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.

97% of businesses believe that effective use of e-invoicing would help companies to achieve operational efficiency but adoption is hampered by the inability to offer suppliers the possibilities to transact electronically and suppliers being forced to use multiple portals, according to the E-invoicing: A Global View Survey, an independent survey by Basware, the leading provider of purchase-to-pay solutions.

The survey of 1,373 finance professionals from US, Europe, the Nordic countries and Australia was conducted to provide an in-depth view of the levels of e-invoicing adoption, attitudes to the approach and the extent to which e-invoicing can help companies improve supplier relationships and in turn achieve better cash flow positions, reduce DSOs (days sales outstanding) and improve working capital.

While the benefits of transacting invoices and purchase orders electronically are widely recognised, with two thirds of respondents stating that it has a positive impact on their business, adoption levels still remain low. The majority of businesses (56%) are currently receiving less than 20% of all invoices electronically on a monthly basis and only 9% of respondents stated having high levels of e-invoice processing. Alongside this, 93% believe invoice processing could currently be somewhat or significantly improved.

72% of participants in the survey cited operational efficiency as the primary financial priority in 2011 with nearly all of the respondents highlighting e-invoicing as the key to achieving it. However, a too common experience of businesses aspiring to realise automation is that the process is staggered and compliance, changes to legacy processes and enabling suppliers to transact electronically take up significant time and energy. At the companies surveyed, 74% of invoices arrive on paper and are then scanned for further, often manual, workflow. These non-automated processes have visible bottom line impacts, as companies fail to benefit from optimised cashflow, working capital management and lower purchasing costs – all of which the respondents recognised to have clear impacts on operational efficiency.

A big challenge is the lack of interoperability between different e-invoicing networks, leading suppliers to be limited by networks that support only proprietary document formats. 61% of survey respondents claimed an open network, where any supplier, buyer or third-party vendor can participate in sending electronic documents irrespective of whether proprietary technologies are in place or not, would increase efficiency and cost savings. Alongside this, 46% of financial professionals’ cite the (perceived) cost of adoption as the primary challenge preventing the rapid uptake of e-invoicing. By not enabling suppliers to easily start transacting electronically and failing to integrate them into an organisations purchase-to-pay processes, results in reduced spend under management impacts the efficiency of the purchase-to-pay cycle. Suppliers should be able to participate irrespective of size, industry or geography and a dedicated program is essential to enable suppliers to start transacting electronically.

According to a separate research report commissioned by Basware(1), combining invoice automation with e-invoicing and eProcurement within organisations doubles the chances of achieving AP invoice processing excellence and maximises straight-through processing. There is a significant disparity between those accounts payable departments that are still relying on paper-based processes and those organisations that have adopted automated processes and e-invoicing. Finance professionals recognise the benefits of e-invoicing in relieving the processing burdens and it is therefore unsurprising that 53% believe that suppliers need to increase their adoption of e-invoicing, with 54% of respondents requesting that e-invoicing becomes the industry standard.

Steve Muddiman, Senior Vice President, Basware commented: “To compete in a challenging economy a company, and more specifically its finance team, is under pressure to streamline processes and improve efficiencies in operations. No longer can they rely on processes that require manual intervention. E-invoicing offers multiple benefits in time and cost savings and there is recognition that the automation of invoicing is necessary for improving cash flow efficiencies and working capital. The challenge is for businesses to work with suppliers to ensure they understand the value in adopting e-invoicing as currently the slow uptake by suppliers is having a detrimental impact on businesses achieving operational efficiency.”

To find out more about the e-Invoicing: A Global View survey: www.basware.co.uk/e-invoicing

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Businesses globally cite E-Invoicing as key to unlocking operational efficiency.

Scottish Water is a UK-based water provider operating in Scotland. This move will enable the company to add OB10’s e-Invoicing solution to its accounts payable department, and will therefore help to streamline the process of receiving, reconciling and delivering accurate invoices in a timely manner.

Stefan Foryszewski, SVP Business and Product Development, OB10, commented: “We are delighted to be working with Scottish Water to promote our e-Invoicing services and help build on our e-Invoicing network. E-Invoicing brings not only financial but also green benefits, and I am confident Scottish Water will see a vast difference in the speed and efficiency of its invoice processing as a result. We have a number of clients, including EDF and Severn Trent Water, working to deliver excellent utilities services and pride ourselves in understanding the nature of the market and its requirements.”

Scott Turkington, Financial Services Manager, Scottish Water, commented: “In recent years we have significantly increased our purchase-to-pay process efficiency, whilst improving payment on time to suppliers. To further improve performance to truly world class levels we identified greater Accounts Payable automation as a priority. After a thorough selection process we have chosen OB10 to streamline our processes; improve speed and accuracy; and at the same time reduce our carbon footprint, moving to a paperless office.”

OB10

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: OB10 to provide Scottish Water with a e-Invoicing solution.

The new Basware Purchase Management solution to be delivered integrates seamlessly to services already in use and together they cover the whole purchase to pay process. Basware will deliver Basware Purchase Management (PM), Basware Order Matching (OM), Basware Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Basware RFx Management solutions to VVO. In addition, VVO will start using Basware Catalogue Exchange Services and Supplier Portal, which allow VVO to receive catalogs electronically to Basware Purchase Management solution.

VVO can also receive purchase orders and create an invoice in an easy and safe manner. “We are happy to deliver additional solutions to an existing customer. This is a clear proof of good cooperation and high customer satisfaction. Our solutions are modular and can be implemented according to customers’ needs. Basware Enterprise Purchase to Pay Solutions provide extensive savings to our customers, ” says Ilkka Sihvo, CEO, Basware Corporation. VVO is a publicly-listed company providing housing services.

From VVO, you can rent an apartment, acquire right-of-occupancy or part-ownership housing or buy a dwelling outright. VVO develops, markets and manages its own dwellings.

For more information, please contact:
CEO Ilkka Sihvo, Basware Corporation,
Tel. +358 40 501 8251

CIO Mikko Pöyry,VVO,
Tel. +358 20 508 3772

www.basware.com

This article is from E-invoicing Platform. Read the original post at: Basware sign agreement with Finnish housing services company.