PROACTIS, a company specialised in Spend Control and eProcurement, today announced a deal with Cancer Research UK, a cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

The choice for PROACTIS was made after a comprehensive evaluation process and will allow Cancer Research UK to reduce administration costs, improve finance controls, and ensure best value for what it spends on goods and services to support frontline services.

International Companies reduces invoicing costs with Esker on Demand Automation

International Companies, the corporate umbrella for four leaders in the food ingredient industry, has implemented an Esker on Demand solution to automate the processing and delivery of customer invoices.

The Esker solution integrates with International Companies’ ERP system and leverages Esker production facilities to eliminate the need for manual mail processing while facilitating customer adoption of electronic invoicing.

SciQuest enters market with an enhanced accounts payable solution

SciQuest, a provider of on-demand source-to-settle solutions,  announced a new Accounts Payable product. The new product features expanded functionality for automating accounts payable, eliminating manual processes and providing powerful insight for finance and procurement staff.

“SciQuest Accounts Payable solutions are designed to help organizations automate the capture, management and payment of all invoices, freeing staff to identify more profitable supplier relationships and eliminate bottlenecks in paper-driven processes,” said Max Leisten, market director.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: AP Automation News: Proactis strikes deal | International Companies joins Esker | SciQuest introduces AP solution.

ProgressSoft and EbpSource have announced a Partnership , to bring advanced E-billing and payment capabilities to Middle East banks and billers.

On-site demonstrations of the e-billing and payment capabilities being offered by ebpSource and ProgressSoft, along with all other ProgressSoft solutions are being conducted to MEFTEC (Middle East Financial Technology conference, editor] delegates, comprising the highest level of executives from both the banking and telecoms sectors in the region.

Cape Town goes live with SAP electronic billing system

With SAP AMI Integration for Utilities, the City of Cape Town is able to read meters remotely, eliminating issues of access to premises, travel time and manual data capturing errors – thereby ensuring 100% accuracy of bills. In addition, the utility can offer tailored billing services based on actual consumption data and meter reading that better matches the consumers’ needs.

Striata and Tricubes partner to secure nationwide Malaysian eBilling initiative myemail.my

Striata, a global service provider of paperless solutions, has partnered with Tricubes, an ID authentication specialist, to provide Malaysian consumers with a secure document delivery platform. This is to support Tricubes’ myemail.my service which went live on September 2011 – the aim of which is to provide every Malaysian citizen with an authenticated email address – facilitating safe, secure document delivery

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing News: ProgressSoft And EbpSource team up, Cape Town starts E-billing via SAP, and more.

How to…

Well, how does this work then? CloudScan users provide suppliers with a unique email address where they send their documents. These are then automatically converted into Tradeshift’s open digital format and appear on the user’s e-invoicing platform. Easy enough.

Easy communication

But that’s not all Tradeshift has to offer, if we may believe their rants. If needed information is missing, CloudScan sends a message to the invoice supplier telling them to add data. An additional advantage: the two-pane interface to do so seems workable even for those challenged in the field of IT. The process of adding data never has to be repeated, because the info is remembered for the next invoice.

100% e-invoicing is attainable

The idea behind CloudScan is to adapt the technology and process to the user and not the other way around. We’re not all technical geniuses, after all. This is why Tradeshift claims that 100% electronic invoicing is achievable. CloudScan, in the eyes of its developer the first solid step towards this goal, will launch in Spring 2012.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: The final hours of paper invoices? Tradeshift believes so with Cloudscan.

DataServ and The Doe Run Company have entered into a new multi-year agreement under which DataServ will provide document and process automation capabilities via its SaaS Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) Solution.

The solution will provide over 100 Doe Run employees with a simpler, faster email-based approval process, and a managed repository to quickly locate and use relevant documents throughout the full lifecycle including tax and audit functions.

HKS selects CCG electronic invoicing to improve financial oversight through AP Automation

Global architectural design firm HKS, Inc. recently implemented Central Consulting Group (CCG)’s Electronic Invoicing software for Deltek Vision to improve oversight of and speed the client invoicing process.

CCG Electronic Invoicing transforms a manual process with multiple paper documents into a single electronic system, leading one source of truth. The easier review process also leads to a faster billing cycle, another key selling point.

Orange Business Services transforms procurement with e-invoicing by Kofax

Pete Loughlin Orange Business Services, the B2B arm of France Telecom, is currently implementing a new e-invoicing system to improve the efficiency of its purchasing processes. The network and managed IT service provider is implementing the Kofax Transformation Modules.

It contains of a set of applications that allows Orange Business Services to capture data from an electronic document and check it against existing information in its Oracle ERP system.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: AP Automation News: Doe Ron selects DataServ, HKS Selects CCG, Orange selects Kofax.

What can you expect at the 5th Dutch E-invoicing Conference?

9 keynote speeches

Get inspired by:

• Trendwatching: the return of paper? And other trends for 2012 – 2015
• Dutch E-invoicing Ambassador- B2G electronic invoicing: a status update
• FiNBOX– the new Dutch e-invoicing inbox that sits right in your online banking portal
• E-invoicing: hype or reality- is e-invoicing a hype or the actual reality?
• The lifecycle of an e-invoice – an e-invoice lives so much longer than you think
• Connecting the Dots – smart e-invoicing delivers instant benefits, especially now
• E-invoicing Monitor – the state of e-invoicing in the Netherlands in 2012
• 4-corner model e-invoicing research– can service providers agree on a framework for higher adoption?
• Aernout van Speyk – Chair European Institute for Public Policy and Research

More information

15 hands-on break-out sessions

Are you planning to get started with e-invoicing or invoice automation? Why not profit from the tips and tricks presented to you in these break-out sessions:

• Smooth e-invoicing adoption to 96.000 water supply customers
• E-invoicing in real life – experiences from Essent, Roto and Sundio
• Getting paid faster by using intelligent e-invoices
• The Strukton success story - invoice automation implementation
• Iron class invoice automation automation at Tata Steel
• E-invoicing by the Dutch IRS via Logius: experience so far
• How does e-invoicing work for Sanoma Publishers?
• E-invoicing the battle – KPN against BUVA
• Energizing e-invoicing by E.ON – receiving paper or e-invoices
• Documents over IP – e-invoicing has never been so easy
• e-Invoicing: a win win situation
• E-invoicing through SWIFT – easy e-invoicing adoption for corporates
• Portbase: e-invoicing in Europe’s largest harbour

More information

25 leading service providers

Ever wanted to meet-up with one or more service providers? Or are you looking for some reference information or even a short demo? Our market place suits your needs with these leading service providers:

• AcceptEmail
• Accounting Plaza
• AddComm
• Anachron
• Basware
• BCT Partners For Value
• Bluem
• Bottomline Technologies
• Buckaroo
• Certipost
• Dimensys
• Docspro
• Document Exchange
• Dutch Payment Group
• ECP
• Edicom Group
• ING Invoice Service
• ISProjects
• Kofax Netherlands
• Logius (The public B2G provider)
• Mailwriter
• PostNL
• Quadira
• Ricoh
• Selfbilling.com
• Simac Document Solutions
• Tieto
• Tradeshift

More information

 There is more

• Free parking, free admittance (for end-users), lunch and drinks
• E-invoicing Conference Magazine: including the programme, a floor plan and supplier profiles
• Reference interviews and demo’s
• B2G E-invoicing discussion forum
• Receive a free copy of the 2012 E-invoicing Monitor, valued at € 500,-
• Receive all information and brochures in our interactive conference bag
• One of the attendees wins an iPad3.

We are looking forward to meeting you on April 24th, 2012 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands!

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Dutch E-invoicing Conference: 24 April 2012 | Free for end-users.

The specialty chemical manufacturer decided to implement Ariba’s cloud-based solution to fuel smart process that reduces errors, speeds approvals and drives compliance.

About Clariant

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).

Implementing Ariba’s Invoice Management and PO automation

Delivered on-demand via the Ariba Network, the Invoice Management and PO automation solutions provide Clariant with :

• 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

Results after implementing Ariba Cloud Services

A cloud-based solution delivered via the Ariba Network,^™Ariba Procurement Content integrates with Clariant’s SAP^® system and provides the company with a complete content source of approved goods and services through a single user interface. Using the solution, Clariant is able to:

• Requisition any type of good or service
• Create a consumer-like shopping cart to simplify search, comparison, and buying
• Rapidly enable supplier catalogs to maximize spend coverage and term compliance
• Consolidate management of goods and services and optimize spend control
• Automate catalog verification to speed catalog updates, reduce workload, and improve catalog accuracy
• Identify and more efficiently collaborate with suppliers
• Drive greater usability and increase adoption

Feedback from Clariant and Ariba

First, we give the floor to Peter Beyeler, Global eProcurement & Automation Manager, Clariant:

• “Purchase order (PO) and invoice management is a highly paper-intensive and error-prone function,”
  
• “As a company committed to operating at the highest levels of efficiencies, Clariant is taking action to fuel an automated process through which we can improve our cost structure and performance.”
  
• “We recognized early on that the key to user adoption of any procurement system is providing an easy-to-use tool with current content.”
  
• “Ariba Procurement Content lets us deliver a simple and intuitive shopping experience so that we can drive more spend through our system, ensure compliance with our contracts and realize greater savings.”

And now James Tucker, Director of Marketing, Invoice and Payment Solutions, Ariba:

• “Accounts Payable teams spend inordinate amounts of time and effort processing paper invoices – from matching them with contracts and tracking POs and goods receipt to correcting errors and fielding supplier inquiries. Yet most companies still have limited visibility into the process, leaving them exposed to risks like overlooked billing discrepancies, missed discounts, and overpayments.”
• “With Ariba Invoice Management and PO Automation, Clariant can execute a smart invoicing process that delivers greater visibility and control, improved contract compliance, and stronger supplier relationships.” 

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: How Clariant transformed Invoicing with Ariba.

About this webinar

This webinar will show you the massive potential the new Kofax Capture 10 release has to automate your invoice process entirely.You will learn how to:

• Utilize OCR technology to capture invoice header and line level data
• Automate invoice validation
• Streamline emailed invoices
• Integrate seamlessly with your workflow or ERP system
• Capture/Process remotely, in the cloud!
• Eliminate invoice handling and storage costs, no more paper!
• Scan other key financial documents; 1099, Certificate of insurance

http://www.advancedcapture.com/events/webinars.html

Webinar details and registration

Join Kofax on Tuesday March 27th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, or Tuesday April 10th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, as we show you how Kofax Capture 10 can improve your financial business processes.

Register now

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Change the way you process invoices.

B2B cloud – Simplifying the world of global commerce

E-invoicing is Easy Invoicing

“E-invoicing – the rest is history”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware movie time: B2B Cloud – Easy Invoicing– History of invoicing.

What a month! Think about the Threat Outbreak Alert on fake electronic invoice e-mails. It wasn’t the fist time and certainly won’t be the last time. For liberalised regions that is. And then we had the research that showed that PDF invoices are a great first step, but are hampering further adoption.

Furthermore, we had the fifth acquisition already of this year: ReadSoft buying Foxray. And from what we heard, it certainly won’t be the last for this year. A shake-out is on our way.

And then we have Dimensys and Cegedom. We proud to announce them as the newest additions to the E-invoicing Platform, bot packing a real punch and really worth taking a look at. Just as all the other posts (otherwise we don’t post them, do we?)

GENERAL

• Threat Outbreak Alert: fake electronic invoice e-mail messages
• 12 Essentials for succesful utility e-billing and e-payment programs [WHITE PAPER]
• Electronic billing practices increase accountability for healthcare professionals
• E-invoicing automatically from your billing system. How it works and how much it costs
• PDF Invoices: creating more paperwork than it saves [RESEARCH]
• Cegedim joins the E-invoicing Platform community
• Dimensys joins the E-invoicing Platform, promoting potential disruptive technology
• Basware E-invoicing Services grows 32 percent. Transaction volume up 53 percent
• Vietnamese Businesses Encouraged Using E-Invoice

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• 37 OB10 webinars you may have missed [NO KIDDING]
• E-invoicing News: The Network selects Corcentric | HVAC selects Pagero
• Do you need compliant e-invoicing in Mexico? Call OB10!
• Basware Webinar: Invoice Automation for Small and Medium Businesses
• Boliden Metals selects Ariba for Sourcing, Contract Management en Supplier Information Management
• E-invoicing News: IFO chooses Pagero | Lambeth Council selects RBS e-invoicing
• 38 E-invoicing and AP resources you may have missed last January
• SWIFT is now open for e-Invoice Traffic
• FRAM: Best practice on tax-compliant e-invoicing by Accelya
• US Veteran Affairs endorses electronic invoicing by OB10
• Basware wins tender for The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
• AcceptEmail introduces SIS: Short Invoice Service
• 23 handy online invoicing apps for freelancers [PICS]
• US E-invoicing News: Amerinet selects GHX | Sears Canada selects ADP
• Simply Market exchanges over 1 million invoices through b-process, Ariba
• Hospital ER visit racks up $20,211 bill [Messy business]

POLICY

• Ireland launches Government E-invoicing project
• Towards an integrated EU market for card, internet and mobile payments [CONSULTATION]

MERGERS, ACQUISITION AND PARTNERSHIPS

• Readsoft buys Foxray. Increasing its AP Automation position. 11 facts
• Fundtech and Dataline partner up to deliver EIPP to Asian Pacific corporates

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 29 E-invoicing and AP resources you may have missed last February.

So, what reports/studies/whitepapers/benchmarks/survey’s passed us by in 2011? Well, quite a lot to be honest. Underneath are some of the most prominent items of 2011.

You can download them all at once (along with dozens of other handy tools) via the E-invoicing Toolbox.

Global Trends in Automated Data Capture in AP

Global Survey on Barriers to Next-Generation Billing + Global Survey on E-Billing Adoption

Tax-compliant global electronic invoice lifecycle management

2011 E-Invoicing & E-Billing International Market Overview & Forecast

2011 US E-Billing Benchmark Study

2011 E-invoicing Adoption Benchmarking Report

2011 AP Automation Study A Survey of AP Professionals Executive Report

2011 Top Ten e-Billing Trends

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Top 10 e-Billing Trends and 7 other E-invoicing and AP Automation studies presented in 2011.

Invoiceware International extends their electronic invoicing capability to support the newly announced regulations by Mexico’s Servicio de Aministracion Tributaria (SAT). These new mandates are scheduled to take affect for all companies in July 2012 leaving only a few months for companies to configure their business processes and ERP systems. Many companies are still adapting to the major overhaul that was announced by the Mexico SAT in a press conference held on September 3, 2010

CashFlows launches e-Invoicing service

CashFlows has launched a new generation service, enabling your business to send invoices to your customers via an email and allowing them to pay immediately; helping businesses to better manage payments and their cash flow.

With late payments a critical issue, the CashFlows Account also allows businesses to send their customers instant e-invoices and take on-the-spot payment for products and services.

Recently released research shows that 51% of SMEs feel late payment has become worse during the past year and that 20% believe that it could even threaten their ability to continue trading in 2012.

New US medical e-billing standard causing payment problems

The switch to the HIPAA Version 5010, which impact how physicians bill payers for their services, has caused severe payment disruptions at some doctor practices.  Physician practices that already have started using the new standards have reported problems like:

• Issues with practice management and billing systems that had shown no problems during the testing.
• Issues with billing secondary payers.
• Claims rejections due to issues with billing and practice addresses.
• Crosswalks for national provider identifiers that are not being recognized.
• Claims lost by Medicare contractors.
• Certain “not otherwise specified” claims being denied due to not having descriptions on the claims.
• Sporadic payment of resubmitted claims.
• Call hold times of one to two hours when attempting to contact contractors for further explanation of unpaid and rejected claims.
• Unsuccessful claims processing, with no reasons cited for rejection, despite using submitters that were approved after successful 5010 testing.

Taulia Joins Forces With TrustWeaver To its Expand e-invoicing proposition

Tauli has a platform for Dynamic Discounting and e-invoicing, and announced to have partnered with TrustWeaver. Trustweaver is a provider in comprehensive security compliance services.

Partnering with TrustWeaver will allow Taulia to:

• expand its free compliant e-invoicing capabilities across all of Europe and beyond. Why, because
• guarantee the integrity and authenticity of e-invoices regardless of the country of origin or destination,
• ensure long-term audit-ability of archived invoices in accordance with each country’s specific rules.

Century Bank offers customers e-billing via Invoice Cloud

Invoice Cloud and Century Bank have entered into a partnership agreement. They are going to provide payment and processing solutions to municipalities, utilities and businesses in New England, USA.

Through this partnership, Century Bank can offer its clients services like:

• an easy to use, optional EBPP service,
• quick access to replicas of bills online
• customized email reminders
• secure online payment options that positively impact the environment

Bulmers heads for AP Automation with SoftCo

Bulmers Limited is part of the global C&C Group, producing cider and lager brands available all over the world. Bulmers Limited has chosen SoftCo to deliver an Accounts Payable automation solution to handle its growing volume of global supplier invoices. SoftCo is a supplier of document management and business process automation solutions.

The benefits for Bulmer Limiteds are:

• Bulmers AP staff now use a compliant process automation and document management platform, to capture all supplier invoices.
• Automatic three-way matching means a significant volume of invoices are queued automatically for payment.
• ‘Problem’ invoices are escalated for action within the SoftCo AP process.
• Integrated workflow means that Bulmers AP staff receive email alerts and can address any issues via the system.
• Cleared invoices are queued in CODA Financials ERP for payment.
• All supplier invoices are archived in the compliant platform

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 6 low key e-invoicing and AP automation items still worth reading.

OB10 has built a huge impressive archive with webinars, all filled with important information for prospects, suspect and even existing costumers to make e-Invoicing a great success.

Take a look at the massive list below to understand how to set-up the perfect e-Invoicing project, listen to companies that have established 80% touchless processing, and get in depth information on how to assess your business case.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 37 OB10 webinars you may have missed [NO KIDDING].

The automation of back-end functions such as accounts payable, can play a major role in helping organisations improve their results through costs savings and greater efficiencies that ultimately enable you to better focus on your core business.

Webinar AP automation for SME’s

Please join Basware for a special presentation to experience the advantages of invoice automation for small and medium-sized organizations.

Thursday, March 1, 2012
2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT

Log on and learn the:

• Factors driving the small/medium segment to automate
• Barriers to adoption and how to overcome them
• New SaaS model – No money down, pay as you go
• Ways to drastically reduce invoice processing time and cost
• Best way to get started quickly

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware Webinar: Invoice Automation for Small and Medium Businesses.

It all has to do with Boliden as a large European metals company. It decided to select the cloud-based solutions from Ariba to enhance its sourcing process and better-manage the performance of key suppliers.

Sourcing, Contract Management and Supplier Information Management

Among the solutions that Boliden selected are:

• Ariba Sourcing:  to negotiate best-value agreements for direct and indirect materials,
• Ariba Contract Management^: to make sure that the terms of these agreements are delivered on and complied with
• Ariba Supplier Information Management to more efficiently manage its trading relationships.

Or as Henrik Smedberg, Ariba Nordics, puts it:

“With Ariba as the platform for its sourcing process, Boliden can better make sure that it is buying the right goods and services at the right prices from the right partners to accommodate its business needs as they evolve and change,”

To learn more about the Ariba Network offerings and the value that it can deliver, visit: www.ariba.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Boliden Metals selects Ariba for Sourcing, Contract Management en Supplier Information Management.

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

HEADLINES

• E-invoicing to the rescue: customers extend their payment terms [COLUMN]
• Book: The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation
• The claim that going paperless saves trees is misleading [OPINION]
• E-invoicing explained in under 30 seconds [VIDEO]
• Susie West’s top 10 KPIs in purchase to pay [LIST]
• Fears about a double dip are leading companies to hoard cash
• How Social Media will give Purchase to Pay a new dimension [White paper]
• 5 ROI Calculators + 9 other great free new tools added to the E-invoicing Toolbox
• AP Automation News: ESCO automates AP with Oracle + Unverified news release
• NACHA councils elect chairperson for Council for Electronic Billing and Payment + two more
• An iPad for your Accounts Receivables thoughts [SURVEY]
• Increase Productivity. Not Paper: The Power of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP)
• 4 more websites with e-invoicing and AP automation content
• Our free E-invoicing Toolbox and the E-invoicing Checklist
• 7 Websites that provide e-invoicing and AP automation content as well
• Get big results with AP Automation [INFOGRAPHIC]
• E-Invoicing: Your Ticket to A/P Efficiency
• 4 examples of how e-billing and e-invoicing gets exposed: fishing mails and security breaches

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• Medical E-invoicing News: Pollux Systems extends contract with Zotec | MedData Acquires MedDirect
• Put Caterpillar’s global automation success to work for you
• Tanita Europe to use Anachron’s InvoicePortal EU wide
• Two times in a row: AcceptEmail selected to demonstrate at FinovateEurope 2012
• Companies maximize cash and minimize risk with Ariba
• InvoicePortal.com: the new E-invoicing platform by Anachron [PIC]
• Authentidate Receives Auditor’s Certificate for its Electronic Invoicing Solution with Digital Signatures
• Power of the public: Verizon’s convenience fee for online bills killed [PIC]
• AP Automation News: Swiss Radio and Television selects ReadSoft | BRT and GSI partner on JD Edwards AP Automation
• Itella iBoost: get your customers or suppliers on-board for e-invoices
• 8 questions from Certipost for Bruno Koch on: has electronic invoicing failed?
• E-invoicing News: A Babelway connector for Exact Software | Eykur expands via PEPPOL and Invinet

JOBS

• 5 Recent Jobs in E-invoicing, Online Billing and Purchase to Pay

MERGERS, ACQUISITION AND PARTNERSHIPS

• Basware and Euroscript cooperate in financial operations and procurement
• Ramboll Group extends contract with Basware + bonus item
• Unverified News Flash: US Pharmaceutical selects ReadSoft | Basware and Finnish company renew contract

POLICY

• FREE DOWNLOAD: Compliance Requirements in the EU, and beyond
• eSignature platform @firma accepts eID from other EU countries
• How E-invoicing helped with procurement and PO compliance
• EESPA: The European Electronic Invoicing Service Provider Association gets approval [UPDATE3]

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 38 E-invoicing and AP resources you may have missed last January.

We all know ReadSoft. And didn’t we all thought they are actually are one of leaders (compare to a lot of us that claim this title) in Document and AP automation? Well clearly not. Because today they announced the acquisition of Foxray AG.

About Foxray and its AP automation services

First some info on Foxray:

• Foxray is situated in Germany
• It is a developer of Business Process Automation platforms and solutions.
• Foxray employs 40 people and their main market is Europe. The revenues for 2011 was approximately 7 MEUR and with a positive EBIT-result.
• The main business of Foxray is to develop and market their software product suite, called: Xbound. Xbound is claimed to be a highly sophisticated Business Process Automation platform.
• The main market focus of Foxray has been Europe and Foxray has recently expanded in to Asia.
• Foxray’s specific expertise lies in high volume document production sites for larger organizations such as banks, insurance companies, government, service centers/bureaus and outsourcing companies, but Foxray is also a strong contester for general BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) solutions, especially in high volume areas.

Facts and backgrounds on the acquisition of Foxray

So what did Readsoft pay for Foxray and what are their intentions with Foxray? Well:

Comments from Readsoft and Foxray

This is what Readsoft and Foxray have to say on their acquisition:

• Per Åkerberg, President and CEO of ReadSoft:“ReadSoft’s strategies state that ReadSoft shall be well positioned with our offering for BPOs, and that we will be active in the consolidation of our market. The acquisition of Foxray is entirely in line with these strategies and we are acquiring a very strong technology and a highly competent company that will complement and extend ReadSoft’s already leading solutions perfectly.”
  
  “By combining our DOCUMENTS solution with Foxray’s xbound solution we will have a very strong Capture solution securing us a top position going forward. We will also be able to offer our existing customers and prospects an even stronger end-to-end solution that contains the full scope of functionality that they need today and in the future.”
  
• Ralf Göbel, CTO and co-leader of Foxray:

  “ReadSoft is a perfect match for Foxray with their leading products and solutions for Document Process Automation. Foxray’s products and solutions strongly complements ReadSoft’s and together our combined solutions and resources will benefit all of our customers.”

• Torsten Malchow, CSO and co-leader of Foxray:“Foxray chose to become a part of ReadSoft because we see them as the market leader in the industry and by merging with a larger international organization like ReadSoft’s with greater financial resources and extensive global reach we are certain that we will have a joint success for our customers, partners and prospects and last but not least for ourselves.”

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Readsoft buys Foxray. Increasing its AP Automation position. 11 facts.

The Improper Payments Elimination Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA)

So what is going on here? Well, first President Obama signed the Improper Payments Elimination Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) with the goal of reducing the federal government’s improper payments.  And guess what, electronic invoicing is the leading technological solution to prevent improper payments by eliminating error-prone manual processing.

To comply with IPERA, the US Department of Veteran Affairs is finalizing actions to mandate electronic invoice submission to the VA Financial Services Center (VAFSC).  A Federal Register proposed rule mandating electronic invoice submission is pending publication.

The VAFSC has expanded its electronic invoicing services through OB10 provided solutions.  OB10 electronic invoicing services, including mapping/transaction fees, are free to VAFSC vendors.

OB10 offers simple and secure solution to eliminate the cost and time of processing paper invoices.  The benefits of e-invoicing the VA using the OB10 service include:

• Delivery of invoices directly into the FSC payments system and routed nationally for approval
• Elimination of mail processing time, postage, and invoice receipt inquiries
• Elimination of data errors and lost or misplaced invoices
• Verification of invoice receipt and rejection through automated status reports
• No installation of hardware or software required

Read more here: Electronic Invoicing through OB10

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: US Veteran Affairs endorses electronic invoicing by OB10.

The public procurement process includes:

• delivery of transaction services for accounts payable in paper and electronic formats
• delivery of transaction, printing and mailing services of accounts receivable

More information
Basware Corporation
Esa Tihilä, CEO, Basware Corporation
Tel. +358 40 480 7098

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware wins tender for The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

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 Automation to 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.