduced global AP headcount by 80 percent
> Achieved 90 percent e-invoicing in the U.S., UK, and Switzerland combined
> Reached 98 percent invoice automation in the U.S. alone
> Expanded global footprint by entering Mexico and China

Listen to this recorded webinar to learn how your organization can:

1. Establish a common global e-invoicing platform
2. Implement change management within your organization
3. Duplicate Caterpillar’s outstanding results
4. Achieve 100 percent supplier adoption

Download now

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Put Caterpillar’s global automation success to work for you.

Christopher Elmore wrote The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation to make the transition to the future less risky. Between 2000 and 2006 I personally managed 79 AP Automation projects. With that experience he was able to identify 8 areas where his clients had trouble. Some did better than others, but if the 8 areas were not addressed they all were in trouble.

So read the book… Take the advice… Give some love to Christopher….and And stay out of the PIT!

The eight pitfalls of Accounts Payable automation

There are 8 sections of The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts to your  company’s specific needs:

1. Your Current Environment
   Understanding who your company is  and where you are – will keep you out of the pit
2. The Selection
   Making assumptions with service providers  will put you in the pit.
3. The Organization
   Doing your homework before the project will keep you out of the pit.
4. The Project
   Perception is not reality, keeping the project organized and in control will keep you out of the pit.
5. The Vendors
   Poor or misdirected communication can put you in the pit!
6. The Training And Going Live
   Keeping training in the proper  perspective will keep you out of the pit
7. The Evaluation
   AP Automation is not an event! In order to stay out of the pit you need to be, continually improving.
8. The Future
   Having an idea of what is to come will keep you out of the pit.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Book: The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation.

There’s hope. When manufacturer NSG Pilkington decided to focus on improving end-to-end processes, they too recognised that the process to bind all stakeholders would be conversion to e-invoicing. Their strategy worked.

Listen to this recorded webinar to hear how they:

• Aligned Finance and Procurement on a common goal
• Implemented e-invoicing in the UK, Germany, and Poland
• Improved their PO conversion rate from 50 percent to 90 percent
• Leveraged high-quality invoice data to drive touchless processing
• Encouraged suppliers to use Ariba’s PO Flip service

Speakers:

• Jonathan Fallows, NSG Pilkington
• James Tucker, Ariba

Download the webinar

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: How E-invoicing helped with procurement and PO compliance.

By cooperating we (The E-invoicing Platform and sharedserviceslink.com) want to help facilitate the adoption of e-invoicing in Europe.

Now the very elegant Susie West, founder of sharedserviceslink.com, wrote a post on the 10 top Key Performance Indicators – KPI’s-  in Purchase to Pay. Aka: things you should pay attention to.

Susies’s top 10 Key Performance Indicators

So what are these top 10 KPI’s that Susie is talking about? Here they come (The whole story is downloadable in PDF after registration via the post we mentioned above) :

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Susie West’s top 10 KPIs in purchase to pay [LIST].

On the surface, saving money for a long period of rainy days makes sense.  And companies around the world are doing so in record numbers, sitting on several thousand billion dollars of cash, according to calculations by financial analysts.  Balance sheets are as healthy as they have ever been, with the proportion of debt to equity at its lowest in at least 20 years, according to analysts at HSBC. It appears this trend will continue, as large companies sell corporate bonds in an effort to increase their cash holdings.

Here’s the problem with that strategy: Companies want to hold cash as a hedge, but that cash is not earning a reasonable return. And when it comes to profitable, secure, short-term investment vehicles, there aren’t many options out there right now.

Official interest rates in the US and UK are at or close to record lows, meaning the returns on cash are close to zero, providing a powerful incentive to use that money.

Historically government debt has been seen as a safe haven for investors, but the eurozone sovereign debt crisis has changed all that. This has led some investors to shun government bonds and load up on corporate debt, with the resulting demand leading to interest rates paid by companies to hit record lows.

Using Cash to Create Value

Companies looking to maximise their returns on otherwise idle cash would do better by thinking in terms of the value that cash can create. Cash that’s hoarded in traditional, low-return liquidity vehicles is cash that’s losing value. And potentially creating risk.

As the gap between low-quality and high-quality borrowers grows, more suppliers will experience cash flow problems. And many will ultimately fail, creating disruptions in the supply chain that can negatively impact operations. Buyers with cash on hand can head off such problems by investing their stash in their supply chain.

Every company has an interconnected web of buyers and suppliers. Smart companies can use the transactions they make on a daily basis with their suppliers to their advantage.

Here’s how it works: In return for a discount, you can accelerate payments for approved invoices to key suppliers. You earn an immediate return on your cash. And your trading partners can use that cash to fund their daily business needs and ensure they can meet your ongoing demands.

Dynamic Discounting

The process is known as dynamic discounting. And it’s gaining popularity. On the Ariba Network, an online supply network used by more than 500,000 buyers and sellers, over $4.5 million in discounts have been captured in the past year.  Buyers receiving these discounts saw average annual returns of anywhere between 10 and 36 percent – far greater than the returns available through traditional liquidity investments.

Getting buyers to agree to pay early and sellers to offer a discount might seem like an impossible task. But new technologies actually make it quite simple. Delivered in the cloud, such solutions provide buyers and sellers with all of the tools necessary to fully automate the process of offering, negotiating, and agreeing on early payment terms. Buyers can capture discounts

at any point between invoice approval and the net due date and automatically present offers to lock them in. Suppliers can automatically accept offers or control the acceleration of payment on an ad-hoc basis according to their needs.

“In today’s volatile economy, two things are crucial to the success of any organization: collaboration and flexibility. This is particularly true when it comes to managing cash,” said Tom Piersa, vice president, procurement and supply chain management, Republic Services, Inc. “With the help of Ariba’s technology and services, we have been able to engage a significant number of our suppliers in a dynamic discount program that gives us visibility into our options for early payment, the ability to make more informed buying decisions and allows our suppliers to choose alternative payment terms that meet their needs.”

And by creating a reliably efficient and completely automated process for managing discounts, Republic gives its trading partners greater control over their cash acceleration options and visibility into payment status so that they can improve their planning and forecasting.

“It makes sense for any buying organizations to do the best they can with their cash flow, and getting a discount does more for them than letting it sit in a low-interest-bearing account,” said Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. “But for the suppliers, it gives them a chance to really analyze the fulfillment timing that best works to their advantage, and then incentivize using these discounts in ways that benefit them.”

Joy Stoelting, Studio Manager for Big-Giant, a US design firm that participates in an early discount programme with a major sport equipment manufacturer, agrees.  “We can get our invoices paid as quickly as four days – it’s like gold,” she says.

Adopting a Creative Approach

During tight times, the tendency for most organisations is to shore up costs and adopt a myopic approach to conducting business. This is not the way to prepare for, or pull through, a market slowdown. As the perception of recession looms large over today’s economy, it is more important than ever for buyers and suppliers to work more closely together, share the economic burden of the times, and embrace innovative ways to ensure their mutual health. The supply base offers short-term investments with higher returns that are effectively risk free. Companies bold enough to embrace such a creative approach can successfully navigate today’s rough waters and sail smoothly once the economic storm passes

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Fears about a double dip are leading companies to hoard cash.

Purchase to pay and social media

• Companies are at the beginning of a new era of purchase-to-pay and business to business cooperation.
• Companies should prepare for a change of the traditional customer/supplier model.
• Better collaboration with strategic suppliers through fast, transparent and accessible communication channels has the future.

White paper

This document analyzes the benefits of a better network for social media, including the ability to:

• Broaden your horizon
  With a communications platform to analyze new partner and supplier, including customer reviews and a collaboration platform.
• Make your entire company stronger
  Promote an open and spontaneous cooperation between partners and encourage new ideas.
• Maximize existing knowledge
  Use the extensive proprietary knowledge, and manage it efficiently.
• Transparency in your business
  Open channels of communication that lead to a quick solution of disputes and sharing of decision-making.

Download the whitepaper

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: How Social Media will give Purchase to Pay a new dimension [White paper].

Using Ariba^® Discount Professional^™, buyers are accelerating payments for approved invoices to key suppliers in return for discounts, earning an immediate return on their cash. And sellers are gaining increased visibility into future cash flows, certainty in payment timing and the ability to use cash sooner to fund daily business needs.

“In the face of renewed market volatility and economic uncertainty, companies are tightening their grip on cash to hedge against financial risk,” said Drew Hofler, Senior Manager, Working Capital Management Solutions, Ariba. “But with little prospect of earning a return on parked capital, many buyer organizations are increasingly seeing their supply chains as a more viable opportunity for investment. Likewise, suppliers are seeing large, cash-rich customers as a better source of faster cash for their receivables.”

Leveraging Ariba Discount Professional, buyers can achieve a greater return on their cash that is effectively risk-free because they are investing in their own suppliers.

Collaboration and flexibility

“In today’s volatile economy, two things are crucial to the success of any organization: collaboration and flexibility. This is particularly true when it comes to managing cash,” said Tom Piersa, vice president, procurement and supply chain management, Republic Services, Inc. “With the help of Ariba’s technology and services, we have been able to engage a significant number of our suppliers in a dynamic discount program that gives us visibility into our options for early payment, the ability to make more informed buying decisions and allows our suppliers to choose alternative payment terms that meet their needs.”

And by creating a reliably efficient and completely automated process for managing discounts, Republic gives its trading partners greater control over their cash acceleration options and visibility into payment status so that they can improve their planning and forecasting.

“It makes sense for any buying organizations to do the best they can with their cash flow, and getting a discount does more for them than letting it sit in a low-interest-bearing account,” said Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. “But for the suppliers, it gives them a chance to really analyze the fulfillment timing that best works to their advantage, and then incentivize using these discounts in ways that benefit them. There is a huge efficiency potential for these suppliers when they exercise this dynamic discount capability.”

Joy Stoelting, Studio Manager for Big-Giant, a Portland-based design firm that participates in an early discount program with a major sport equipment manufacturer, agrees. “When we submit paper invoices, it can take a long time to get them approved,” she says. “Through Ariba, we get our invoices paid as quickly as four days, and the visibility into payment status is like gold.”

Delivered in the cloud via the Ariba Network^™, Ariba Discount Professional provides buyers and sellers with all of the tools necessary to fully automate the process of offering, negotiating, and agreeing on early payment terms, including:

• Prorated discount terms through which buyers can capture discounts at any point between the invoice approval and net due date.
• Dynamic discounting that lets suppliers control the acceleration of payment on an ad-hoc basis on individual invoices
• Automatic presentation of discount offers by buyers
• One-button acceptance of accelerated payment by suppliers
• Ariba Cash Flow Optimizer™ offering suppliers insight into cash flow opportunity and single-click acceleration of cash.

Hear more from Hofler and Gardner on dynamic discounting

Learn more about Ariba Discount Professional

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Companies maximize cash and minimize risk with Ariba.

Now this is all very vague. We have really no clue of what exactly is being offered to customers of Basware.

However, Benedikt Schröder, Managing Director at Euroscript Systems can explain the WHY behind the partnership:

• “The number of transactions has more than tripled over the past few years, paving the way for more and more unstructured information. In addition, business operations being run from many different parts of the world make it all the more difficult for organizations to secure their processes”.
• “This alone forces a growing number of organizations, to resort to solutions enabling them to generate reliable data on the one hand, and to optimize and monitor more effectively their processes, on the other”.

Frank Wuschech, Country Manager Central and Eastern Europe at Basware also states the why:

• “We have chosen to team up with Euroscript as they have an extensive knowledge and a clear vision of the IT architecture organizations are now resorting to, so as to efficiently manage their content. They understand the growing need for interoperability more and more companies are experiencing, and how to integrate and align our solutions to help customers reach this goal”

However, as Basware and Euroscript seem to know what the offering exactly is, we recommend you to contact them.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware and Euroscript cooperate in financial operations and procurement.

ESCO is a independent, global developer and manufacturer of highly engineered wear and replacement products. These products are used in resource mining, infrastructure, power generation, aerospace and industrial applications. Applications that are essential to the productivity of machines.

Oracle Webcenter for AP Automation

ESCO decided to optimize their Accounts Payable department and automated much of the daily invoice processing tasks. To do this ESCO decided to using Oracle WebCenter. A majority of ESCO’s invoices now go through their AP process with no manual intervention. Oracle WebCenter extracts the necessary information from their invoices and automates the data entry into their Oracle E-Business Suite Financial application Leveraging Oracle’s WebCenter invoice processing solution allowed ESCO to:

• increase the number of invoices they process annually,
• reducing resources process the annual amount of invoices
• add additional ROI to benefiting from by using Oracle WebCenter.

Image Source

Oracle Webcenter was implemented by ImageSource, a certified Oracle WebCenter partner. ESCO has benefited from ImageSource’s extensive experience in implementing imaging solutions with WebCenter.

Unverified news release

Almost every other day we receive news that some customer inks a deal with a purchase to pay, invoice processing, e-billing, e-invoicing or BPO provider.

Because we can’t verify the name of the customer (or we can but are not allowed to publish it) we don’t mention the news here. Because without name it could all be a marketing stunt. It could. But probably isn’t.

So that is why we added a new item: the ‘Unverified news release’. So here are a few:

• A major European provider of business services for finance and accounting selected Brainware Distiller for the efficient automation of invoice processing, as well as other financial documents.  The contract is valued at more than $2 million and enables the customer to capture and reconcile header and line item data from millions of pages and invoices every year.
• A UK-based global telecommunications provider has signed an agreement with ReadSoft worth EUR 310,000 to expand document and invoice automation. ReadSoft has extended an existing four-year relationship to accommodate centralisation activities and business demands in Europe for the operator.
• Three large UK-based companies running SAP selected ReadSoft to process over 600,000 invoices per year. The three contracts use ReadSoft’s specialist INVOICES and COCKPIT software within the SAP environment to automatically streamline purchase to pay processes.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: AP Automation News: ESCO automates AP with Oracle + Unverified news release.

A North American based organization has decide to streamline its end-to-end accounts payable process with ReadSoft’s SAP®-certified invoice automation solution. The agreement is worth 340,000 USD and was signed during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Within this press release, ReadSoft’s customer in the transaction or co-operation is not mentioned by name. This is due to the fact that they have requested to remain anonymous.

Basware and a large Finnish industry group renew their contract for another three years

Basware and a large Finnish global industry group renewed their contract for another three years. The allows Basware to facilitate their Invoice Automation solution, Scan&Capture and e-Invoicing services to the entire group: globally. The value of the deal exceeds EUR 450 000.

• The Scan & Capture service is part of Basware Automation Services that enable companies to improve purchase-to-pay process quality as well increase the number of electronic invoices, purchase messages and supplier catalogs while reducing time spent on reviewing, approving and processing.
• Basware E-invoicing Services makes it easier for suppliers to start transacting/invoicing electronically.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Unverified News Flash: US Pharmaceutical selects ReadSoft | Basware and Finnish company renew contract.

Both the E-invoicing Toolbox and E-invoicing Checklist are designed and segmented in such a way that is very useful for organisation. So, regardless of your size and regardless of your role in the broad picture, you can build a version of the checklist and toolbox that fits your purpose. For free.

The E-invoicing Checklist: 100+ hints and tips to successfully start with electronic invoicing

The free E-invoicing Checklist provides you with a practical self assessment when issuing and processing electronic invoices, or as we point out the website:

“What are the requirements set up by your IRS? What will change as from 2013? What does an e-invoice consist of? What is a simplified invoice? Does my customer understand my e-invoice?

Create your own free E-invoicing Checklist to provide yourself with tips and answers to these and many more questions.

Start here »

The E-invoicing Toolbox: 75+ free tools to get you kick-started into electronic invoicing and AP automation

The E-invoicing Toolbox provides you with very practical tools to get kick-started into electronic invoicing.

What free e-invoicing tools are out there? What are the best tips for driving adoption? How much can I and my customers save with e-invoicing?

How to become compliant? What studies and statistics on e-invoicing are available?

Create your own free E-invoicing Toolbox and get kick-started into e-invoicing, e-billing or invoice automation.

Learn more» or Get started»

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Our free E-invoicing Toolbox and the E-invoicing Checklist.

And because e-invoicing and AP automation are very sexy hot topics we see an uptake of sites that publish content on electronic invoicing and AP Automation.

Electronic invoicing and AP automation news sites

Underneath – in random order- are some sites that we think every now and then provide news and backgrounds on electronic invoicing and AP automation.

Let us know if we forgot to mention yours.

Purchasing Insight

Passionately edited by managing editor Peter Loughlin, Purchasing Insight provides thoughts and background articles on purchase to pay, dynamic discounint, but lately most of all on: electronic invoicing.

Sitting in the divide between paper processes on the one and the benefits or electronic processess on the other hand, Peter Loughlin touches on issues to get us from paper to the power of “e”.

Sharedserviceslink.com

The talented Susie West born and raised sharedserviceslink.com from 2007 to its current state. The website contains resources, regularly updated industry news and articles, job vacancies and upcoming events.

Sharedserviceslink.com focusses on: items that are of particular interest to shared service centers. Such as electronic invoicing and AP automation.

Because of shared interest. The E-invoicing Platform and Sharedserviceslink.com decided to become partners.

The Paypers

The Paypers is the brainchild from Innopay. You know, those guys that created AcceptEmail, initiated MyDeal, and organise EPCA.

The Paypers deals with: online and mobile payments, e-invoicing, online banking, e-commerce, e-identity, cards.

Finextra / Bo Harald

Every now and then you can find information on electronic invoicing on the website of Finextra. Most of the items concerning electronic invoicing are hand crafted by Bo Harald. Bo Harald was the chair of the EU E-invoicing Expert Group and is director of TIETO.

EU: E-practice

Just like the website of Finextra, you can find information on electronic invoicing on the website of ePractice.eu. However the ePractice.eu website on only contains Europe-related information.

The Institute of Financial Operations

If you are willing to subscribe for a 15 day free trial and then pay $295 a year for e-invoicing and AP related content, then you could go to the website of IOFM.

Or you could just check out our website. We provide you with the most and latest news and backgrounds, without you having to pay for it.

15 day free trial: Institute of Finance & Management

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 7 Websites that provide e-invoicing and AP automation content as well.

We found this neat infographic from PaySimple on how small business can get big results wit accounts receivable automation.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Get big results with AP Automation [INFOGRAPHIC].

This article was hand crafted b

Problem: there is too much paper and manual processing, filing and matching

In recent decades, companies have devoted significant time and resources to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their accounts payable (AP) organization. And in the current economic environment where cash is king and companies are looking for any and all ways to free up and maximize it, many are stepping up their efforts. But few are succeeding.

With the large-scale implementation of ERP and EDI systems, AP has certainly become more efficient. Yet most finance executives remain unsatisfied with where things stand. Why? There’s still too much paper and manual processing, filing and matching involved to achieve the kinds of efficiencies and savings that they seek – and need – to weather these volatile times.

To remedy the situation, many are warming to the concept of e-invoicing

To remedy the situation, many are warming to the concept of e-invoicing. And with increasing frequency, they are leveraging a new breed of solutions that enable them to execute it. Such solutions attack the inefficiencies that exist between companies – such as sending and receiving invoices and payments – to enable more effective collaboration. Delivered in the Cloud, they can be easily shared and accessed among trading partners, allowing for common business processes in areas like billing, treasury, and A/P.

And they’re delivering results across several fronts. The bottom-line impact of leveraging such solutions comes through efficiency gains in A/P processing. It simply takes fewer staff to process invoices with technology in place. There are also strategic gains driven through more on-time payments, shorter approval cycle times, early payment discount capture and the maintenance or extension of days payable outstanding (DPO), among other things.

According to industry analysts, more than 80 percent of business-to-business commerce transactions are completed manually. And companies still send 85 percent of invoices and payments on paper.

Yet the A/P process remains highly inefficient. What’s holding companies back from automating the process?

• Supplier participation is a key driver of success in any e-invoicing initiative. Many companies fail to invest the time and resources necessary to target, on-board and maintain their partners. The legacy of EDI costs and complexities may also be a detriment to what are now much simpler methods for submitting electronic invoices.
• In addition, country-specific regulations in the European Union have resulted in leaders and laggards. This is primarily driven by different levels and treatment of VAT taxes and requirements related to the storage of paper invoices.

For those companies able to overcome these challenges, the benefits of e-invoicing solutions are substantial.

When done right, e-invoicing can deliver process efficiency gains, typically measured in terms of the number of invoices processed per full time equivalent staff. Organizations with over 10 full-time employees dedicated to processing invoices have reported as much as 70% cost take out. Other hard-dollar savings can be generated through the capture of early payment discounts. Many companies simply cannot process their paper invoices fast enough to capture early payment discount savings – which can be significant. With e-invoicing, they can not only capture these discounts, but ensure they materialize.

Effective e-invoicing initiatives can also enhance working capital management. With improved visibility and control, finance organizations can pay invoices on-time and ultimately stretch their payables to term, which has a positive impact on DPO. Many companies are able to use the cash freed up from invoice efficiency gains to fund discount programs and the cash savings they generate to drive operational improvements and strategic capital investments. This strategy also helps provide needed liquidity to supply chains that are struggling under today’s tight lending practices

Without question, e-invoicing can help A/P organizations take their performance and efficiency to the next level.

But identifying the right solution is absolutely essential to success.

When evaluating an e-invoicing solution, companies should ensure that it:

• Eliminates (not automates) errors at the source
• Permits suppliers of all sizes to easily and inexpensively connect
• Dramatically reduces the quantity of paper handled, stored and matched
• Improves supplier collaboration
• Matches purchase orders, receipts, and contracts to invoices
• Accommodates varying degrees of supplier sophistication
• Allows 100% capture of invoice volume
• Improves compliance across many dimensions, including contracts, preferred suppliers, and global e-invoice tax regulations
• Provides earlier visibility into cash requirements
• Removes latency in invoice and payment processing
• Reduces the volume of supplier inquiries
• Offers multi-lingual, multi-currency capabilities
• Provides global, localized support for your company and its suppliers

And it should deliver measurable and sustainable results that positively impact your operations, and ultimately, your bottom line, including:

• Compliance with negotiated vendor contracts to drive savings and eliminate fraud related to disbursements.
• Opportunities for dynamic discounting, which helps buying companies reduce spend by maximizing discount savings and earning high-yield (e.g., 18%+) risk-free returns.
• Detailed remittance statements to help suppliers reconcile payments, eliminate inbound inquiry calls and drive down cost per transaction.
• With the right e-invoicing solution and partner, companies can fundamentally improve an ancient business role and achieve new levels of A/P efficiencies and cost savings.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-Invoicing: Your Ticket to A/P Efficiency.

We published helpful hints, the latest news on e-invoicing, a list of major acquisitions and several developments from all over the globe.

Here’s every one of those stories from the entire month, waiting for you in an convenient format. So read what interests you, and then go out there and grab the benefits!

HEADLINES

• The Battle: Paper versus Online Billing [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Four AP Automation Trends for 2012
• 5 Key trends and predictions for 2012
• How important is supply chain financing to your suppliers?
• Taiwan: 2 billion e-bills in 2012, 4 billion in 2013 [UPDATE]
• 8 million Shanghai residents will now receive e-bills
• Palette Software welcomed to the E-invoicing Platform
• Ariba joins E-invoicing Platform as a sponsor
• The Economy of Standards: or why old school standardisation will never work
• FBI to investigate security breach in hospital e-billing system
• Why not ad marketing content to your online bill or invoice?
• 6 top reasons to keep using digital signatures forever
• How standards proliferate [pics]
• 6 golden rules to switch to AP automation
• 6 top tips to design the ultimate e-bill

POLICY

• The US have a new standard for electronic health care billing: HIPAA 5010
• AP Automation News: U.S. Government Research Institution Selects Kofax | PWC uses e-Prior for einvoicing to the EU
• Russians start with electronic invoicing as from 1 January 2012
• Compulsory B2G electronic invoicing in Denmark as from 1-12-2011
• Electronic delivery in Finland: Conclusions from a field experiment
• Bulgarion Port Introduces Electronic Invoicing
• EESPA: The European Electronic Invoicing Service Provider Association gets approval [UPDATE3]
• E-billing hits new US high, mobile bill presentment and payment is sky-rocketing

ACQUISITION

• 15 Major acquisitions in 2010 and 2011
• GTCR buys Fundtech for a whopping US$388 million through ‘parent’ merger [UPDATE]

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• US Postal closes 50% of mail distribution centres: effect on Accounts Receivable
• eBay acquires BillSafe: a purchase-on-invoice provider
• Palette strengthens North American presence through EchoVera
• Liaison Technologies Announces Intelligent Mapping Intuition
• SWIFT goals: 800 corporations on the network now. Growing to 5000 in 2015
• CNH America LLC selects Top Image Systems
• Ariba enhances its SMART INVOICING proposition
• McDonalds Norway selects MediusFlow
• E-invoicing News: ArjoHuntleigh selects Version One, Mercedes-Benz Germany selects Pagero
• Qtel forces its customers to e-billing, starting elegantly [UDATE]
• E-invoicing News: ADETEF implements TradeShift | A rationalised framework for e-signature standardisation
• Discover why b-process is so good [VIDEO]
• Skanska extends deal with Basware in Finland
• E-invoicing News: 3i Infotech and ORCC team up | E-invoicing with ShipServ TradeNet platform
• OB10 appoints Paul Frederick as US General Manager
• E-invoicing news: Striata has new Sales Manager Europe | EU e-procurement agency implements TradeShift
• E-invoicing News: Bahrein Batelco starts with e-billing | ORCC expands to India
• Einvoicing News: IBM buys Emptoris | FundTech launches InvoiceNetwork iPad app
• E-invoicing News: Artesian launches free e-billing for customers | KUBRA and Snohomish County sign new contract
• Liaison Technologies Video’s [PICS]
• E-invoicing news: Microsoft Empowers Ariett’s AP Automation Solution | Welsh Counties select ProActics
• E-invoicing News: Image Integration Systems and OPEX become partners | Montage select BirchStreet for Procure-to-Pay Platform
• Tieto wins Financial-i award for the SWIFT e-invoicing solutions
• E-invoicing for Tech Data Europe with OB10
• 9 impressive facts about Ariba buying b-process
• Tayto Group: a single global EDI platform integrated with MS Dynamics NAV!
• DTCE Digital Trust and Compliance Europe
• Itella survey about invoicing in 16 European countries

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 53 E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last December.

About Ramboll

Ramboll is a leading engineering, design and consultancy company founded in Denmark in 1945. Ramboll offers services in Commercial and retail, culture, education, energy, health, oil&gas, transport and urban development sectors. Ramboll employs close to 10,000 experts with a strong presence in Northern Europe, Russia, India and the Middle East.

Basware Invoice Automation

The Basware solutions are to be implemented implemented in Denmark and Finland in the first quarter in 2012. Solutions sold earlier to Ramboll Finland and Sweden will nog be connected to the solutions delivered to the entire Ramboll Group.

Basware is of course very happy to extend its cooperation with Ramboll. For Basware it proof of the scalability of our products and high customer satisfaction.

BONUS: Basware closes deal with real estate investment trust

And while we were writing the ‘Ramboll’ post, we received word that Basware is to deliver its purchase to pay and scan and capture solutions to a multinational real estate investment trust in Europe.

Now, we almost never mention these kinds of deals simply because they can’t be tracked. And because we see that readers are not very interested in ‘anonymous’ posts.

The facts of this deal are:

• Real estate investment trust.
• One of the bigger investment trusts in the world.
• The value of the deal exceeds €450,000.
• The solutions will be implemented in several countries in Europe.

There you go.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Ramboll Group extends contract with Basware + bonus item.

The Swiss Radio and Television Corporation (SRG SSR) has selected ReadSoft for its invoice automation solution. The agreement is worth EUR 260000 and was signed in the last quarter of 2011.

Invoice Automation and SRG SSR

• SRG SSR is the largest provider of electronic media in Switzerland with an annual turnover of 1.6 billion CHF.
• It has 18 radio stations and 8 television programs, complementary online services and teletext services.
• The SRG SSR plans to centralize its invoice process and replace current work processes by automated workflows.
• This should make the entire invoice process faster, more efficient and transparent and thereby reduces costs considerably.

BRT and GSI announce strategic alliance for JD Edwards AP Automation solutions

BRT and GSI announced a strategic alliance to deliver BRT’s APxCelerator AP automation solution which is tailored for JD Edwards environments. The solution is the result of joint design and development between BRT and GSI and leverages their respective best of breed expertise.

The goal of the partnership is a seamless integration of BRT’s APxCelerator with JD Edwards. This should provide JDE users with a solution:

• that is straight forward to implement and use,
• that enables full AP automation – from image capture through posting for payment,
• with a flexible framework on which a truly optimized AP process may be built.

APxCelerator can address each organizations unique processes and people, while maximizing the use of their ERP investment and delivering best-in-class payable operations.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: AP Automation News: Swiss Radio and Television selects ReadSoft | BRT and GSI partner on JD Edwards AP Automation.

• Producing the invoice
• Marketing costs to produce the invoice: letterhead, branding and so on.
• Marketing costs when looking at it as sales and marketing tool: adds and personalisation.
• Customer service expenses after an invoice run:  particular attention should be paid to the accuracy, timeliness, and informative-ness of the invoice.

Transition to electronic invoicing

The transition to e-invoicing is a significant factor in achieving cost savings. Not only in production costs, but also a lot of other aspects.

Itella offers the iBoost activation program as part of their iBilling service. Combined a joint action plan is prepared to digitalize both consumer and corporate invoices. The program includes:

• continuous activation support
• materializing cost savings of all sorts
• keep/increase customer loyalty
• deep/cross selling

Itella iBoost – adopt electronic purchase invoices quickly

Itella iBoost is the solution for managing your suppliers and encouraging them to start using electronic purchase invoices.

The service accelerates your purchase invoices going electronic faster, while improving their quality. At the same time, you make invoice processing more effective and save money and time. Itella iBoost provides a partnership model for the active management of your suppliers, continuous development of purchase invoice processes and multi-channel campaigns.

Itella iBoost produces the best advantages for organizations that receive large volumes of purchase invoices from many different suppliers.

The benefits of Itella iBoost

• Your purchase invoices go electronic faster
• Improved quality of your purchase invoices
• Saves you money
• Facilitates your suppliers’ information management
• Makes invoice processing more effective

Check out Itella iBoost

Check out Itella iBilling

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Itella iBoost: get your customers or suppliers on-board for e-invoices.

This enables users to achieve significant measurable cost-savings and efficiency gains by simplifying daily processing of supplier invoices, purchase order matching and AP related documents.

This enables EchoVera to offer a truly paperless alternative that drives workflow and processing efficiencies, and also significantly reduce environmental impact.

• Ralf Leitner, EchoVera president:
  “Palette sets itself apart with its comprehensive yet easy to use, purchase-to-pay solutions. We have yet to see any other solution that can match the scope and breadth of functionality in PaletteArena.”
• Michael Cichy, Palette’s North American General Manager:
  “Our partnership with EchoVera is another key step for Palette, as we continue to expand our presence across the North American market. The Canadian market offers some unique challenges due to complex tax processing and the use of multiple languages. The team at EchoVera has been helping their customers shape business solutions for over 25 years. This experience along with the Palette Arena platform will help our joint customers realize the maximum benefits that purchase-to-pay automation can offer.”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Palette strengthens North American presence through EchoVera.

Kofax, a major provider of capture enabled business process management (BPM) solutions, was selected by U.S. government research institution to provide an invoice processing solution.

The customer is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science for national security purposes. Does this ring a bell? DARPA?

Facts and figures

• The research institute receives 70,000 invoices annually.
• The Kofax solution enables the institute to route data from each invoice to its Oracle EBS application.
• Employees can easily access the invoice data, resulting in improved efficiency in invoice receipt, approval and payment.
• an integrated end-to-end solution that provides customers with increased processing speeds, improved control and real time performance management.

PwC sent its first electronic invoice to the European Commission via e-PRIOR

PwC say that they are the first to use the e-Invoicing module of the e-PRIOR Supplier Portal. The first in Belgium  that is. Why? Because the first e-invoice sent on 26 Februari 2010 to the European Commission by a supplier. The only difference is that PWC used the new web portal module.

Some facts about the e-PRIOR platform

Here are some facts about the e-PRIOR platform:

• Established by DIGIT, the Directorate General for Informatics of the European Commission,
• operational since 2009,
• allows economic operators – or their service providers – to send invoices electronically through the exchange of structured XML messages.
• targets economic operators with a large number of invoices,
• as from now on, also companies with a limited number of invoices can easily send electronic invoices via the e-PRIOR Supplier Portal.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: AP Automation News: U.S. Government Research Institution Selects Kofax | PWC uses e-Prior for einvoicing to the EU.

But it was still a bit too long for our liking. So we’ve shortened it even further. To byte size pieces. Here is your snack:

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Four AP Automation Trends for 2012.

Why CNH America choose TIS eFlow

These are the backgrounds on the deal between CNH America and TIS:

• CNH manages more than half a million invoice documents per year, along with over a million EDI files representing electronic invoices.
• eFLOW was chosen over several well-known competitors for its unique ability to offer a fully integrated solution: to manage EDIs and other invoice formats within one solution.
• The solution incorporates innovative EDI visualization functionality along with superior integration with SAP.
• The eFLOW EDI Visualization functionality enables CNH America to identify errors in EDI messages before they are processed, saving significant time and problems.

June O’Donnell, North America Chief Accounting Officer, of course expects that the solution to significantly optimize their invoice management processes and to increase efficiency.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: CNH America LLC selects Top Image Systems.

The latest release of Ariba´s collaborative commerce platform. Designed to enhance their smart invoicing capabilities, new features within the release enable organizations to further streamline global invoice processing, support complex compliance requirements, and improve business commerce collaboration.

Streamlined Invoice Processing

Delivered as an on-demand service Ariba’s Invoice Management™ solution features smart invoicing capabilities. Smart because:

• e-invoices undergo an automated validation process upon supplier submission.
• smart validation eliminates errors and rework so only accurate and approved invoices reach AP.
• validated invoices are directly to ERP systems for on-time payment and discount capture.

By putting a smart invoicing process in place, companies can:

• Reduce operating costs by 70% or more
• Enable 98% touchless invoice processing
• Minimize risk of overpayments and fraud

With the new features baked into the latest release of Ariba Invoice Management, companies can take things a step further and:

• Accelerate processing of valid PO and non-PO invoices
• Perform automated, detailed PO-line level matching on any invoice, including scanned invoices
• Simplify management of rejected invoices and dispute resolution

Expanded Global Coverage

As we all know Ariba bought b-process, France’s largest electronic invoice network and one of the largest e-invoicing networks in Europe.

Combined with the latest release of the Ariba collaborative commerce platform, Ariba enables organizations to more effectively execute a global e-invoicing strategy. Supporting VAT compliance, e-archiving, and country-specific e-invoicing requirements.

• Configure up to 40 business rules at the country level and apply them to e-invoice templates, which include default e-invoice configuration by country
• Capture withholding tax support critical in certain countries for specific suppliers
• Prevent header-level taxes and discounts when lines on an invoice are subject to different tax rates
• Automatically select titles for invoices and credit memos that follow country-specific guidelines

Improved Collaboration

With the latest release of the Ariba collaborative commerce platform, buyers and sellers can improve their ability to gain visibility into the timing and status of payments and thereby improve their cash flows. To date, companies using Ariba Discount Management have been able to:

• Increase early payment discount capture from 35% to even 90%
• Expand supplier discount participation to over 20%
• Achieve discounts of 1.95%
• Capture over $2 million in early payment discount savings for every $1 billion spend

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Ariba enhances its SMART INVOICING proposition.

The key trends for 202 focus on the potential changes to the global economy, the potential collapse of the Eurozone, a move to adopt cloud services and continued compulsory e-invoicing mandates across the globe.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 5 Key trends and predictions for 2012.

McDonald is one of the world’s biggest brands, and was founded in 1940 in the United States. Today McDonald restaurants serve more than 60 million guests on a daily basis in 119 countries around the world.

Per Nordling, CEO of Medius is of course very proud that McDonalds selected Mediusflow” . He continues: “We are constantly working hard to make Mediusflow the very best option for existing and future customers, and this is another confirmation that we are on track.”

For more information on how Mediusflow streamlines McDonalds, contact henry.ivarsson@medius.se.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: McDonalds Norway selects MediusFlow.

E-invoicing and AP Automation extended

Skanska is not a new customer. It already uses Basware’s Invoice Automation in Estonia and partly in Finland. With the new deal:

• Basware extends their Invoice Automation solution to the whole Skanska organization in Finland.
• Skanska becomes a customer of Basware’s
  - Purchase Invoice Matching,
  - Order Matching
  - Mobile Client
  - Basware Connectivity Services

Basware Connectivity Services

Basware Connectivity Services enables companies to improve purchase-to-pay process quality as well increase the number of electronic invoices, purchase messages and supplier catalogues while reducing time spent on reviewing, approving and processing. The Basware Connectivity Services also makes it easier for suppliers to start transacting electronically. The scan & capture service is part of this service.

Quote from the Basware CEO

Esa Tihilä, CEO, Basware Corporation is happy to extend the cooperation with a Fortune 500 list company like Skanska:

“This extension is a proof of customer satisfaction. Basware Invoice Automation solution together with Basware Connectivity Services increase the level of automation of invoice processing and make business processes more efficient in Skanska”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Skanska extends deal with Basware in Finland.

Keira Holland has been named to hold the position of Sales Manager in continental Europe for Striata, a global leader in paperless communication.

Holland played an important role during the introduction of a successful invoice automation solution for DICOM (now Kofax) EMEA where she was Business Development Director, and has a wide experience in market penetration efforts for products and solutions.

Quotes

“Europe provides Striata with an excellent opportunity for organic growth. In these times of continued economic uncertainty, agile organizations across Europe are looking for technology that not only provides dramatic cost savings, but that also increases customer satisfaction, loyalty and revenue-per-customer. Striata is uniquely positioned to meet these requirements and our clients and partners in this region, will appreciate the value of a dedicated resource.”
Michael Wright, CEO, Striata

“I’m so pleased to be supporting the Striata organization, which provides world class, next-generation eBilling and eMarketing solutions. These paperless solutions, delivered directly to customer inboxes, cut costs, ensure regulatory compliance and deliver more value to both organisations and customers than last-generation portal solutions. Striata’s business activities are also positive when measured by triple bottom line (social, environmental and financial impacts) standards of accounting – unlike many companies who claim to be green but are, in fact, just paying it lip service.”
Keira Holland, Sales Manager Striata

EU e-procurement agency ADETEF implements TradeShift

In order to support the Pan-European Public Procurement  OnLine (PEPPOL) project, French government agency ADETEF has set up a co-operation with TradeShift. ADETEF will now be able to use the electronic payments system designed by TradeShift.

PEPPOL has been initiated to supply services related to e-invoicing and e-procurement in the EU and works on one  shared infrastructure for all e-procurement transactions processed by EU governments.

Their departments will check in on the TradeShift platform and connect with suppliers to deal with their invoices electronically.  Suppliers can jump on for free and the connection is a time and money saver.

The first target is connecting 30,000 suppliers in the first six months the Aube county.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Striata has new Sales Manager Europe | EU e-procurement agency implements TradeShift.

On the brink of 2012, the E-invoicing Platform has registered another great company for membership: Palette Grop from Sweden. With now over 40 members the EEI Platform is the largest platform to promote and facilitate the adoption of e-invoicing and invoice automation in Europe.

About Palette

PaletteInvoice, a solution for electronic processing of supplier invoices. As acomponent of the PaletteArena family of products it is recognized as the most advanced and flexible fully web based system in the market today. When used in conjunction with other PaletteArena products, PaletteInvoice represents the industry’s most automated approach to Enterprise Purchase to Payment.

PaletteArenas award winning design allows it to be deployed within your company’s IT infrastructure or in the cloud as a SaaS based solution. PaletteInvoice is easy to implement, has an intuitive user interface and is delivered by one of the leading and most innovative companies in the market.

Profile and info:

Palette profile page

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Palette Software welcomed to the E-invoicing Platform.

We welcome back Ariba as a new sponsor of the platform, and we are proud to have one of the world’s leading providers back as a participant.

About Ariba

Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions. Ariba combines industry-leading technology with the world’s largest web-based trading community to help companies discover, connect and collaborate with a global network of partners—all in a cloud-based environment. Using the Ariba® Commerce Cloud, businesses of all sizes can buy, sell and manage cash more efficiently and effectively. Over 800,000 companies around the globe use the Ariba Commerce Cloud to simplify inter-enterprise commerce and enhance results.

Why not join them? To get on the path to Better Commerce visit:   www.ariba.com/commercecloud/

Some of the latest news articles by Ariba:

• 9 impressive facts about Ariba buying b-process
• Clariant checks Ariba
• E-invoicing news: State vs Lang, ADP Partners with Nextgen, Ariba
• Deutsche Bank implements Ariba
• Gasunie Fuels Better Commerce with Ariba
• West North West Homes leeds builds savings with Ariba
• Rentokil Initial tackles procurement compliance with Ariba
  

Profile Ariba on E-invoicing Platform

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Ariba joins E-invoicing Platform as a sponsor.

Ariett provides Purchase to Pay and Expense Management Solutions. And its AP Invoice Automation solution is now available in “da cloud”, combined with a subscription plan to help customers transition as easy as possible. Time for a quote:

“By using Microsoft Windows Azure, Ariett’s AP Invoice Automation Solution offers our customers critical levels of scalability with low capital expenditures and operational costs,” said Glenn Brodie, president of Ariett. “Ariett AP Invoice with our Mobile Approval App for any Smartphone offers visibility to the actual electronic invoice, that can easily be accessed from anywhere in the world, to meet the demands of business approvers on the go. Ariett empowers our customers with flexible cost effective workflow solutions.”

Welsh counties select ProActis for purchase to pay

ProActis announced that Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire County Councils in North Wales entered into an agreement with ProActis for the delivery of an e-procurement platform. So congrats to Simon Dadswell!

Some more information:

• Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire County Councils want to get quick and significant efficiencies by sharing of project management resources
• The three Welsh local authorities are to focus on improving financial management processes. In particular the entire lifecycle efficiency of a transaction: from an order all the way to the moment the final invoice is processed.
• The ProActis eProcurement solution enables the three councils to pay all approved and undisputed invoices within 30 days of receipt and ensures efficiency in the purchase-to-pay cycle to free resources for frontline services.
• ProActis is to be integrated into the finance systems.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Microsoft Empowers Ariett’s AP Automation Solution | Welsh Counties select ProActics.

Image Integration Systems (IIS) has entered into a cooperative partner agreement with OPEX Corporation. IIS is a provider of the DocuSphere® solution for accounts payable automation. OPEX is a recognized global technology leader in high-speed mailroom automation and document imaging.

Together, OPEX and IIS offer a solution that goes from incoming envelope to electronic routing all the way through a ready to pay transaction. This:

• offers visibility to invoice documents from the moment they enter the organization,
• allows for improved process efficiencies
• allows for a lower average cost per invoice.

Once the documents have been scanned by OPEX, the images are passed into the DocuSphere system, where they are electronically routed, data is lifted without the need for templates and invoice data is processed virtually “hands-free” incorporating  tight integration with existing ERP systems.

Montage Hotels & Resorts Select BirchStreet for Procure-to-Pay Platform

Montage Hotels & Resorts selected BirchStreet Systems to provide them with procure-to-pay (P2P) platform. BirchStreet Systems a procure-to-pay provider for enterprises around the world. Montage Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel brand that manages three world-class properties in the U.S.

The P2P application suite is to be implemented at Montage Laguna Beach, Montage Deer Valley and Montage Beverly Hills.  The rollout includes:

• e-Procurement
• AP Automation
• Advanced Approvals
• Declining Checkbook Drilldown (to monitor budget versus actuals on a real-time basis.

Using the P2P platform:

• Montage’ suppliers are directed to send all invoices to a centralized processing center
• there an OCR and QA process creates electronic versions of each paper invoice.
• The e-invoice are transmitted to an automated 3-way-matching engine (invoice, purchase order and receiving record).
• An electronic image of the paper invoice is also generated and attached to the corresponding record.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing News: Image Integration Systems and OPEX become partners | Montage select BirchStreet for Procure-to-Pay Platform.

E-invoicing goals for Tech Data

Tech Data’s goal is to achieve touchless invoice processing. Through e-Invoicing the company aims to

1. deliver accurate data into its ERP system,
2. automate its invoicing process,
3. improve cash flow,
4. increase PO compliance,
5. reduce the company’s carbon footprint,
6. strengthen data quality and compliance.

Quotes from the executive

Let’s get a comment from the executives involved here:

• Philippe Bosquier, VP IT Europe and Managing Director Tech Data IT:
  “Critical to our choice of service provider were demonstrable experience in on-boarding suppliers to the network, and the ability to manage the complexity of cross-border legal and VAT regulations.”” We are committed to phasing out paper and bringing greater efficiency and transparency to our finance function and suppliers through e-Invoicing.”
• Luke McKeever, CEO at OB10:
  “We are delighted to welcome Tech Data, an established supplier on the OB10 network, as a buyer. We are working closely with the Tech Data team to deliver a successful supplier on-boarding programme based on the knowledge and methodologies we have developed over 11 years in e-Invoicing.”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing for Tech Data Europe with OB10.

This list post is with courtesy of Basware, that created an e-book that outlines 7 golden rules that can help you transition to Accounts Payable Automation. We ran through them and came up with these 6 rules:

Download the Basware e-book

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 6 golden rules to switch to AP automation.

We published helpful hints, the latest news on e-invoicing, and several strategies on customer on-boarding. Also the latest acquisitions (paying money for shares) are available. And that’s not even the half of it.

Here’s every one of those stories from the entire month (!!), waiting for you in an convenient format. So read what interests you, and then go out there and grab the benefits!

Headlines

• EU e-invoicing adoption: SME’s in different EU regions perceive different barriers
• How customers experience the go green argument
• 7 reasons to underestimate the EU E-invoicing Multi Stakeholder Forum
• Are 39% of the global AP invoices, electronic invoices already?
• Oh no! Online banking saturation is lurking behind the door
• Can electronic billing actually save lives in Botswana?
• Three step e-invoicing evolution in South America
• OUCH, Irish ComReg sanctions Vodafone for paper bill penalties
• “It’s not brain surgery. US Health insurance billing can also be brought into the Internet era”
• Do you change ebilling if your customer lacks an Internet connection?
• BT quietly stops discount for paperless billing, backfire
• Alaska Communications Services wants to offer a $5 one-time credit for those who shift to electronic billing

Policy

• CEN e-invoicing III draft CWA’s are ready for public review
• Unilateral promotion of E-Invoicing is damaging the printing and media industries and their employees, says that sector
• Call for information: data on the uptake of EU electronic invoicing
• ADDITIONAL explanations on the new EU e-invoicing directive
• EU Banks plan to offer their network as a collaborative e-invoicing space
• European Commission starts consultation on CEN e-invoicing standardisation
• Electronic invoicing switch for Kazakhstan as from mid 2012
• Electronic Invoicing in Mexico is now mandatory, effective immediately
• Electronic invoicing development in Austria & a study by Billentis

Event/Webinar

• Do you want to have your 2012 e-invoicing or AP automation plans assessed for free?
• Global ABB purchase-to-pay automation. Goals, challenges and results [WEBINAR]
• Meet Descartes and InterCommIT
• Webinar: DHL Express Europe Webinar on SSON

Acquisition/Merger

• Funding and partial buy-out of UnifiedPost
• And yet another acquisition: Descartes buys InterCommIT
• GTCR buys Fundtech for a whopping US$388 million through ‘parent’ merger

Jobs

• Do you have what it takes to become the new Basware Director Operations BPO?

Product information

• Visy selects B2BE for purchase to pay automation [CASE STUDY]
• Qtel forces its customers to e-billing, starting elegantly
• John Lewis Partnership selects OB10 for electronic invoicing
• Our new website ~ do not click if you are fainthearted
• FormPipe Software: the third in line of new E-invoicing Platform Members this month
• Learn from Kraft Foods and lead your e-invoicing project to success
• The E-invoicing Platform proudly presents: Itella
• SupplierDNA joins the E-invoicing Platform
• TyMetrix Acquires LEDESense to streamline e-billing for law firms
• CONGRATS: OB10 receives Green Apple Award and Green Supply Chain Award
• Swegon chooses Medius for electronic invoice management
• With the changes in the PPACA, the bill is no longer in the snail mail
• Anachron and Oce enter into a strategic partnership
• OB10 news: from SAS 70 to ISAE 3402, extending geographical compliance, a CQO and the annual buyer user event
• Ricoh unveils Managed Document Services 2.0
• Liaison Technologies Partners with DWG to Create Supplier Enablement Program
• 1Malaysia myemail project provides “push” e-billing

Snippets

• SGS France chooses Iron Mountain, RBS e-Invoicing wins gold Green Apple award
• Avitar and Invoice Cloud partner, 3 Point Alliance chooses Transactis
• Italy exchanges first PEPPOL e-invoices, Bridgestone Europe selects WMD xFlow
• Etisalat ramps up e-billing, PROACTIS & Elite become partners, Celtrino invests $1 million
• Birmingham NHS contracts Tradeshift, E-invoicing packs a punch for estate property owners too
• GE Capital expands e-billing, Metafile and American Digital join forces
•  Zumbox signs up Cash Cycle Solutions, Zuora secures $36 Million
• KUBRA signs up Dakota Electric, SourceLink presents BLINK, Clariant checks Ariba
• Crossgate delivers e-invoicing to System i, Securitas selects Striata
• Pagero and 2C Change cooperate, EDEKA chooses SAP
• State vs Lang, ADP Partners with Nextgen, Ariba
• Narvik chooses Pagero, Deutsche Bank implements Ariba, Kapstone Paper uses Dynamics AX
• Sotreq goes Paperless, Bill.com adds features and SunGard links to Billtrust
• Iceland Post invests in Unimaze, Kareo introduces a medical ebpp solution

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last November.

SGS France has chosen a business process management solution from Iron Mountain to better manage their AP invoices. Looking back Iron Mountain, was the company that introduced itself by claiming to hire 550 people in a new invoicing unit.

The solution for SGS France was to delegate the invoice processing to Iron Mountain. As a result the processing time has been halved and SGS France achieved productivity savings of €450,000 per year.

Some figures

SGS is a large in product verification, inspection, analysis, and certification services. The company

• employs 64,000 people and has some 1,250 offices and laboratories worldwide.
• In France, the company employs 2,450 people and has 23 specialist laboratories .
• The French finance division processes 80,000 supplier invoices per year.
• 25 SGS people now use the Iron Mountain platform on a regular basis, with another 350 occasional users.

With the AP Automation solution of Iron Mountain in place, SGS can now rely on:

• receiving and scanning invoices
• extracting company information and performing compliance checks
• managing the validation and accounting workflow creating a gateway to e-procurement tools
• providing a remote management tool, including access to all invoices in pdf format
• offering dashboards and monitoring tools
• archiving invoices in paper format and destroying them securely at the end of the statutory retention period

Quotes

Eric Sarfati, Administrative and Financial Director SGS France:

• “We calculate that processing time for supplier invoices has been halved, generating an estimated €450,000 per year in productivity gains.”
• “The ease of working for all users is of immeasurable value. Information exchanges are much more fluid. For example, purchasing department personnel used to have to run from department to department to obtain the data necessary to produce costs studies. That’s no longer the case.”
• “Iron Mountain was the only company that enabled us to manage all invoicing workflows and processes on an open platform that could be adapted to meet our needs. Now we have a single service provider for the whole invoice life cycle from receipt to destruction.”

RBS e-Invoicing service wins gold Green Apple Award for environmental best practice

Not so long ago we mentioned that OB10 had won a Green Apple Award. Again. For the fifth consecutive time. But then we received a phone call from RBS.

They said that they had won the gold version of the Green Apple Award (can you imagine), in its category, Environmental Best Practice, Banking and Finance, because of:

• A comprehensive set of connection methods to ensure businesses of all sizes and varying technical ability can connect with ease
• Commitment to achieving significant adoption by providing dedicated e-Invoicing on-boarding teams
• Future value added banking solutions including Supply Chain Finance and Payments integration
• Completely FREE for suppliers to connect and send invoices

So, congratulations to RBS. You’ve earned them.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: SGS France chooses Iron Mountain, RBS e-Invoicing wins gold Green Apple award.

B2BE was so kind to give us a case study. Underneath is a summary. You can download the entire case study here.

About Visy

Visy started 1948 in Melbourne, Australia and has grown to one of the world’s largest privately owned packaging, paper and recycling companies. Visy employs around 5600 people operating from over 100 sites and generates more than $2.3 billion in revenue.

Through its products and services Visy serves various sectors including pharmaceutical, construction, dairy, fast-moving consumer goods, automotive, and building industries in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United States.

Visy’s wants to be truly sustainable. A journey of continuous improvement, learning and adaptation success that depends on carefully balancing economic, environmental and social factors.

Visy’s purchase to pay challenge

Visy faced a number of issues in managing incoming invoices within the company’s accounts payable department:

• Every month Visy receives around 35,000 Purchase Order, financial invoices and statements.
• These documents come from more than 10,000 vendors and partners
• Visy receives these documents in hardcopy, facsimile or email attachment.
• The invoice information all had to be manually processed and delivered into a customised workflow approval system called IXOS.
• A staff of 32 people was responsible for this labour intensive task
• Within IXOS the authorisation and archiving of invoices takes place before accounts payable information is migrated to Visy’s back office system SAP.

The Solution

Visy decided to select B2BE for its accounts payable automation, because:

• B2BE had already proved itself as being the partner ‘who could, through past achievements, meet the desired outcome’.
• B2BE lived up to Visy’s requirements
• B2BE’s outsourcing model meant no upfront investment costs and that proved to be a very attractive ROI model for Visy.

Consisting of the following B2BE products: B2BE Transaction Delivery Network and B2BE Document Digitization Service. A closer look at the chosen combination of products reveals that:

• Within the B2BE solution for Visy all scanned accounts payable documents received by email, facsimile and hard copy are transmitted to the B2BE server.
• Subsequently B2BE executes a number of added value services for Visy.
• Through the deployment of the B2BE Document Digitization Services Invoices and Statements are digitised according to the key fields required to enable the upload into the Visy IXOS and ultimately the Visy SAP system for processing based on the supplier terms which also meet local tax authority requirements.
• Furthermore, validation is done on invoice type, vendor, site contact name and duplication in order to eliminate (data) errors.
• In the next step all invoices and statements are converted into an electronic format, placed into directories based on document type for further processing into Visy’s system.

B2BE also provide a range of business intelligent reporting to enable Visy to pro-actively manage the flow of data and documents between the Visy and B2BE environments and which provide error notifications and reporting to manage exception handling based on the pre-defined business validation rules B2BE applies on Visy’s behalf.

The Result

Through the use of the B2BE solutions for the accounts payable document automation project Visy realised positive results through cost reductions and business processes efficiencies. Through these results accounts payable personnel could be redeployed within the organisation to perform more add­ed value tasks.

The specific results:

• The costs for Invoice and Statement handling and management within accounts payable were reduced over 80%.
• Increased efficiencies led to faster document handling process.
• The time for document indexing was reduced to a maximum 24 hours after document receipt.
• Almost full elimination of data entry errors: keying of wrong amounts, invoice numbers, tax details and so on.
• Elimination of duplicate invoices processing.
• Vendors are made more accountable through early error detection via the B2BE validation processes, reducing work effort.
• Increased level of data accuracy.

Next steps

The next steps for Visy will be to start exchanging documents with a growing group of suppliers by EDI instead of e-mail, fax or hard copy. In this way the process can be completely automated on both ends in the supply chain so that not only Visy, but also their suppliers and partners can benefit from future cost reductions and business process improvement.

To find out more about B2BE and how they can help your organisation please visit B2BE or e-mail au.info@b2be.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Visy selects B2BE for purchase to pay automation [CASE STUDY].

ABB purchase-to-pay automation

ABB selected Basware for purchase-to-pay automation. ABB successfully automated its invoice processing to increase efficiency and reduce costs. After implementing the purchase to automation project, it was of course time to create a webinar that looks at the goals, challenges and results of the project.

So, Nigel Chapman, Change Management Facilitator at ABB, shares his experience and practical advice in a webinar, and provides practical steps to reduce project risk and attain faster ROI.

Items discussed in the ABB Purchase to pay webinar

In the webinar, Nigel Chapman discusses this project and provides insight into the global programme ABB adopted:

• How to successfully reap the best results from its P2P automation programme
• Manage change regionally in line with the global enterprise
• Gain stakeholder interest and developed user commitment
• Achieve process centralisation and system integration
• Develope techniques for tackling non-compliance
• Determine project success
• top-five lessons and success factors from ABB’s UK regional implementation

Read the ABB story here

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Global ABB purchase-to-pay automation. Goals, challenges and results. [WEBINAR].

The European website ePractice mentioned yet another success for the PEPPOL e-invoicing project.  PEPPOL stands for: Pan-European Public Procurement On Line. It looks like the PEPPOL people project (We love this phrase) is more and more becoming a real competitor for other initiatives that want to provide an e-invoicing network.

Just like open E-PRIOR, PEPPOL receives some serious pocket-money here and there. Which sounds both potentially interesting and distorting (No jealousy here, rest assured).

Early November 2011, several electronic invoices based on CEN/BII specifications of the PEPPOL project were exchanged by Italian PEPPOL partners and their suppliers.  More specifically:

• the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) received an electronic invoice from an Icelandic supplier;
• Consip, the Central Purchasing body of Italian Public Administrations, received an electronic invoice from the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV);
• Intercent-ER, the Agency for the development of electronic marketplaces of Region Emilia-Romagna, received an electronic invoice, fully compliant with Italian laws, from an Italian supplier using the PEPPOL transport infrastructure.

Bridgestone Europe selects the WMD xFlow solution for accounts payable automation in SAP

Bridgestome Europe has selected WMD Benelux to process 300.000 vendor invoices per year coming from over 24 European countries. WMD said its xFlow solution was chosen for the project after a rigorous selection process including a number of leading vendors.

WMD also said that the xFlow solution:

• is a state-of-art solution with full integration within SAP and a low total cost of ownership.
• will empower Bridgestone Europe to radically decrease manual processes while ensuring swift and accurate accounting information delivery, fuelling business process efficiency and well-timed management reporting.
• will also empower employees to focus on analysis and core accounting tasks that enable Bridgestone to gain full control, visibility and transparency over the  accounts payable process.

Quotes

• Jean-Luc Andrianne, Managing Director of WMD Benelux:
  “This is again a key highlight for us because WMD came out a winner after an extensive evaluation of leading purchase-to-pay software vendors. Our solutions are mature, particularly user-friendly, can be accessed from anywhere, and offer a genuine return on investment to our customers. We are happy to welcome Bridgestone Europe within our user community.”
• Carl Ellmer, Sales Director WMD Benelux – France:
  “We are seeing rapid adoption by Fortune 500 companies of our purchase to pay solutions for SAP within large multinational organizations to reduce costs, and harmonize and standardize purchase to pay processes. WMD xFlow truly blends in extremely well within these complex, large-scale environments.”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Italy exchanges first PEPPOL e-invoices, Bridgestone Europe selects WMD xFlow.

Tradeshift helps Birmingham NHS agency to streamline invoice system

Birmingham Primary Care Shared Service Agency (BPCSSA) has selected Tradeshift to streamline their invoicing. The BPCSSA is the Financial Services Directorate that provides Finance and Procurement to 3 Primary Care Trusts and one NHS Trust across Birmingham.

selected Tradeshift to help achieve cost-savings and support the Government’s prompt payment drive for public sector suppliers, by transforming how it interacts with over 6000 suppliers.

Initially BPCSSA plans to bring 2500 suppliers onto the Tradeshift network in November 2011 and is working towards all 6000 suppliers to be on board by March 2012.

How it works for BPCSSA suppliers

As from now all suppliers can start submitting invoices electronically via the secure network. With built-in validation, suppliers will be automatically alerted to any inaccuracies in each invoice. This ensures that all documents are correctly formatted. It also reduces the risk of errors. Tradeshift also provides a tracking service to give suppliers a clear view of exactly where the invoice is in the system, whether it has been accepted and when payment is due.

Quotes

Time to get some tears in our eyes. Time for some quotes:

• Jennie Grant, CFO (Chief Finance Officer), at BPCSSA:
  “Processing up to 140,000 paper invoices per year was proving a logistical challenge. With Tradeshift, suppliers can access the status of an invoice throughout its journey and contact us in real-time if they have any questions. This new process will provide time and resources savings for all involved.”
• Christian Lanng, CEO at Tradeshift:
  “Of every paper invoice processed, up to 40% come into dispute – costing both businesses and their suppliers’ time and money in resolving them. Managing thousands of invoices from thousands of suppliers is a challenge however you look at it, let alone working with email and paper formats. By rejecting archaic time and cost draining forms of email and paper invoicing and fully embracing e-invoicing, BPCSSA will significantly improve its supplier relationships through prompter payments.”

Electronic invoicing packs a punch for estate property owners too

Bell Partners is an owner of approximately 60,000 apartment units. Announced in October that it realized an annual savings of approximately $100,000 since requiring all its vendors to submit invoices electronically.

Electronic invoicing allows Bell Partners process and approve invoices without additional data entry via an automated workflow that integrates directly into an accounting system.

Bell dropped its paper invoicing and adopted a paperless system. Since the decision to accept only electronic invoices, the adoption rate for their vendors grew more than 90% in the first six months. They currently receive close to 75% of all invoices online, and is rising.

The only exceptions to Bell Partners’ paperless invoice requirement have been to government entities that are unable to comply, and to a handful of vendors that  are not ready to make a switch but are currently under contract for services.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Birmingham NHS contracts Tradeshift, E-invoicing packs a punch for estate property owners too.

GE Capital announced e-billing upgrades to its Customer Online Management System (COMS)

GE Capital, Commercial Distribution Finance (CDF) today announced upgrades to the Customer Online Management System (COMS), its proprietary inventory management tool. In response to user feedback, the newest version:

• has expanded billing capabilities, including online one-click payments and electronic billing statements that can be downloaded.
• has enhanced search capabilities.
• has a modern design that enables easier and faster navigation.
• provides a self-service administration that allows customers to update access locally.
• provides manufacturers with their most-requested enhancements.

Metafile and American Digital join forces to offer their customers hardware solutions with paperless document management capabilities

That is about the longest headline, we couldn’t shorten without losing its punch. So we’ve put in as is.

Metafile Information Systems and American Digital announced a strategic partnership to provide customers access to hardware solutions that are optimized for a paperless financial department. The solutions:

• give customers in the healthcare industry have a one-stop access to IT hardware solutions with OCR capabilities.
• will be easily and smoothly implemented into the organization’s ERP system and IT infrastructure without interruption.
• will enhance the efficiency and visibility of the back-office financial processes such as Patient Billing and Accounts Payable.
• provides management with a real-time view into the financial process, revealing cost-savings opportunities and process inefficiencies.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: GE Capital expands e-billing, Metafile and American Digital join forces.

Dakota Electric and KUBRA expand available e-billing channels

Dakota Electric is a member-owned, not for profit electric utility based in Minnesota. With more than 100,000 members, Dakota Electric is the second largest electric cooperative in Minnesota and ranked among the 25 largest electric distribution cooperatives in the United States.

Dakota Electric already has the KUBRA Biller-Direct and Fiserv e-bill consolidation network solutions in place for several years. Dakota Electric now has around 45,000 customers signed up for e-billing across these two distinct e-billing channels.

Dakota Electric wished to expand the choices for their member community by supporting the Manilla and Zumbox virtual e-document consolidator networks. Critical for Dakota was to

• minimize IT effort and resources
• reach the widest array of e-bill consolidation networks through one interface.

SourceLink presents BLINK, their electronic bill presentment and payment solution

SourceLink is CRM/Direct Marketing supplier. It has just released their new solution happily called BLINK. BLINK is a module/part of SourceLink’s Statement and Transactional Billing+ solution. Some features of BLINK:

• Paperless presentment: efficiently allows e-subscribers and users to have secure and authorized access to bills and notices by.
• Payment: customers can make payments online on a customer branded payment page that accepts ACH and card payments, one-time or recurring.
• Archive: quick access to payment history and statements, reducing the volume and length of customer-service calls,
• Mobile: a mobile app customizable to the user’s mobile device,
• Personalisation: integrated personalised email for a one-to-one experience for customers.

Clariant wants to transform invoicing with Ariba

Clariant is an internationally active specialty chemical company based near Basel, Switzerland, Europe. Clariant owns over 100 companies worldwide and employes about 16,200 employees. In 2010, Clariant had a turnover in excess of 7 billion Swiss Franks ($7.6 billion/ €5.6 billion).

Clariant decided transform its end-to-end purchase order and invoice management process, to automated invoice processing. Clariant aims for: efficiency, error reduction, speed in approvals and better compliance.

Clariant choose Ariba Invoice Management and PO Automationto try to:

• Move to a completely paperless PO & invoice management process in 100 days
• Reduce operating costs by 70 percent or more
• Eliminate exceptions and simplify and accelerate dispute resolution
• Minimize risk of overpayments, duplicate payments and fraudulent payments
• Comply with corporate and regulatory requirements
• Effectively benchmark and measure performance

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: KUBRA signs up Dakota Electric, SourceLink presents BLINK, Clariant checks Ariba.

Crossgate delivers electronic invoicing for System i

Crossgate has delivered an electronic invoicing service for System i. As Crossgate is now part of SAP, Crossgate off course leveraged SAP technology and extended its business-process outsourcing (BPO) collaboration with SAP. For System i and its business partners, this means:

• replacing paper invoices with electronic data exchange,
• companies will be able to realize savings in time, paper, printing costs, and staffing expenses,
• inbound and outbound processes are integrated between business partners,
• regulatory compliance is ensured through digital signatures and electronic archiving.

Securitas selects Striata for secure eBill delivery and payment

Securitas, one of the biggest security companies around, has selected Striata, a service provider of paperless solutions. Striata is to offer Securitas secure e-billing and electronic payment solution to its customers. The project is scheduled to go live in December 2011. By doing so Securitas:

• will go paperless,
• provides its customers with a secure electronic bill delivery and payment method,
• benefits much from reduced DSO and carbon footprint,
• offers customers to access their bills from their mobile phone, and by January 2012 customers will be able to pay their bill with just one click from within the email bill attachment.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Crossgate delivers e-invoicing to System i, Securitas selects Striata.

The result is 38 pages of statistical AP automation goodness.

Current global e-invoicing adoption at 39%?

The overall conclusion of the report is that 61% of invoices in accounts payable departments worldwide still paper-based. That is really something. Why, you want to know?

Because that automatically has as consequence that 39% of the invoices in accounts payable departments worldwide are: electronic invoices. 

Just imagine this: 39 out of every 100 inbound invoices are electronic invoices. That can only mean that the e-invoicing adoption is going a lot faster than we’ve thought.

Wait, there is more.

But, how representative is the IFO survey on AP Automation actually?

Here comes bad part. The survey had only 551 respondents. Nearly 80% of the respondents were from North America -based companies. These respondents looked at the AP automation within several global business sectors and healthcare respondents made up 18,3% of the survey.

That makes it hard to substantiate the overall conclusion on both paper invoices and electronic invoices. Sorry.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Are 39% of the global AP invoices, electronic invoices already?.

State vs Lang: fraud with an e-billing system

An interesting US ruling where someone has been convicted because of tampering (fraud) with an electronic invoicing system. The ruling in short:

1. Lang worked as the Utilities Clerk for the village of Ripley.
2. As part of her job responsibilities, Lang would set up utility accounts for new customers, issue billing statements, and accept payments from customers.
3. From January 2006 through October 27, 2009, Lang stole $952,619.24 from the village of Ripley by adjusting utility bills and diverting money from customer accounts into cash.
4. Lang’s theft was discovered after the village of Ripley requested a “special audit” of the utilities department.
5. The state charged Lang with three counts of theft in office and seven counts of tampering with records.
6. The three counts of theft corresponded to the three methods Lang used to steal money from the village of Ripley.
7. Lang stole $915,845.26 by adjusting customers’ utility bills downward after they had already paid their balance in full, and withdrawing the difference in cash.
8. Lang also zeroed accounts out in the electronic billing system so that a customer’s invoice would reflect a zero balance. Lang would then “whiteout” the zero balance and insert a balance-owed amount, which she would then withdraw for herself when the customer paid the bill. Lang stole $23,162.57 through this billing scheme.
9. Lang also diverted $13,611.41 to herself by taking the cash from new customers who paid a deposit in order to open a new utility account.
10. Lang pled guilty to three counts of theft in office, and the state dropped the remaining tampering with records charges.

ADP Partners with NextGen Software to increase supplier adoption of its procure-to-pay network

ADP has become partner with NextGen Software. This enables the NextGen Software’s i2x platform to be integrate into ADP Invoice, a component of ADP’s Procure-to-Pay Solution. The “i2x Integration Suite for ADP Invoice”, is an invoice and receipt submission application. This tool allows for suppliers to simplify the process of submitting invoices electronically to ADP clients using ADP Invoice even further.

The NextGen Software’s i2x app makes it possible for suppliers to easily (“with a few clicks”) upload invoices from their accounting systems into ADP Invoice.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: State vs Lang, ADP Partners with Nextgen, Ariba.

With operations in 37 countries it was looking for and electronic invoice management tool. it found a solid partner in Medius to streamline its administration.

About MediusFlow

MediusFlow is an effective IT support application for processes in the company that the existing business system cannot deal with. There are many processes in an organisation that are only partially, if at all, supported by its business system. The MediusFlow™ platform makes it possible to include these processes and through this improve profitability, control and flexibility. In short, MediusFlow:

• is integrated with your company’s existing business system irrespective of which system you presently use.
• is adapted to support your system exactly where the shortcomings are.
• can be applied independently or, to good use, be integrated in an existing intranet.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Swegon chooses Medius for electronic invoice management.

But now we try to collect the electronic invoicing  and AP automation developments from all over the globe. Tiny as it may be, this globe has a lot of news to cover. So much in fact that we now and then combine developments into one post.

Bill.com Bolsters Customer Experience stating that ‘ebilling isn’t just for big business anymore’

Bill.com introduced new functionalities that makes sending electronic invoices and making online payments a snap. The condition is that both payer and payee are utilizing the Bill.com platform

This how it works:

• an electronic invoice can be generated by the issuing party using Bill.com or their preferred accounting software,
• these instantly convert into in the payer’s system along with any supporting data or attachments required; ready for review, acceptance, approvals and payment.
• Once the electronic payment is issued, it is automatically applied to the payee’s eInvoice and to the payer’s eBill with no manual work required.

The entire process now syncs with accounting packages such as QuickBooks, Peachtree, Netsuite and Intacct.

And Bill.com claims that even if the payer and payee are on different systems, it (Bill.com) ensures that all transactions are properly documented and that data entry is entirely eliminated for both parties. Not sure how that works, though.

SunGard Links to Billtrust’s CompleteBilling

SunGard’s AvantGard Receivables, called GETPAID is now linked to the Billtrust CompleteBilling platform. This allows joint customers a more streamlined approach to there order-to-cash cycle.

In other words: a solution from invoice creation and delivery to automated credit, collections and dispute resolution to electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP), including auto-cash processing.

Corporations are commonly challenged by the high costs, inefficiencies and inaccuracies associated with the billing process. Connecting AvantGard GETPAID and Billtrust is claimed to help mitigate this challenge by providing linkage between their billing service (Billtrust CompleteBilling) directly into their core collections system (AvantGard GETPAID).

Heavy Hauler Sotreq Goes Paperless with Ariba

Sotreq is reseller of heavy equipment in Brazil. For many years it managed its purchase orders (POs) and invoices manually. As always the manual process led to errors and mistakes that were hampering its business and trading relationships. So reduce the human intervention in this process,  it went to a fully automated purchase-to-order process

With the solutions of Ariba, especially the Quadrem Network, Sotreq now has successfully implemented a completely paperless purchase-to-order process through which it has been able to improve its efficiency, lower transaction costs and increase customer satisfaction.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing news: Sotreq goes Paperless, Bill.com adds features and SunGard links to Billtrust.

the services-led business model Ricoh unveiled in January 2011

Ricoh has scrutinized thousands of projects and pinpointed customers’ top business concerns in managed print services (MPS), which is the foundation of Ricoh MDS, and beyond.

The strategy shifted to leveraging the power of improved document workflows and document management so that customers can concentrate on their business goals and bottom lines.

The promise behind Ricoh’s MDS 2.0: customer centric

Through its global MDS engagements,  pinpointed customers’ top business concerns. The top identified concerns are;

• cost control,
• environmental sustainability,
• information security & governance,
• business process efficiency,
• organizational change management,
• information worker productivity,
• information optimization
• and strategic infrastructure.

Ricoh’s new MDS 5 phase Adaptive Model

Ricoh MDS 2.0 defines the services and deliverables that map directly to each concern to help customers achieve measurable and sustainable business outcomes.

Using these new insights, Ricoh has streamlined its delivery framework, producing a new, simpler five-phased Adaptive Model. With the customer at the center:

1. The first phase – Understand – begins with an expert assessment of the customer’s “current state.”
2. The Improve phase includes the design of a “desired state.”
3. The Transform phase focuses on deployment,
4. The Govern phase ensures all objectives are met,
5. And last but not least, the Optimize phase addresses ongoing improvements and sustained savings.

Quotes

Sergio Kato, Associate Director of Ricoh Co., Ltd and General Manager of Global MDS Center says:

• “We applied our expertise and sharpened our focus on what customers need, even when they can’t articulate their requirements in so many words,”
• “Our refined service delivery methodology is designed to better help customers meet their business objectives while retaining the flexibility they need to overcome their unique information challenges.”

Ricoh has delivered custom MDS solutions to customers around the world. For customer success stories on Ricoh’s MDS approach, please visit www.ricoh-europe.com.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Ricoh unveils Managed Document Services 2.0.

And just like what we wrote in posts where we introduced Itella and SupplierDNA, we are looking forward to be able to add value to their proposition. And we are thankful that they allow us to carry out our ambition: to promote the best practices and adoption in electronic invoicing and invoice automation and distribute them to end users.

About FormPipe Software

FormPipe Software is a software company in the field of ECM (Enterprise Content Management). ECM is the collective name of various technologies, products and systems that captures, processes, stores, archives and delivers information in a systematic and controlled manner.

Products that FormPipe Software deployes are: FormPipe W3D3, FormPipe Platina, FormPipe Long-Term Archive, FormPipe OnDemand and FormPipe LaserNet

FormPipe Software and Formpipe Lasernet

FormPipe Software is famous for its SME Electronic invoicing solution, FormPipe LaserNet (also distributed by Qadira). Let us take a look at FormPipe Software:

Lasernet features

• Currently used by more than 2,000 companies worldwide.
• Simplifies and streamlines the management of both outgoing and incoming business documents.
• Delivers and distributes business documents in any format and layout desired.
• Supports both EuroSox, Sarbanes Oxley, Basel II accounting rules and various local laws, directives and standards UBL2.0, OIOUBL, OIOXML.
• Can easily be integrated with existing ERP applications to facilitate the transition from labor-and paper-intensive processes to electronic document management.
• Composed of a number of different modules allowing customers to deploy the features selected to suit the input and output needed

Lasernet advantages

• Lower costs for billing and business document management
• Improved cash flow as a result from time savings in the billing process
• Future secured invoice management as FormPipe LaserNet meet demands and requirements of e-invoicing in any format – regardless of ERP system
• Quick and easy implementation
• Requires no in-house print management
• Supports all market business

Needs that are met by LaserNet

• Cost savings for postage, printing and paper, and management by electronic business documents
• Focus on customers need.
• Saving the cost of consultants who develop and produce reports from business and finance systems.
• Simple and easy document creation and layout management. Making design changes and design new reports is a simple operation with no programming skills required.
• Good functionality for archiving that organize all business documents.

Lasernet customers

• UNICEF
• Panasonic
• Ports of Stockholm
• The Swedish Transport Agency
• NetOnNet
• Veolia Transport
• Ernst & Young

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: FormPipe Software: the third in line of new E-invoicing Platform Members this month.

About SupplierDNA

With S-DNA, your supplier, purchasing and legal departments will all have access to recent information at the same time, thus allowing the financial processes in your organisation to operate as efficiently as possible.

• On average, 40% to 60% of the suppliers details is incorrect, not known or outdated.
• Incomplete and incorrect supplier details have a direct impact on strategy decisions and processes within organisations, and leads to increased work pressure, increased costs, and delays in achieving targets.
• S-DNA is a flexible and user-friendly solution that allows you, quickly and simply, to work always with recent supplier details.
• Suppliers, national and international, can check their own contact and payment details in their own language online, and can pass on changes.
• S-DNA imports these changes into your administration and purchasing systems automatically, at the push of a button.

You reduce the number of incorrect payments, duplicate and reminder invoices, and a large number of unnecessary contacts with suppliers and between departments (purchasing, finance and legal).

Contact details

SuppierDNA
Marcel Groenewegen
+31 20 716 3111
Gerrit van der Veenstraat 106
1077 EM Amsterdam
The Netherlands

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: SupplierDNA joins the E-invoicing Platform.

The DHL Express e-billing webinar

In this webinar, powered by SSON, these topics are discussed:

• how to run a multiregional e-billing project – from initial business case, to project planning, pilot and country roll-out.
• receive tips like: e-billing should be part of an overall e-commerce strategy, not just part of finance, not to over-promise
• introducting of the solution itself, including features such as invoice presentment, search, query management and supporting document attachment.

Date: 2nd November
Time: 10:00 am ET

Register here

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Webinar: DHL Express Europe Webinar on SSON.

Go ahead and pick your favourite items to widen your horizon on this ever growing subject. A comparable overview will be published very month so you don’t have to miss anything!

HEADLINES

• Ladies and gentlemen, the EESPA has landed [UPDATE2]
• Finally, the EU E-invoicing Directive 2010/45/EG Explanatory are Notes here!
• Reality check: e-invoices CAN spread a virus, malware and scareware
• E-invoicing Comes of Age, a Spend Matters paper
• Is Europe abandoning its single invoice standard strategy?
• 8 thoughts on why banks may be too late for the e-invoicing party
• German e-invoicing liberalization is a fact [UPDATE]
• Pay your pay slips and SEPA slips using your iPhone
• SME e-invoicing adoption visualized
• The ultimate instrument to promote e-billing adoption
• Global e-invoicing, what are the requirements in your country?

POLICY

• Spain deploys seven standards for technical interoperability
• The EU ADVENTURE Project and exchanging electronic invoices
• Highlights of the Explanatory Notes of EU E-invoicing Directive 2010/45/EG [Part 1]
• Dutch B2G e-invoicing adoption falls behind expectations
• B2G invoicing solutions for SMEs: a Norwegian call for development
• Impressions on the EU E-invoicing Multi Stakeholder Forum Kick-off [UPDATE2]

EVENT/WEBINAR

• OB10’s e-invoicing webinar archive
• Kraft and OB10 – their story one year on + 5 tips [WEBINAR]
• EXPP Summit 2011 in Barcelona: observations

ACQUISITION

• Lexmark acquires Pallas Athene

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• e-PRIOR opens e-invoicing portal for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)
• EESPA: The European Electronic Invoicing Service Provider Association gets approval
• eInvoicing White Paper: fulfill compliance requirements internationally
• Karachi Water and Sewerage Board introduces e-billing and e-complaints
• Fannie Mae selects LexisNexis CounselLink software for e-billing
• Ayres Associates selects Central Consulting Group for Electronic Invoicing
• Mobile operators are crushing in e-billing adoption [GRAPHICS]
• New US Postal Service campaign promotes paper invoices
• WIND Hellas implements e-invoicing solution from Pylones Hellas AE and Information Systems Impact
• Medius Group joins the EEI Platform community
• Tradeshift provides Instant Payment for Small Businesses
• The Hawaiian Electric Company contracts LexisNexis for e-billing
• b-process selected as service provider for IATA e-Invoicing platform
• AVEXIA Voyages chooses ACCELYA for its customer e-invoicing project

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last October.

Published a year before the date this new directive is to be implemented, the purposes of the Explanatory Notes are:

• providing a better understanding of the Invoicing Directive (2010/45/EU)
• allow Member States to transpose the legislation in a more uniform way
• to provide business with the necessary information to adapt to the new rules in time
• letting you understand the meaning of certain issues contained in the articles. Neat!
• provide practical help

Highlights part 1

As the document measures a healthy 45 pages, we decided to bring to you the highlights. Some of them include things we never heard of before. A must read:

• Business controls, advanced electronic signatures are only examples and other technologies or procedures may be used to ensure the authenticity of origin, integrity of content and legibility.
• “electronic invoice” means an invoice that contains the information required in this Directive, and which has been issued and received in any electronic format.
• The ONLY purpose for the definition of an electronic invoice is to clarify the acceptance of the customer and to illustrate the use of the option given to Member States on way invoices are stored.
• Invoices created in an electronic format that are sent and/or received on paper are NOT electronic invoices. On the other hand invoices created in paper form, that are scanned, sent and received via e-mail CAN be considered as electronic invoices.
• The type of electronic format of the invoice should not be important but only the fact that  the invoice is in an electronic format when it is issued and received.
• An invoice is issued when the invoice has been available so that it can be received by the customer.
• The specific mention that the use of electronic invoices should be accepted by the
  customer mainly finds its justification in the technical requirements needed to receive an
  electronic invoice or the customer’s ability to ensure the authenticity, integrity and
  legibility that might need to be arranged to receive electronic invoices AND WHICH DO NOT EXIST FOR PAPER INVOICES.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Highlights of the Explanatory Notes of EU E-invoicing Directive 2010/45/EG [Part 1].

Research

BillingViews asked its panel of communications industry billing and IT executives from every global region to identify what percentage of their customer base has adopted e-billing. More than 30 panellists responded, revealing a global average e-billing adoption rate of 33.7 percent across all regions.

Results

Western Europe reported the highest average e-billing adoption rate at 63 percent, while the Africa-Middle East region reported the lowest average at just 4 percent. Western Europe revealed the greatest discrepancy between mobile operators and telco’s, with mobile operators reporting an average of 78.4 percent e-billing adoption versus just 16 percent for telco’s.

Statistics

1 – Barriers to next-gen billing: 2010 versus 2011

2. Shift in sentiment: 2010 versus 2011

3. E-billing adoption rates

4. Adoption rate by region by Telco’s

5. Average e-billing adoption / adoption in Western Europe

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Mobile operators are crushing in e-billing adoption [GRAPHICS].

AuthentiDate International AG, established specialist for international electronic invoicing processes, has issued an up-to-date, comprehensive White Paper on the legal conditions regarding the exchange of electronic invoices in Europe.

The White Paper explains the current legal situation in an easy to understand, simple and clear manner and provides an overview of the respective national requirements for sending and receiving electronic invoices throughout all EU countries. In addition, the specific national requirements for electronic archiving are laid out for all countries.

The White Paper provides each reader, even those without special prior knowledge, with a simple guide for implementing electronic invoicing and archiving. This enables virtually anyone implementing quickly and pragmatically country-specific requirements when exchanging electronic invoices within EU countries and internationally. For example, special compliance requirements such as the use of a qualified time stamp for electronic invoices in Italy and Hungary are portrayed.

The extent to which the individual European countries have already converted the new EU Council Directive 2010/45/EU regarding electronic invoicing into country-specific laws is also comprehensively explained. This was recently implemented in Germany by means of the tax simplification law.

Companies, exchanging electronic invoices internationally, may also obtain appropriate information on other countries outside Europe upon request. This also includes explanation of individual country specific requirements, such as electronic invoicing in Israel, Switzerland and Latin America.

The White Paper with an overview of the legal situation in the European Union is available in English language

AuthentiDate International AG

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: eInvoicing White Paper: fulfill compliance requirements internationally.

[Update 14/10/2011/13:57: Maria Stamatopoulou, Sales Department Secretary at Pylones Hellas SA, was so kind to us to point that the project was undertaken Pylones Hellas S.A in cooperation with Information Systems Impact and their platform called i@connect.]

Invoice Automation and E-procurement

The new solution that WIND Hellas bought from Pylones Hellas allows for:
- receiving electronic records of invoices
- automatically incorporating them into the system without human intervention
- electronic submission of invoices issued by more than 400 partners

Benefits

The project aims to improve business processes with partners and the parallel reduction in operating costs over a secure, reliable, transparent solution, in an easily managed way, offering a variety of benefits :

1. Automating the communication and business processes
2. Process optimization pricing and quality data
3. Reduction / Elimination of printing, shipping and cost of transmission (eg mail, courier)
4. Electronic filing with direct connection to the home portal company
5. Automation of test procedures
6. Reliable and timely exchange of important economic information
7. Improving customer relations

Responsibility for environmental sustainability

WIND Hellas, respecting the principles of sustainable development and its responsibility towards the environment, uses the e-invoicing solution to put another cornerstone to its socially responsible behaviour.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: WIND Hellas implements e-invoicing solution from Pylones Hellas AE and Information Systems Impact.

For those who don’t know Jason Busch, Spend Matters states that he is regarded as one of the leading technology pundits and thought leaders in the trade, procurement and operations worlds.

Spend Matters on electronic invoicing

Every now and then SpendMatters sparks the e-invoicing domain with interesting contributions, like his infamous e-invoicing rant. Other publications include:

• Examining the Reasons Electronic Invoicing Will Truly Cross the Proverbial Adoption Chasm
• Bay Fishing vs. Ocean Trolling — Banks Ignoring E-Invoicing, or Wanting a Larger Receivables Fish?
• Will Big Buyers and Accounts Payable (AP) Organizations Embrace Free E-Invoicing?

E-Invoicing Comes of Age – History, Solution Features, Technology Elements

The latest contribution of Jason Busch is a 14 page paper called E-Invoicing Comes of Age – History, Solution Features, Technology Elements, and More! The paper, sponsored by Verian Technologies, Basware, Coupa, Rearden Commerce and OB10, consists of:

• Page 2 : Abstract
• Page 2 : PART 1 – Framing the P2P and invoice automation challenge
• Page 3 : The road to electronic invoicing maturity
• Page 4 : How did we get here? The briefest and liveliest history of AP written to date
• Page 5 : PART 2 – Plumbing Electronic Invoicing – Including the pipes
• Page 6 : Electronic Invoicing – a technical component overview
• Page 10: PART 3 – Maturity models and building the business case
• Page 10: Building the business case – take time to do it right
• Page 12: Concluding recommendations

You can get your free copy of the paper here, provided you leave a lot of your credentials behind.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing Comes of Age, a Spend Matters paper.

E-invoicing B2G head start

Just like every other project, the Dutch B2G project made a head start:

• an infrastructure was created for processing e-messages: Digipoort
• a preferred standard was chosen: a subset of UBL2.0
• an extensive campaign and a project team was created
• someone was appointed part-time “E-invoicing Ambassador of the State”
• governmental bodies are obliged to connect to Digipoort
• companies have a right to send their e-invoices to the government, as long as they use UBL.
• The states general procurement terms and conditions were changed to incorporate e-invoicing

Experiences on b2G adoption

Despite the ambitious, good intentions, massive funding and a part-time ambassador, the results stay behind expectations:

• The government didn’t reach the 10% mark in 2010
• A new goal was created: 20% at the end of 2011
• Convincing govermental bodies to connect with Digipoort proves cumbersome: they seems reluctant to have to pay EUR 0,59 for every e-invoice they receive through Digipoort
• Only some financial software providers have implemented the Digipoort connection
• Some e-invoicing service providers connected with Digipoort, most of them haven’t
• People responsible for the uptake of B2G uptake are becoming frustrated.

E-invoicing done the Latin American way?

Perhaps the Dutch government should walk the Latin American road: making e-invoicing obligatory in some way. (Read: A global patchwork of e-invoicing regulations). Promoting and communicating e-invoicing as such does seem to create the adoption curve needed.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Dutch B2G e-invoicing adoption falls behind expectations.

The HP story – How a global technology giant converted 1.8 million invoices to electronic invoices

Hear from Peter Downie, Global e-Invoicing Lead at HP, on the critical factors that have enabled HP to convert 30,000 suppliers and 1.8 million paper invoices to pure electronic. Click to download the full webinar.

The HP story – How a global technology giant converted 1.8 million invoices to electronic invoices

Hear how GSK built on their existing supplier conversion rates and increased productivity by taking advantage of the OBportal enhanced services such as Invoice Status updates and Purchase Order delivery.
Click to download this webinar on e-invoicing.

Global e-Invoicing: Hewlett-Packard Case Study

Hear how Hewlett-Packard has executed a successful global e-Invoicing campaign using OB10. The presentation includes developing a strategy for global e-Invoicing, setting up the project for success and project milestones, and lessons learned.
Click to download.

The Secret Ingredient to making e-Invoicing a success – The Tesco Story

Supplier adoption is key to a successful e-Invoicing project. By following best practice Tesco reached their invoice targets.
Click to download.

How to set-up the perfect project – The Hertz Story

The success of an e-Invoicing project relies on selecting the right vendor, effective communication and getting the right project team and procedures in place.
Click to download.

Become a centre of excellence – The Kellogg’s Story

At Kellogg’s, over 80% of their invoices are electronic and over 70% are PURE touchless. How did they get here and what does this mean for the role of the shared services operation?
Click to download.

How to cut costs and improve efficiency – The Schneider Electric Story

Facing huge cost pressures, Schneider Electric made the move to e-Invoicing. By eliminating paper-based A/P processes they’ve saved costs and enhanced the customer experience.
Click to download.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: OB10’s e-invoicing webinar archive.

With a few thousand suppliers and hundreds of thousands of invoices in scope across Europe, the Kraft team knew switching to electronic invoicing was a project that needed robust resource. in this webinar you will get a closer look at their story one year on.

Five crucial tips for a successful on-boarding program

In this webinar you will find out how the Kraft team generate success:

• Set up a very strong, impactful internal communications programme
• Built an internal website to educate the key stakeholders on the benefits of e-Invoicing
• Followed OB10′s proven best-practice recommendations
• Ensured consistency in their messaging following OB10′s guidance
• Worked closely with procurement, maintaining an effective project communication channel

More information and registration

Session date: 13th October 2011
Starting time: 15:00 London, 10:00 New York, 16:00 Paris
Duration: 60 minutes
Presenters: Gabriela Stanakova (Kraft Foods) and Ruud van Hilten (OB10).

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/902005258

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Kraft and OB10 – their story one year on + 5 tips [WEBINAR].

Take your pick!

HEADLINES

• BPO sets the whole invoicing process back some 200 years [UPDATE]
• A global patchwork of e-invoicing regulations
• [Discussion] 7 facts and myths about PDF invoices
• [VIDEO] Kimmo Linkama and his e-invoicing frustration
• IAPP Research Shows Growth in global E-Invoicing
• 8 Crucial Tips to Avoid paying Fake (e)invoices
• Is your Country a Digitization Hero or Laggard?
• Scarce credit throws e-invoicing in the spotlight -
• The role of e-invoicing in the recession
• [HUMOR] Ever heard of the IETF’s RFC2324 HTCPCP protocol?
• [cartoon] The hidden cost of paper invoicing…
• 15 Essential E-invoicing Questions to ask Yourself
• Free E-invoicing Toolbox provides 75+ helpful Tools for an E-invoicing Kick-start
• Iranian hacker already made 60.000+ digital certificates worthless
• Dutch enterprises massively embrace electronic invoicing

POLICY

• Antitrust: Commission opens investigation in e-payment market
• Spanish single entry point for eInvoices in Central Government
• Norway mandates e-invoicing
• Norway shifts to compulsory B2G electronic invoicing as from 1-7-2012
• German e-invoicing liberalisation vetoed [UPDATE]

ACQUISITION

• Ogone Payment Services buys Mumbai-based E-Billing Solutions
• SAP buys Crossgate, adding 40.000 e-connections to the list

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• On-boarding done right – Telefonica Slovakia rewards their clients when opting in for e-invoicing [BEST-PRACTICE]
• Telema Partners and Ankravs aim to increase e-invoice penetration in Latvia
• Proquro and Dutch Payments Group extend the EEI Platform
• Tieto to provide e-invoicing service over SWIFT
• 3 benefits of SWIFT’s goal to ease corporate e-invoicing adoption rates
• 3 times e-invoicing at SIBOS 2011, Toronto
• Anachron optimizes invoice process with e-Invoicing solution for Tommy Hilfiger
• ReadSoft improves Accounts Payable within a leading UK food manufacturer’s Oracle E-business Suite
• [FEEDBACK] A Mobile app with barcode reader and e-invoices
• VASCO Announces Bankruptcy Filing by DigiNotar BV
• Liaison Technologies deploys VAT-compliant e-invoicing solution
• Fundtech Signs 50th SWIFT Corporate Client within 3 years
• ReadSoft signs agreement with global aerospace leader for invoice automation
• OB10 sets new benchmark for quality assurance
• b-process selected as service provider for the IATA e-Invoicing platform
• Basware delivers invoice automation solution to a supplier of pipe systems as SaaS
• AuthentiDate International AG joins the EEI Platform

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last September.

About Proquro
Purchase Proquro software allows you to achieve a professional purchase policy. Get more control over your purchasing process, a clear insight into all purchase contracts and extensive possibilities to control your procurement process.

Proquro offers support for purchase orders until the settlement of the invoices. Simplifying the entire procurement cycle makes it both straightforward and manageable, thus reducing both the direct procurement costs as well as the handling costs for your organization.
http://www.proquro.nl

About the Dutch Payment Group
Since 2006 The Dutch Payment Group, provides low-threshold online escrow and payment services. Late 2008, the company finished thrid in an innovation contents leaving even PayPal and Multisafepay behind.

Unlike traditional payment service providers (PSP’ers) the Dutch Payment Group facilitates peer-to-peer services in both the B2C as well as the C2C segment, an international novum. When doing payments, Dutch Payment Group acts as an intermediary for payments. This provides benefits for buyers and sellers/merchants by our role as an independent third-party.

http://www.dutchpaymentgroup.com

About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform provides discussion and guidance on full-scale adoption of electronic invoicing (e-invoicing, e-billing, invoice processing, invoice automation, EDI) by corporates, governments, SME’s and freelancers. With a focus on: trends, business models, processes, technology, and legal issues.

The EEI Platform is part of the E-invoicing Trust Foundation. The E-invoicing Trust Foundation focuses on durable adoption of e-invoicing. The E-invoicing Trust Foundation currently facilitates:

• E-invoicing Platform (also known as the EEI Platform),
• E-invoicing Trend Map (coming soon)
• E-invoicing Toolbox
• E-invoicing Checklist
• E-invoicing Newsletter
• E-invoicing Linkedin Group

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Proquro and Dutch Payments Group extend the EEI Platform.

ReadSoft, a leading global provider of software for document process automation, has signed an agreement worth 555,000 EUR to improve efficiency in the Accounts Payable (AP) function, running on Oracle E-Business Suite, within one of the UK’s leading food manufacturers. The agreement was signed during the third quarter of 2011.

Headquartered in the UK, with sites across Europe, this food company has chosen ReadSoft to deliver improved efficiencies within AP functions. To achieve this, the organization will immediately implement a wide selection of software tools from ReadSoft to automate invoice processing within their Oracle E-Business Suite environment, including ReadSoft INVOICES.

ReadSoft INVOICES is the world’s number one choice for automated data capture from invoices. Regardless of source, incoming invoices are all directed into the same flow, automatically extracting information from any incoming invoice, validating it and transferring it to an ERP system where it can be coded and authorized for approval by the accounts payable staff. This food company will be able to attain full control of all the supplier invoices by automatically matching and processing within its Oracle E-Business Suite, ensuring supplier invoices are automatically posted, accounted for and made ready for payment, improving visibility and management of the Accounts Payable function and crucially enhancing supplier relationship.

“Strong competition within the food grocery market demands ‘best in class’ solutions if an organization is to maintain market leadership,” says Jan Andersson, President and CEO at ReadSoft. “Retaining an efficient, economic and highly flexible finance function is a key business tool, and one which ReadSoft has enormous experience in delivering through the application of its document driven finance process automation.”

ReadSoft Professional Services and partner Dinero will complete the install of ReadSoft software. ReadSoft Professional Services will support the system installation with service and maintenance contracts through until 2016.

ReadSoft

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: ReadSoft improves Accounts Payable within a leading UK food manufacturer’s Oracle E-business Suite.

Key findings
Here are some key findings from the study:

- Companies think that there is room for improvement in how companies leverage technology to implement key invoicing processes
- 33% of the companies reported that their employers did not in any way use e-invoicing
- Speeding up invoicing processes and reducing invoicing costs were the most compelling reasons to implement e-invoicing
- 50% of the companies says they are able to receive and process invoices electronically, and 25% of them is able to send invoices electronically.
- 76% of the companies indicate that they receive e-invoices as e-mailed PDFs.
- A staggering 50% of the companies prints out the e-invoices for further processing

More information
Read more on Basware
The full report will set you back € 245: www.financialops.org/research

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: IAPP Research Shows Growth in global E-Invoicing.

So let’s take a look at how your own country and your fellow EU Member States score on e-invoicing and e-invoicing related processes in 2010. You can play around yourselves to discover and compare what happened  in 2008 and 2009.

EDI for purchase orders
The ‘automatic exchange of business documents’ indicator refers to sending/receiving orders to/from suppliers/customers in an agreed standard format (as EDIFACT, XML, etc) which allows their automatic processing without the individual message being manually typed.

Heroes: Italy, Norway, Luxemburg
Laggards: Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Cyprus

Advanced e-invoicing
The ‘Sending or receiving of e-invoices’ indicator refers to sending/receiving invoices in an agreed standard format (as EDIFACT, XML, etc) which allows their automatic processing, without the individual message being manually typed.

Heroes: Italy, Lithuania, Norway
Laggards: Slovenia, Cyprus, Hungary

E-procurement
The ‘use of e-procument services’ indicator refers to tender proposals that have to be submitted in an e-procurement system itself and not by email.

Heroes: Ireland, Lithuania, Norway
Laggards: Slovak Republic, Turkey, Cyprus

Supply chain
Finally, the ‘electronic supply chain management’ indicator refers to sending/receiving all type of information on the supply chain (e.g. inventory levels, production plans, forecasts, progress of delivery) via computer networks or websites, but excluding manually typed e-mail messages.

Heroes: Croatia, Portugal, Belgium
Laggards: Iceland, United Kingdom, Netherlands (ouch)

The differences in adoption rates between process and between countries explain the fragmentation in e-invoicing and e-invoicing adoption. We can only hope that the EU E-invoicing Forum can create results benefitting all countries and stakeholders.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Is your Country a Digitization Hero or Laggard?.

The North American-based organization has selected ReadSoft’s SAP®-certified invoice automation solution to streamline its accounts payable operations and enable greater processing efficiencies across the enterprise. The agreement is worth over 420,000 USD and was signed during the third quarter of 2011.

This world-leading manufacturing company sought to advance its accounts payable operations beyond the costly setbacks of labor-intensive manual processing. With high volumes of paper invoices, the accounts payable department routinely struggled to locate invoices throughout the payment cycle. These restraints made it difficult for the staff to track and process invoices and processing bottlenecks emerged, forcing the company to routinely miss out on early-payment discounts.

As the most complete invoice automation solution based on best practices, ReadSoft’s flexible, SAP-certified solution was deemed a reliable fit to meet the organization’s processing needs. With ReadSoft’s end-to-end invoice automation solution seamlessly integrated into the customer’s SAP system, the company can ultimately achieve faster and less expensive invoice processing and increased control of financial processes.

“In today’s competitive business environment, companies are re-focusing their attention on invoice processing to uncover hidden costs in their organizations,” says Jan Andersson, President and CEO of ReadSoft. “This strategy has proven successful time and again as over 6,500 companies have turned to ReadSoft to deliver substantial savings in time, money and manual routine work through automation.”

ReadSoft

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: ReadSoft signs agreement with global aerospace leader for invoice automation.

Furthermore, the latest hints and tips, questions and reviews are neatly categorized below to shine even more light on the subject of e-invoicing than a summer sun can do alone.

HEADLINES

Are penalties an appropriate and promising way to increase e-invoicing adoption?
Paypal introduces new services to create and send professional looking invoices
Free E-invoicing Checklist offers 100+ e-invoicing hints an tips
E-invoicing – why it’s inconceivable that paper is superior
What FREE tools are out there to kick start E-invoicing / E-billing?

POLICY

Should the Aussies promote e-invoicing?
Obama wants Full Scale Electronic Invoicing Processing in 2013
Greece to start with full scale e-invoicing from early 2012
VAT campaign from The Mauritius Revenue Authority
A look at the current Spanish fiscal e-invoicing requirements
Mexican electronic invoicing adoption statistics
Poland’s businesses find new e-invoicing regulations too vague
Public review of 3 Draft CEN E-invoicing Workshop Agreements (CWAs)
Treasury US moving to e-invoicing
Why consider CII or SEPA with the advent of UBL 2.1?
UK slow to take up e-invoicing solutions
7 Questions on the new core EU invoice data model

EVENT/WEBINAR

FUNDtech webinar: Empower your Customers and Reduce DSO with E-Receivables

PRODUCT INFORMATION

HCL Technologies in partnership with Basware
AcceptSMS: the world’s first Short Invoice Service
White Paper: E-Invoicing Provides New Avenues for Credit
The Clear’ Invoice Virtual Printer by ACCELYA
Go beyond standard ERP and optimise your cash, cost, capital and control
PayPal makes e-invoicing play
Schneider Electric powers up invoice processing with OB10
TIE and Gothia announce strategic partnership
Basware delivers invoice automation and e-invoicing solutions to Tokmanni Oy
Independent value proposition report: TIE ready for growth
Mutuaide assistance dematerialises its supplier invoices with Accelya
Basware launches global invoice processing outsourcing service
Crossgate has announced a new application for electronic invoice processing
WorldPay and AcceptEmail introduce e-billing and payment by email
Tieto to deliver EDIEL transaction service to Vattenfall
Centrica turns on e-Invoicing with OB10
New partner agreement between ReadSoft and OB10
Estonian Post E-invoicing Centre continues to grow
Ernst and Young warns EU SMEs not to ignore e-invoicing
The State Treasury of Finland Leads the Way in E-Invoicing
OB10 exceeds 100,000 suppliers on its global network
Basware Launches Catalog Service available through Open Network
Dwolla-Grid: more secure than plastic payments
Fundtech partners with WebExpenses to deliver expense management SaaS
AcceptEmail 3rd in SME Innovation Top 100
Tieto and B2Boost to utilize ISO20022 e-invoice standard

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last summer.

In this series you get the answer to these questions. Every week for the next 17 (or so) weeks a question will be answered. At the end of the series you will have a self-assessment tool and be able to pinpoint actions required to meet client requirements (and some of the fiscal requirements).

1. Current EU E-invoicing basics: “How does the IRS currently approach e-invoicing?”
2. The new EU Directive: “What will be different as from 1-1-2013?”
3. Tax requirements: “What information must be part of an invoice?”
4. The simple invoice: “What is a simplified invoice? When can I start using it?”
5. Be clear and understandable: “Does my customer really understand my invoice?”
6. Payment instructions: “Does my customer know how to pay my invoice?”
7. Create your e-invoice: “What to look after when generating my e-invoice?”
8. Issuing time: “How do I engage with my customers?”
9. Receiving e-invoices: “An AR invoice has now become my AP invoice. Now what?”
10. Verify your data: “How can I verify an electronic invoice?”
11. Manage your master data: “What are master data and how do I manage them?”
12. Let’s archive: “How do I prevent myself from getting digital Alzheimer’s?”
13. Ensure controllability: “How do I stay in control?”
14. Adoption tactics: “How do I achieve massive adoption?”
15. Acquisition fraud: “Avoid paying fake invoices!”

E-invoicing Checklist

E-invoicing Toolbox

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 15 Essential E-invoicing Questions to ask Yourself.

“We are happy to see that our solutions are more and more being delivered as a service.  In addition Basware Connectivity services make invoice processing more efficient and lower costs. Our solutions also scale up easily when the customer’s volumes grow,” says Ilkka Sihvo, CEO, Basware Corporation.

Basware’s e-invoicing services enable automation of purchase and sales invoices as well as allow organizations to immediately shift to 100 percent electronic invoicing. The services include the transaction of e-invoices, data recognition services for scanned invoices, a printing service, supplier portal as well as supplier and customer activation. The service sends invoices in electronic format from the invoicing solution, transfers the documents to the desired format and transmits them to the buyer’s invoice processing solution or printing service, depending on the preferred solution. Additionally Basware activates suppliers to start using e-invoicing.

Basware

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware delivers invoice automation solution to a supplier of pipe systems as SaaS.

The E-invoicing Toolbox is now officially launched. Shortly after the already successful

The toolbox is free, practical and can be put together with the 75+ latest and greatest free instruments on e-invoicing and invoice automation.

The latest, best and most practical tools
What free e-invoicing tools are out there? What are the best tips for driving adoption? How much can I and my customers save with e-invoicing? How to become compliant? What studies and statistics on e-invoicing are available?

No longer do you have to spend many precious hours on the Internet to collect tools and information, while wondering whether this is the best out there. Because, now there is the E-invoicing Toolbox. It provides all the relevant and recent resources to get you(r organisation) kick-started into electronic invoicing, online billing or invoice processing.

11 topics, 75+ instruments
The E-invoicing Toolbox provides you with over 75 of the best, latest and most practical tools out there:
-          Free (online) tools: “What free e-invoicing tools are out there?”
-          How to/DIY: “How to implement e-invoicing or e-billing all by myself?”
-          Business Case / ROI Calculators: “How much can I save and what will my ROI be? “
-          Facts and Figures: “When do my customers, suppliers and competitors adopt e-invoices”
-          Adoption Tactics: “How to achieve massive e-invoicing adoption?”
-          Video: “Want to have e-invoicing explained? Take a look at these video’s!”
-          Legal Stuff: “What legal aspects to look after when exchanging invoices.”
-          Compliance: “How to stay in control with e-invoices?”
-          Policy: “A look at (currently only) EU’s vision on e-invoicing towards 2020?
-          Standards: “UBL, CII, XML20002 and PDF, plus 80 more B2B e-invoicing standards.”
-          Tech Stuff: “Tools for techies.”

Easy target groups pre-selection or go ‘a la carte’
The website http://www.einvoicingtoolbox.com, contains some popular pre-selections based on target groups (freelancer, SME, large business, governments and service providers) and on themes (send, receive, pay and compliance). You can of course go ‘a la carte’ and select all or only the relevant topics.

The choices made are then combined into a personal custom made and free E-invoicing Toolbox that is sent to you by e-mail. The link allows you to get back to your toolbox whenever you want.

Who facilitates the E-invoicing Checklist?
The E-invoicing Toolbox is an initiative of the Dutch-based E-invoicing Trust Foundation. The E-invoicing Trust Foundation focuses on durable adoption of e-invoicing. The E-invoicing Trust Foundation currently facilitates:
-          E-invoicing Platform (also known as the EEI Platform),
-          E-invoicing Trend Map (coming soon)
-          E-invoicing Toolbox
-          E-invoicing Checklist
-          E-invoicing Newsletter
-          E-invoicing Linkedin Group

More questions?
Go to our FAQ page

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Free E-invoicing Toolbox provides 75+ helpful Tools for an E-invoicing Kick-start.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: HCL Technologies in partnership with Basware.

Of course we can imagine that organisations are planning or already using this approach. So let’s take a look at how the customer experiences the uptake of e-invoicing and its in this process.

Basics

1. A company sells products or services
2. I and many other customers buy these services/products
3. We allow the company to create revenue and (if it is an entrepreneur enough) some profits by paying the invoice

E-invoicing

1. The company initiates e-invoicing (sending e-invoices to my and others customers) for his sake
2. He has to ask me and other customers whether we accept his e-invoices
3. Now if we (the customers that allow him to create revenue and profits) don’t accept e-invoices, we get penalized….
4. However if we accept the e-invoice, we don’t get rewarded ….
5. And no, not getting a penalty is not the same as getting rewarded (“Congratulations, you just didn’t get a penalty, applaus!”)

Conclusion

1. Is this approach appropriate: heavens no! (Apologies for the rude language)
2. Is it a promising approach: sadly yes.
3. What effect does this: have Malus and no bonus approaches are hampering e-invoicing as a whole in a time frame where a company and its shareholder value are predominantly determined by the value and image perception by its customers.

So act responsibly and ask yourself what approach you can initiate to create an e-invoicing pull in your customer base.For better approaches to large scale adoption take a look at the E-invoicing Checklist: http://www.einvoicingchecklist.com

So what approach suits you best? Bonus, malus, no-bonus, customer centric?

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Are penalties an appropriate and promising way to increase e-invoicing adoption?.

At the same time, suppliers can send and manage catalogues, confirm purchase orders, and flip purchase orders to invoices for faster order to cash. There are even services available to help suppliers go electronic who may not yet be e-invoice ready.

The end result means saving time and money from day one.

Automating your financial processes enables you to achieve the promise of full Purchase-to-Pay – greater agility, full spend and cash flow visibility, increased compliance with strategic planning, and control of spend brought to the strategic level. When you control your cash flow, you can unlock working capital leaving you free for strategic planning and implementation.

Discover how you can build on this success when you move closer to full Purchase-to-Pay – download the Connectivity ebook.

www.basware.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Go beyond standard ERP and optimise your cash, cost, capital and control.

TIE Kinetix (“TIE”) announced today that it has formed a strategic alliance with Gothia B.V., part of the Gothia Financial Group, a Norwegian based substantial provider of invoice administration, invoice purchasing, debt purchasing and debt collection. The alliance enables TIE to integrate and resell the PayByBill solution as part of the TIE Kinetix E-commerce Platform.

PayByBill enables clients to hand over their invoices to Gothia B.V.. Gothia B.V. will then become the economic and legal owner of the invoices and will handle all the payments, on behalf of its own account. Immediately after transferring the invoice, clients are reimbursed by Gothia B.V.

Jan Sundelin, CEO of TIE: “The strategic partnership enables TIE to step up from an E commerce solution to a total business solution for all E-commerce invoices, which includes invoice administration, invoice purchasing, debt purchasing and debt collection. Gothia’s payment solution is rapidly gaining popularity all over Europe. Therefore, we are pleased to be able to offer this solution to both current and new customers of the TIE E commerce Platform, providing them with increased liquidity, security and control over their debtors.”

Trond Kristian Andreassen, CEO of Gothia Financial Group: “We welcome TIE as a strategic partner and we look forward to collaborating and to expanding the partnership. This partnership will bring real business value to all clients in the market. Both parties are convinced that this partnership will result in a world class end-to-end offering, which is based on TIE’s high-class E-commerce solution and Gothia’s solid invoice administration, debt purchasing and debt collection.”

Profile Gothia
Gothia Financial group is a provider of invoice administration, invoice purchasing, debt purchasing and debt collection. The core business of their organization is to create, control and collect invoices. They have more than 30 years experience in the field of financial services and their clients are large and leading companies from various industries. The Company has locations and offices in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, with the main office seated in Oslo. Gothia Financial Group has more than 800 employees and since 2008 its subsidiaries are wholly-owned by Norwegian Herkules Capital. Herkules is the leading Norwegian Private Equity firm with a total capital base of € 1.6 billion. More information on Gothia can be found on www.gothiagroup.com.

Profile TIE Kinetix
TIE Kinetix delivers innovative web centric, software based solutions that enable all trading partners in the supply chain to work seamlessly together on the major E-commerce processes of marketing, sales and fulfillment. With its TIE Kinetix concept, it provides a Total Integrated E-commerce process, embracing three innovative platforms for Business Integration (including e-invoicing, XML/EDI data synchronization), Content Syndication and E-commerce. The Total Integrated E-commerce solutions minimize the energy needed for a transaction lifecycle throughout the supply chain giving organizations the advantage to reduce cost and maximize revenue and profit.
TIE has more than two decades of experience in developing and implementing E commerce standards. TIE is a listed company with offices in the United States, Australia, France and the Netherlands.

www.tiekinetix.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: TIE and Gothia announce strategic partnership.

Basware has agreed to deliver purchase Basware Invoice Automation and e-invoicing solutions to Tokmanni Oy as a service (SaaS). The value of the deal is not disclosed. The services will be taken into use in Tokmanni’s financial shared service center by the end of 2011.

Basware Invoice Automation solution to be delivered as SaaS includes Basware Invoice Processing, Basware Contract Matching and Basware Order Matching. The e-invoicing solution includes scanning of incoming paper invoices and their transaction as well as the transaction of incoming e-invoices.

Basware Invoice Automation and e-invoicing solutions fit seamlessly together, which enables Tokmanni to automate its purchase invoice processes and move to 100 percent e-invoicing immediately. The solutions lower the costs per invoice and speed up processes. Our solutions are also easily scalable when invoicing volumes grow,” says Ilkka Sihvo, CEO, Basware Corporation.

“Our goal at Tokmanni is to continuously develop our processes to be able to offer our products at more favourable prices. We also follow sustainable code of conduct. Basware’s solutions support our growing business by automating the invoice processing and they also support sustainable code of conduct,” says Sixten Hjort, CFO, Tokmanni Oy.

Source: Reuters
www.basware.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware delivers invoice automation and e-invoicing solutions to Tokmanni Oy.

ReadSoft, a leading global provider of software solutions for document process automation and OB10, the world’s leading e-Invoicing network, today announced a new global partnership. Working together, ReadSoft and OB10 have developed a comprehensive, end-to-end business process solution that will integrate seamlessly with SAP, Oracle and other leading financial and ERP systems using the ReadSoft INVOICE COCKPIT Suite as a universal invoice hub to control all invoice processing irrespective of document format. The solution will drive lower costs and greater automation across the P2P process and help customers move to more advanced and efficient business processes.

The partnership, which already shares many mutual customers, will provide organizations with the capability to streamline and optimize their invoice and document automation process and benefit from improved efficiency and transparency within the financial supply chain. The partnership also enables leading systems integrators and business process outsourcers (BPOs) to provide enterprise customers and suppliers with an end-to-end common business process for all their invoicing requirements.

ReadSoft’s world leading accounts payable and receivable solutions will together with OB10’s best practice supplier enrolment and ability to handle any data format become more accessible to a wider range of businesses. This in turn increases benefits to buyers, suppliers and systems integration specialists. Moreover, this partnership accelerates the migration to truly paperless electronic invoicing, ensuring that Readsoft customers are enabled to take full advantage of the benefits in terms of cost, visibility and speed provided by e-Invoicing.

Peter Hörwing, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing at ReadSoft, commented: “Our partnership with OB10 builds on our business model of working with best-in-class organizations to create and deliver more efficient end-to-end business process solutions. This partnership demonstrates ReadSoft’s leadership in the AP market and our ability to provide a guaranteed service to our customers whatever the mix of EDI, electronic and paper, and manage the whole end-to-end process.”

OB10’s e-Invoicing network is operational across Europe, North America and Asia, supporting most local language requirements, and meets local, legal and tax compliance regulations.

ReadSoft’s unique integration capabilities and end-to-end business solutions allow efficient management of the accounts payable and accounts receivable process, including e-Invoicing, contract management and advanced payments. By combining document process automation with the global e-Invoicing network, enterprises can drive compliance, gain greater control over spend and maintain transparency across the financial supply chain.

Luke McKeever, CEO, OB10, commented: “This new global alliance between our organizations creates an opportunity for buyers, suppliers and systems integrators to work with the leading organizations in their fields. OB10’s ability to handle any data format and supplier enrolment expertise ensures that all suppliers can benefit from document automation and e-Invoicing through ReadSoft.”

ReadSoft
OB10

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: New partner agreement between ReadSoft and OB10.

Basware, the leading provider of purchase-to-pay solutions, has today launched Basware InvoiceOut™, a process outsourcing service designed to fully automate key aspects of the Accounts Payable (AP) function. Combining Basware’s process expertise with the leading invoice automation solution, Basware InvoiceOut™ drives efficiencies by externally managing labor-intensive elements of a businesses’ invoice handling process. The new service helps companies achieve world- class AP performance levels in a rapid timeframe, with the lowest total cost of ownership.

Basware InvoiceOut™ is a service that brings together three core components of what are often disparate elements in an Accounts Payable operation – access to resources that can be scaled up and down based upon business need, best practice process expertise and a flexible on demand technology infrastructure. It provides businesses with access to highly skilled professionals that take over the labor-intensive and routine processes that impede agile financial decision making.

The service includes daily invoice related tasks such as dispute management to handle any discrepancies with the invoice as well as supplier engagement to ensure any disputes are resolved quickly. Invoices are validated to ensure each invoice contains the required data needed to achieve the highest levels of automatic matching to purchase orders, and monthly process reporting is proactively undertaken to ensure continuous improvement across the invoice handling process.

It offers packaged processes for speeding up the transformation from paper to electronic. This includes immediate conversion to 100% electronic invoicing, along with sophisticated automatic invoice validation, matching, posting and workflow. Non-core activities to Accounts Payable, such as the scan & capture of paper invoices and accounts payable IT infrastructure are outsourced to enable in-house teams to focus on higher value activities.

Underpinning this service is Basware’s market-leading AP technology. InvoiceOut™ includes Basware Invoice Automation – a globally recognized solution for AP automation, along with infrastructure hosting that provides a robust, easily scalable and cost effective accounts payable IT environment. Businesses using the Basware InvoiceOut™ service also benefit from gaining access to the global Basware Open Network, enabling electronic purchase-to-pay message exchange within an open environment which connects 320,000 active buyers and suppliers.

According to the 2010 Lost in Transaction research, commissioned by Basware, invoice scanning / data entry is the most time consuming (38%) and error prone (41%) part of invoice processing. 7% of invoices contain errors and managing these exceptions in-house costs companies’ time and money, and can result in late payment fees and missed early payment discounts. Incoming invoices need to be validated and in some cases invoices need to be rejected, returned or cancelled.

By outsourcing the invoice handling process, businesses can remove this often resource-heavy component, enabling in-house professionals to focus on higher-value cash management activities, designed to drive profitable growth of the business. By adopting Basware InvoiceOut™, businesses that struggle with resources and infrastructure to manage sophisticated invoice automation processes, can expect to see a rapid solution deployment leading to immediate time and cost savings and faster response times to invoice exceptions.

Esa Tihilä, Senior Vice President, Basware comments: “Since the global economic downturn, businesses have been under pressure to improve profitability and top line growth. With time and cost savings opportunities largely exhausted, companies need to look to streamlining their internal processes. Basware InvoiceOut™ is a logical extension of our service portfolio and has been designed for any mid-size or large business that is seeking an efficient and effective Accounts Payable function. Basware’s InvoiceOut™ service enables organizations to rationalize their processes, allowing their internal teams to focus on higher value activities.”

To find out more about Basware InvoiceOut™ visit: http://www.basware.com/solutions/invoice-automation/process-outsourcing

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware launches global invoice processing outsourcing service.

Research from Basware shows that UK companies have fallen way behind their European and global counterparts in their use of e-invoicing technology.

While only 18 per cent of UK companies use this technology, 45 per cent of European businesses are already taking advantage of streamlined operations through using these tools; and globally, 35 per cent of companies use e-invoicing.

Despite a low take-up, there is a recognition that organisations need to embrace this technology.

The survey, which polled almost 1,500 finance professionals globally also showed that three quarters of UK experts believe that improvements in processing around e-invoicing could help them to achieve their streamlined operational efficiency targets. This figure was 50 per cent for the rest of the world, more of whom have effective processes in place already.

Commenting on the statistics, Andrew Jesse, UK Managing Director of Basware said:
“Improving cashflow is a critical issue for every business in the UK and abroad – as is improving efficiency. It’s a frustrating situation when so many British companies recognise what they need to do in order to make significant improvements, but either don’t do it or don’t know how to go about it. In reality, e-invoicing is an easy change that companies can and should be making.”

“Organisations switching to e-invoicing can expect to see anything up to and beyond a 50% saving in time. They can also reduce the cost of processing a single invoice down to around £1 – from anywhere up to £30 – through full automation of the process.”

Source: Director of Finance Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: UK slow to take up e-invoicing solutions.

HEADLINES

ISO 20022 Business Model: a review is underway!
Why invoice scanning and OCR is no more than an interim solution
Electronic Invoicing Makes Significant Strides

POLICY

Recent Finnish research shows: decreasing adoption rates of e-billing by consumers
Californian DWC Issues eBilling Rules
Germany eases e-invoicing legislation after 1 July 2011

PRODUCT INFORMATION

DILICOM chooses Accelya to roll out its e-invoicing project
Carlson Wagonlit Travel France dematerialises its customer invoices with Accelya
Vandeputte Safety adopts Certipost e-Invoicing
More than 5000 customers of Edicom use the EDIWIN Platform
How Clear Connect extends your finance system to automate e-invoice processing
Basware’s Supplier-Buyer Network grows to connect 320,000 organizations
EADS chooses b-process to implement its worldwide e-invoicing plan
Basware to deliver an extensive e-invoicing service to ISS Palvelut
STORK2 on e-invoicing: Call For Partners
B2BE and Accelya next to join the ever growing EEI Platform community

SNIPPETS

News update: week 17

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last May.

Vandeputte Safety aims at reaching 50% of its customer base through Certipost e-Invoicing. Via the Certipost open communication platform, named CertiONE, any type of company, from small businesses to multinationals, can safely exchange legally valid invoices and other commercial documents in electronical form. The data traffic on CertiONE is based on the one-to-many model, which means that the sender does not have to set up a separate link with each recipient. The central CertiONE platform provides a single point of access for all communications.

“We have opted for Certipost because of the high percentage of customers we have in common,” explains Peggy Daneels, ICT Director at Vandeputte Safety. “We want to approach as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible. So its is definitely an advantage that many of our customers are already connected to CertiONE.”

For companies that are working with specific accounting software, Vandeputte Safety proposes an integrated approach. “This means that the customer receives the e-invoice through CertiONE in the format of his choice so that invoice data can be automatically uploaded and processed in his accounting system,” clarifies Peggy Daneels. “This is not only beneficial to the environment but also makes the invoicing process much more efficient.”

For companies taking their first steps in electronic data exchange, Certipost provides a very accessible alternative. They can easily receive electronic invoices from Vandeputte Safety via a free secure mailbox on the internet. “No installation is required at the customer’s end. An internet connection and a user account is all he needs to get started,” continues Peggy Daneels. “All e-invoices that the customer receives from us are available centrally in his secure mailbox on the CertiONE platform. And as soon as a new invoice comes in, an automatic notification is sent to his standard email address.”

Certipost

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Vandeputte Safety adopts Certipost e-Invoicing.

The survey respondents – which include CEOs, presidents, owners, CFOs, and accounts receivable directors and managers from a wide variety of organizations – indicated they are submitting more invoices to their customers electronically this year compared to the previous year. These professionals also stated that more predictable payment from customers is still critical to maintaining the cash flow of their organizations.

With regard to collections, more than half of the professionals (59 percent) reported that they are calling customers more often to receive payment, similar to last year’s result (55 percent). Additionally, respondents reported an average days sales outstanding (DSO) of 33.5 days – lower than the average DSO of 36.1 days reported last year.

“Of the many insightful data points resulting from this survey, two key items illustrate how AR professionals feel about invoice submission methods available to them,” said Peter Watson, senior vice president for OB10. “The first is that 76 percent of the respondents believe e-Invoicing expedites the collections process, and the other shows that e-Invoicing was the only invoice submission method growing in use year over year. I believe the number of companies transitioning to electronic invoicing will continue to rise, partly due to many AR professionals being only somewhat satisfied with the results of their collections efforts and the vast majority being receptive to electronic methods of invoice submission.”

In terms of economic outlook, the survey indicates that respondents believe the economy is showing signs of improvement. About 43 percent reported that the state of the economy negatively impacted their business, compared to 65 percent from last year’s survey. When asked, 83 percent of the respondents stated they expect the economy to improve in 2011, compared to only 6 percent who expect the economy to get worse.

“The results of the data confirm what we already suspected – that the economy has made noticeable strides and appears to be on its way to recovery,” said Thomas M. Bohn, president and CEO for IARP. “Almost 60 percent predicted that their companies would do better financially in 2010 compared to the previous year. Now that we’re able to look back and accurately assess, about the same percentage have indicated that 2010 was indeed a better year than before. This illustrates how valuable AR professionals are in understanding the financial health of their companies.”

To read more about the results of the 2011 OB10-IARP Accounts Receivable Survey, download the executive summary as well as the full report from the OB10 and IARP websites at http://bit.ly/imsnYv and http://www.iappnet.org/ViewItem-1186.do?parentCatId=105 respectively.

OB10

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Electronic Invoicing Makes Significant Strides.

The services include the transaction of e-invoices, data recognition services for scanned invoices, a printing service, supplier portal as well as supplier and customer activation. Basware’s e-invoicing services enable automated invoicing as well as allow organizations to immediately shift to 100 percent electronic invoicing. The service sends invoices in electronic format from the invoicing solution, transfers the documents to the desired format and transmits them to the buyer’s invoice processing solution or printing service, depending on the preferred solution. Additionally Basware activates suppliers to start using e-invoicing.

“We are pleased to be able to deliver an extensive e-invoicing solution to ISS Palvelut. With the Basware service, companies can automate their invoice processing and quickly benefit from lower costs per invoice. The service can also be easily scaled as invoice volumes grow,” says Ilkka Sihvo, CEO, Basware Corp.

Basware

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware to deliver an extensive e-invoicing service to ISS Palvelut.

About B2BE
B2BE helps businesses be more efficient and profitable through the deployment of business-to-business e-Solutions. Since its inception in Australia, B2BE has expanded its operations across Europe and Asia, serving customers in diverse industries and market segments.

B2BE’s team of e-solution specialists are backed by a proven track record through a wide range of industries. Their consultants bring along extensive field experiences gained through successful collaborations with their customers, intermediaries and other third party providers.

B2BE has regional presence in the Asia pacific, Europe and North America to ensure their customers receive the most optimal and cost effective solutions in this fast changing world.

More information:
http://www.b2be.com
Mr Alex Keuss
Business Development
+31 (20) 658 6288
alex.keuss[at]b2be[dot]com

About Accelya / Clear Invoice
Accelya is a leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service provider with more than 30 years of experience in processing critical business transactions. Accelya is an active supplier of e-invoicing services under their Clear Invoice brand.

They dedicate their resources to understanding their customer’s business and specificities. Their approach is proactive and collaborative.

They explore, design, develop and run comprehensive, reliable and secure solutions for the delivery of their services.

The proactive attitude of their team helps them anticipate business evolutions and technical changes. This enables them to consistently deliver their services over the years and via all their international offices.

More information:
http://w3.accelya.com/
Morgan Queran
Marketing and Communication Clear’ Invoice
+33 (0)1 47 29 76 55
morgane[dot]queran[at]accelya[dot]com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: B2BE and Accelya next to join the ever growing EEI Platform community.

NOTE: even though advanced electronic signatures or EDI-agreements are no longer a fiscal obligation, they still come in handy. These measures attached to your invoices, eases the burden of proof in fiscal audit measures (in fact the burden of proof then lies at the fiscal authorities) and civil/trade law proceedings (where an invoice plays a vital role).

More information (use Google translate form your own language)
- FAQ on German e-invoicing simplification: http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/DE/Wirtschaft__und__Verwaltung/Steuern/Veroeffentlichungen__zu__Steuerarten/Umsatzsteuer/003.html
- Legal German Proposal: http://www.signature-check.de/fileadmin/pdf/BMF_Aenderung_UStG_26Okt2010_Formulierungsentwurf.pdf

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Germany eases e-invoicing legislation after 1 July 2011.

HEADLINES

• Big news in the world of SAP EDI and B2B
• Businesses globally cite E-Invoicing as key to unlocking operational efficiency
• E-Invoicing Delivers Tangible Benefits to AP Departments
• Is e-invoicing efficiency in Europe possible despite the lack of standards?
• In Four Steps to Invoice Automation
• Corporates demand e-invoicing from banks
• REVIEW REQUEST: Glossary of Electronic Invoicing Terms
• VIDEO: Google shows completely new way to communicate
  

POLICY

• PEPPOL infrastructure to be the backbone of e-invoicing in Norway
• Swedish Bankers Association reports: Use of electronic invoices hits new records
• Estonia Post’s online invoicing service boasts 300 percent growth

EVENT/WEBINAR

• Liaison webinar: Master the Balancing Act Workshop organized by ISO and NEN to establish new ground in current global trends

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• Cegelec adopts inbound e-invoicing
• Causeway newest member of the EEI Platform community
• Clear launches Cloud-based invoicing network
• J.P. Morgan’s order-to-pay network crosses 100,000 supplier threshold
• OB10 to provide Scottish Water with a e-Invoicing solution
• Sterling Commerce white paper: The business value of e-invoicing
• Getting to grips with e-invoices with iManage my invoices
• Basware helps organizations unlock cash flow efficiencies Oracle searches Ebilling Functional/Technical Expert
• RFI: Current and future status of e-signatures, validation, addressing books IDB cuts admin costs and optimizes order-to-cash processes
• UPDATE: Nifty EU E-invoicing Compliance Matrix
• Liaison Technologies extend Enterprise Integration and Data Management

SNIPPETS

• News update: week 16
• News update: week 15
• News update: week 14
• News update: week 13

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last April.

E-Invoicing Delivers Tangible Benefits to AP Departments in PayStream Advisors Annual Benchmark Survey. Seventy percent of companies surveyed either use or are evaluating an e-Invoicing solution; OB10, the leading global e-invoicing network, ideally positioned

A reduction in processing costs, errors and exceptions, and better visibility across the transaction lifecycle are just some of the benefits in store for Accounts Payable departments when they transition to an electronic invoicing solution, according to PayStream Advisors’ 2011 e-Invoicing Adoption Benchmarking Report.

The annual report provides insight into trends found with US-based companies in the areas of electronic invoicing, payments and emerging working capital solutions. The survey revealed that even though OCR has been around for a long time, it still has very low traction and is viewed as incomplete. In contrast, about 70% of the companies surveyed revealed that they currently use an e-Invoicing solution or were evaluating one in the future – an increase from last year’s results. The growth in the interest of e-Invoicing solutions is driven principally by the need for greater visibility and shortening approval cycles

“Our research indicates that more companies are investigating automation as part of their invoice receipt-to-pay process,” said Henry Ijams, Founder and Managing Director of PayStream Advisors. “As electronic solutions continue to mature, there exists significant potential to streamline the front end of the process through the implementation of advanced tools such as electronic invoicing.”

“As the leading global e-Invoicing network, we see first hand the challenges companies face when determining the best way to transition from paper to more efficient AP solutions. Ultimately, it all comes down to execution,” said Peter Watson, Senior Vice President, OB10. “Once they make e-Invoicing a core component of their back office accounts payable operations, they are able to streamline their processes, save money, better manage cash flow and increase efficiency in a way that allows them to maintain control and provide greater transparency.”

To learn more about the results of the PayStream Advsisors e-Invoicing Benchmarking Report., register today for the free April 27 best practices webinar at http://www.iofm.com/products/view/e-invoicing-benefits-webinar4-11

To download a copy of the 2011 PayStream Advisors e-Invoicing Adoption Benchmarking Report, go to http://ob10.com/Country/US/PayStreamSurvey

Source: PRWeb

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-Invoicing Delivers Tangible Benefits to AP Departments.

At Basware, we agree that standards are important for businesses and the industry as a whole as they enable customers and service providers to develop and adopt e-invoicing services. However, it is unlikely there will ever truly be one cohesive set of standards and therefore another approach is required if businesses in Europe are able to take advantage of e-invoicing.

The shortage of standards is not through a lack of intent in the industry, but the continual evolution means changes will always be made, new ones developed, and old ones will fall by the wayside. This means that everyone needs to be able to manage multiple invoicing standards which exist as part of our everyday business lives – whether they are national or regional standards.

Part of our ethos is that while customers should be aware of the different e-invoicing standards and formats, it’s not something that they should have to worry about – our solutions solve these potential logistical headaches.

Read more on the Basware blog

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Is e-invoicing efficiency in Europe possible despite the lack of standards?.

The CLEAR network will enable small firms to focus more strongly on customer service and growth by more efficiently managing the entire money collection process, from raising invoices, to sending, tracking and receiving payment. The new platform will enable SMEs to secure their cash flow as well as streamline their operations and reduce costs.

Firms, sole traders and freelancers register for the CLEAR service in seconds and can send their first invoice in less than five minutes. Creating and sending a simple invoice can take less than ten seconds.  The network’s easy-to-use set up wizard guides users through registration which also covers VAT and non-VAT registered businesses. The system is ideal for entrepreneurs and freelancers including photographers, developers and graphic designers who essentially don’t have an office.

The CLEAR network will cut red tape and the time businesses spend on administrative tasks such as invoicing, so they can focus on what they are best at – running and growing their businesses. CLEAR also believes it will help its customer to get paid up to 14 days faster. And because the CLEAR invoicing network is cloud-based, companies don’t have to run any software on their own computers.

Peter Whent, CEO and founder of CLEAR, said: “Having been a small business owner myself several times, I understand at first hand the value of business tools or innovations to help small companies work smarter and spend more time on their business. Technology solutions such as the CLEAR invoicing network will help small organisations become more agile by streamlining the time they spend on managing a crucial but very time consuming administrative process”.

CLEAR plans to extend the reach of the CLEAR invoicing network beyond a simple web interface. “Many businesses use a business system of some sort to run other parts of their business,” Whent explains. “Rather than provide another interface we are working on integrating CLEAR into some of the popular small business software offerings as well as mobile devices such as iPhone or Blackberry so invoices can be raised and submitted while on a customer’s premises or between appointments. Ultimately we want people to be able to send or receive an invoice via the CLEAR network from anywhere using their system or device of choice.”

“Beyond that we plan to build a complete ecosystem that delivers a range of innovative business tools to small firms accessible from virtually anywhere.”

Peter Whent continues: “Small businesses know better than others the saying that time is money. We are making invoicing and getting paid as simple as sending an email for small firms. But this is just the first step on a journey.”

Clear

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Clear launches Cloud-based invoicing network.

The Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) is opening up the private market of value added network providers (and others), allowing them to become access points for electronic invoicing. Instead of a single government managed access point, it has been decided to encourage the private sector to provide access points based around the PEPPOL infrastructure and related standards. This will make PEPPOL the backbone of public electronic invoicing in Norway. Electronic invoicing with the PEPPOL standard format will be compulsory for all state and regional health entities in Norway by July 1st 2012.

Difi also invites VAN-operators and large invoice issuers and invoice receivers to utilize PEPPOL’s infrastructure for exchange of electronic procurement messages on standard formats, and by this take the opportunity to provide what is known as an access point.

By connecting to the PEPPOL infrastructure, which will act as a central hub, all issuers of electronic invoices will able to send these to their customers both within Norway and across Europe.  Currently this is challenging due to the variety of incompatible systems in use. Increasing public and private sector access to the PEPPOL infrastructure will help Norway realize the benefits of electronic procurement.

Electronic invoicing in public sector in Norway
Norwegian state entities and regional health organization should be able to receive invoices electronically on standard format as of 1st of July 2011, and by 1st of July 2012, it will be compulsory.

One access point is sufficient
According to Dag Strømsnes, Head of Department for Public Procurement in Difi and chairman of the PEPPOL board, more access points will make it easier for public entities to promote electronic invoicing. Access points act as information interchange centres.  By connecting to only one access point any supplier or public sector buyer will be able to reach all the other suppliers or public sector buyers, says Mr. Strømsnes.

New access points will contribute to increased competition in the supplier market, he continues. He welcomes both financial (such as banks) and non-financial entities to become access points.

Source: PEPPOL

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: PEPPOL infrastructure to be the backbone of e-invoicing in Norway.

Just recently, J.P. Morgan launched a new patent-pending e-invoicing functionality for suppliers, called Auto-Configuration E-File, which enables suppliers to eliminate upfront implementation costs and bypass the need for specialized IT skills. Using Auto-Configuration E-File, suppliers can quickly begin to interact with their buyers in an automated fashion. Designed primarily for small and medium size suppliers, Auto-Configuration E-File enables suppliers to load invoice files directly from their current billing system, versus having to enter them one-by-one, minimizing keystroke errors and increasing the efficiency with which suppliers can transact with their buyers.

“J.P. Morgan continues to strengthen its commitment to Order-to-Pay suppliers by offering improved support and more choices in how they transact with buyers. The diversity of options we offer to suppliers to connect to the network is key to making it accessible for small and large suppliers alike,” said Eduardo Vergara, global commercial card executive, J.P. Morgan. “The significant growth of suppliers participating in our network is due, in part, to the ease and choice of connectivity we provide to suppliers.”

In addition to the new Auto-Configuration E-File functionality, J.P. Morgan recently introduced a number of other enhancements for suppliers, including a free Invoice Web Form that enables infrequent use suppliers to electronically submit non-Purchase Order invoices via Order-to-Pay without the need to set up an Order-to-Pay account. J.P. Morgan also launched a revamped supplier home page and expanded customer service hours. J.P. Morgan provides dedicated relationship managers to high volume suppliers on the network, ensuring they are able to work with someone knowledgeable of their specific needs and processes.

J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay solution offers distinct benefits to suppliers, including:

• Choice – Suppliers have a variety of options to choose from for receiving purchase orders and sending invoices, making the solution easy and efficient for suppliers of any size. Multiple payment options are provided, including ACH, paper check, card and wire.
• Transparency — The dedicated supplier portal enables users to easily track the latest status of invoices and payments at any time. Order-to-Pay not only provides visibility into payment status, but enables suppliers to choose how and when they get paid.
• Service — J.P. Morgan’s dedicated Supplier Services desk ensures that suppliers can get personalized, knowledgeable support. Additional benefits include cost reduction through the reduction of paper and postage costs, and the elimination of phone-based inquiries regarding invoice and payment status.

“Attracting supplier interest in an EIPP enrollment is critical to the success of any AP automation program. AP/EIPP providers, such as J.P. Morgan, strive to make participation seamless while adding value to the supplier relationship. We believe that what makes J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay solution so successful for suppliers is the variety of transaction methods offered, the immediate access to invoice and payment transactions, and access to dedicated supplier services experts,” said Henry Ijams, managing director of PayStream Advisors. “An AP/EIPP platform that only serves the needs of buyers is only solving a fraction of the AP automation challenge. Providers must serve suppliers’ unique needs to create lasting supplier value and drive participation.”

J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay solution enables suppliers to electronically receive purchase orders, submit and track invoices, receive detailed remittance information, and take advantage of early payment opportunities to improve cash flow management. J.P. Morgan’s network of suppliers ranges from small companies of one or two people to Fortune 500 companies, representing virtually every industry segment. In 2010, buyers and sellers transacted more than $155 billion in business via the Order-to-Pay network.

Source: Business Wire

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: J.P. Morgan’s order-to-pay network crosses 100,000 supplier threshold.

By automating manual, paper based accounts payable and accounts receivable invoice processes, companies can reduce costs, improve customer relationships, take advantage of term discounts and reduce the risk of being found non-compliant with local tax legislation, along with the associated risk of fines and penalties.

In early 2010, Sterling Commerce commissioned Forrester Consulting to execute a study to determine the cost of manual and electronic invoice processes, associated errors, and VAT audits. The survey was conducted across 169 respondents in accounts payable, accounts receivable and tax management functions in enterprises with annual turnovers in the range of $250 million to $5 billion, in the United States, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Italy. The study looked at enterprises in the manufacturing, retail/wholesale, communications/media and distributions/logistics industries.

The survey found that by moving from manual, paper-based invoice processes to fully automated, electronic invoice processing, businesses can achieve:
- Cost savings of 90 percent on the accounts payable (AP) side
- Cost savings of 44 percent in the accounts receivable (AR) departments
- Error reduction of 37 percent on all types of invoices.
- Storage costs savings (with over 40 percent of companies retaining archives for up to 10 years, savings of up to 67 percent on AP and 32 percent on AR invoices were realized)

For more details, read the white paper

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Sterling Commerce white paper: The business value of e-invoicing.

Basware identified the four steps to achieve the benefits of invoice processing:

Step 1 – Audit your current process, set the goals for improvement and start the transformation
Step 2 – Selection process: Consider only solutions that support the entire P2P process
Step 3 – Aim at a fully electronic AP process and understand invoice automation and invoice to order matching
Step 4 – Make a plan to shift to electronic supplier collaboration

More information
- Brochure: http://www.basware.com/Resources%20Documents/Invoice-Automation-Basware-ebook-2011_FINAL.pdf?iadl=37
- Case Study: http://www.basware.com/Resources%20Documents/Basware_Customer_Success_2010_ABB.pdf?iadl=38

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: In Four Steps to Invoice Automation.

HEADLINES

• E-Invoicing and E-Billing – From Evolution to Revolution
• e-invoicing – one size doesn’t fit all
• How to build customer resistance against signing up for e-billing
• How eBilling can help SEPA Direct Debit acceptance
• e-Invoicing: too complex for 40% of the business
• 80 B2B Standards in use today, and still counting
• 7 Major differences between the CIIv2 and ISO20022 new born standards
• Is promoting e-Billing the same as Greenwashing?
• Paperless invoicing and reducing operational costs

POLICY

• Govt mulls mandatory electronic billing
• Survey: Adoption of e-Billing in the U.S.
• Facing the cyber-zombies – EU Agency gets tough on Botnets
• Lack of standards hindering European e-invoicing adoption?
• Taiwan governemt’s eInvoice transactions hit 50,000
• EBICS – The Standard for Corporate-to-Bank Communication?
• eFactura, the Argentinian Electronic Invoice method
• First PEPPOL e-invoice sent from Denmark and received in Sweden

EVENT/WEBINAR

• OB10 webinar: How a global technology giant converted 1.6m invoices to electronic invoices
• Webinar enterprise data integration for the mid-market

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• New capital investment enables OB10 to increase growth
• OB10 and Scan One Asia Pacific form partnership to offer e-Invoicing in APAC region
• Clear Invoices joins the EEI Platform
• Bank app lets you pay bills with iPhone camera
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 SP1 White Paper on Electronic Invoicing
• Basware and Cortex announce Apache Go-Live on e-Invoicing, Invoice Automation
• Billable makes creating an e-invoice ridiculously quick and simple
• Iron Mountain to hire 550 people in new invoicing unit
• Basware positioned as a leader in eProcurement by independent research
• OB10 outlines advantages of e-Invoicing over OCR
• Ricoh will offer Basware’s technology for invoice automation
• TrustWeaver-Archiving: strong demand for global legal archiving solutions
• Coca-Cola implements Taulia invoicement suite
• Check and validate eSignatures from more than 300 providers in Europe
• Tieto appoints Lasse Heinonen as the Group’s CFO
• End of free paper bills for T-mobile users
• Secure Invoicing for Microsoft Word
• The Verdigris project and the right of bills

SNIPPETS

• News update: week 12
• News update: week 11
• News update: week 10
• News Update: week 9

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing and AP automation resources you may have missed last March.

Stefan Foryszewski, SVP Business and Product Development, OB10, commented: “We are delighted to be working with Scan One Asia Pacific to promote our e-Invoicing services and help build on our e-Invoicing network in the APAC region. E-Invoicing brings not only financial but also green benefits and this new partnership will more easily enable firms to realise these associated benefits.”

Gary Morley, Sales & Marketing Director, Scan One Asia Pacific, commented: “The combination of OB10 and Scan One’s Account Payable solutions will make it the most complete and comprehensive solution available in the world today. We have always put efficiency of payment at the heart of our operations. OB10’s e-Invoicing network provides unparalleled speed and accuracy in the processing of invoices and we are looking forward to offering this as part of our Accounts Payable Solution.”

OB10

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: OB10 and Scan One Asia Pacific form partnership to offer e-Invoicing in APAC region.

With no finance or technical skills needed, Clear enables to devote more time to earning money, look stunningly professional and get paid faster. Clear will also improve its customersr cash flow. Research shows that small companies that use tools like Clear get paid on average 14 days quicker. Why? Because invoices don’t simply disappear into a black hole only for you to discover months later that they never arrived.

Clear is part of EGS Group Ltd, a business trusted by over 100 major organizations to process and deliver in excess of £1 billion-worth of invoices electronically each year.

More information:

Clear
15-17 St Cross St
EC1N 8UW
London
United Kingdom
www.clearinvoices.com

Contact:
Ms Minal Modha
Marketing Executive and Sales Executive
+44 207 5392828
minal.modha@egsgroup.com

About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform is the independent platform for professionals on electronic invoicing and invoice automation.

The mission of the EEI Platform is: to help accelerate the awareness, adoption and penetration of e-invoicing invoice automation across Europe. Creating benefits and opportunities for its members, partners and participants.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Clear Invoices joins the EEI Platform.

The new arrangement has been worked out in a bid to tackle a VAT bill racket that is assaulting the very heart of the country´s tax system.

Under this arrangement, large taxpayers will need to adopt a web-based computer billing system. Medium and smaller taxpayers too will need to arrange for fiscal printers and cash register machines respectively and compulsorily input all their transactions into them.

“The new policy changes will be effected through the upcoming budget,” a highly placed government source told Republica.

The change is being effected as per the recommendations of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), whose recent crackdown on 32 firms involved in forging VAT receipts revealed that the racket is much wider in scale and is present in almost the entire business sector.

IRD found that under the racket known the world over as the ´case of the missing vendor´, firms including big corporate houses were either buying genuine VAT receipts from smaller firms or buying printed receipts of some other registered traders to create fake transactions in order to evade tax. Some of them even claimed VAT refund on the basis of the fake VAT receipts and customs documents, thereby siphoning off funds from the national exchequer without having contributed even a penny into it.

The government has admitted that the racket, which has so far been found to involve around Rs 10 billion (well over $138 million) and has inflicted revenue losses of over Rs 4 billion, flourished because it did not mechanize the VAT system. In the absence of this, the tax administration failed to keep track of the vendors, while enabling entrepreneurs to create fake transactions.

“To our reckoning, we must not delay enforcement of an electronic billing system,” the source said.

Under the new practice, web-based billing will directly link transactions of large taxpayers with the the system at the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). This means whenever they issue a bill to any party, the transaction will be automatically recorded in the main server at IRD.

The fiscal printers, like the ones used by hotels and service entities, will have a device that records all transactions carried out over the span of a year. Cash register machines will also have a similar backup device, registering all transactions carried out by small taxpayers.

“Because the taxpayers will not be able to manipulate transactions recorded in the system, we will be able to track down the vendors and cross-match their transactions,” the source said.

This is not the first time the government is talking about web-based computer billing, fiscal printers and cash register machines. The existing tax law encourages taxpayers to install such a system voluntarily and even allows them to deduct the cost incurred from their profits, thereby freeing them from any additional financial burden. However, only a handful of business firms bothered to implement the system.

Given their importance in plugging leakage, particularly of VAT, which has been reeling due to under-invoicing and lack of receipts, the government four years ago had announced it was making electronic billing compulsory. However, this never came into implementation.

Source: Republica Business & Economy

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Govt mulls mandatory electronic billing.

System testing and configuration has been completed in the United States, and Basware and Cortex have begun rolling out Basware Invoice Automation solutions to all of Apache’s U.S. business units. By year-end, more than 2,000 of Apache’s U.S. suppliers will be connected to the Cortex Network and the Basware platform.

The joint Basware-Cortex solution enables Apache to receive electronic invoices from suppliers across North America via the Cortex network and Basware platform directly into Basware’s leading Invoice Automation software. The joint solution reduces the time and cost of scanning, entering data and approving and processing invoices, while enabling greater visibility and control over financial processes. Cortex provides full transparency into the status of each invoice including accepted and rejected notices, as well as training and ongoing support programs for each supplier, resulting in faster processing and approval times, the potential for quicker payments, and reduced effort for both Apache and its suppliers.

”By combining e-invoicing with invoice automation, Apache can streamline its invoice processing operations, and gain greater visibility into spend and cash flow to make more strategic financial decisions,” said Bob Cohen, vice president of marketing, Basware, North America. “The combined Cortex and Basware networks enable Apache to strengthen its relationships and communicate more effectively with its suppliers.”

“Cortex is excited to be live in the U.S. with Apache,” said Ryan Lailey, vice president of Business Development at Cortex. “The growth of our network to include over 2,000 U.S-based suppliers for Apache will continue to increase the value of the Cortex Network across North America.”

Basware

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware and Cortex announce Apache Go-Live on e-Invoicing, Invoice Automation.

The US-based company aims to win new business by offering digital invoice management to companies across Europe as costs of handling invoices are high and e-invoicing has not picked up due to the lack of standards.  Bettina Wonsag, chief of the new European unit, told Reuters that “There is a huge potential here … especially in financial services and retail we see a very big market”.

Iron Mountain also said its recent market study shows that companies are unaware of the true costs of handling invoices, and shy away from e-invoicing due to its complexity. The study also revealed that only 4% of invoices are transferred electronically in Europe these days. However in Germany, Britain and Spain 36 to 40 percent of large companies would introduce e-invoicing if they were a single standard, Iron Mountain said referring to its market survey.

This American surprise raises some questions though:

1.       Are all of these 550 newly hired all signed up for invoicing automation and e-invoicing?
2.       If yes, in what way will the personnel costs affect their pricing model?
3.       If standards are the main issue, how are they going to/ can they change the behavior of companies?
4.       Why can’t we find more information about this on their sites?

Still, it sounds great. This way the EU doesn’t have to wait until 2020 to let e-invoicing become predominant.

More information
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/09/ironmountain-invoicing-idUSLDE7280ZB20110309

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Iron Mountain to hire 550 people in new invoicing unit.

Basware has been confirmed as a leader in eProcurement Solutions by Forrester Research Inc. in the March 2011 report The Forrester Wave™: eProcurement Solutions, Q1 2011. “Basware scored particularly well for its broad category support and supplier enablement and integration capability” the report stated. To download a complimentary copy of the 2011 report, please visit

Forrester evaluated the 11 vendors with enterprise-class procurement solutions through a combination of vendor surveys, product demos, strategy briefings and customer reference calls for the report which provides a detailed review of the procurement market. The vendors were then ranked against 70 criteria, including current offering, strategy and market presence.

Forrester evaluated Basware as providing a “leading P2P solution” and listed Basware’s main strength as “its focus on the complete process” and “invoice automation even for non-PO purchases,” as well as liking Basware’s open network strategy because it “enables customers to connect more quickly with their supplier base. Instead of trying to persuade vendors to use yet another self-service portal, Basware will let them simply add the new customer to their existing eCommerce solutions.” Further, Forrester gave Basware the highest score in the globalization category which evaluated how suitable the solution is for use in non-English and non-US environments.

According to a separate commissioned study  conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Basware, combining e-invoicing with eProcurement doubles firms’ likelihood of achieving AP invoice processing excellence. Basware’s end-to-end approach of combining e-invoicing and eProcurement has helped international customers such as ACCO Brands, Crown Worldwide, SITA and Gannett to achieve increased efficiencies, reduced costs and improved cash management control over their entire purchase-to-pay process.

John Webster, VP Global Product Marketing, Basware said, “In this volatile economic climate, businesses are looking for ways to improve the stability and performance of their operations: streamlining their procurement processes and ensuring they have the capabilities and opportunity to take advantage of a truly global network of suppliers are essential business strategies. Organizations need to connect with their suppliers more quickly and easily in an effort to make supply chains more efficient. We believe our leader position in the Forrester eProcurement Wave supports the efforts we have made to develop an integrated purchase-to-pay offering that enables best practices and ensures rapid return on investment, helping our customers reduce costs, improve cash management and collaborate more closely with their suppliers.”

Basware’s purchase-to-pay solutions include Invoice Automation, Procurement and Connectivity services for buyer-supplier collaboration.

To download a free copy of the Forrester report and to register for a complimentary webinar on the research findings, please visit www.basware.com/forrester-eprocurement.

Basware

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware positioned as a leader in eProcurement by independent research.