The EEI Platform selected a number of e-invoicing applications for your iPhone or  iPad to loosen your administration from time and place.
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Invoice2go
Invoice2go is the fast and easy way to invoice, estimate, bill, collect and report. With 10 built-in invoice styles to choose from it’s actually fun going through and choosing your template and designing your invoice. Even better if you install the Desktop Version all these templates can be customized to your own needs. Add logo’s, move fields you can even create your very own business forms. No other solution available gives you this flexibility.

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Time Master + Billing + Quickbooks
The best, most powerful, comprehensive, easy to use time keeping app on the Apple Store is now even better. Time Master has the highest average rating of all the time management apps. And the other apps don’t come close to our new optional billing module. Our invoices are totally professional. Please click on the “On-Core website” link below to view Video demos of the program in action.
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GetPaid! – PDF Invoice & Time Sheet
GetPaid! tracks time and generates instant PDF invoices and time sheets. The beautiful and intuitive user interface is designed to log your time and to create professional invoices or time sheets in a snap. Getpaid! is a must have app for mobile professionals, business owners, temps, freelancers, contractors, consultants, lawyers or anyone who needs to track their time to get paid. Time is money, don’t miss another minute! You’ve worked hard, now it’s time to GetPaid!

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Ring It Up Pro: Invoicing & Checkout
RedLaser has joined forces with Ring it Up to bring to you the most comprehensive Point of Sale application available for the iPhone today. Ring up your sales, expenses & accept payment, right on your iPhone. Bookkeeping no longer has to be a chore.

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Invoice Maker
Finally, after much demand, the perfect tool for your business on the iPhone! Using this app you will be able to send state-of-the-art invoices via e-mail to your clients. You can create invoices for products AND services.

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Billings Touch
Billings Touch takes the Apple Design Award winning time tracking and invoicing experience from the Mac and puts it in your pocket. Billings Touch works as a standalone application – or as a companion to Billings on the Mac.

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GetPaid! Lite – PDF Invoice & TimeSheet
GetPaid! tracks time and generates instant PDF invoices and time sheets. The beautiful and intuitive user interface is designed to log your time and to create invoices or time sheets in a snap. Getpaid! is a must have app for mobile professionals, business owners, temps, freelancers, contractors, consultants, lawyers or anyone who needs to track their time to get paid. Time is money, don’t miss another minute! You’ve worked hard, now it’s time to GetPaid!

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Omni Invoice
Why not try before you buy. Please download our free version, Omni Invoice Lite.With Omni Invoice you can now create quotes and invoices anywhere.

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Invoice2go Lite
Invoice2go is the fast and easy way to invoice, estimate, bill, collect and report. With 10 built-in invoice styles to choose from it’s actually fun going through and choosing your template and designing your invoice. Even better if you install the Desktop Version all these templates can be customized to your own needs. Add logo’s, move fields you can even create your very own business forms. No other solution available gives you this flexibility.

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Omni Invoice Lite
With Omni Invoice Lite you can now create quotes and invoices anywhere. No more downtime spent writing up quotes back at the office, or catching up with your backlog of invoicing causing delays in payment.

Omni Invoice Lite enables you to create quotes whilst on site, delivering them by email in seconds. Generating invoices from your quotes is an equally simple process.

Quick and intuitive to use, simply populate Omni Invoice Lite with your products, services and company details, then start billing.
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Invoice Now
Run your business from your iPhone. Missing Piece is proud to bring you Invoice Now.
Invoice Now is the invoice only version of Taking Care of Business. It creates secure PDF invoices in a professional format which can be emailed directly from your iPhone. Copy or blind copy the invoices back to your office.

Invoice Now includes an optional invoice calculator for building up more complex invoices. It also builds a history database as you use it – no need to spend hours entering your inventory before you use the application.
Record payments against your invoices. View a record of all your receivables grouped according to due date. Resend invoices as reminders.

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Quick Invoice
If you freelance or own a business, you have probably faced the tedious task of creating and sending invoices while away from the office. Now, with Quick Invoice that nightmare is over. Quick Invoice allows you to easily generate and send invoices. You only have to choose your customer, the service, tax, numbering and pay option and, in less than 5 seconds, your customer will be able to receive the invoice via e-mail..
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Smart Invoice
The Smart Invoice iPhone application allows you to remotely use Smart Invoice to:
• Create new clients, projects, and tasks on the fly
• Track time by client, project and task
• Create and categorize expenses
• Create invoices
• Receive credit card payments for invoices you create on your iPhone (currently works with Authorize.net)—this functionality essentially turns your iPhone into a mobile credit card processor.

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Our Bills
Bills are constantly coming and money is tight especially during these hard economic times. That is why it is so important to keep track of our everyday expenses. We have created this great new application that will let you keep track of your bills in a convenient, quick and organized way so that you always have this information at hand for your convenience. Unlike similar applications here you will be able to add your partner’s and combined bills, as well as categorized them.

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Easy Biller
Do you live your work day in six minute increments? Do you sometimes lose track of time when you’re on the go? Easy Biller is here to help. What does this app do?

- Calculates billable hours with a variety of tools including a timer and start/stop time converter
- Tracks your daily, weekly and monthly and year billable hours totals
- Organizes time entries by client and case names and numbers: enter as much or little detail as you prefer
- Allows you to enter detailed descriptions of your time
- Produces an easy-to-read, emailable table of your time entries at the end of each day
-Also includes a handy converter for figuring out hours without adding new entry to database.

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Simplybill
Simplybill provides a great invoicing solution in your pocket. Designed to run along-side the Simplybill online invoicing service, the Simplybill App provides all the functions you need on the go.

In order to use the Simplybill iPhone App, you need a Simplybill account – if you don’t have one, sign up for a free-trial at www.simplybill.com. Plans cost from $5/month.

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Source: www.iphoneapplicationlist.com

Perceptive Software, the creator of enterprise content management software including ImageNow, has formed a global partnership with OB10, the leading global business-to-business electronic invoicing network.

The partnership will allow Perceptive Software to offer e-invoicing and seamless alignment with its ImageNow Workflow solution.

Perceptive Software customers will be able to receive electronic invoices from their suppliers via the OB10 network and can further streamline invoice processing by receiving accurate invoice transaction data electronically directly from the supplier in real time. This eliminates the need for scanning or data entry and creates “no-touch” invoice processing.

“ImageNow offers an extremely versatile solution for accounts payable departments,” said Thayer Stewart, OB10 vice president for marketing and business development. “It supports all ERP environments and features the ability to be hosted or installed locally, which satisfies the needs of a wide range of organisations. We are excited by the partnership with Perceptive Software and believe their strong customer focus will pay dividends to both organisations.”

“Perceptive Software is pleased to partner with OB10,” said Darren Knipp, chief technology officer, Perceptive Software. “Perceptive Software and OB10 have similar integration philosophies. OB10’s e-Invoicing capabilities will be a key addition to our Back Office ECM offering, integrating seamlessly with ImageNow Workflow key addition to our Back Office ECM offering, integrating seamlessly with ImageNow Workflow.”

www.ob10.com
Source: www.onwindows.com

The first version of the EIF, published in 2004, gave definitions of open standards and recommended the use of open source software. In the new version of the EIF these references have been omitted. Now the document has a section on openness, writing that “interoperability can also be obtained without openness, for example via homogeneity of the ICT systems, which implies that all partners use, or agree to use, the same solution to implement a European Public Service.”

“The EIF is in danger”, says Karsten Gerloff, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). “This new draft is a threat to the interoperability of European eGovernment services, and a recipe to maintain and even increase vendor lock-in.”

In a letter sent on 6 November 2009, Gerloff urges the EU member states to make the European Commission withdraw the revision.

On the same day, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) published ten suggestions to improve the draft. It argues for instance for a strong definition of open standards, to prevent patents from making standards incompatible with open source licences such as for instance the European Union Public Licence (EUPL).

According to OpenForum Europe the EU has abandoned its commitment to open standards. In a statement, Graham Taylor, CEO of OpenForum Europe on Monday said: “The drastic changes from the consultation document of 2008 to this document cannot be seen as resulting from the comments submitted through the public consultation, forcing us to conclude either that the Commission has been unduly influenced by pressures outside of the democratic and transparent process or that it is desperate to defend its own legacy procurement choices”.

According to the private IT news site, the draft was published by the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs in late October 2009. It quoted a spokesperson for the European Commission who last week denied the document was official. However, a Dutch IT news site, a day earlier had already quoted Serge Novaretti, EIF project officer at IDABC, the European Commission’s unit for eGovernment policies, confirming the document. According to Novaretti, the message is still the same, it is just written in another way.

Update
The OSOR earlier reported the EU was to present its new EIF document on 12 November 2009 in Malmö, Sweden. That is not the case, says Karel De Vriendt, Head of the IDABC unit responsible for the OSOR project and the EIF draft. “We have sent a draft to the member states and asked for their comments. It is a draft and as such subject to change before being finalised.”

Source: www.epractice.eu

The County Council uses SAP R/3 ECC6 as its ERP system and has a contract with Serco who provide our SAP Environment as a hosted service and they undertake all configuration on our behalf. This contract runs until 2012 and any successful tenderer will be required to work in partnership with Serco to implement a solution.

Procurement transactions are undertaken using both SAP R/3 and SRM. The SRM module was implemented in February 2007 to coincide with the establishment of the centralised Accounts Payable function.

The next step in developing OCCs Accounts Payable function is to automate the input of invoices as far as possible, whilst improving the customer experience. OCC expects to make significant efficiency savings through the automation of the AP function.

It is expected that the solution selected will have the ability to scan paper invoices directly into SAP as well as utilise the technologies available to enable true e-invoicing. The successful tenderer will be expected to identify areas where true e-invoicing is achievable and implement this when the solution goes live.

Source: www.rfpconnect.com

To assist organizations searching for ways to optimize their Accounts Payable (AP) processes, OB10, the leading global e-Invoicing network, recently hosted a complimentary webinar titled Overcoming the Top 7 Barriers to e-Invoicing. The webinar, co-hosted by IOMA, the acknowledged leader in providing practical information to the AP profession, taught participants how to identify potential roadblocks when considering an e-Invoicing project for their organizations.

The webinar attracted almost 400 registrants interested in overcoming various obstacles when initiating an e-Invoicing project at their company. Each step outlined during the session provided practical tools that anyone in AP can utilize to help streamline the invoice receipt process and, ultimately, reduce costs.

Donna McGuinness, director, OB10 Western Region, was the featured speaker and walked participants through details of overcoming the seven barriers, starting with a need to understand where to begin as well as knowing what is important to which internal departments.

“Many organizations struggle with knowing where to start, let alone understanding what’s important to which internal groups while working to gain support,” said McGuinness. “Once you know where to begin and you’ve identified the issues that are important to your organization’s departments that may support such an initiative, the other five obstacles can be addressed more readily.”

An organization must then complete their due diligence in steps three and four; fully understanding which options and features are available from which vendors. “There are so many variations out there from so many different providers, it’s easy to become confused about which vendor may be right for you,” added McGuinness. “Organizations should take the time to ask as many questions as they can because it’s important to know and understand exactly what vendors will do and what they will not do. It’s also important to have a thorough understanding about what will be required by you, the buying organization, when implementing an e-invoicing initiative.”

Step five offers details on ensuring a return on investment (ROI) after implementing an e-invoicing initiative. “With other solutions such as OCR and EDI, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to extract a compelling ROI,” said McGuinness. “Organizations considering these other solutions should note that costly hardware and software investments often make implementation cost-prohibitive. With e-Invoicing, significant ROI can be realized in as little as a year.”

Understanding all the details of an agreement and ensuring the selected vendor delivers on an organization’s expectations are critical to step six. Step seven offers insight into ensuring all the right questions have been asked and enough information has been collected to allow the buying organization to make an informed decision.

Duncan Jones, senior analyst for Forrester Research, in the Forrester Wave Report AP-EIPP, Q2 2008, states, “A major challenge for sourcing professionals who want to lead an AP-EIPP selection project is the diverse range of companies claiming to offer invoice automation solutions. Complete solutions will deliver four key capabilities: enable suppliers to submit invoices electronically, straight from their own systems; transform the data into a usable format and layout; validate data, using supporting records and discrepancy approval workflows; and provide process monitoring so buyers and suppliers can work together to reduce errors. Complete AP-EIPP solutions will automate the functions necessary to support these four stages of the invoice-to-pay process.”

“Organizations must also understand that success ultimately lies in the supplier enrollment process,” said McGuinness. “You can’t obtain ROI, cost savings or optimization without ensuring that your suppliers have been enrolled and are transacting. By following these simple but important steps, organizations can be better equipped to make informed decisions when selecting an e-Invoicing provider.”

To listen to the webinar in its entirety, including the FAQ session, and to fully understand what it takes to initiate a successful e-Invoicing project in your organization, log onto the OB10 web site at http://ob10.com/Country/US/Webinars_2 and click on the link near the bottom titled Overcoming the Top 7 Barriers to e-Invoicing.

About OB10
OB10 (www.OB10.com) is the leading global B2B e-Invoicing network. OB10 simplifies and streamlines the complex invoice-to-pay processes. Neither client organizations nor their suppliers are required to implement any hardware or software, and OB10 is independent of data file formats. OB10 can reduce the cost of paper invoice processing by typically 60 percent and can deliver an ROI in less than a year if the program follows OB10’s best practice guidelines. Operational across Europe, North America and Asia, OB10 is compliant with the requirements of VAT, tax and e-Invoicing legislation and receives invoices from suppliers in over 100 countries. To ensure unrivalled and rapid supplier enrollment, each new customer’s suppliers are supported by an implementation services team responsible for getting them up and running on the OB10 network.

StreamServe included among vendors which demonstrate a strong market presence and the ability to meet a broad set of DOCCM needs.

Forrester defines DOCCM as software used to compose, format, personalize and distribute content to support physical and electronic customer communications and improve the customer experience. Examples of customer communications include policies, contracts, correspondence, statements, invoices, personalized marketing materials and welcome kits. The DOCCM market is segmented into structured, interactive and on-demand categories. StreamServe is one of the vendors in the report positioned consistently as a “strong performer” in all three of these segments. Forrester states in its report that:

“StreamServe has an open and flexible front end with strong post composition, output management, and production management. It’s a dominant player in the energy, utility, and supply chain segments, and also has strength and a growing presence in financial services.”

The report also states that “StreamServe excels at integrating DOCCM into structured and enterprise apps to leverage their work processing…”

“Enterprises today require flexible output solutions that empower business users, support multichannel output, personalize content, and provide rapid return on investment,” said Dennis Ladd, StreamServe president and CEO. “There is also a growing need for these solutions to aid in the overall customer experience. We are pleased to have received such strong recognition from Forrester as a provider of proven solutions that meet the needs of businesses in all categories of customer communications.”

A complimentary webcast featuring Craig LeClair, Forrester Principle Analyst and co-author of the report, can be accessed by registering here: http://is.gd/1kgzs.

About StreamServe™
StreamServe is a leading provider of Enterprise Document Presentment solutions that set the standard for business communications. Simple to deploy and maintain, the company’s dynamic composition, document process automation and enterprise output management solutions meet the demanding challenges of today’s global businesses for producing and delivering highly customized documents in any format.

StreamServe’s advanced software solutions ease the process of composing and automating business communications, enabling organizations to increase the value and profitability of their business relationships. This is done all while leveraging existing business applications such as ERP, CRM and ECM.

The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Burlington, Mass., with 14 offices worldwide. StreamServe serves more than 5,000 customers in 130 countries, primarily in the financial services, utilities, manufacturing, distribution and telecom sectors. Customers include BMW France, CLP Power Hong Kong, Plantronics, and Siemens Financial. StreamServe’s strategic partners include Adobe Systems, IBM, InfoPrint Solutions Company, Lawson, and SAP.

To learn more about how StreamServe’s EDP solutions can improve the effectiveness of your organization’s communications, please visit us online athttp://www.streamserve.com. Follow StreamServe on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/StreamServe.

 
Recently Richard Smits, member of the project group Electronic Invoicing within Exact Software, wrote the following in his blog ”The advantages of Electronic Invoicing”:

“Since a few weeks we are sending all invoices to our Exact Online customers digitally. The monthly invoices are sent from our own Exact Globe environment to the digital mailboxes in Exact Online. With some simple mouse clicks our customers can first check the invoice and then create the entry into Exact Online with the invoice linked as an attachment. ”

 
As a lot of people are curious, and because “a picture says more than a 1000 words”, Richard Smits created a small video in Exact Globe (Exact Onlone), which will give you a sneak preview!
 
Watch the sneak preview below:

by Richard Smits in Exact Globe, Exact Online

The Spanish subsidiary of 20/20 vision Europe optimizes the budget to pay processes of Spanish organizations. One of the most promising biotechnological companies in Spain, Projech in Madrid, has selected 20/20 vision to optimize their processes. An integrated procurement solution is a requirement to handle the expected explosive growth of Projech.

At Projech, motivated biometrics develop new diagnostic methods to threat diseases like diabetes and cancer, in cooperation with the Spanish government. This research examines the failures of authentic diagnostic methods and is conducted in cooperation with numerous third parties. Revolutionary methods are built from scratch in order to conquer the largest biometric challenges of the 21st century.

These complex processes are supported by state of the art software solutions. Projech is a budget controlled organization and purchases need to fit within an agreed upon budget. There is no time to spend hours on chasing missing invoices, debate purchase mandates and use of budgets, because there are lives on the line.
Therefore 20/20 vision Europe is proud that the full suite procurement solution will support Projech as of this summer. A fast implementation was a requirement for the purchase of the software. 20/20 vision Europe is known for making project deadlines and smooth implementations.

As pressure mounts on organisations to be more “green” in their business operations and the continuous drive for greater efficiencies, eBilling is set to change the way companies send invoices to their customers. The market for eBilling solutions is expected to have massive growth in the next few years so Anachron and zumzum have forged a strategic partnership to capitalise on the UK market.

“Having reviewed over 50 eBilling providers across Europe it became very clear why Anachron is in the top 3 eBilling solution providers in Europe” explains Bashrat Din, Managing Director of zumzum. “Anachron is the only vendor that has solutions for large billers through to very small companies. The particular expertise demonstrated by Anachron in the B2B eBilling sector, the advanced set of features and the total commitment to quality of service means that Anachron is ideally positioned to increase their market share across Europe. We are very excited to be working with Anachron to increase their footprint in the UK.”

Continued Bashrat Din, “Anachron established the business in 1999 so is a survivor of the dot com meltdown, but not just survived but prospered by accumulating a very impressive set of reference customers. The investments Anachron has made in technology means that they are unique with a total set of solutions for both the Biller-direct model, which is well suited to large accounts and also the Biller-Consolidator model (Ingis) targeting the SME market. This latter solution is as a result of an investment made in Anachron by ING bank so this is an example of the very creative partnerships Anachron is capable of developing.

“From our very first contact with Anachron we have been incredibly impressed with the people at Anachron, and they constantly demonstrate a creative and flexible approach to partnering. They are just great people to be working with and we are delighted with the early results we are achieving” concluded Din.

Source: www.anachron.com

The multinational is the first company from the British Isle to become Founding Partner.  OB10 is added to the EEI Platform Founding Partner group, which currently holds around 20 partners. It is expected that more organisations in Europe with interest in electronic invoicing and invoice automation will join the EEI Platform.

About OB10
OB10 provides an end to end business service, that streamlines the complex invoice-to-pay process. Neither client organisations nor their suppliers are required to implement any hardware or software, and OB10 is independent of data formats.  OB10 can reduce the cost of paper invoice processing by typically 60 percent and can deliver an ROI in less than one year. OB10 is VAT and tax compliant across Europe, North America and Asia and exchanges invoices between several thousand companies globally. To ensure unrivalled and rapid supplier enrolment, each new customer’s suppliers are supported by a best practice implementation services team responsible for getting them up and running on the OB10 network.

Customers of OB10 include: Agilent Technologies, Barclays, BP, Cargill, DHL, DSG International, Eli Lilly & Company, East Riding of Yorkshire, Fisher Scientific, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Imperial College, Kellogg’s, Logica, Mohawk Industries, Norwich Union, SaraLee, Shaw Industries and Steria.

More information:

OB10 Ltd
Melbourne House
46 Aldwych
London (UK)
WC2B 4LL

T  +44 (0)870 626 5214
W  www.OB10.com
E   info@OB10.com
 
About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform’s main objective is to support the penetration of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing in Europe in order to enable anyone to benefit from the great advantages that it offers. The EEI Platform focuses on the activation of individual companies, trade associations and the public sector to apply electronic billing and payment.
In addition, participants will achieve results on publicity, penetration of electronic invoicing, standardization, accreditation and promotion of the participants. EEI Platform is a variant of the Dutch Electronic Invoicing Platform (ELFA), a grouping of organisations in the Netherlands that play an important role in the implementation process, as well as substantive information, news, background and developments in the fields of electronic invoicing.
 
Participation in the EEI Platform
Participation in EEI Platform is not only for providers of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing. Participation is also open to users, public institutions, educational institutions and industry associations. Moreover, organizations whose activities border to electronic billing services -such as credit organizations and financial institutions- are also invited to join.
 
Visit www.eeiplatform.com for more information. Here you can check the latest European news, the EEI Platfom Business Case and the subscription form

Swiss-based Isis Papyrus Group added to European co-operation initiative. It is expected that more organisations in Europe with interest in electronic invoicing and invoice automation will join the EEI Platform.

About Isis Papyrus
ISIS Papyrus develops and delivers consolidated customer communication and process optimization solutions for enterprise organizations in the financial, utility, telecommunications, healthcare, insurance and public sectors. In 2008 ISIS Papyrus celebrates 20 years of excellence and customer-focused innovation, with 16 worldwide offices, 14 subsidiaries and three development centers supporting more than 2,000 enterprise and government customers worldwide who are using ISIS Papyrus solutions for process improvement, business correspondence, multi-channel output, e-mail, document capture and archiving. Today more than 2000 customers have chosen ISIS Papyrus as a proven and fully integrated customer communications platform for end-to-end flexibility, efficiency, collaboration, quality and continuous improvement of customer data, content and processes.

More information:

 
 
Isis Papyrus Software 
PO Box 79051
1070 NC  AMSTERDAM
 
T  +31 20 743 77 16
W  www.isis-papyrus.com
E  info@isis-papyrus.com

About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform’s main objective is to support the penetration of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing in Europe in order to enable anyone to benefit from the great advantages that it offers. The EEI Platform focuses on the activation of individual companies, trade associations and the public sector to apply electronic billing and payment.
In addition, participants will achieve results on publicity, penetration of electronic invoicing, standardization, accreditation and promotion of the participants. EEI Platform is a variant of the Dutch Electronic Invoicing Platform (ELFA), a grouping of organisations in the Netherlands that play an important role in the implementation process, as well as substantive information, news, background and developments in the fields of electronic invoicing.
 
Participation in the EEI Platform
Participation in EEI Platform is not only for providers of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing. Participation is also open to users, public institutions, educational institutions and industry associations. Moreover, organizations whose activities border to electronic billing services -such as credit organizations and financial institutions- are also invited to join.
 
Visit www.eeiplatform.com for more information. Here you can check the latest European news, the EEI Platfom Business Case and the subscription form

IMNederland, one of the leading Credit Management organizations within the Netherlands is setting the scene with interactive online Debtor Service Center. IMNederland is now the first Credit Management organization in the Netherlands that allow their debtors to view, manage, and pay their overdue debts at any given moment from any location. e-Billing market leader Anachron has developed the online Debtor Service Center (DSC) in collaboration with IMNederland.

Robert der Kinderen, Director Marketing and Product Innovations explains: “The online DSC is the perfect addition to our current services. IMNederland was all ready making use of e-mail and telephone messages to notify our debtors on the outstanding debts. This was an effective method to reach debtors, but it was also resulting in allot of administrative work for our agents, as they had to enter the data manually. The online DSC was the best solution for IMNederland to optimize our collection process and reduce the manual work. We can now provide debtors with a complete solution to manage and pay their overdue debts. Our Credit Management software IMpact creates a user name and password that is send per letter to the debtor. We capture the e-mail addresses of our debtors by making this mandatory with their first log on. Within their personal account the debtor has all functionalities and hand so therefore they are no longer dependent on our opening times or assistance of our agents”.

Marco Eeman, CTO Anachron continues on the innovative solution: “The data of the overdue debts changes on a continuous basis. We therefore decided to present the solution within secured web services. When a debtor logs on or makes an adjustment a soap request or update takes place via an interface that is connected to the server of IMNederland. This allows real time processing of the adjustments within Impact and therefore presenting the latest information available to the debtor. Within their personal account, debtors have the option to view, dispute and pay the overdue debts. We present the online DSC is completely in the look and feel of IMNederland”.

“The Internet is also being recognized by Credit Management organizations as a very important and effective channel to reach debtors”, says Frank Hoekstra, CEO Anachron. “By providing their debtors with an online DSC IMNederland has not only enhanced the service to their debtors but also accelerated the collection process significantly. The online DSC has also resulted in a considerably cost reduction as debtors can manage their without any debts without involvement of an agent”.

GlobalSign, one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in SSL Certificates and Digital Identities for securing PDF documents, has today announced the success of the Antwerp Port Authority project, designed to meet the requirements of Circulaire nr AOIF 16/2008 (E.T.112.081) for the creation and retention of e-invoices. In January 2004 the European Directive on invoicing (EC/115/2001) came into effect with 25 European member states, including Belgium, implementing the directive into their local VAT legislation; the resultant Circulaire was released in Belgium on the 13th May 2008.
 
Across Europe eVAT rules apply to both the supplier and to the recipient of goods and services. The supplier is obliged to select a technology that guarantees the authenticity and integrity of the e-invoice created – authenticity assures the message content was actually created by the person or legal entity that signed it, and integrity shows that no changes could have been made to the content of the e-invoice during transit without detection. Conversely it is up to the recipient to ensure the e-invoice is stored in such a way as to be assured of the authenticity and integrity during the storage period (7 years in Belgium).
 
Recognising the advantages of VAT corporate governance through e-invoicing, including reduced paperwork, reduced costs, as well as improved customer relations and greater operational efficiencies, the Port Authority sought a solution that would comply with current legislation. Stakeholders in the project also recognised the need to reduce their carbon footprint across the supply chain and therefore welcomed the initiative.

As an authorised participant in Adobe’s Certified Document Services (CDS) programme, GlobalSign’s DocumentSign solution enables the Port Authority to digitally sign their PDF documents and to embed the trust status of the e-invoice and the creation time for recipients to easily view and store. The solution leveraged the expertise of GlobalSign, Adobe and SafeNet to offer a compelling proposition to the Antwerp Port Authority to meet their e-invoicing requirements.
 
“We needed a reliable partner to generate added value for our business and for our customers”, said Jan Goossens, Software Development Manager, Antwerp Port Authority. “GlobalSign, with its extensive security expertise and leading technology is the best choice to prove the authenticity of our invoices and bring peace of mind to us and all our customers.”
 
“We’ve seen a marked increase in the number of projects across the whole of Europe in recent months as the worldwide economic climate causes enterprises both large and small to re-evaluate their invoicing processes to drive down costs and remain competitive,” said Steve Roylance, Business Development Director, GlobalSign. “DocumentSign is not only a cost effective and easy solution for businesses to use, but is also compliant with European e-VAT legislation.” Background on the Antwerp Port Authority The Antwerp Port Authority offers an ideal gateway to Europe with future expansion plans in place to meet the 8% increase on freight year on year through its central European location on the Belgium coast.
 
Antwerp is currently the second largest port in Europe and the fourth largest in the world with 170 million tonnes of freight volume. More than 200 forwarding companies based in Antwerp help to secure shipping contracts across multiple market sectors including steel, fruit, coffee and tobacco. Numerous stevedoring companies handle more than 16,000 seagoing ships and 65,000 barges annually that call at the port.
 
Background on the three way partnership for success – GlobalSign, Adobe and SafeNet
In 2003 Adobe Systems Inc took the visionary steps and created a compliant solution known as Certified Document Services (CDS) to address the growing need for document Authenticity and Integrity across multiple markets. The key components of the service leverage core skills from Certification Authorities such as GlobalSign to deliver digital identities to organizations under a defined certificate practice statement including certificate status information and secure time information. SafeNet Luna SA hardware security module (HSM) is used to store digital signatures and protect cryptographic keys. SafeNet HSMs provide reliable protection against compromise for applications and information assets to ensure regulatory compliance, reduce the risk of legal liability, and improve profitability. Both elements are essential to the overall framework of the CDS solution aiding the Port authority to meet the requirements of the directive.

www.globalsign.com

The number of EEI Platform Partners keeps growing steadily with the Dutch solution developer. ISProjects has decided to expand their e-invoicing platform focus to a European level by joining the EEI Platform added to their Dutch Platform ELFA membership.

About ISProjects
ISProjects is a Dutch software company that offers standard solutions within the fields of “Electronic Invoice Processing” and e-procurement: “Our software offers extensive functionality for the “end-to-end” fully integrated automation of the entire “Procure-To-Pay” process. Our solutions are characterised by their flexibility. The screens, processes and workflows can be parameterised fully flexibly. By doing this and using standard software, we are able to achieve a 100% client-specific solution. Based on our extensive experience of many implementations, we offer the opportunity for a template implementation based on ‘best practice’ processes. This approach minimises the project risks, lowers the costs of implementation and delivers an optimal ROI. Companies such as; KAS Bank, Mitsubishi Motors Europe, ECI, VUM Media, Amsterdam RAI, PON Automotive, Vopak and IBM have opted for our solutions and, every day, entrust us with dealing with their business-critical processes.”
  
More information:

Rompertdreef 9 
5233 ED ‘S HERTOGENBOSCH
Tel: +31 – 73 – 62 33 808
Fax: +31 -73 – 62 38 340

E  sales@isprojects.nl
W  www.isprojects.nl

About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform’s main objective is to support the penetration of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing in Europe in order to enable anyone to benefit from the great advantages that it offers. The EEI Platform focuses on the activation of individual companies, trade associations and the public sector to apply electronic billing and payment.
In addition, participants will achieve results on publicity, penetration of electronic invoicing, standardization, accreditation and promotion of the participants. EEI Platform is a variant of the Dutch Electronic Invoicing Platform (ELFA), a grouping of organisations in the Netherlands that play an important role in the implementation process, as well as substantive information, news, background and developments in the fields of electronic invoicing.
 
Participation in the EEI Platform
Participation in EEI Platform is not only for providers of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing. Participation is also open to users, public institutions, educational institutions and industry associations. Moreover, organizations whose activities border to electronic billing services -such as credit organizations and financial institutions- are also invited to join.
 
Visit www.eeiplatform.com for more information. Here you can check the latest European news, the EEI Platfom Business Case and the subscription form.

Last week, Adobe presented its intelligent PDF eInvoicing solution in a white paper. Adobe proposes an end-to-end approach in which the e-invoice is interpretable by both humans and computer systems. The Adobe approach is based on the eInvoicing processes as described by the CEN/ISSS Workshop on Compliance of e-Invoices and is expected to be compliant with EU and respective national VAT regulations.  
 
The importance of the CEN/ISSS Workshop deliverables
The Adobe whitepaper shows once again the importance of the deliverables of the CEN/ISSS Workshop deliverables. At this point the Workshop is in its second phase, having delivered at least one groundbreaking deliverable: the Draft Good Practice Guidelines. These guidelines are available here, here and soon on www.cenfiscalesguidelines.com Some groups with other interests on e-invoicing do not quite agree with these Guidelines. But we arguably can not ignore the fact that this is a serious attempt to remove one of the major barriers on e-invoicing: uncertainty on e-invoicing.
 
Intelligent PDF: removing barriers? 
The intelligent PDF approach presented by Adobe could also serve as a mean to remove a barrier to e-invoicing: adoption in a B2B environment.

E-invoicing is acknowledged to be an unstoppable innovation across and outside Europe. Taking a leap in the future, full scale e-invoicing would mean that the vast majority of organisation is not only sending e-invoices, but also –and this very important– receiving e-invoicing.

One of the results from a major survey conducted by e-business watch showed that most of the companies prefer to receive e-invoices per e-mail in PDF. This is not the answer that some of the BSP would like to hear. But it clearly shows that receivers are in need of control over the inbound e-invoice.

The intelligent PDF approach of Adobe does just that. It combines the humanly interpretable PDF with a for computer systems readable XML format. So now we can receive and read the PDF invoice and having established the perception of control over the e-invoice, we can now extract and import the XML data into our financial software. 
 
This enables e-invoicing between business partners regardless of size, sector, business processes and accounting software. If in fact the intelligent PDF approach guarantees compliance with the respective national VAT legislation, it would also be usable in cross border e-invoicing.
 
Intelligence in authenticity and integrity?
Interestingly enough, the Adobe intelligent PDF whitepaper mentions the possibility to sign the PDF document. So the PDF document is the format that is being used for formal validation. The invoice’s XML data can be submitted for material validation against external documentation such as supplier contracts. E-invoices archived in PDF/A guarantee the fidelity of the invoice, while the use of XML ensures that invoice data can be transformed to any format required by auditing software.
 
Maybe it is also interesting to use the XML data for formal validation. This would implicate that not only the PDF document is signed, but also the XML file, for instance with XADES or XMLDSIG. Then, the XML feed can also be used for formal validation even when archived. Additionally it would be very interesting for SME’s to use the PDF document for material validation.
 
So, the Adobe intelligent PDF is more intelligent compared to the plain old PDF docyument. We can expect it to have an impact on removing the barrier of awareness, including the aspect of adoption by have the perception of being in control. And maybe the approach can be made even more intelligent by incorporating XML signing. This would be very interesting because then it would not matter which document is being used for formal validation: PDF or XML, or both. Creating ease of use (which will be explained in the next Featured Article).

Read the Adobe white paper here:

OB10, the global e-Invoicing network, has been awarded an internationally recognised Green Apple Award for its environmental best practice for the second year running. OB10’s global e-Invoicing solution helps companies of all sizes to eradicate vast amounts of paper each year by eliminating the need for paper invoices. The OB10 e-Invoicing network helps to simplify and streamline the invoice-to-pay process by extracting invoice data from a supplier’s billing system and sending it to their customer’s accounting system – eliminating the need to print, mail, process, manually key-in, store and then finally dispose of paper invoices.

To make the whole invoice process completely paperless, OB10 also archives invoices electronically, providing access for both suppliers and buyers via the OB10 Portal. Conducting the invoicing process in this way saves vast amounts of paper (as well as postage, logistics, transportation, etc. for delivering invoices) and helps the finance function to become more environmentally compliant.

The award is run by the Green Organisation, an independent non-profit, non-political group supported by the Environment Agency and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Green Apple Awards are presented to Companies that have recognised the benefits that can be gained from environmental best practice, and also realise the business benefits of being green. Jamie Gunn, CEO, OB10, commented, “We are delighted to receive this Green Apple award for the second year running from the Green Organisation. It’s great news that the environmental benefits of e-Invoicing are being recognised. Businesses need to be fully aware of the damaging consequences of paper invoices. It is not only the cost and efficiency savings that can be made, but with the amount of paper invoices in circulation, in Europe alone – that equates to 763 housand tons of paper or almost 13 million trees, not including the fuel and landfill space that is also saved.”

In the past year alone, OB10 has electronically processed more than four million transactions on behalf of its global customer base, the equivalent of 85 tons. Using standard industry calculations1, that saving represents 1,443 trees which have been spared, as well as enough fuel to run 100 cars for over 1,000 miles, fuel a home for 42 years and 208 cubic metres of landfill space. With OB10’s year-on-year global growth, and the increasing acceptance of electronic invoicing, the environmental savings are set to increase even further. To put it into context, the 1,443 trees that OB10 saved last year could have absorbed up to 231,485 kilograms of Co2 in just one year, and released enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support a staggering 2,886 human beings.

About OB10
OB10  is the leading global B2B e-Invoicing network. OB10 simplifies and streamlines the complex invoice-to-pay processes. Neither client organisations nor their suppliers are required to implement any hardware or software, and OB10 is independent of data file formats. OB10 can reduce the cost of paper invoice processing by typically 60 percent and can deliver an ROI in less thana year if the programme follows OB10’s best practice guidelines. Operational across Europe, North America and Asia, OB10 is compliant with the requirements of VAT, tax and e-Invoicing legislation and receives invoices from suppliers in over 100 countries. To ensure unrivalled and rapid supplier enrolment, each new customer’s suppliers are supported by an implementation services team responsible for getting them up and running on the OB10 network. Customers include: Agilent Technologies, Barclays, BP, Cargill, DHL, DSG International, Eli Lilly & Company, Fisher Scientific, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Kellogg’s, Logica, Lufthansa, Mohawk Industries, Norwich Union, SaraLee, Shaw Industries and Steria.

Source: www.OB10.com

Kofax e-Transactions Enables the Best of Both Worlds to Manage Paper and Electronic Invoices

Kofax plc (LSE: KFX), the leading provider of Intelligent Capture & Exchange solutions, today announced the launch of Kofax e-Transactions, which adds electronic invoice processing capabilities to Kofax solutions and thereby enables organizations to process all incoming invoices – whether they arrive in electronic or paper form. Easy-to-use and deploy, e-Transactions integrates seamlessly with Kofax Capture and Transformation Modules to offer the world’s most advanced solutions to automate invoice processing in accounts payable departments.

Providing a simple and efficient way to reduce time-consuming and costly manual paper-processing, Kofax e-Transactions captures and encrypts print files or imported data in standard text, image and extensible markup language (XML) file formats. The resulting electronic information is then collected and delivered to Kofax Transformation Modules for classification, data extraction and data perfection.

The software eliminates the need to print, mail, receive and process paper-based invoices and other documents, thereby significantly reducing otherwise manual labor processes and costs, improving the accuracy of the related data and accelerating processing times. This enables better accounts payable management to ensure that all application terms, conditions and discounts are fully utilized.

“The global market for electronic invoicing continues to expand as organizations seek to improve efficiency and lower costs, and Kofax continues to lead the way with the most comprehensive capture solutions to meet this demand,” said Andrew Pery, Chief Marketing Officer at Kofax. “Kofax e-Transactions delivers practical solutions that meet the needs of our customers to support the processing of both paper and electronic invoices. This is done within the same powerful document capture environment that delivers process-ready data to a wide range of back-end accounts payable workflow systems.”

Kofax e-Transactions is already being successfully deployed at several early adopters. One example is Oakwood Worldwide, a leading global corporate housing and serviced apartment provider, which has integrated the new technology as part of its existing Kofax invoice processing solution.

“Kofax e-Transactions takes our existing Kofax solution and makes it even better,” said Brad Niemiec, Director, Centralized Accounts Payable for Oakwood Worldwide. Since 2007, the company has employed Kofax Capture and Transformation Modules to automate the processing of thousands paper based invoices each month.

“This solution allows us to integrate strategic suppliers directly into our accounts payable process, which helps us realize additional savings from lower transaction costs, reduced exception handling due to lost invoices and data entry errors, and other benefits,” Niemiec added.

Kofax e-Transactions utilizes software technology obtained earlier this month as a result of Kofax’s acquisition of OptiInvoice, a Scandinavian company that develops and markets electronic invoice processing software.

For more information about Kofax, visit www.kofax.com

The Belgian software designers are the first party to join the European Electronic Invoicing Platform.AdValvas Europe has committed itself as a Founding Partner to the recently established European e-invoicing initiative. The software company is the first Billing Service Provider who joins the EEI Platform, which is expected to welcome more European organisations on a short term. These parties will form the basis of the knowledge and information platform about electronic billing and automated invoicing. AdValvas Europe has also decided to take part in the Dutch e-Invoicing initiative, Platform ELFA.

About the EEI Platform
The EEI Platform’s main objective is to support the penetration of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing in Europe in order to enable anyone to benefit from the great advantages that it offers. The EEI Platform focuses on the activation of individual companies, trade associations and the public sector to apply electronic billing and payment.

In addition, participants will achieve results on publicity, penetration of electronic invoicing, standardization, accreditation and promotion of the participants. EEI Platform is a variant of the Dutch Electronic Invoicing Platform (ELFA), a grouping of organisations in the Netherlands that play an important role in the implementation process. as well as substantive information, news, background and developments in the fields of electronic invoicing.

About AdValvas Europe
For more than a decade AdValvas has been developing software solutions for sending and receiving electronic invoices. In this period, many large parties have become convinced of the product qualities of AdValvas Europe, which for instance designs modular solutions for incoming and outgoing e-invoices or scanned paper invoices. AdValvas also focuses on e-Business and e-Documents and has already been of value for the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Belgian government.

More information:

Derbystraat 23 B
B-9051 Sint-Denijs-Westrem (Gent)
Belgium

E:  info@advalvas-group.com
T: +32 (0)9 241 87 87
F: +32 (0)9 241 87 80
www.advalvas-group.com

Participation in the EEI Platform
Participation in EEI Platform is not only for providers of electronic invoicing and automated invoicing. Participation is also open to users, public institutions, educational institutions and industry associations. Moreover, organizations whose activities border to electronic billing services -such as credit organizations and financial institutions- are also invited to join.

Look at www.eeiplatform.com for more information. Here you can check the latest European news, the EEI Platform business case and the subscription form.