OMG! An inconvience fee for both paper bills AND online bill payment??

More and more companies are forcing their customers towards online bills. Because your suppliers themselves can save so much by discarding paper invoices. And if you still wish to receive one, you now suddenly have to pay for it. Big time! As if you are the cause that a paper bill suddenly has become a pain in the proverbial bottoms and you have to pay for the inconvenience of having them send a paper bill to you.

If this strikes you as a bit strange, you have to hold on to your seat. Because it doesn’t stop at your suppliers forcing you to check in at dozens of different online portals and forcing you to pay a penalty for paper bills. You now even have to pay a penalty for online payment methods. OMG!

Four must reads on Brazilian and LATAM e-invoicing rules of the game

When it comes to legally compliant e-invoicing in Latin America, Invoiceware is your source to go to. Just as a few weeks they provided a series of articles on the rules of the game in Brazil and in Latin America. Such as the post on the latest version of Nota Fiscal (version 3.1), demanding all companies to be live with by the end of 2014. And this post “2014 Changes to Brazil Nota Fiscal – Challenge or Opportunity?” But also their post on how national government e-invoicing compliance affects a global SAP deployment. And last but certainly not least: “Avoiding Trouble When Doing Business In Latin America: Does Your Local Supplier Have Best Practices In Place?“

Millions of UK households in financial distress by firms switching to online billing [consumer protection]

A must read! This article in the MailOnline. Taking into account that in the US online presented bills most of the time still need to be paid, forcing up e-billing can have big negative effects for consumers, reasearch shows. The uptake of e-billing leads makes people to loose tracks of their payment liabilities. Or as one consumer put it: “I can’t afford to pay for paper bills… but can’t keep track without them.. And: “I find it much harder to keep track of my bills – and notice when bills increase – when it’s all done online. I don’t have time to log on all the time and check.”

Even though the research was done for the ‘Keep me posted’ (a paper industry funded initiative), the findings don’t stand alone and should be taken seriously: you wouldn’t want to be held responsible for financial distress because of your e-billing ambitions. Do you? Well!?

KPN donates EUR 100.000 to WNF after successful e-invoice campaign

KPN Business Market has donated EUR 100,000 to the World Wide Nature Fund (WWF) to support the project Atlantic Forest. KPN donated EUR 1 for every customer who opted in to receive electronic invoices and opted out on paper invoices. At this pount around 85 percent of customers are now on e-invoices, saving each business customer an average 50 pages of paper each year. KPN said this saves it 650 tons of CO2 emissions. And it saves KPN around € 6 million a year. Quite a successful e-invoicing campaign. Something tells me that EirCom could learn from this.

Top Image Systems is a “Sample Vendor” in Gartners Hype Cycle for Digital Banking 2013

More specifically, TIS was included as a “Sample Vendor” in the Mobile Commercial Remote Deposit Capture and Mobile Consumer Remote deposit categories listed in the “Hype Cycle for Digital Banking, 2013″ by Gartner. Top Image Systems’ mobile content processing solutions are fully integrated with its industry-leading eFLOW(R) multichannel intelligent content capture, workflow and delivery platform.

Gartner sees huge opportunity for growth and innovation in the digital banking space through 2013 and beyond. In this hype cycle, one technology stands out as having accelerated significantly along the Hype Cycle through 2012 and early 2013: mobile consumer remote deposit.

63% of companies outsource their B2B data management

Businesses are increasingly tending to outsource their data management. In fact, around 63% subcontract to outside providers, whereas only 25% choose in-house centres. This is one of the most striking items in the annual study drawn up by Uptimate Institute, based on a representative sample of 1000 operators in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Some sectors remain reluctant to outsource their data management. These businesses mostly belong to areas such as banking, healthcare, commerce, education or government. Even so, reports the study, the public sector shift to the cloud has risen by 7% in the past year, going from 10% in 2012 to 17% in 2013.

Ricoh Europe first to achieve ISO16759 Certification

Ricoh Europe’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of environmental sustainability in print has resulted in it becoming the first organisation to achieve certification of compliance with the new global ISO 16759 standard for ‘Quantification and communication for calculating the carbon footprint of print media products.’ This certification recognises the accuracy of Ricoh’s innovative carbon calculator which has been available through Ricoh’s Carbon Balanced Printing Programme.

And even though we are all looking for ways to achieve 100% digital invoices, as long as there will be paper invoices, they’d better be as green as possible!

Oh boy: two former employees indicted in $943,000 e-invoicing embezzlement

The two former employees of Cox Communications had access to the company’s electronic invoicing system that tracked payments to third parties. Prosecutors say that the two had manipulated the invoicing system in such a way that the company would actually issue duplicate payments to the third parties. These payments were then funneled into bank accounts each of them had control over. Officials say that this method allow the two to steal stole more than $943,800 from the company. One of the accused already pleaded guilty to a count of wire fraud.

This is just one of these cases that should be a BIG wake up call for all of us. Some say that for every crime solved, ten crimes remain undiscovered. Ouch!

WEBINAR: How Cloud B2B Integration Enables Michelin’s International Operations

GXS announced that it will host a joint webinar with Michelin, a key player in the tire market and travel related services, on using cloud B2B integration for international operations.

The webinar will include: Michelin’s business challenges, How Michelin uses a cloud integration platform to support customers worldwide, Key business issues driving international expansion, How cloud B2B integration supports expansion into new markets, The core components and benefits of a cloud B2B platform.

Top Image Systems signs major AP automation deal with Mul-T-Lock

Mul-T-Lock is deploying TIS’s eFLOW5, the latest release of the company’s flagship eFLOW® platform, to implement a capture-enabled purchase to payment workflow solution that will process thousands of invoices each month. The installation of the solution scheduled for October this year is part of a company-wide plan to automate processes and improve efficiency.

In accordance with Mul-T-Lock’s specifications, eFLOW INVOICE will scan incoming invoices, forward them to the workflow and approval process and then deliver the invoices for posting to the SAP ERP system. The solution will also enable end-to-end fully automated invoice processing and seamless SAP connectivity.