Posts Tagged ‘initiative’
A map of activities having an impact on the development of European interoperable eProcurement solutions has been issued by the eProcurement Forum Team in cooperation with IDABC.
The strategic objective of the eProcurement Forum, which together with IDABC promoted the production of this document, is to make the eProcurement experts aware about what is happening in the complex European scenario.
A number of activities are running contemporaneously, addressing different aspects and adopting different approaches. The risk is that they proceed on their own, with no or limited contacts with the other ones, sometimes spending precious effort and time towards the same objectives.
There is a strong need to make all these initiatives aware of the possibility of cooperation and sharing actions. Therefore the eProcurement Forum took the initiative of composing the whole picture and make it available for consultation, revision and integration to as much eProcurement practitioners as possible.
The first version of this picture is proposed in a lively document available at IDABC website. This document will be periodically revised and updated.
More information:
www.ePractice.eu
IDABC
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
The Plan Avanza has mobilised € 1800 million in 2006-2008 to facilitate the introduction of new technologies in Spanish SMEs. David Cierco, Director General for Development of the Information Society within the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade unveiled this information on the occasion of the presentation of the Prointur project (Profesionalización del Turismo de Interior), a project funded under the Plan Avanza.
The programme ‘Avanza SMEs’ of Plan Avanza endeavours to increase the ICT level of adoption by SMEs through the introduction of sectoral solutions and eBusiness, including the introduction of eInvoicing. The implementation of these measures has been done through calls for aid, agreements with regional governments and ICT loans.
Avanza SME has several lines of action:
- outreach programmes to expand the use of the Internet and new technologies;
- provision of technological advice;
- training and awareness-raising on the efficient use of ICT;
- implementation of projects and actions to develop and adopt business solutions;
- preparation of studies and analysis;
- programmes for content creation;
- provision of computer equipment.
Mr. Cierco reminded the audience that the new plan Avanza2, “the normal evolution of the Plan Avanza,” pursues qualitative and specific objectives, through five areas of action: infrastructure, security and trust, technological training, digital content and services and industrial development.
Prointur is a project of the foundation Fundetec whose aim is to promote the use of Information Technologies and Communication Technologies (ICT) within the internal and rural tourism accommodation sector, as an instrument to professionalize the business management while increasing the activity. The initiative is funded jointly by Fundetec, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade – through the Plan Avanza – and the European Union.
Source: www.epractice.eu
Further information: Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade
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.
Read more on epractice
Renewable energy supplier Ecotricity has signed up with OneVu to offer its customers a greener billing alternative which will help to reduce the number of paper invoices and statements being produced and sent across the postal system.
Under the agreement, Ecotricity’s domestic customers can now use OneVu’s unique service to view and pay their bills through the secure environment of their online bank, whilst contributing to an initiative that reduces carbon dioxide emissions and lessens the pressure on natural resources.
Ecotricity’s main focus is building new green energy sources, and in 2007 alone, the company invested £25 million in wind energy. This figure, equating to over £550 per customer, is more than 100 times the national average when compared to other UK electricity suppliers. To achieve and increase such levels of investment, the company is committed to streamlining business process and reducing overheads by identifying and using cost-effective and responsible solutions such as the OneVu service.
The OneVu service is free for consumers to use and offers a convenient and secure access to a large and growing number of biller websites, saving the consumer time and providing a greater control of personal finances. For billers there are significant savings to be gained through the reduction in processing and postage of paper bills, a decrease in call centre costs and reduced debtor days.
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince commented: “OneVu provides an ideal service for us – a big step on the way to a fully online retail offering. Our customers are already fighting climate change with their electricity bills … taking their actual bills online will reduce the environmental impact of our supply operations and help us on our way to becoming a Carbon Zero business”.
Miles Quitmann, CEO of OneVu, said: “Ecotricity joins over 30 other major billing organisations who have already signed up to our service, particularly in the utilities sector where more than 75 per cent of companies in the UK now use the system.”
Source: Sibos Online
ETSI will organise its 4th Security Workshop to be held at ETSI Headquarters, in Sophia Antipolis, France, on the 13th and 14th of January 2009. The increasing complexity and rapid development of new systems and networks, the sophistication of changing threats, and the presence of intrinsic vulnerabilities present demanding challenges for the Information society in its efforts to secure Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems and networks against the threats and related risks to which they are subject. To minimise exposure to risks, Security must be built in from the beginning when designing new architectures, and not added on at a later stage as an optional feature.
Security standards, sometimes in support of legislative actions, are essential to ensure interoperability between products using the same security mechanisms, to provide globally acceptable security metrics, as well as to ensure an adequate level of security for these products. This leads to a more secure and profitable environment for the industrial sector from SME to large global companies, as well as benefits for governmental organisations, research bodies and universities.
Registration
Online registration for this workshop is now open. Attendance at the workshop is free of charge and open to everyone.
This event is in the past
Electronic invoicing is currently being adopted in Finnish companies and in the public sector. This paper looks at electronic invoicing and reports the latest developments in the EUarena related to electronic invoicing. In addition, the study reports the findings from the case studies conducted during autumn 2007. These case studies focused on the implementation processes of electronic invoicing in Finnish companies and the public sector.
This white paper reports the results from the FullSEPA project which concentrates on promoting and researching electronic payments and electronic invoicing. FullSEPA is the first phase in the Real-Time Economy (RTE) program. The RTE program is a four-year program focusing on real-time technologies and business transactions. It is conducted in collaboration between the Helsinki School of Economics and TietoEnator, and it is funded by Tekes – Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation through Verso – Vertical Software Solutions programme.
Download the white paper (pdf)
Source: Tekes
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