E-invoicing Platform » bank

Canadian economy can save $32 billion with e-payment and e-invoicing

Editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:42:45 +0000

Canada’s economy could get an annual $32-billion boost with a more determined shift to digital payments technology. According to a new report a modern Canadian payments system will lead to far greater choice, efficiency and convenience for consumers, businesses, governments and organizations, as well as a safer, more secure system.

Potential savings include 60-80 per cent reduced invoicing costs and a one to two per cent of revenue cost reduction by switching from paper to e-invoices.

Banks preventing innovations in Canadian e-invoicing

The review attributes Canada’s failure to keep pace upon “stagnation” in payment systems by Canada’s major banks and other key institutions.

The authors of the report stated that “Their [banks] interests are best served by keeping at bay new entrants to the system, the very entrants who would bring the innovations that Canadians need,” according to the report.

Recommendations for Canadian multi billion savings

The recommendations for government action include:

Implementation of an “instantaneous” electronic invoicing and payments for all government suppliers and benefit recipients.
Partnering with the private sector to create a mobile device-based “ecosystem.”
Leading the development of digital identification and authentication systems to support the system while protecting privacy of citizens. Absence of a simple, secure method of authenticating identities online means many online transactions such as purchases or bill paying transactions are unnecessarily “laborious.”
Creation of a new payments industry governing body as well as a public agency to scrutinize it and to work toward overhaul of existing systems.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Canadian economy can save $32 billion with e-payment and e-invoicing.

PEPPOL infrastructure to be the backbone of e-invoicing in Norway

Editor — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:40:53 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: PEPPOL

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

Bank app lets you pay bills with iPhone camera

Editor — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:39:47 +0000

Danske Bank just made it easier to spend money and pay your bill. Their customers can now pay bills with just a photo of their bill and a tap on their iPhone screen. Making online payments a lot easier. Even easier than NFC chips (as these chips won’t be attached to paper bills).

This enticing app from Danske Bank’s is now available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices. This is how it works: (1) installed the app, (2) launch the app, (3) snap a photo of the bill you wish to pay (4) press a confirmation button. That way the app uses OCR to rapidly enter the details for a bill or electronic funds transfer, like: the amount due, payee name and account numbers, without forcing users to key in the information by hand.

This app is the latest in a series to find innovative uses for the cameras and processing capabilities found in mobile devices. Other financial institutions that provide similar apps are PayPal and Chase Bank.

Interestingly enough the option to pay bills by photograph is enabled for clients of competing banks even though most of the app’s features are custom built for Danske Bank’s customers. Similars apps are available for Android Phones.

On the website of the bank is a demo movie, but paying with a photo is not demonstrated.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Bank app lets you pay bills with iPhone camera.

EBICS – The Standard for Corporate-to-Bank Communication?

coauthor — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:21:26 +0000

By Steve Keifer

2010 is an exciting time in the world of B2B integration standards for the European banking sector. In this case, I am not referring to the continued rollout of SEPA in the EuroZone, but rather the extended reach of EBICS. EBICS is a highly secure file transfer protocol being used in the French and German banking communities for exchange of cash management related transactions.

The name EBICS stands for Electronic Banking Internet Communications Standard (EBICS). EBICs is the successor to an earlier standard named BCS that was used in the German banking sector from the mid-1980s until the end of 2007. BCS refers to the Banking Communication Standard which was developed by the German Credit Committee, which is known as Zentraler Kreditausschuss Association (ZKA) in German (longer, but no doubt easier to say than Eyjafjallajokull).

BCS was originally designed to offer a standardized approach for corporate-to-bank communication. In the early days of electronic banking many of the technology vendors were developing their own proprietary protocols in lieu of a widely adopted standard. BCS was based upon the ISO 8571 standard commonly known as FTAM (File Transfer Access and Management). German banks were mandated to offer BCS as a communication adoption starting in the 1990s. The mandate along with the publicly available distribution of the specifications led to widespread adoption of BCS across German industry. Challenges began to emerge shortly after 2000 with the popularity of the Internet as a network for business transactions. As with all transaction types, the industry began to seek alternative IP-based protocols for electronic banking. The ZKA responded by evolving the BCS standard into a more fully-functional, Internet based standard called EBICS.

EBICS is a transport protocol that offers secure transmission of files independent of the payload. As a result, EBICS can be utilized to exchange a variety of banking information such as account statements; securities holdings; debit and credit payment orders. EBICS supports the traditional SWIFT FIN/MT message classes such as the MT 103 and MT 940. Furthermore, EBICS can be easily extended to support the new ISO 20022 XML (SWIFT MX) messages. The EBICS protocol is based upon HTTP, but with network encryption using TLS. Due to the nature of the financial transactions EBICS supports, high levels of security are incorporated. EBICS also offers checkpoint/restart capability which enables the file transmission process to gracefully resume in the event of interruption (rather than having to start over).

EBICS has been offered in Germany since January 2008. Adoption has been much quicker than other B2B messaging standards. The success is due in part to the fact that the traditional alternative, the legacy BCS standard, will no longer be supported at the end of this year. All of the major German banks – Deutsche, Commerzbank, Dresdner (Allianz) and HypoVereinsbank support the protocol along with the smaller, regional institutions.

The big news in 2010, however, is not just the decommissioning of BCS, but rather the adoption of EBICS within the French market. A new version of EBICS (2.4) has been developed to meet the needs of the local French payments and banking sector. Much like in Germany, EBICS will be replacing a legacy communications protocol called ETEBAC (Echange TElematique BAnque Clients) in France. ETEBAC is scheduled for end-of-life in 2011, which is driving a sense of urgency for French corporate and financial institutions to migrate to new connectivity options. EBICS is not the only option for French corporate. Treasurers can choose to connect to their financial institutions via SWIFTNet or alternatively via a web-based portal provided by the bank itself.

ETEBAC, the French communications protocol being replaced, has a rich history much like BCS. The original versions of ETEBAC (v1 and v2) were unidirectional in nature. ETEBAC1 enabled corporate clients to upload a file (e.g. payment instruction) to a bank using a secure transmission over the phone network. Conversely, ETEBAC2 offered the ability to download a file (e.g. account statement) from a bank. The most popular version of ETEBAC was version 3, which supported bidirectional exchange of files via the TRANSPAC network. A fourth and fifth version of the ETEBAC standards were developed but never reached the popularity of ETEBAC3.

The rollout of EBICS in France and Germany offers an interesting case study in the evolution of B2B communications standards. In my next post I will highlight what we can learn from the new EBICS protocol.

By Steve Keifer

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: EBICS – The Standard for Corporate-to-Bank Communication?.

Tieto and Balancion boost new personal finance management services for banks

Tieto — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:14:35 +0000

Tieto and Finnish Balancion partnership will focus on enabling banks to modernize their service offering for retail segment. The partnership is an important building block in Tieto’s new service, which is designed to help finance sector companies improve their online customer service. Balancion’s online personal finance management solution (PFM) can be branded and embedded seamlessly to bank’s online services, enabling banks to transform and differentiate their offerings to private customers to a new level.

Balancion’s solution provides consumers a complete view on their personal finances, giving them greater control of how they plan and maintain their personal income and expenditure. It combines data from a variety of sources – a user’s bank accounts and bank or credit cards purchases – and provides visually descriptive follow-up and planning features. This alone is a major advance compared to the personal finance management solutions offered by most banks today. The service is also self-learning: over time it learns to locate income and expenditure to common or user-tailored categories. New features are continuously developed in close cooperation with users.

Sami Uski, Tieto’s Business Advisor at Financial Services says: “Cooperation with Balancion complements our total concept for finance sector. Banks can now broaden their consumer services portfolio and improve customer satisfaction, to strengthen their position in the highly competitive consumer market. With Balancion’s help, we can enable banks to offer user-friendly and dynamic service based on real consumer’s needs.”

Jussi Muurikainen, Founder & CEO of Balancion says: “Tieto is an obvious integration and distribution partner for our PFM solution us as we want to focus on the Balancion service itself. Working with a trustworthy and highly experienced partner in financial sector gives us the international credibility we need. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved: Tieto can strengthen its offering with our fast-developing solution and we get extra clout our white label solution needs for wide-spread adoption by banks. However, the best news is that consumers can now expect their banks to provide them with better domestic money management tools.”

Tieto’s offering for financial industry includes everything from banking services, internet banking and payment, card and capital market services to development, application management and outsourcing.

Tieto

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Tieto and Balancion boost new personal finance management services for banks.

Case Study: Internet Banking with ISIS Papyrus

ISIS Papyrus — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:34:56 +0000

This solution from ISIS Papyrus was implemented in one of the biggest banks with branch offices in Germany, employing more than 4,000 people. The main business focus is investment and internet banking. Its activities also include property financing and services for institutions and businesses as well as securities trading.

The bank implemented a banking portal as a virtual customer service branch office. Outstanding customer service by providing 24/7 access for personalized statements and reports were set as requirements. Depending on the client profile, the same document must also be printable in high quality, automatically be enveloped and mailed. Leveraging existing business data directly from the business application on the mainframe for electronic document presentment and optional printing was a prerequisite.

Read more about the ISIS Papyrus case here

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Case Study: Internet Banking with ISIS Papyrus.

Ariba supports Nordea in tackling cost and risk

Ariba — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:19:30 +0000

In the down economic times, it was all about cutting costs and doing more with less. But as conditions continue to improve, the focus has shifted to growth. And to fuel it, companies will need to take a different approach. Controlling costs will still be critical, but collaborating with key partners will be equally important.

Recognizing this, Nordea, a leading European bank, is expanding its use of solutions from Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA), the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions.

Under the terms of a newly signed agreement, Nordea will leverage Ariba^® Spend Visibility^™, Ariba Supplier Information Management^™ and Ariba Supplier Performance Management^™ to more effectively manage its spend and trading relationships. The company already uses Ariba Sourcing^™ and Ariba Contract Management^™ to negotiate and drive compliance with best-value agreements across its operations.

Ariba Spend Visibility will be used to identify opportunities for savings. To discover, assess, and on board new supply partners, ensure their information is accurate and up-to-date and continually measure and improve their performance, Nordea will use Ariba Supplier Information Management. And to evaluate its supply base from a 360-degree perspective and programmatically drive corrective action to ensure the highest level of supplier performance and compliance, it will leverage Ariba Supplier Performance Management.

Delivered on-demand in the Ariba Commerce Cloud – the most efficient and effective platform for collaborative global commerce – Ariba’s solutions will quickly deliver results, as they require no software, infrastructure or trading partner integration to manage.

“There are many things companies can do internally to improve their bottom line, but to fuel growth, they must take an external view,” said Mike Arenth, General Manager, EMEA, Ariba. “With Ariba’s solutions in place, Nordea can execute a truly collaborative commerce process through which it can reduce its costs and risk and improve performance and profits.”

About Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions. Ariba enables more efficient and effective buying, selling, and cash management by combining industry-leading software as a service (SaaS) commerce technology with the world’s largest web-based global trading community and expert capabilities and services to augment internal resources and skills – all as a flexible, cloud-based service. The Ariba^® Commerce Cloud™ delivers everything needed to control costs, increase sales, minimize risk, and enhance cash flow and operations. More than 300,000 companies, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 100, use Ariba’s solutions to drive more efficient and effective inter-enterprise commerce. Why not join them? For more information on Ariba commerce solutions and the results they deliver, visit www.ariba.com.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Ariba supports Nordea in tackling cost and risk.

Bank of Ireland cuts back on use of paper bills

Editor — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:11:49 +0000

All customers who receive monthly statements are being moved to quarterly statements unless they opt out of the change. The move to paperless billing by some firms has been criticised by consumer groups and those protecting the vulnerable in society.

Mobile phone company O2 led the move to e-billing, with Vodafone following suit. Lobby groups said customers should have to agree to move to online billing, rather than automatically be switched over.

Bank of Ireland said that 300,000 customers – or 30 per cent of current account holders – had monthly statements. The majority (70 per cent) were already receiving biannual or quarterly bills. A spokeswoman said that the change in statement frequency was a move toward efficient and environmentally friendly policies, rather than a push to get people online.

Unlike the phone companies, she said there would be no additional charge for remaining the recipient of a monthly statement. However, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs), which advises people in financial difficulty, is concerned about the number of utility providers reducing documentation sent to customers.

‘‘This is falling into a trend now,” said Michael Culloty, of Mabs. ‘‘People on a reduced income like to see billing and accounts as frequently as possible. Anything which moves that to bi-monthly or a less frequent scenario just makes managing money on a low income more difficult. It’s a savings mechanism for the banks but, for many consumers on a low incomes, it may not be suitable.

‘‘For people who are computer savvy and on the internet every day, it’s second nature, but vulnerable consumers and the elderly will find these changes the most difficult. Rather than the bottom line becoming the most important thing, I think banks and other service providers need to put the consumer first.”

So far, 50,000 notices have gone to Bank of Ireland customers saying that, from November 1,the frequency of personal account statements will be reduced to every quarter. A form must be submitted if customers want to receive the monthly documents. A spokeswoman said a prepaid envelope would be provided with future notes going out to other customers.

Souce: The Post (Ireland)

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Bank of Ireland cuts back on use of paper bills.

Webinar: Banks – How to succeed in a booming e-invoicing market

Fundtech (formerly Accountis Europe Ltd) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:34:55 +0000

The current e-invoicing market is growing exponentially and the time could not be better for banks to start offering these services to their corporate customers. The business case for banks is very convincing indeed.

For example, not only does e-invoicing generate transactional revenue, it also gives banks the opportunity to further embed themselves into their corporate customer accounts, enabling them to better understand their customer’s cashflow situation offer new and extended services, thus improving customer retention.

Banks are in the enviable position of having established relationships with corporates and can therefore be considered to be ‘off the starting blocks’ in the competitive race to offer e-invoicing services. What banks need to do is to move quickly so that they don’t get left behind.

In this free webinar we explore exactly what banks need to do to get ahead of the game in e-invoicing.

It will explain what banks should be offering to their corporate clients and how they can implement these services quickly and simply to maximise benefits. The time for e-invoicing is now. To make sure you don’t get left behind register now for our free webinar.

Click here to register >

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Webinar: Banks – How to succeed in a booming e-invoicing market.

Publication: E-MONEY articles about e-invoicing

coauthor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:02:05 +0000

Raconteur Media have published a special E-MONEY edition on the subject of electronic money and related subjects.

The following articles below are worth reading as they are about e-billing software, Euro industries, electronic invoicing and the role of the banks.

.
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“The hard road to electronic invoicing”
“The bigger prize”

“A challenge for the banks”

“The business imperative for legal-specific e-billing software”

www.raconteurmedia.co.uk

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Publication: E-MONEY articles about e-invoicing.

Research Deutsche Bank: Chasing Paper

Editor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:08:08 +0000

Deutsche Bank Research reports on the European market for e-invoicing services.

The paper looks at the diffusion of electronic invoices across Europe. It argues in particular that the full benefits of e-invoicing come from a streamlined billing process – not by sending or receiving the bill as such.

Sceptics of e-invoicing therefore say that first the billing processes should be modernised because that’s where the biggest savings are. Advocates claim that once e-invoices are being introduced, they would trigger this modernisation.

Read the report below:

Source: www.dbresearch.com & Finextra

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Research Deutsche Bank: Chasing Paper.

Document Tieto: The future of e-invoicing

Tieto — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:48:21 +0000

Tieto, one of Europe’s leading e-invoicing vendors has, in corporation with Gartner Research, produced a document about the future of e-invoicing in Europe. In this document, specialists and representatives of EU Working Group for e-invoicing, the Tieto Board and the banking world speak out their opinion on the future of e-invoicing and the challenges that have to be conquered, reasons to swith to e-invoicing, a description of the current landscape and many other aspects attached to this fast growing subject.

The publication examines the development of the European e-invoicing framework. The public sector and corporations have begun to realize the benefits of moving away from manual paper invoicing. Cost-savings from B2B invoicing withing services and manufacturing have proven to typically amount to 1% of a company’s revenue.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Document Tieto: The future of e-invoicing.

Dutch banks introduce national Iban and BIC conversion system

Editor — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:13:03 +0000

The Netherlands Bankers’ Association (NVB) is preparing for the introduction of the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) with the introduction of a new nationwide Iban (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code) look-up service for all Dutch citizens and corporates.

The introduction of the new tool is expected to speed compliance with Sepa by offering a single, co-ordinated system for BIC and Iban conversion that all Dutch banks can roll out to their account holders.

Users can request the correct Iban and BIC information using an online web service, the telephone via a voice response system or via an SMS message. A dedicated corporate Web service allows Dutch businesses to update batch files of Bbans (Basic Bank Account Numbers) with the correct corresponding Ibans and BICs for Sepa compliance.

The system was developed by Experian and commissioned by the Foundation Iban Service NL, on behalf of the Dutch banking community.

The introduction of the new coding has been identified as a potential stumbling block to Sepa uptake among European citizens and businesses.

Jim Conning, managing director, Experian Payments, comments: “We…have the European footprint to provide similar services to other EU banking communities who want to facilitate the move to Sepa payments smoothly”.

Source: sibosonline.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Dutch banks introduce national Iban and BIC conversion system.

Dutch State Secretary launches website for digital billing

Editor — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:43:53 +0000

Together with Wim Mijs, director of the Dutch Association of Banks, State Secretary Heemskerk of Dutch Economic Affairs launched the website www.ViaMijnBank.nl last week.

Via this website, consumers and businesses receive information about the benefits of sending bills digitally. Moreover, customers of ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank ViaMijnBank are able to receive their invoices online, and pay online through their own secured banking environment.

In his speech at the launch of the website, Heemskerk pointed out the benefits of sending invoices digitally. Together with Marco Pastors (the government’s ambassador for e-invoicing ) Heemskerk aims for the government to receive and process 10 percent of all invoices electronically in 2010. “This will save businesses and tax payers a lot of money. Soon we will make these arrangements official by signing an agreement with national union VNO-NCW, MKB (SME) Nederland and the main government parties that send a lot of invoices,” the Secretary announced.

Besides the importance of e-invoicing, Heemskerk stressed the importance of innovation in services in general. “With this kind of initiatives, the banks show that they play a leading role when it comes to the use of ICT.” In other parts of the national services there is much profit to make. In general, productivity in the Dutch services is growing slowly. This has a negative effect on the competitiveness of this sector, particularly concerning the current crisis. A closer look is currently taken at this situation to unveil the cause of this backlog. The Ministry of Economic Affairs also helps sectors to digitize their activities by implementing the program ‘The Netherlands Connected Digitally’ (www.ndiv.nl).

www.ez.nl

www.viamijnbank.nl

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Dutch State Secretary launches website for digital billing.

SEPA bank-client standard available

Editor — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:17:42 +0000

The Dutch banks have composed a standard message for the customer initiation of a European bank transfer. This allows business and IT customers and / or ERP providers to a set up a generic and correct SCT UNIFI / XML message supported by the Dutch banks.

Read the ‘SEPA Credit Transfer XML customer-to-bank Implementation Guidelines for the Netherlands’

The initiating group ‘SEPA Migration NL’ have also come up with the Dutch Implementation Guidelines set to create a ‘level playing field’ for their corporate customers and software vendors active in SEPA.

The Dutch Association of Banks strongly recommends the use of the Dutch bank-customer SCT Implementation Guidelines to banks and their corporate clients.

The use of the Dutch Implementation Guidelines does not exclude the use of Belgian or other Implementation Guidelines. A bank can make additional appointments with its customers.

The new bank-client standards will replace the existing, because they do not meet all the SEPA requirements. Thus, BIC and IBAN cannot be used.

Source: www.sepanl.nl

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: SEPA bank-client standard available.

SEPA Direct Debit pilot scheme launched with Austria’s BAWAG Bank

Editor — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:54:28 +0000

One of Austria’s leading retail banks, BAWAG, is taking part in a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Direct Debit (DD) pilot, scheme operated by the payments specialist VocaLink.

The bank will benefit from a broad range of services, prior to the launch of SEPA DD payments in November 2009, including a payments capture process which removes the need for unnecessary intervention by directly recording clients’ payments. It is hoped the pilot, introduced in Q1 2009, will assist migration and cut infrastructure and development costs.

A management module that can centralise critical mandate information on behalf of the bank and its clients is a key component of the installation. The pilot is intended to ease the migration towards a SEPA-compliant infrastructure.

Commenting on the pilot, Joseph Laughlin, a member of the management board at BAWAG, said: “The initiative will demonstrate to our corporate customers that the bank is ahead of the market. The value-added services, such as payments capture, validation, mandate management and exceptions management, will make a real impact with our customers.

Source: fstech.co.uk

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: SEPA Direct Debit pilot scheme launched with Austria’s BAWAG Bank.

Growing internet access and use in the EU27 in 2008

Editor — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:42:18 +0000

Nearly 30% of individuals use internet banking, 60% of households have internet access.
In the EU27, 60% of households had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2008, compared with 54% during the first quarter of 2007, and 48% had a broadband internet connection, compared with 42% in 2007.

These data published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, represent only a small part of the results of a survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage in households and by individuals in the EU27 Member States plus Norway, Iceland and Croatia. As well as internet use and broadband connections, the survey also covers other indicators such as e-shopping, e-government and advanced communication and content related services.

Household internet access ranges from 25% in Bulgaria to 86% in the Netherlands
In 2008, the proportion of households with internet access was three quarters or more in the Netherlands (86%), Sweden (84%), Denmark (82%), Luxembourg (80%) and Germany (75%). The lowest levels were registered in Bulgaria (25%), Romania (30%) and Greece (31%).
The proportion of households with a broadband connection in 2008 was also highest in the Netherlands and Denmark (both 74%) and Sweden (71%).

One third of individuals in the EU27 use travel related internet services
In the second quarter of 2008, individuals aged 16-74 in the EU Member States were asked which activities they had carried out on the internet in the previous three months. In the EU27, nearly a third of all individuals had used internet for travel and accommodation services. Around 30% had used internet banking, interacted with public authorities or searched for health-related information. About a quarter had read online news or ordered goods or services. Around 15% had looked for jobs or sent applications by internet.
The Member States which had the highest proportions of individuals performing these internet activities were the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg.

Here you are able to view the entire data overview per country:
Source: Eurostat

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Growing internet access and use in the EU27 in 2008.

French banks down tools on EU-wide payment project

Editor — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:19:16 +0000

French banks have suspended the launch of new pan-European payment services due to confusion over tariffs in the latest setback for a key EU project to improve consumer choice and boost growth.

The European Union has plans for a single euro payments system or SEPA to give its 495 million consumers cheap payments of bills and purchases in euros from a single bank account. The move is designed to encourage cross-border competition and spur the creation of jobs and growth, the EU’s executive European Commission has said.

The project requires the bloc’s 8,000 banks to invest billions of euros changing their systems to comply with common SEPA standards on credit transfers, direct debits and payment cards. SEPA-compliant credit transfers were launched in January by banks across the EU but the French Banking Federation (FBF) said on Thursday its members have suspended work pending clarification from European authorities on tariffs, in particular charging for services that banks supply to each other, it said in a statement.

‘As long as these rules are not clarified, the French banks, like many European banks, cannot start the work on the timetable because like all businesses, banks need to know their economic and legal risks,’ the statement said.

Banks across the EU are worrying how the new services would be paid for after last December when the Commission said MasterCard’s interchange fee on its cross-border credit cards and Maestro direct debit cards violated EU competition rules.

The interchange fee is charged to retailers for processing a card payment but retailers have dubbed it a tax on consumers. MasterCard is appealing the decision, a process that will take months but the November 2009 deadline for a full switch to SEPA products in Europe is looming.

The Commission and the European Central Bank has said banks could use an interchange fee on direct debits but only for an ‘interim period’ and if it was justified — a move that banks say has ‘destabilised’ their planned SEPA business models.

Source: www.reuters.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: French banks down tools on EU-wide payment project.

Swift set for greater involvement in e-invoicing

Editor — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:51:55 +0000

Financial messaging network Swift is consulting with its membership about the potential provision of an interbank e-invoicing exchange network and the creation of a banking industry wide standard.
In a survey of the top 50 MT 103 banks, Swift found that 28 of the 29 banks that responded already offer or plan to offer B2B e-invoicing services.

In the corporate market, banks see potential for generating additional revenue by integrating e-invoicing with existing cash management, supply chain and financing services.

However, in the absence of widely accepted standards. many see their projects as long-range efforts, with an average estimated five year payback in terms of return on investment.

Swift says its potential involvement in the market was welcomed by approximately three-quarters of the banks surveyed.

The Euro Banking Association and an EU Commission Expert group are currently researching the market for e-invoicing and the potential for wider banking industry involvement.

Swift says it will await the findings of both these efforts before setting up its own Ad Hoc advisory group. This would seek to set out and test a business case for an interoperable e-invoicing platform, and identify the key functionality and the role of Swift and other parties in the provision of this capability.

Source: www.finextra.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Swift set for greater involvement in e-invoicing.

Case: NemHandel – Open Infrastructure for Danish E-Business

Editor — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:52:05 +0000

In 2007 the Danish National IT & Telecom Agency (NITA) launched a national open e-business framework ‘NemHandel’ (literally ‘EasyTrade’), based on a new national service-oriented infrastructure and utilizing state-of-the-art open standards to do e-business transactions business to government and business to business via the internet. The national open e-business framework supports reliable, secure and asynchronous exchange of business messages, e.g. invoices, across heterogeneous networks, including the internet.

Since 2005 suppliers to the Danish public sector have been required by law to send invoices electronically, which affects approximately 70% of all Danish businesses, and thus electronic invoicing in the public sector is a key driver for the initiative. However the ‘NemHandel’ initiative also aims more widely in a business-to-business context to replace less cost-effective solutions, such as the scanning-based digitalisation of paper invoices, as well as to pave the way for more comprehensive digitisation of a range of e-business processes to reduce administrative burdens in Danish businesses. Please see the Danish eInvoice Solution.

As part of the ‘NemHandel’ initiative, NITA has developed a basic open source ‘NemHandel’ application for the exchange of e-business documents, e.g. electronic invoices, via the internet. The open source application is freely available through the ‘Softwarebørsen’ open source software exchange to public sector institutions, private businesses, and to IT vendors who may incorporate the technology in their own commercial products. A number of commercial IT vendors have already and others are in the process of integrating the ‘NemHandel’ technology into their products so that documents may be exchanged directly between existing IT solutions. Likewise a range of existing commercial service providers, e.g. banks and operators of value added networks (VAN) and other proprietary solutions, are looking to connect their individual networks to the NemHandel infrastructure.

Study: E-invoicing and supply chain financing to boost bank revenues after SEPA

Tieto — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:18:12 +0000

A recent study looking to identify possible benefits for corporate financial service providers in the aftermath of SEPA implementation marks the existence of two separate approaches banks can implement in order to recoup SEPA-related investments and generate additional revenues: electronic invoicing and supply chain financing.

The study points out that SEPA compliance has exerted a high toll on financial institutions, all the more so since SEPA provisions actually cut back on banks’ payment revenues by stipulating that cross-border payment fee levels should match those of domestic transactions fees. As a result, the study claims, banks need to come up with alternate strategies to compensate for lost payment revenues. The answer, the research points out, could lie in the so-called ‘value-added’ services such as cross-border electronic invoicing and supply chain financing.

Electronic invoicing comes with a series of benefits ranging from process savings to lower fraud and credit risks, faster payments and improved cash flow, lower IT costs due to standardised invoicing, payments and account interfaces and higher productivity. As a result, the study points out that e-invoicing could hold the key to a higher degree of corporate profitability within SEPA and pave the way for another profit-generating value-added service, namely supply chain automation. The latter renders banks more aware of their customers’ own financial processes and cash flows, allowing them to extend credit facilities to their corporate customers and build additional revenues.

The research was conducted by IT service provider TietoEnator.

Source: Tietoenator

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Study: E-invoicing and supply chain financing to boost bank revenues after SEPA.

E-invoices gain popularity

Editor — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:05:07 +0000

According to Statistics Estonia, in January 2008 four out of ten enterprises with Internet connection had received e-invoices, three out of ten had sent out e-invoices. In the previous year the corresponding indicators were two out of ten and one out of ten.

ID-card was used by four out of ten enterprises with Internet connection. ID card was used mostly for giving digital signature and for authorising users in information systems. The most active users of ID-card were the enterprises of financial intermediation; two thirds of them used ID-card.

The general trend of reducing the paperwork has increased the interest of public authorities in websites. The enterprises download more and more forms and return them via Internet. Over three quarters of enterprises downloaded forms and two thirds returned them via Internet. Two thirds of enterprises had their own websites.

In January 2008, 97% of enterprises used computers; 99% of them had also access to the Internet. These indicators have not changed much during the last five years. As before, most of the enterprises needed the Internet for banking and financial services; fewer enterprises used the Internet for training and education purposes. The most popular type of Internet connection was DSL broadband connection, used by three quarters of enterprises. Other types of broadband connection, such as cable TV, leased lines, etc., were used by two out of ten enterprises. Non-broadband connections (dial up, ISDN, mobile Internet) were used less and often in combination with broadband connection.

Statistics Estonia has surveyed the use of information technology in enterprises since 2001. In 2008 3,500 enterprises participated in the survey. The survey involves enterprises with 10 and more employees. The usage of information technology in enterprises is studied by statistical organisations in all European Union Member States on the basis of harmonised methodology.

Source: Stat

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoices gain popularity.

Increasing confidence in eInvoicing

Editor — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:08:03 +0000

The popularity of online payments for utility bills (electricity, gas, water) is increasing in Hungary since the launch of a new eInvoicing service last year by the Díjbeszed? Holding (Utility Fee Collection Holding), despite a persisting reticence to change.

There are now over 50 000 residents in Budapest who choose to pay their utility bills over the Internet. In the summer of 2008, the Dijbeszedõ Holding carried out a survey on attitudes to eInvoicing in 1 000 Budapest households. According to the survey, confidence in electronic payment methods has increased. Some 75 % of the population regard purchasing over the internet as secure; 50 % of the respondents use the internet regularly and one-third even use eBanking services.

On the negative side, 20 % reject eInvoicing for security reasons, and 14 % claim to have a strong aversion to eInvoicing. The survey also revealed that 84 % of the population still use the so-called yellow (post office) cheques to pay their monthly bills; 20 % occasionally use bank transfer services to pay their bills; and only 16 % of Budapest’s population relies on standing orders.

Although eInvoicing is gaining in popularity, Hungarian citizens still use some 280 million ‘yellow cheques’ a year to pay their bills at post offices, highlighting a reluctance to change on the part of the population. According to the survey, it is very important to customers (70 on a scale of 1 to 100) to avoid having to change their usual payment methods.

Source: ePractice.eu

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Increasing confidence in eInvoicing.

Consumers benefit from opportunities SEPA

Editor — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:17:06 +0000

“Since the successful start of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) more and more consumers have been benefiting from the opportunities it offers,” Hans-Joachim Massenberg, Deputy General Manager of the Association of German Banks, said in Berlin.

“Around 185,000 credit transfers are made every day with the SEPA scheme,” Massenberg continued, most of them by retail customers. This was still relatively few compared to the total of 87 million credit transfers handled every day, but the number was rising steadily. At the moment, customers use the SEPA credit transfer mainly for cross-border payments in Europe. It can easily be used for domestic payments as well, however. To further this process, Massenberg called above all on public authorities and businesses to make greater use of SEPA schemes: “It is, in particular, the state which needs to lead the way here.” Germany’s private banks offer businesses and public authorities support and extensive advice on switching to SEPA.

SEPA was launched in January 2008 with credit transfers and card payments. The SEPA direct debit is to follow in November 2009. Customers will then be able to make payments throughout Europe in the same way as they do today in their own country. They will be able to select their supplier from anywhere in Europe. “To ensure a smooth transition from national direct debit schemes to the SEPA direct debit, however, lawmakers still need to establish the necessary legal certainty,” said Massenberg. “The banking industry has submitted a proposal which will guarantee that the switch from the German to the European direct debit will be as straightforward and secure as possible.” This would also create more planning certainty for trade and industry.

The Association of German Banks’ revised and reprinted booklet “SEPA 2008: uniform payment instruments for Europe” in the “Figures, facts, arguments” series can be downloaded as a pdf file.

Source: German banks

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Consumers benefit from opportunities SEPA.

Banking on Sepa

Tieto — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:32:44 +0000

Banks will look to e-invoicing and supply chain financing as value-add services in the post-Sepa world, says TietoEnator.

The initial focus on Sepa was cost, but as banks seek to recoup the investment they have made in compliance, attention has turned to revenues. Europe’s banks are at the start of a road that will take them towards e-invoicing, supply chain finance, real-time information and the ability to compete in a rapidly changing environment.

This TietoEnator white paper outlines the challenges and features case studies with Royal Bank of Scotland and Swedbank.

To read the full story, download now

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Banking on Sepa.

Funds industry standards could be years away, says Clearstream

Editor — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:41:41 +0000

Interoperable standards between banks, fund managers and their intermediaries could take decades to emerge, according to European clearing and settlement body Clearstream.

The funds distribution process is typically viewed as being one of the least automated in the financial industry with faxes still widely used in the transaction process.

According to Tilman Fechter, executive director, Investment Fund Services, Clearstream, while the adoption of automation is increasing, the lack of a recognised and universal messaging standard for communication between banks and fund managers is hampering efforts.

“More and more senior people agree that fax is not the answer but the argument is what the standard will be – Swift? FIX? Proprietary protocols?”

Fechter says that, despite the efforts of Swift to promote its ISO-based standards, the fact that many banks and investment managers are on different versions creates an interoperability problem.

Many banks have only just migrated onto the ISO 15022 standard while fund managers connecting to Swift for the first time are going straight onto the newer 20022 version.

Swift will eventually become the dominant standard, says Fechter, and all counterparties may eventually be using the same version but it will be a long-term project that will take at least 20 years in all likelihood.

For its part, Clearstream, which is owned by Deutsche Börse, is offering investment management clients in Luxembourg, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland the opportunity to communicate with its banking counterparts through its Central Facility for Funds product which will be extended to the UK market as of October this year.

“Swift strongly relies on people like us to support two counterparties using Swift but on different standards,” says Fechter who adds that the situation is not the fault of the messaging standards body but just a reflection of the way the market is structured.

“Swift is doing the right thing and there is nothing I can see that it could be doing better. It is just the state of the industry and you cannot force standards.”

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Funds industry standards could be years away, says Clearstream.

Microsoft treasury pushes on with ISO20022 project as banks slow progress

Editor — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:45:27 +0000

The migration of Microsoft’s treasury onto the XML-based ISO20022 messaging standard is likely to be a multi-year, ongoing initiative, according to a treasury manager at the software giant.

Microsoft’s treasury would like to migrate all of its financial messaging onto the XML-based standard, however the tardiness of banks and their own adoption of the standard for their treasury services, means that the project will be an “evolution” that will involve several phases, according to Ed Barrie, group manager, Treasury at Microsoft.

“The XML standard will give us more enriched data at a transactional level which we can put into specifically defined fields in our Enterprise Resource Planning systems,” says Barrie. “This will give us better STP and a single viewpoint for all of our payments information.

Microsoft’s treasury department handles global credit and collections, cash management and account opening and closing for the software giant covering 1100 bank accounts and 130 banking partners.

Microsoft is concentrating on its treasury statements primarily, before applying the ISO20022 standard to its payment flows. However the project’s success will be heavily dependant on the progress of its 130 banking partners.

“By next year we expect to have at least two banks converted and hope to have six or more,” says Barrie.

At least the ISO standard will not face unwelcome competition. According to Barrie, there will not be a rival standard to ISO20022. “It is the format that supports Sepa payments in Europe so that is driving adoption but it has mostly been on the bank to bank payments side. What we need to see is this adoption spread to the bank to customer side.”

Despite the slow progress, Barrie is confident that by next year’s Sibos event, there will have been some significant developments, helped by demonstrable evidence of the benefits of implementing ISO20022.

“We are now in the initial analysis stage but by next year we will see more tangible case studies that show a return on investment, the percentage of straight-through-processing and the level of cost involved.”

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Microsoft treasury pushes on with ISO20022 project as banks slow progress.

Joint initiative to create a European e-invoicing solution

Editor — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:32:55 +0000

Today, at SIBOS, ICBPI Group (Italy), Isabel (Belgium) and Equens (the Netherlands) announced that they will be joining forces in e-invoicing. The main goal of the founding partners – ICBPI and Equens – for this international initiative is to establish an open, multi-party, cross-border European e-invoicing network. The network must gain practical experience and actively contribute to the development of a standardised European e-invoicing product with maximum customer reach. For this purpose, ICBPI and Equens will set up one of the first cross-border pilots for e-invoicing networks within Europe. Service provider Isabel will be the first participant in this pilot.

European e-invoicing solution
ICBPI Group and Equens will cooperate to bridge local solutions, enabling banks, corporates and service providers to extend their reach in Europe. Equens will bridge domestic service providers in order to create European coverage in the distribution of e-invoicing. Isabel will contribute its e-invoicing knowledge and experience. Other parties are invited to join this initiative in order to expand the e-invoicing community as soon as possible.

The European Commission aims to establish a mature e-invoicing framework by 2010 at the latest. E-invoicing is a field that potentially offers excellent opportunities. Over 90 percent of all invoicing worldwide is still performed on paper. This usually involves an extremely inefficient process of printing, distributing, scanning and archiving paper and re-entering data. There are now hundreds of initiatives in place for electronic invoicing on a national level. A specific, joint and international initiative is therefore an important next step.

According to Equens, invoicing should be as easy as paying. Michael Steinbach, Chairman of Equens’ Board of Directors: “We strongly believe that staying ahead in the European payment-processing market requires looking beyond the payments discipline as such. It requires in-depth knowledge of the future needs of banks and their customers, of technology and of applications.”

“As a market leader in payments and electronic invoicing services in Italy, we are focused on providing the best services in the Customer-to-Bank area,” says Giuseppe Capponcelli, Managing Director of ICBPI Group. “This cross-border joint initiative on e-invoicing will allow us to be a first mover in the European scenario and to enhance our corporate banking services. The first International e-invoicing pilot is a win-win initiative that allows the founding partners to extend their reachability to other important trade markets, as well as enabling ICBPI to offer competitive advantages to banks and more benefits to their corporate customers.”

As one of the leading providers of e-invoicing and electronic banking services in Belgium, Isabel is the first participant in this European e-invoicing initiative. Isabel will draw on its technical and business expertise in the SME market to contribute to the success of this e-invoicing pilot project. “This pilot project is a great opportunity to enhance our experience in electronic invoicing and to promote interoperability at European level,” says Luc Van Hecke, International Sales Manager of Isabel S.A.

About Equens
Equens SE is the first truly pan-European, full-service payment processor. As one of the largest and most innovative payment processors in Europe, Equens is leading the market for future-proof payments and card processing solutions. Thanks to an extensive and competitive service portfolio and a flexible, customer-orientated approach, the company seamlessly meets the requirements of the European payments market. With an annual volume of 7.3 billion payments and 2.1 billion POS and ATM transactions, Equens has a market share of more than 15% within the euro zone. By continuously pursuing further growth and translating the achieved synergy benefits and economies of scale into advantages for the customer, the company contributes to the efficiency of European payments.

For additional information, please visit http://www.equens.com

About ICBPI
The ICBPI Group is made up of highly specialised companies focusing on the design, planning and management of services for banks, financial institutions and insurance companies. ICBPI S.p.A. is specialised in traditional and innovative payment services, as well as financial and administrative services offered according to a BPO model. ICBPI also offers innovative and efficient solutions for the outsourced management of domestic and international payment systems (SEPA-compliant) for banks, Public Administrations and other companies. Key Client is focused on electronic payment systems (Cards, POS and ATM) and with HelpPhone on customer care services through a contact center. Oasi is a market leader in services such as managed systems, financial transaction tracking, reporting to the Central Bank, anti-money laundering and regulation compliance, retirement insurance fund management and data security.

For additional information, please visit http://www.icbpi.it

About Isabel
Isabel is a professional software developer and service provider specialising in bank automation and electronic invoicing. Isabel’s solutions are used by many financial institutions and associations all over Europe. 30 banks and 110,000 companies in Belgium are using Isabel online services. The Zoomit application developed by Isabel is integrated with the Internet banking solutions of the most important banks. It enables millions of consumers and SMEs to take advantage of e-invoicing technology. Isabel was founded in 1995 and has 130 employees.

For more information, please visit http://www.isabel.eu

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Joint initiative to create a European e-invoicing solution.

02-12-2008: CBI/ABI event – Forum on e-Invoicing in Rome

Editor — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:00:33 +0000

On December 2nd and 3rd 2008, a forum is dedicated to amongst others international developments on electronic invoices, the analysis of international scenarios and the in-depth examination of business and technical aspects of the new advanced services dedicated to banks and enterprises. The event will take place in Rome.

This is the agenda of the event.

If you are interested in visiting this event, you can view the registration form here.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: 02-12-2008: CBI/ABI event – Forum on e-Invoicing in Rome.

PayPal and OB10 team on e-invoicing

OB10 — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:17:32 +0000

PayPal has teamed with electronic invoicing outfit OB10 to create an automated e-invoicing application for the UK business community.

Under the partnership, invoices sent by PDF will incorporate a PayPal button which the customer just clicks to arrange payment.

The payments can then be made by credit and debit cards, bank transfers or PayPal balance, meaning customers don’t have to wait for cheques to clear.

OB10 says the partnership – initially for the UK market only – will help businesses streamline invoicing and payment process, improving efficiency and transparency within the financial supply chain.

Cameron McLean, general manager, merchant services, PayPal, says: “The PayPal and the OB10 eBilling product will provide businesses with the opportunity to optimise their working capital cycle – an incredibly powerful proposition in today’s economic climate.”

Last year the European Commission (EC) set up a steering committee to oversee the establishment of a common invoicing framework that would allow businesses across the region to send invoices and receive corresponding payments electronically.

According to a report produced by an “informal task force” on e-invoicing, the introduction of the European electronic invoicing (EII) network could reduce supply chain costs by EUR243 billion across Europe and help to streamline business processes and drive innovation.

Attention has also turned to the environmental costs of paper-based invoicing. According to stats produced by the Euro Banking Association, a one per cent increase in the adoption of e-invoicing in Europe would save 800,000 trees annually.

Source: Finextra

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: PayPal and OB10 team on e-invoicing.

E-invoicing could help firms through recession

Editor — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:25:14 +0000

E-invoicing could help businesses cut costs as they brace themselves for recession.

The technology is moving to the mainstream as the European Commission pushes it as part of its drive to cut costs in supply chains.

The Corporate Action on Standards project, set up by the European Payments Council, said that e-invoicing allows companies to cut the average EUR30 cost of processing a paper invoice by 80%.

Businesses that want to take advantage of e-invoicing can do it themselves, use an e-invoicing service provider or work with their banks.

Stefan Foryszewski, senior vice-president at e-invoicing service provider OB10, says businesses are looking at e-invoicing but only “the more enlightened ones.”

“The market is still fairly immature but awareness is beginning to grow,” he says.

Forysewski advises businesses moving to e-invoicing to ensure that their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are compatible with the system they chose. They must ensure the system they chose can be easily integrated with all suppliers. And they must ensure they comply with the taxation laws in the different regions they receive invoices from.

Building an e-invoicing system is challenging for companies to do on their own and the capital investment required may be hard to justify as the economy slows.

DHL began rolling out an electronic invoicing and payment system from Accountis in July last year. The project aims to save millions of pounds across Europe by reducing billing costs by 15%.

Brian Thumwood, e-billing programme manager at DHL, says the company chose a third-party supplier to avoid the risks of building its own system. “We looked at doing it ourselves but the complexities associated with the legal structure in different countries and the technology made us work with a supplier.”

Businesses only need minimal technology in place to use a third-party service, such as dedicated servers, a connection to the e-invoicing service, and the use of workflow systems.

Peter Ratcliffe chairman of Accountis points out that many e-invoicing suppliers have been bought up by larger businesses which means their software is no longer commercially available. For example, E-invoicing software providers Harbor Payments and Xign were acquired by American Express and JP Morgan respectively in 2007. As a result, companies that set up their own e-invoicing services would have to write their own software, he says.

Banks are using e-invoicing service providers to create their own services. Abbey launched a corporate e-invoicing service in July last year in partnership with e-invoicing network provider OB10, as part of a service to offer finance to supply chains.

Tom Crowe, director of sales and delivery financial supply chain solutions at Abbey Corporate Banking, says take up of e-invoicing is slow because it is a new concept in the UK.

But he said that businesses will take it up because of the savings that can be made. “Anything they can do to make businesses more efficient they are keen to look at particularly in a period of economic uncertainty,” he says.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that the first customers of its e-invoicing system, provided by Accountis are going live this month.

In the current economic climate an 80% reduction in the cost of a paper invoice will be attractive to business managers attempting to cut unnecessary costs. IT departments must, however, decide how they are going to implement e-invoicing to maximise the return on investment.

What is E-invoicing?

E-invoicing is an alternative to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a method of dealing with supply payments electronically. It also helps get the best out of ERP systems by automatically putting more accurate information into the systems.

E-invoicing uses the internet to connect businesses with their suppliers and automates the processing of invoices in accounting systems. It speeds up payment times, improves the information in ERP systems, reduces the human resources required and eradicates inputting errors. It also cuts postage costs and reduces waste paper.

EDI is a point-to-point computer connection between a business and a supplier which uses a network provider to process transactions. Large businesses use this method to connect with their major suppliers.

Source: Computerweekly

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: E-invoicing could help firms through recession.

Award TWIST and GE for Billing Standard

Editor — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:56:45 +0000

The Billing Standard for Bank Services (BSB) is increasingly successful. General Electric and TWIST were awarded the 2008 Adam Smith Awards in the category Bank Relationship Management.

GE and TWIST won the award for the development of the BSB standard and their role in the successful implementation by Danske Bank and Barclays Bank. These awards are sponsored by Treasury Today magazine and aim to highlight “Best Practices and Innovation” in the field of treasury management.

Source: Twist

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Award TWIST and GE for Billing Standard.

Blogpost: Paper invoices have NO future

Editor — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:17:28 +0000

Source: Bo Harald: Blogger

It is evident – paper invoices will disappear from the business to business and business to government sectors and then later in practise also in the business to consumer/government to citizen area. The 5 mega-class reasons are exceptionally powerful and clear to see. Everyone will benefit – especially the consumers and tax payers.

It is only a question of time. And how this can be very short.

In the EU Expert Group work it is becoming clear that there are two domains:

1. Mindset

Once the mindset is that there is NO future for this wasteful practise things will start to happen. And it is already – public sectors in 6 countries and many progressive enterprises have declared e-invoicing mandatory (with near or already passed deadlines). 10 more EU-countries have similar plans. As these heavy duty players defacto force invoice senders to take the step and the market has come up with the needed open standards and economical tools it is inevitable that e-invoicing will be used in all directions. Paper invoices will quickly become an oddity.

Spreading the awareness that paper invoices have NO future is clearly the top priority.

2. Removing obstacles and increasing enablers for a wider unified market

Much of the progress happening now is by necessity countryspecific. Nothing wrong with that – on the contrary – efforts towards moving with the slowest should be firmly resisted. Interoperabity is not that difficult to achieve and move to the coming common mass market standard will anyway take time.

But for those who realize how much the continuos improvement in the wellbeing of European citizens is dependent on unifying European markets it is evident that firmer action should be taken also in the crossborder dimension of this omnipresent – and thus so potential document. Economic strength is both a question of scale and today even more of moving faster into the technology-enabled innovation space.

Some argue that the share of crossborder invoices out of the total number of 30 billion is so small that there is limited needs for EU efforts. Here one should remember that the very reason for both payments and invoicing being so local and fragmented has been national regulation and infrastructure. Now we are moving towards one-bank-account-being-enough for all of the €-area. What could be the reason for it not being possible to send invoices in the same way? With the right mindset it should not be particularly difficult. But of course it takes the right attitude:

1. the e-invoicing service must be irresistably easy to use for the 24m SMEs (just like payments are starting to be)

2. there must not – in the base case – be any need to invest or install software – just a template in a secure environment – this makes both the knowledge and financial threshold disappear

3. all services where authenticity and integrity is on an acceptable level must be accepted – technology-neutrality (no mandatory PKI seriously adding cost and complexity)

4. electronic documents should not be treated essentially differently from paper documents – they are anyway automatically more safely transmitted and have traceability (the opportunity to fight fraud should naturally be used by creating rules for the network)

Excellent progress is being made – but there is naturally much more to do. But it all starts with the mindset – understanding the inevitability and the reasons for why it should really be speeded up and contribute to a stronger Europe sooner rather than too late.

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Blogpost: Paper invoices have NO future.

TietoEnator and Seeburger partner for e-invoicing

Tieto — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:33:05 +0000

TietoEnator, one of the leading financial value chain and eInvoicing service providers in Europe, and Seeburger, an integration specialist from Bretten in Germany, have announced that they have embarked on a global cooperation. The partnership will focus on eInvoicing and long-term archiving, which complement Seeburger’s service offering and bring TietoEnator’s eInvoicing network new customers.

TietoEnator offers eInvoicing services to both enterprises and banks and can reach a large number of invoice issuers and receivers. Mats Wikström, Vice President of Value Networks at TietoEnator Digital Innovations says: “Together with our customers, we’ve received several international innovation awards in business integration and financial value chain services. This co-operation is an important milestone in improving services for our international customers.”

The cooperation makes TietoEnator’s on-demand services for eInvoice exchange and archiving available to Seeburger’s EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) outsourcing customers. The new joint service already has its first customer, a leading company in the packaging market.

Bernd Seeburger, founder and CEO of Seeburger says: “By using TietoEnator’s eInvoicing service with Seeburger’s EDI outsourcing services, our common customer can optimize its invoice handling processes, as well as take care of tax and legal compliance requirements. They chose this solution in order to ensure a secured exchange of invoices with all of its business partners.”

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: TietoEnator and Seeburger partner for e-invoicing.

JPMorgan Chase to deploy Oracle document capture software

Editor — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:30:42 +0000

US banking group JPMorgan Chase is implementing electronic document capture and management technology supplied by Oracle across its global operations.

The bank is implementing Oracle’s Distributed Document Capture technology to facilitate the electronic capture and management of a broad range of critical business documents including loan applications, financial statements, invoices and checks.

Oracle says the Web-based system provides scalability, easy administration, support for multiple input devices. The bank will benefit from faster document cycle times, improved regulatory compliance and records management, more automated business processes and better access to information.

Commenting on the implementation, Trevor Salt, manager, distributed document capture, JPMorgan Chase, says: “Oracle Distributed Document Capture is designed to help us increase efficiency and gain tighter control over records for compliance requirements.”

The system will initially will be rolled out to more than 750 US users at JPMorgan Chase. By the end of 2009, more than 3000 employees across the US, Europe, Africa and Asia are expected to be using the software.

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: JPMorgan Chase to deploy Oracle document capture software.

MasterCard Payment Gateway integrates iPayables e-invoicing

Editor — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:27:05 +0000

MasterCard Worldwide today announced that it has integrated the MasterCard Payment Gateway with iPayables’ electronic invoice delivery capabilities to provide expanded payment solutions to corporations and financial institutions.

The combined offering provides a complete procure-to-pay solution that supports settlement using a MasterCard payment card account or electronic funds transfer (EFT).

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAWW), a leading provider of global air cargo assets and services, is the first company to utilize the integrated capabilities of the MasterCard Payment Gateway and iPayables.

“We manage and operate the world’s largest fleet of 747 freighter aircraft, providing a unique value proposition to our customers through highly reliable, cost-efficient assets and operating services,” said Joseph Lopez, Sr. Manager, Indirect Procurement for Atlas Air. “Similarly, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is a highly reliable, cost-efficient service that will streamline the process for paying our suppliers, saving time and money for us and our vendors.”

First introduced in October 2007, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is a flexible enterprise-wide payment processing platform for routing commercial payments between buyers, suppliers and their financial institutions. iPayables is the first non-bank reseller whose functionality is coupled with the MasterCard Payment Gateway, creating an end-to-end solution that offers companies a more streamlined, faster and secure way to make payments.

“The combination of iPayables’ electronic invoicing capabilities with the MasterCard Payment Gateway provides Atlas Air with one efficient and secure B2B payments solution,” said Shari Krikorian, vice president, Advanced Payments, MasterCard Worldwide. “By managing multiple payment types, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is simplifying the historically inefficient, check-dominated process of payment, and solving corporations’ growing demand for straight-through processing.”

Using the MasterCard Payment Gateway, a buyer can initiate payment card and EFT payments directly from its financial system to the banks of its suppliers. Remittance data is provided to both the buyer and supplier to speed up reconciliation processes. No account information is shared between the buyer and supplier, and the supplier does not need to use a point of sale device to originate payment.

“The MasterCard Payment Gateway expands our electronic invoicing capabilities and enables us to provide our customers with a complete payables solution that delivers increased efficiencies for all of their commercial payments needs,” said Ken Virgin, CEO, iPayables.

The modular nature of the MasterCard Payment Gateway also provides financial institutions with an enterprise-wide electronic solution that they can re-brand and make available to their corporate customers, or integrate into their current product offerings to enhance their functionality and efficiency. This can enable them to increase payment volumes without building infrastructure, potentially grow profits with additional fees, deepen customer relationships and differentiate from the competition.

Suppliers that process payments with the MasterCard Payment Gateway enjoy automated payments with straight-through processing, decreased paper check processing costs, automated reconciliation via enhanced remittance information for common payment types and preference among buyers that pay electronically.

Buyers that rely on the MasterCard Payment Gateway can drive efficiencies by streamlining their payment options, integrating with existing accounts payable processes and can potentially save money by enabling one connection. Through this method/gateway, buyers can have one streamlined total payables solution that can help them increase productivity, enhance security and increase profits.

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: MasterCard Payment Gateway integrates iPayables e-invoicing.

e-Invoicing in Europe

Editor — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:23:36 +0000

Bo Harald, chairman, EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing, spoke to Finextra at EBAday in Helsinki about the progress being made by industry bodies to lay the groundwork for wider adoption of e-invoicing in the European single market. In this video he outlines some of the benefits for corporates, SMEs and banks in increasing financial supply chain efficiency, and describes the steps being taken to achieve standard processes and a common legal foundation for e-invoices in Europe.

Source: Sibos Online

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: e-Invoicing in Europe.