Posts Tagged ‘invoice’
As Supply, Logistics en Service (SLS) manager, Voestalpine Railpro delivers an integrated total package for the Dutch railway. Railpro operates in the new development-, breakdown- and maintenance market.
The solutions of TIE Kinetix improve the quality of the service and establish cost savings.
“TIE is looking forward to support Voestalpine Railpro with the introduction of Business Integration based on EDI in de railway construction and maintenance sector. EDI is new in this sector and Railpro can build on the knowledge and experience of TIE, obtained in other sectors. With this collaboration, TIE enters a new market, in which many potential customers can profit from the TIE solutions in combination with the GS1 standards.”, says Jan Sundelin, CEO of TIE.
Source: Euronext
Automating the capturing, delivery and storage of invoices, documents and records in electronic form is far more environmentally friendly than using paper. It helps increase efficiency and can help make big cost savings in the short, medium and long term. Consider any major organisation generating vast amounts of invoices and other business communication for its customers: when new regulations or changes to product terms and conditions need to be communicated to customers quickly organizations are realizing that the move away from paper to electronic processes can bring many benefits.
The ISIS Papyrus business communication system addresses these issues by providing a single fully integrated platform for inbound and outbound communication. Communication can be captured, created, processed, archived and delivered via the channel you choose. No more linking different systems together, now everything can be streamlined with no compromise in quality.
Below you can read the Isis Papyrus presentation:
Tieto and Kauppalehti 121 have developed a channel that invoice issuers can use for marketing and customer relationship management. The new, embedded supplementary communications are mostly meant for consumer invoices. The service takes advantage of Kauppalehti 121′s profile and analysis services, as well as prediction classifications that identify the consumer’s life phase and related communications needs.
Source: www.tieto.com
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 current practice of the exchange of business documents in e-business transactions presents major opportunities to improve the competitiveness of companies. Especially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).
The invoice is an important document exchanged in e-business transactions between trading partners. Its primary function is a request for payment from the customer to the supplier. The invoice is also an important accounting document and also has potential trade law implications for both trading partners.
Additionally, in the member states of the European Union, the invoice is the key document for VAT declaration and reclamation, for statistics declaration, and to support export and import declaration in respect of trade with other countries.
Started as an initiative by CEN/ISSS Work shop eBES, the European Expert Group 1 (EEG1) – Supply Chain & e-Procurement developed the Cross Industry Invoice in 2004. The first version of the Cross Industry Invoice has been compiled with contributions and submissions from: EUROFER, GS1, CIDX, EDIFICE, AIAG/ODETTE/JAMA, GHX, UK e-Government, UK HM Customs & Excise, and EDS.
In the end of the year 2008 version 2.0 of this document was published. Compared to version 1.0 a series of changes regarding the requirements and the structure were introduced. Basis for the enhancement of requirements were contributions from TBG1 members such as GS1, UBL, EDIFrance, US Department of Defense, and others.
The objective of this document is to standardize the business processes regarding (e-) in the supply chain.
Read the entire document:
Source: www.uncefactforum.org
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:
The following publication explains a way of using Intelligent PDF to support compliante Invoicing solutions. Adobe has worked together with CEN to create a white paper in which a relatively new type PDF solution is worked out.
The PDF is an intelligent message. The PDF document offers not only an optical readable invoice, but also billing data extracted in XML. Besides this, even charging can be audited.
Read the entire article here:
Many of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority’s (FICORA) fees, such as the television fee, frequency fee, maritime radio examination and certificate fee, can be eInvoiced as of this fall. At first, customers of other banks than Nordea cannot pay FICORA’s eInvoices. The service will be provided by Itella Information. Consumers can still have FICORA’s invoices on paper. The shift to eInvoicing is easy. When consumers next time pay their invoice online, they can notify that they wish to have their invoice sent to their online bank as an eInvoice.
“Consumers can now select whether they want their television fee invoice on paper or sent as an eInvoice to their online bank. We believe that many will opt for the electronic invoice, which is easy, although the paper version will also be available,” says FICORA Development Manager Aulikki Behm. That FICORA now carries e-invoices is part of the cooperation between Itella Information and the State Treasury, which encourages state authorities to introduce eInvoicing. In the spring of 2007, Itella Information Oy won the competitive bidding on the state invoice delivery. The objective of the State Treasury is to have all purchase invoices sent to state authorities online by the end of 2009, as well as a major part of the outgoing invoices.
FICORA has high invoicing volumes. Annually, 5.5 million television fee invoices are sent to consumers and companies, and about 55,000 radio frequency or other fees are invoiced.
“By transferring to eInvoicing, those sending high volumes of invoices set an example to other players. In Finland, the spread of eInvoicing among consumers has not proceeded as predicted. It is important that consumers can select where they want their invoices delivered. Consumers can review the image of the invoice on an electronic invoice produced by Itella Information. They also appreciate that they have the freedom to choose between different alternatives, can save the invoice in an electronic archive, and see the image of the invoice with all specifications,” says Director Jari Annala, who is responsible for the operations of Itella Information in Finland.
The Finnish Vehicle Administration with its 6.5 million automobile tax invoices and FICORA with its 5.5 million television fee invoices send the most invoices within the public administration. The Vehicle Administration will introduce eInvoicing next spring. Approximately 89 per cent of invoices sent by the public administration go to consumers. Nearly 70 per cent of invoices received by the public administration are already now electronic. Of these, nearly 30 per cent are online invoices and 40 per cent of those scanned by Itella.
www.ficora.fi
Source: www.itella.com
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
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