E-INVOICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

Transcription

1 THE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012 Insights in the worldwide E-invoicing Market E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012 Insights in the worldwide E-invoicing Market Authors Ionela Barbuta, Sabina Dobrean, Monica Gaza, Mihaela Mihaila, Adriana Screpnic With the release of the E-invoicing Market Guide 2012, The aypers produced an extensive overview that helps the reader to understand the fragmented and dynamic market of e-invoicing and related service providers. The overview of providers is without doubt the most complete overview in the market, and the guide also provides valuable market insights from industry experts. A must read for professionals in e-invoicing and related topics. Release Version 1.0 July 2012 Copyright The aypers BV All rights reserved Jaap Jan Nienhuis, Financial Services Consultant 2 E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

2 INTRDUCTIN You are reading the second edition of the E-invoicing Market Guide developed by The aypers ( the industry-leading provider of news and analyses for the global payments community. Building on the success of the previous year s edition, the E- Market Guide 2012 aims to develop and enhance the focus of this initiative that of putting together the most complete and up-to-date overview of the global e-invoicing ecosystem, mapping out ongoing initiatives, critical success factors and key insight from top experts and industry players. The 2012 edition of the E- Market Guide expands the scope of the previous year s document, taking it from a comprehensive reference material towards becoming a more complex, state of affairs collection of in-depth analyses, a reference source for the hottest topics currently being debated throughout the global e-invoicing industry and the de facto market leader in terms of the scope and depth of the featured contributions. The 2012 Guide includes insight from leading industry stakeholders, expert opinions from top industry analysts, examples of successful business implementations as well as an overview of existing challenges and the best strategies to address them. It aims to serve as the ultimate source of information for industry professionals looking to take stock of the current state of the global e-invoicing and e-billing industry. In putting together this Guide, we wanted to highlight the fact that while advances are being made, the e-invoicing playing field still faces a great many challenges, old and new. n the plus side, there is a growing recognition from market players primarily in Western Europe and the that e-invoicing helps expedite collections processes and allows companies to take advantage of discounts for early payment. A recent report issued by UK-based global B2B e-invoicing network operator B10 in collaboration with The Institute of Financial perations has shown that regardless of the invoicing submission method used, 85 percent of respondents believe electronic invoicing expedites the collections process. Moreover, 2012 has also emerged as the first year that survey respondents have reported a use of e-invoicing that has surpassed the use of EDI. n the downside, e-invoicing continues to struggle with drawbacks such as market fragmentation and companies lack of budget and resources to fully automate invoice exchanges. Despite (still) cautiously optimistic predictions, a significant amount of companies are being held back by a continued reliance on paper-based financial processes and even worse, by a failure to recognize the simple truth that not automating invoicing and payment processes causes unnecessary costs and allows inefficiencies to go unnoticed. Additionally, e-invoicing finds itself faced with threats that are not necessarily new but which have acquired renewed significance in the current economic context. Among them is the danger of being lulled into a false sense of security as far as the momentum of e-invoicing adoption is concerned. Indeed, awareness of the many benefits and cost-saving potential of e-invoicing is quite high in both Europe and the. However, it would be dangerous to believe that high awareness equals sustainable growth of e-invoicing adoption it most certainly does not. added benefit, one which allows SMEs to tap into one by use of the other. The more the use of electronic invoices can be attached to financing, the more obviously beneficial it becomes for SMEs. Having a large buyer finance (some of) its working capital also boosts a small company s credibility, making it more credit-worthy and mitigating crediting risks in the eyes of a bank. Traditionally, access to working capital management tools was reserved for very large companies. However, the need to massively on-board SMEs in order to achieve success in e-invoicing is definitely a game-changer, as well as one of the top developments emerging from expert opinions and analyses featured in the E-invoicing Market Guide ne of the biggest sources of fragmentation within the global e-invoicing ecosystem is the divide between large and small companies a crucial issue which must be solved if e-invoicing is ever to truly achieve mass-market adoption. To do this, e-invoicing market players must strive to collaborate on a much deeper scale than they currently do and achieve a level of collaboration that goes beyond bilateral cooperation (which lacks scalability) and moves across the entire spectre of services providers and solutions. Within this context, in addition focusing on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their accounts payable (A) automation, large companies should also focus more on setting up partnerships with SME focused e-financing platforms. Banks also have a crucial role to play in this space, particularly in the area of developing collaborative supply chain finance and SME-friendly e-invoicing propositions. In the context of the growing dematerialization of B2B processes, banks are also faced with the growing opportunity to extend today s paper-based trade finance services to new services based on electronic transaction data. The cooperation between the ICC and SWIFT (detailed further in art 2 of this Guide) is a suitable example of this emerging trend to establishing paperless inter-bank practices and thus positively impact the development of global trade finance practices. The E-invoicing Market Guide 2012 is a great means to stay informed and keep up to date with the latest industry perspectives, trends and developments, a highly useful document that should be kept at hand at all times. Finally, this document has been put together with the utmost care. If you discover that, despite our efforts, it features information that is unclear or erroneous, we very much appreciate your feedback. Monica Gaza Senior News Editor The aypers ne major element that contributes to this state of affairs is the fact that traditionally, e-invoicing has largely been the prerogative of large enterprises which receive and issue large volumes of invoices and for which the use of e-invoicing boosts operational efficiencies in an immediate and visible manner. The traditional e-invoicing ecosystem is essentially buyer-driven, and that is a fact. However, new models are beginning to emerge, putting pressure on what could be referred to as the traditional corporate invoicing paradigm. And at the core of this shift is one particular category of companies: the SMEs. As e-invoicing adoption is concerned, the rules of the game are quite different for small enterprises. For a company which manages only small amounts of invoices, achieving higher operational efficiency via e-invoicing means little unless it comes together with other benefits attached. Combining electronic invoicing with working capital management services is such an E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

3 Contents Voice f The Industry EESA - Working to achieve compliance and interoperability in e-invoicing EU-wide.... by Charles Bryant, Vice Chair, EESA ebills for everyone... by Robert Unger - Senior Director, NACHA E-invoicing in Germany before growth spurt... by Markus Laube, Co-Chair, E-Invoice Alliance Germany Exploring the reality of Supply Chain Finance... by Michael Steelman, Senior Researcher, Nyenrode Business Universiteit Industry Thought Leadership E-invoicing is good. Smart is better... by James Tucker, Director of Marketing, Financial Solutions, Ariba Inc The story behind DHL Express Europe s successful pan-european e-billing project.... by Richard Cogswell, Sales & Marketing Director, Fundtech FSC A closer look at the challenges & opportunities of boosting e-invoicing adoption... Exclusive interview with Enrico Camerinelli, Sr. Analyst Europe, Aite Group The next two e-invoicing s-curves: collaboration and more value... by Jaap Jan Nienhuis, Financial Services Consultant, Innopay What to ask when buying e-invoicing.... by Susie West, Founder and CE, sharedserviceslink.com E- and Supply Chain Finance, a greater sum in combination... by liver Belin, Business Development Executive, rimerevenue Flinqer optimizes the use of cash by smarter timing of payments.... by Reinier Weerman, Co-founder and CE, Flinqer Accelerating global trade finance... by André Casterman, Head of Banking and Trade, SWIFT The benefits of the financial value chain integration... By Liliana Fratini assi CE Consorzio CBI EU e-invoicing 2013: a compelling event?... by Christiaan van der Valk, CE, TrustWeaver Value Added Services for e-invoice Service roviders... by Roel Crooijmans, Co-founder, RefDex INDTRY STAKEHLDERS DISCS E- as a public policy priority in Europe The financial supply chain Bringing standardization, interoperability and universal access for EB in the rofiles E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE

4 EESA - WRKING T ACHIEVE CMLIANCE AND INTERERABILITY IN e-invicing EU-WIDE by Charles Bryant, Vice Chair of EESA EESA is the European E- Service roviders Association and is an International Not-for-rofit Association (AISBL/IVZW) organized under Belgian law. Newly formed in 2011 EESA already has over 50 members (see Charles Bryant is Vice-Chair of EESA and an adviser to B10, the leading e-invoicing service provider, and to the Euro Banking Association. He represents the UK on the EU Multi-Stakeholder Forum on e- EESA acts as a trade association at European level for a large and vibrant community of E- Service roviders, drawn from organizations that provide network, business outsourcing, financial, technological and EDI services. It had been clear for some time that the supply-side of this burgeoning industry needed a forum in which practitioners could develop common positions and advocate e-invoicing adoption, operating in the non-competitive space. EESA is providing and developing a number of services for its membership: Representing the industry, engaging in the public policy debate and recommending best practice within appropriate European forums romoting interoperability and the creation of an interoperable eco-system Advocating and supporting the wide adoption of e-invoicing and its benefits Commission to participate in the EU Multi-Stakeholder Forum on E- and on 31 May 2012 EESA held a General Assembly meeting in Helsinki. The membership welcomed a draft Model Interoperability Agreement prepared by a working group. It is expected to complete the work in the coming months for final release in November Full Members of EESA are incorporated businesses providing services or support to third-party customers in the area of compliant e-invoicing and related services. Members provide such services within the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Membership will be allocated to groups of companies connected by ownership and control on the basis of one membership per such group. Non-voting Associate Members are admitted to the Association on the basis of a decision of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee administers the membership admission procedure based on open, transparent, and non-discriminatory criteria. Applications for membership are welcome. INSIGHTS IN THE WRLDWIDE E-INVICING ECSYSTEM At its first Annual General Meeting on 13 December 2011, Esa Tihilä of Basware Corporation was elected as Chair and Charles Bryant of B10 was elected as Vice-Chair. A further 9 EESA members representatives were elected as Members of the Executive Committee. The AGM also approved the creation of an Interoperability Working Group. In April 2012 EESA was invited by the European E- is a public policy priority of the European Commission and in a recent publication of December 2010 Reaping the benefits of electronic invoicing for Europe the Commission confirmed plans to pursue a number of policy initiatives including the establishment of a European Multi- Stakeholder Forum for E-. ne good reason to organize a trade association was to seek representation and participate in this and other Forums. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE

5 ebills for Everyone Bringing Standardization, Interoperability, and Universal Access for Electronic Bill resentment and ayment Through EBIDS by Robert Unger - Senior Director, NACHA Currently, the only way billers can universally send a bill to any customer is through the U.S. ostal Service. To address this issue, NACHA and The Clearing House launched EBIDS, a program that enables billers to deliver ebills and receive payments through customers online banking accounts via the ACH Network. As Senior Director at NACHA, Robert Unger leads NACHA s Council for Electronic Billing and ayment (CEB) and also directs NACHA s Electronic Billing and Information Delivery Service (EBIDS). In addition, Mr. Unger is the B2B and bill payment product manager within NACHA. NACHA The Electronic ayments Association manages the development, administration, and governance of the U.S. ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data. The ACH Network provides a safe, secure, and reliable network for direct account-to-account consumer, business, and government payments. More at millions of billers. Basically, ebills can be provided to consumers through a biller direct model (i.e., consumer accesses biller.com website) and/ or a distribution channel, where the ebill is pushed to the consumer (e.g., ed, texted, or sent to an online banking/ aggregator service). Still, the only method where billers can universally send a bill to any customer is through the U.S. ostal Service (which is of course a paper bill). While billers often offer multiple options for a consumer to receive an ebill, there is no one model that has the same reach as a paper bill delivered by the S. Currently, billers must integrate with multiple ebill distributors to maximize their reach to customers, and each distributor will have unique processes, formats and service agreements. The fragmented distribution pipeline creates complexity and additional cost for the billers. All U.S. financial institutions, and by extension most any biller, have connections to the ACH, which is governed by the NACHA perating Rules. EBIDS uses ACH formats and special rules to enable financial institutions, billers and ebilling providers to standardize Electronic Bill resentment and ayment (EB) transactions. The goal is to provide smaller market players the same opportunities as the larger stakeholders, and to allow the private ebill networks to interoperate. How EBIDS Works EBIDS is basically a set of rules enforceable by NACHA for EB transactions in the ACH Network, which serves as the pipeline for exchanging transactions. There are four basic processes of the EBIDS model: biller enrollment into the EBIDS Biller Directory, consumer ebill enrollment with the biller, ebill presentment to the customer, and, bill payment to the biller. U.S. consumer electronic payments surpassed check volume in An estimated 70 percent of online households now pay bills via the Internet every month. most billers surveyed believe that the tipping point where more than 50% of customers are receiving ebills is three to five years away (see chart on page 11). Similarly, banks and others that present consumer bills do not have a receive any ebill option, and must integrate with multiple billers and biller service providers to maximize bill content acquisition to provide a service equal to a S mailbox. First, biller banks or biller service providers add billers into the Biller Directory to enable participation in EBIDS. After billers are enrolled, consumers must next sign up to receive ebills through their financial institutions. Fueled by an array of new Internet and mobile options, the amount of electronic payments will likely continue to grow at a galloping pace. Clearly, U.S. consumers are comfortable with electronic transactions except for electronic bills. According to a study conducted by the Council for Electronic Billing and ayment (CEB), a program of NACHA-The Electronic ayments Association, current consumer adoption of ebilling in the U.S. across all biller verticals averages only about 27 percent. Furthermore, ebilling and ayment Challenges For years, billers have operated ebill adoption campaigns, using tactics like sweep stakes, billing credits, and environmental messaging with only marginal results. While consumer payment behavior has changed, billers have yet to crack the code for motivating customers to accept electronic bills. In addition to consumer attitude, there are also a number of structural issues that hamper ebill growth, particularly in the U.S. market, which has thousands of financial institutions and The EBIDS Solution To address these issues and increase the availability of electronic bills for all consumers, in 2011, NACHA and The Clearing House launched the Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS). Combining aspects of the biller direct and distribution channel models, EBIDS enables billers to deliver ebills to customers online banking accounts and receive accurate bill payment information from any bank through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network. The billing company then sends a summary bill through the ACH Network to the consumer s online banking site. The consumer can log in to view the summary bill and view full bill details at the biller site by clicking a secure URL link included in each bill. To pay the bill, the consumer can specify the payment amount and date, and the financial institution will send the payment to the biller. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

6 e- in Germany before growth spurt Tax Simplification Act and Interoperability Standard form basis for the increase in electronic invoicing by Markus Laube, Co-Chair, E-Invoice Alliance Germany The Munich-based e-invoice Alliance (VeR) represents the interests of service providers and consulting firms concerned with electronic invoicing as well as those of businesses using e-invoicing. As such, the Alliance can be considered the mouthpiece of the whole e- economy. The VeR currently has over 45 members. You can find more information at Benefits of EBIDS The EBIDS model benefits all parties involved by leveraging standards in the ACH Network, which are enforceable by the NACHA Rules. For Financial Institutions, EBIDS provides transaction and service revenue as they earn a fee for every ebill presented to customers. EBIDS allows billers to extend their reach to potentially any customer at any financial institution and to manage the customer s online experience with links that direct customers to billers sites. ayments received through EBIDS will also improve biller straight-through-processing, eliminating a major cause of bill payment exceptions. Consumers too benefit from the ability to view and pay multiple bills at a single location, and retrieve full payment detail. Increasing Use of EBIDS In its first year, 2011, EBIDS facilitated over 19 million EB transactions. Future growth, however, hinges on the ability to achieve network effects with more biller and bank participation. EBIDS is an opt-in program, which means that the EBIDS rules only impact those billers and financial institutions that choose to participate. Like Facebook, the service becomes more valuable with more participants, which is why increasing the number of participating billers and financial institutions is important. Evidence shows more and more consumers are looking to view and pay bills online. According to a 2010 study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, nearly half of consumers would be motivated to switch to online billing if there was a single online site that consolidated statements. EBIDS provides a low-cost way for billers to deliver ebills to more customers and receive low-risk online bill payments from those customers. It is a win for financial institutions, billers, service providers and consumers alike. For more information about EBIDS, visit NACHA The Electronic ayments Association. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be used without the prior written permission of NACHA. Content from other sources is used with permission and requires the separate consent of those sources for use by others. This material is not intended to provide any warranties, legal advice, and is intended for educational purposes only. Electronic invoicing has been slower to establish in Germany than in other European countries, as has been reflected in a survey carried out for the invoice logistics company Itella. The study questioned 4,700 companies in 16 European countries, and the result is disappointing: 48% of the German companies interviewed believe they will still be issuing only paper invoices in 2 to 3 years time. Germany ranks about average in Europe in terms of the acceptance of e-. Although the electronic invoicing process has undeniable advantages most importantly cost savings only around 8% of German invoices are currently issued electronically. What stops companies from introducing e-? Alongside the fear of high investment costs and a lengthy technical implementation period, the concern that insufficient numbers of business partners will adopt the new system also plays a big role. If the network effect fails, there can be no worthwhile economic advantage. E- can only establish itself as a standard when legal and technological conditions are created that simplify electronic invoicing both nationally and within the EU. These prerequisites are now achieved in Germany with the Tax Simplification Act and VeR s (e-invoice Alliance) Interoperability Standard. VeR establishes Interoperability Standard between service providers The growth in e- brings with it an urgent need for a transfer standard that allows the various service providers to exchange invoice data simply, safely and quickly. Indeed, this situation provided the impetus for the founding of the VeR in 2009, which set itself the following goals: The VeR provides an information platform, in particular in response to changes brought about by the Tax Simplification Act of In this regard, the VeR will develop interpretative assistance for electronic invoicing which will provide support for all German companies in the practical implementation of the new legal position. The VeR develops new services and makes information available to companies that facilitate their planning and implementation of new e- projects. The VeR supports the further standardisation of electronic invoicing. The further promotion of electronic invoicing requires invoice taxonomy, especially in the context of the sending E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

7 of structured data. The VeR will develop and represent the generate and verify the qualified electronic signature. They requirements for electronic invoicing apply. There are currently still varying opinions on how the internal relevant considerations in the scope of its political work and are also responsible for ensuring that the electronic invoice controlling processes should be developed in detail. It discussions with lobbies. contains all the legally required information. Further, they rovided that the authenticity of the origin, the integrity of is however apparent that the fiscal authorities consider The VeR is developing a recommendation for small and generate the structured accounting file for whose content they the content and the readability of the invoice remain ensured, businesses well-established invoice verification as an medium-sized enterprises to make use of electronic invoice are responsible in terms of correctness and completeness. The businesses may exchange invoices in the format of their important component of the controlling process. Since this exchanging. invoice recipient s service provider has the advantage that choice. This format is to be determined by the taxpayer. It verification process must also be carried out for paper-based The VeR supports invoice exchange between service they do not have to check the signatures and need not create goes without saying that qualified electronic signatures and invoices, there is no additional effort required for electronic providers. an inspection protocol. They simply need to extract the data other technical processes, such as for instance EDI, remain invoices. In order to advance electronic invoice exchange between held in the DF container file and prepare it as necessary for recognised, but they will no longer be strictly prescribed. service providers, the VeR has defined a uniform legal the recipient, without damaging the signature. Businesses may freely choose their internal controlling process With the Interoperability Standard established and the Tax framework (inter-operability agreement) which is available to that provides a reliable audit trail between the invoice and Simplification Act in force, the prerequisites are now in place to its members, together with a common data exchange format. A large proportion of the Alliance s members have already its associated performance, guaranteeing the authenticity of allow the electronic invoice to gain further ground in Germany, The VeR works in coordination with EESA (the European adopted the new standard. This results in many businesses the origin and the integrity of the content. Alternatively they and as planned by the EU to replace paper invoices as far e- Service roviders Association) on the issues of having the possibility of changing an even larger number of may choose to implement long-established methods such as as possible by inter-operability. business partners over to electronic invoicing even when qualified electronic signatures or EDI. those businesses use other service providers. The e-invoice Alliance worked intensively for a year on solutions for Interoperability and inter-operability, presenting as a result a Interoperability Standard in March Since then, complicated bespoke Interoperability agreements between individual service providers have been a thing of the past. The Interoperability practice is suitable for businesses of all sizes, and is compatible with all prevalent software solutions. The Standard, which is unique in Europe, consistently defines important aspects such as the addressability of the service provider, the transmission format, the structuring of contracts as well as quality criteria for service providers. With the Interoperability Standard we are able to provide our members with an attractive solution and the necessary support to implement it. The Tax Simplification Act of 2011 as growth motor for e- in Germany Based on a recommendation of its e- expert panel, the European Commission agreed on an amendment to the VAT system directive in July 2010 (directive 2010/45/EU which amended directive 2006/112/EC regarding the common VAT system in respect of invoicing regulations) which should simplify invoice exchange. As a result of the new regulations, which will come into force in 2013, the requirement for example for an electronic signature is dispensed with. In the future, companies may guarantee the validity of an invoice with any suitable control mechanism. Any procedure that creates a link, through audit trails, between the invoice and its During its development it was important for us that the Interoperability Standard would be easy to implement, make use of existing exchange standards, comply with current legislation and offer all parties involved legal certainty. To corresponding performance will be permissible. As a result, the electronic invoice is afforded the same legal standing as the paper invoice an important step in increasing the acceptance of e-. ensure a simple, error-reduced transmission between service providers, all data is transferred as a data packet. A so-called DF container file is used to facilitate the exchange of data between the invoicing party s and the invoice recipient s service providers. The usage data is found as an attachment in the DF container file. This is a DF invoice file, a signature With the retroactive adoption of the Tax Simplification Act as per 1 July 2011, Germany was one of the first countries in the European Union to implement the directive. By assuming this pioneering role, Germany may also serve as a blueprint for similar implementations in other countries. file, the test report and an accounting file. The invoicing party s service provider is responsible that the DF container file is correct and complete, structurally, technically and with regard to content. It is the DF invoice file and not the container file that is signed. The invoicing party s service provider must The 2011 Tax Simplification Act substantially reduces the requirements for electronic invoicing. This should result in the increased acceptance of electronic invoices and contribute to a reduction in bureaucracy. Now paper-based and electronic invoices stand on an equal footing, and no additional E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

8 Exploring the reality of supply chain finance by Michiel Steeman, Senior Researcher at Nyenrode Business Universiteit Michiel Steeman is an experienced banking professional and has worked for Deutsche Bank, NIB Capital, and the past ten years at ING. In his last role he was responsible for product development and strategy for all leasing and factoring operations in 14 countries with almost 3000 employees. He is also Member of the worldwide Executive Board of Factors Chain International. He holds a Masters degree in Financial Economics from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. At the beginning of this year he joined Nyenrode Business University. His goal is to bridge the world of finance and operations. Two domains that need to learn how to speak each other s language. He is currently developing a serious simulation that brings finance, procurement and supply chain professionals together in a joint decision making environment. He is co-founder of the Supply Chain Finance Community ( Since 2010 he has been chairman of the Board of artnership Foundation. This foundation has introduced a ground breaking franchise formula to help street-children in India. This Rainbow Home model is a scalable solution based on the belief that each and every school can be transformed into a home for street-children. Nyenrode is the only private university in the Netherlands. In 1946, captains of industry from leading Dutch corporations as KLM, Shell, Unilever, hilips and Akzo, took the initiative to start an institute where an action-inclined, internationally focused generation of new business leaders would be educated. Nyenrode has recognized Supply Chain Finance as a new interdisciplinary field of research in between supply chain management and finance. For further information go to or We hear it everywhere - Supply Chain Finance - but what n top of that most of you will recognize the internal does it actually mean? Ask a colleague or a fellow banker discussion within banks about Supply Chain Finance. Who and you get a wide range of answers. Some say it is just does it belong to within the organization. Should it be in Trade, another form of trade financing or pre-shipment financing. Cash Management, Commercial finance, or should it be in thers say it is a fancy word for reversed factoring or Lending. And to claim the product, these departments within supplier financing, confirming as they call it in Spain. r banks become even more creative with naming the product. should we follow McKinsey who talks about the migration As with any product ormally the bigger the revenue promise to a more holistic approach- a new model of trade and the bigger the internal fight. cash management services. Their view as outlined in their 2010 article with the title: From myth to reality. To frame Supply Chain Finance I like the approach taken in a literature research done by Cranfield where three schools of thought are identified. The widest definition is what is named Financial Supply Chain Management. It includes all processes and financing techniques used to optimize the supply chain. A somewhat narrower definition is what they call Supply Chain Financing. This focuses only on the financing techniques used in the supply chain. But unfortunately in many banks Supply Chain Finance has become synonymous to supplier financing or reversed factoring. The narrowest definition. Figure 1: Supply Chain Finance School of Thought This is the typical setup we are now all too familiar with in which big creditworthy buyers confirm invoices, they more or less guarantee to pay the invoice towards banks who can then offer suppliers pre-payment of their invoices at favorable conditions. The buyer benefits through longer payment terms, the supplier gets cheaper and alternative sources of financing and the bank earns a nice margin on the advance payment. It is quite easy to build the business case for larger companies. As long as you have a creditworthy buyer and a lower rated supplier the structure makes absolutely sense. Every big buyer should adopt this structure and offer such programme to their suppliers. Straightforward, easy, a win-win-win situation for all parties involved. Right? Market expectations have certainly been high the last 5 to 10 years. Those of you who were involved with the initial business cases on Supply Chain Finance probably remember the huge revenue potential for the banks. Many platform providers have sprung up to start catering to this new development. But both banks and platform providers have been disappointment by the slow adoption rate. Isn t that interesting. It is so easy to calculate the benefits of a SCF programme. Supplier financing is a no-brainer. And still the pick-up is not really there. Why not? When talking to banks and platform providers what do you typically hear as the reasons for this slow adoption of SCF. The lack of awareness of buyers and suppliers, lack of understanding regarding the product by stakeholders, silo based approaches both in the bank and within large buyers, difficulty in onboarding suppliers, the required change management on systems and processes, and the list goes on and on even Basel 3 was mentioned. But the best way to illustrate the reason for the slow adoption rate is to use the following process chart from a typical multinational. Figure 2: hysical Goods flow in large companies The chart shows the physical flow of goods between within a large company, to/from its suppliers and to/from the logistics providers regarding raw material, finished goods, and spare parts. These are only the physical flows of goods. Now add the financial flows, legal ownership and the information flows to this chart and it becomes even more complex. kay it is complex that is clear but what does this chart really tell you. Two things: For one. Big buyers need to work closely together with their E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

9 suppliers to manage their supply chain. It is all about delivery reliability. And two. Any financial product that you might want to add to this relationship will require a multidisciplinary approach. the chain. This player steers the improvement processes i n the chain. Such as the optimization of logistics by forcing cooperation models or sustainability matters regarding social and environmental matters. Banks typically start their quest to get Supply Chain Finance programmes adopted by talking to the CF. In most cases the CF is an ex-banker anyways so it is easy to make the connection and explain the financial benefits. But then rocurement is invited to the table for the approach towards supplier on-boarding and it is often concluded that it needs to follow the regular contract re-negotiation cycle to squeeze This big dominant buyer has two very strong assets that gives him the power to manage and control the supply chain: credit worthiness and purchase volume. From the perspective of the buyer Supply Chain Finance is about leveraging these two assets to reduce costs and uncertainty in the chain. It does not necessarily mean that banks need to be involved. Big buyers can often structure this themselves. There is vast experience amongst large firms using payment terms, consignment stock, VMI, VI, tolling agreements and other structures where optimization has effect both on the physical and the financial flows. INDTRY most benefits out of the supplier. The future for Supply Chain Finance lies in structures where the bank relies on the big buyer to manage performance risks related to the good flow to make it possible to finance based on order or purchase contracts. There are already inventory finance models in the market based on this principle. Also for second or third tier suppliers the purchase contracts can form the basis for financing equipment that is needed to fulfill the requirements of the contract. Structures we see in emerging markets. Even the purchase of land by large firms for the growing of the crop can be seen in this context. THUGHT LEADERSHI Figure 3: Multidisciplinary Approach And with Supply Chain Management joining in the discussion everything is put in an even broader perspective. Do SCF models allow a better control of capacity amongst our suppliers. Can it prevent suppliers from going bankrupt or moving to competing supply chains? In other words how can SCF improve delivery reliability. Coming back to the definition of Supply Chain Finance. In my opinion it should include both the optimization of processes as well as the financing across the entire value chain. But I would like to include an additional component. The role of the big and dominant buyer. It boils down to the importance of the supplied material and the importance of the suppliers themselves. The more critical the components are for the buyer the more willing he is to provide its suppliers, via banks or not, with support structures for financing the necessary investments. Supply Chain Finance models will increase in importance given the foreseen scarcity of raw materials and the need for good sustainable suppliers. New models and techniques are needed to support these suppliers, to capture them, to control them. Banks will be requested to offer financing structures based on a deeper understanding of the supply chain. This is the direction SCF is going. Much beyond reversed factoring, much beyond first tier suppliers and driven by the large dominant buyers. In most supply chains we see that a large player dominates E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE

10 e- is Good. Smart is Better By James Tucker, Director of Marketing, Financial Solutions, Ariba Inc. LEADING E-INVICING MARKET LAYERS DISCS: E-Invocing is good. Smart is better By James Tucker, Director of Marketing, Financial Solutions, Ariba Inc. With an increasing sense of urgency, companies are automating the invoice management process. But many are simply passing bad invoices faster. A new breed of cloud-based solutions ensures that only the good ones get through James Tucker is the global director of solution marketing for Ariba s Network and Finance Solutions, with over twenty years of experience in business strategy, product management and performance measurement. James holds an MBA from St. Mary s College and a B.S. in Computer Science and Technical Mathematics. Ariba, Inc. is the world s business commerce network. Ariba combines industry-leading cloud-based applications with the world s largest web-based trading community to help companies discover and collaborate with a global network of partners. Learn more at: Mission Inevitable:The story behind DHL Express Europe s successful pan-european e-billing project By Richard Cogswell, Sales & Marketing Director of Fundtech FSC In recent decades, companies have devoted significant time and resources to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their accounts payable (A) organization. And in the current economic environment where cash is king and companies are looking for any and all ways to free up and maximize it, many are stepping up their efforts. But what do they need to succeed? With large-scale implementations of ER and EDI systems, A has certainly become more efficient. Yet most finance executives remain dissatisfied with where things stand. Why? There s still too much paper and manual processing, filing and matching involved to achieve the kinds of efficiencies and savings that they need to weather changing economies. To remedy the situation, many are moving to e-invoicing and leveraging technology-based solutions that enable them to execute it. Such solutions attack the inefficiencies that exist between companies such as sending and receiving invoices and payments - to enable more effective collaboration. Delivered in the Cloud, they can be easily shared and accessed among trading partners, allowing for common business processes in areas like billing, treasury, and A. Yet the invoicing process remains flawed. A teams still spend inordinate amounts of time and effort processing paper invoices. Current studies show that one in five invoices still contains an overcharge or other exception. Why? Because many companies are attempting to tackle the problem through digitization alone. And it s clear that this only leads to bad invoices being delivered faster. So what s the solution? Smart. With smart invoicing, e-invoices undergo an automated validation process at the point in 20 E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

11 which suppliers submit them, improving accuracy, eliminating errors and rework so that only valid and approved invoices reach A. Companies adopting this approach are achieving upwards of 98% touchless invoice processing or higher as validated invoices post directly to ER systems. As fficemax has found, smart invoicing isn t just about streamlining A or accounts receivable. With the right solution in place, companies can drive a more collaborative and efficient commerce process through which they can improve performance and profits and ultimately, their advantage in the marketplace. When done right, smart invoicing can deliver process efficiency gains, typically measured in terms of the number of invoices processed per full time equivalent staff. rganizations with over 10 full-time employees dedicated to processing invoices have reported as much as 70% cost take out. ther hard-dollar savings can be generated through the capture of early payment discounts. Many companies simply cannot process their paper invoices fast enough to capture early payment discount savings which can be significant. With smart invoicing, they can not only capture these discounts, but ensure they materialize by avoiding exceptions that delay invoice approval speeding up the invoice cycle time. Some companies using a smart invoicing approach are already capturing over $1 million in annual discount savings. Smart invoicing initiatives also have a positive impact on working capital. With improved visibility and control, finance organizations can avoid paying invoices upon receipt and pay to term which will stretch their payables and have a positive impact on D. Many companies are able to use their growing cash reserves and cash freed up from smart invoicing efficiency gains to fund discount programs. These savings are used to drive operational improvements and also helps provide much needed liquidity to supply chains that are struggling under today s tight lending practices. Without question, smart invoicing can help A organizations take their performance and efficiency to the next level. But identifying the right solution is absolutely essential to success. Smart invoicing is about more than transforming paper documents into electronic ones. To drive results, a solution must: Eliminate (not automate) errors at the source ermit suppliers of all sizes to easily and inexpensively connect Dramatically reduce the quantity of paper handled, stored and matched Improve supplier collaboration Match purchase orders, receipts, and contracts to invoices Accommodate varying degrees of supplier technical sophistication Allow 100 percent capture of invoice volume Improve compliance across contracts, preferred vendors, and global e-invoice tax regulations rovide visibility into cash flow Remove latency in invoice and payment processing Reduce the volume of supplier inquiries ffer multi-lingual, multi-currency capabilities rovide global, localized support for a company and its suppliers Many companies are finding such solutions in the cloud. A unique strength of on-demand and cloud solutions is the integration and validation at the business process level, of pulling together many disparate elements of a process -- but with the proper governance along the way, said Dana Gardner, rincipal Analyst, Interarbor Solutions. Managed automation across all the elements of the process makes invoicing work far better. And it leads to even further benefits up and down the supply chain. atrick gborn, Vice resident, ecommerce, fficemax, an early adopter of e solutions, agrees. Implementing an electronic invoicing process has allowed fficemax and its customers to reduce purchase order and invoice processing errors. And this has enabled tighter integration and collaboration with our customers. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

12 Mission Inevitable The story behind DHL Express Europe s successful pan-european e-billing project by Richard Cogswell, Sales & Marketing Director of Fundtech FSC DHL Express Europe started their e-billing project 6 years ago. The program has recently completed its 34th country entity deployment, with top performers delivering more than 90% of their invoices electronically. In this article we take a look at how the project has developed since conception and speak to DHL s e-billing manager Brian Thumwood about their overall journey from paper to electronic. Richard Cogswell, Sales & Marketing Director, joined Fundtech FSC in 2004 with over 13 years experience of working in Financial Services with the likes of Barclays Bank and Commercial Union. Richard is an acknowledged e-payments and e-invoicing specialist and has worked with key accounts such as the Deutsche ost Group, specifically DHL Express Europe, DHL Mail & Williams Lea and the RBS Group. Fundtech is a leading provider of software products and services to over 1000 banks and corporates worldwide. Their established Accountis EI service eliminates the most common barriers to e-invoicing entry, such as trading network adoption and technology integration. All users immediately access their E-invoicing Directory of over 300,000+ live connected and trading corporates. The product is multilingual and multicurrency ready, and caters for a global customer base. DHL Express Europe started its e-invoicing project for one main reason to satisfy customer demand. First there was pressure from large customers who wanted to receive their invoices through EDI rather than on paper. Secondly, there was demand from both large and small customers alike to receive invoice data quickly, securely and in one format. Many years of business acquisitions by DHL had led to a complex infrastructure of disparate finance systems located in offices throughout Europe. Customers in the UK, Spain and Belgium for example were receiving invoices in different formats, experiencing varying levels of customer service, with no single view of all invoice activity. Therefore, DHL Express Europe needed to provide a solution that would satisfy the needs of both their largest EDI customers, as well as the thousands of smaller business that were more likely to use the web. DHL Express approached Fundtech with a clear vision: to generate and send electronic invoices directly from multiple back-office systems across Europe, and present them online for customers of all sizes, in any location. DHL Express sends tens of millions of invoices each year and making the switch from paper to electronic would offer significant efficiency and cost savings. Heading up the project for DHL Express was Brian Thumwood, an established finance professional with many years experience in accounting, credit management, process improvement and finance transformation. From the outset Brian acknowledged that the inconsistency in billing systems and invoice formats for customers would be the main barrier to overcome. He explains; ur first challenge was to consolidate all our data into an EDI gateway to standardise format and structure, and to enrich it. From that single source we could then deliver EDI data files directly to our larger customers, and also send the e-invoicing data to the Fundtech Accountis EI Hub for delivery and presentment. Key to this part of the project was to produce a single, standard format for all e-invoices. How did they do it? They asked their customers of course. Following a customer survey they selected a best in class invoice, and this became the standard format to be rolled out across Europe. In fact, this new format has been so successful that it is to become the standard for all paper invoices in the region too (more on this later in the article). As a result, all customers, regardless of which European office they deal with, are presented with invoices in one easy to understand format that is quicker to process. The project began in Belgium where the pilot achieved a high conversion and was successful, despite some initial skepticism. Brian explains; The complexity of our internal systems presented us with many challenges, but getting acceptance internally proved to be a challenge in its own right. Common questions we encountered included; are customers ready for e-billing? Will they accept it? Will we save money from it? However, we made Belgium a success and this helped to strengthen our business case and enable further country roll-outs. Success breeds success as they say and a real highlight for me came about literally months into the project when countries who didn t have the system starting chasing us for it. That was the point when I knew we were doing something right. Fundtech provided DHL Express with a distinctive red and yellow online e-invoicing portal to be used by both employees and customers. Following a simple, self-sign online registration process, customers can login to view all their invoices electronically and in their chosen language. Initially e-invoices were sent to customers by as a DF attachment with a copy presented online. However, it quickly became apparent that an image was not sufficient for many customers. There was a pressing need for the invoice data to be available for download, such as minimum CSV, Excel or XML. For example, in the UK at that time, at least 1,200 customers each month were being manually sent Excel files by DHL finance staff a slow process that they could well do without. Therefore, the system was enhanced and customers were given the ability to download their invoices in several different electronic formats, or automatically sent invoice files direct to their or server for processing. To further enhance efficiency, customers have also been given the ability to view and access other documents, not just invoices via the portal. For example, they can check original shipment documents, called Airway Bills, for delivery details such as sender, receiver and contents. It is a simple, yet powerful feature that has helped reduce the number of customer queries relating to deliveries. The Airway Bills document archiving platform has also been developed to present other documents including custom and duty notes, and an enhanced search and bulk download function has recently been added so that customers can follow a few steps to download all Airway Bills for an invoice. Between 30,000-40,000 Airway Bills were downloaded by UK users via the service during August and September 2011, these feature enhancements highlight the benefit of using a scalable online system such as Accountis, which can grow and develop with business needs. So, how is the success of e-billing project being measured? We measure success in several ways. Firstly in terms of paper invoice conversion, says Brian. He continues, Currently almost half of all invoices in Europe are sent electronically, which achieves our official project target of 50% conversion. However, my personal target is 100% as I believe that everything will be delivered electronically in the near future it s inevitable. Some of our highest achieving countries are at around 90% conversion, which is excellent. Another measure is the number of trees saved, and the importance of this should not be underestimated. For us, and many of our customers, this was a key reason for adoption. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

13 E-billing roject Managers like to show their Board of Directors that they are committed to the company sustainability policy by deploying green technology. We have saved nearly 1000 trees already this year with e-billing. DHL Express original business case was built on saving paper, printing and postage costs. But at the time, the project team were experiencing downward pressure from conflicting internal initiatives aimed at decreasing the cost of paper invoicing through outsourcing, duplex printing and collective bargaining etc. As a counter measure Brian and his team attempted to estimate the overall processing cost savings associated with sending an invoice. However industry estimates varied wildly, anywhere from 5 to 20 and were based on processing invoices of 1-2 pages, sent by standard post in an envelope. But anyone in the logistics industry will tell you that this is not often the case. The photograph shows a single monthly invoice for one of their customers and you do not have to be an e-invoicing specialist to recognise that massive savings can be made if these large invoices are sent electronically. All other methods of reducing paper invoicing costs are blown out of the water in comparison. Cost reduction is not just about saving paper however, as DHL Express later discovered. According to Brian it is the hidden cost savings that have made the project so worthwhile. Electronic delivery meant that customers received their invoices within hours of the billing run rather than days. Typically our billing run takes place overnight at month-end so start of business the next day the invoices have arrived for processing. We operate Contact Centres for invoice queries and our largest source of queries before e-billing were about copy documentation. In the UK we were receiving around 30,000 queries per month, roughly half for copy invoices and half for Airway Bills. These are now handled by the system as customers can view an invoice, initiate a query or click on a link to see supporting documentation, such as an Airway Bill. Every step of the process now happens much quicker which ideally means the payment comes through quicker. In the UK, for example, Days Sales utstanding (DS) is 2-3 days lower than average for e-invoices. To further speed up payment we are also adding a pay now button to all invoices that will enable customers to pay online by credit/debit card, ayal, or set up a paperless Direct Debit. unique code will also be printed on the paper invoices to encourage non e-billing customers to access to signup for the service. When talking to Brian and his colleagues about e-invoicing it is obvious that they are passionate about the project and are delighted with the success so far. By introducing European-wide electronic invoicing DHL Express has replaced a slow paper billing process with a fresh, greener technology. DHL e-billing is a multilingual online service that makes life easier for everyone involved and is a welcome change to the never-ending paper chase. Gone are the days of bulky paper invoices in confusing formats. Customers now enjoy a simplified invoicing process in their preferred language that can be accessed at a time and location that suits them. When asked what advice he would give to any manager embarking on a similar project Brian says, First, don t see e-billing as a finance function. It should be seen as part of your organisation s overall e-commerce strategy. Through the e-billing system you are able to grab the attention of your customer on a one-to-one basis. Second, keep it simple. So many projects promise the earth but then fail to deliver, so don t expect to build the ultimate e-billing system from day one. We worked with Fundtech to build a scalable, flexible e-billing system that could be launched country by country. The pilot-to-rollout approach really worked for us and I would strongly recommend that approach. It also helps to spread implementation costs and achieve RI. E-billing is the way of the future. Yes it does have challenges, but start simple, get some success under your belt and grow from there. The market is ready for it now and now is definitely the time. reduces work for the DHL finance team. E-billing has put a stop to all the unnecessary work involved in the paper invoicing process. DHL Express has been able to kick old habits by introducing new standards and a more automated service. The actual invoicing process has not changed much but they have been able to eliminate time-consuming tasks so the process is much quicker. In some cases, they are seeing close to real-time processing, which is unheard of with paper invoicing. For example, many of their e-billing customers react instantly to an prompt and deal with their invoices immediately, rather than placing them in an in-tray pile. They access their invoices when they want to and from any location, which is much quicker and easier for them. Also, the fact that they do some of the administration work themselves speeds up the process and INDTRY INSIGHTS FRM T LAYERS IN THE E-INVICING SERVICES MARKET And what of recent developments? Following feedback from a customer survey the company is in the final stages of streamlining the invoicing process even further. Currently, the data for paper invoice processing is sent directly from local finance systems to one of a number of print and post partners located across Europe. Therefore the problem of inconsistent invoice layouts and standards still prevails. However, when this project is completed data for all invoices, both paper and electronic, will be sent directly to the Accountis E-invoicing Hub for reformatting into the new invoice format, and paper invoices will be printed and posted. As a result all customers who are registered for paper invoicing will receive their invoices in one standard format. A E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

14 A CLSER LK AT THE CHALLENGES & RTUNTIES F BSTING E-INVICING ADTIN EXCLIVE INTERVIEW WITH Enrico Camerinelli, Sr. Analyst Europe at Aite Group LEADING EXERTS TAKE THE STAND Exclusive interview with Enrico Camerinelli, Sr. Analyst, Aite Group The next two e-invoicing S-Curves: Collaboration and more value By Jaap Jan Nienhuis, Financial Services Consultant at Innopay What to ask when buying e-invoicing By Susie West, Founder and CE of sharedserviceslink.com Enrico Camerinelli is a senior analyst at Aite Group specializing in wholesale banking, cash and trade finance, and payments. Based in Milan, he brings a strong European focus to Aite Group s Wholesale Banking practice. Aite Group is an independent research and advisory firm focused on business, technology and regulatory issues and their impact on the financial services industry. It seeks to become a partner, advisor, and catalyst by exchanging ideas and challenging basic assumptions to ensure that its clients stay ahead of the competition. Your position as both Sr. Research Analyst at Aite Group and member of the Italian delegation at UN/CEFACT makes you ideally placed to have a bird s eye view on the overall state of the European e-invoicing space what works, what does not work, what benefits there are, both real and potential. If you were to summarize your current insight, what would be the state of affairs of e-invoicing in Europe at the present moment? Enrico Camerinelli: I would say that in Europe electronic invoicing is particularly advanced, with many on-going initiatives at country level my own country, Italy, would be an example to that end and of course everybody speaks about the Nordic countries, from where many best practices in terms of electronic invoicing originate. verall e-invoicing awareness is pretty high. In terms of actual adoption, now this is where we have a problem: adoption of electronic services in Europe is not nearly as high as expected. There are a number of initiatives currently in progress, many of them initiated by local public administrations in a bid to make e-invoicing compulsory for companies which supply products and services to the public sector. This may be one strategy to help boost e-invoicing adoption. ne thing is clear, though: the many advertised benefits of e-invoicing adoption seem not to act as a sufficient trigger for corporations to spontaneously launch such electronic invoicing programs. So while e-invoicing awareness remains high, adoption levels are not proportional to awareness levels. We cannot say that the lack of widespread adoption of electronic invoicing solutions is caused by a lack of knowledge or a lack of regulations or by a lack of standards. There is another main reason for this state of affair, which is that the benefits that are accrued just by improving operations and reducing manual processes seem not to be the real benefits that companies perceive in terms of e-invoicing. In terms of obstacles you ve just mentioned a pretty big one: not lack of awareness per se but a lack of immediacy in perceiving the benefits of e-invoicing. Is the true problem here the fact that companies expect these benefits to become apparent in the short term and they don t? Enrico Camerinelli: I would say that the typical approach when looking at electronic invoicing is to turn paper invoices into 28 E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

15 digitized ones. And this is where you typically have the large buyer that somehow imposes these decisions on its suppliers. So in many instances, the adoption tactic is moving away from simply convincing suppliers to sign up for e-invoicing towards forcing them to do it. This can be one way of doing business. However, keep in mind that in such a scenario, all the benefits are on the buyer side, given that we re talking mostly about operational benefits, which are felt by bigger companies that process large amounts of invoices. But on the sender side, on the side of the supplier the difference is not that significant. Because the real problem for a supplier is not so much sending the invoice but rather receiving the money, getting paid on time. Given the current credit crisis, the big buyers are the ones who want to accelerate the receiving of the invoices by electronic means but at the same time, they are also the ones delaying payments just to cope with the financial instability. This means that as far as suppliers are concerned, the benefits are not too visible. There are some manual operations where improvements can be made, but the fact is that suppliers can find themselves in a scenario where one or two of the buyers they deal with ask for electronic invoices, while the others are still happy with paper ones. Also, from the perspective of the supplier there is a more complicated way of handling and processing invoices. If instead the adoption of electronic invoices is paralleled with the possibility of for instance getting advance payments or getting financial solutions attached to the invoice, this falls into the concept of supply chain finance and the story then becomes quite different. We are now heading into a discussion of supply chain financing. This was one of the topics which were heavily discussed at the ECA Summit 2012 which took place in Rome a few months ago. So I just wanted to ask, what options are there or what could buyers offer to suppliers in terms of supply chain financing that would change the story for suppliers? Enrico Camerinelli: I would say the most commonly used supply chain finance instrument is e-invoice discounting in its two main forms, taking place either with or without the involvement of a bank. In the former case we refer to There are two options, the first of them being bilateral invoice discounting. The latter is known as or receivables finance. In bilateral invoice discounting This takes place either with or without the involvement of a bank and the typical model could be a bilateral relation between the buyer and the supplier (i.e., no banks involved). In this context, when the buyer receives an invoice, if that invoice is received electronically, in the time window before the sixtieth day expires there is a possibility for the buyer to offer to the supplier an advance payment in exchange for an extra discount on the invoice. This is the typical invoice discount or cash discount model. It s not a new solution. The fact is that the ability to anticipate as much as possible the receipt of the invoice allows a wider window for negotiation. This marks an evolution of the typical static invoice discount model by which we move into what is called dynamic discounting. In this case it is not always an advanced payment that matters to the supplier, but rather the certainty of the payment date. My next question has to do with an issue that we ve touched upon this marked discrepancy between the estimated benefits of large scale e-invoicing adoption and the actual pace of adoption; exactly how big is this discrepancy between the estimated benefits and the actual benefits or the actual pace of adoption of e-invoicing? Enrico Camerinelli: Like I mentioned before, I would say that there is enough evidence (studies, use cases ) that demonstrate the many benefits of e-invoicing, making the essential difference between running a manual process and an electronic process. But the main reason why, in my opinion, there is no correspondence between these benefits and the rate of adoption, is because no true balance is achieved and the benefits are very much on the side of the buyer. Secondly, these are very much operational benefits and can be significant for those companies that process a huge amount of invoices; but if we have a more in-depth look at those companies that send the invoices (i.e., the suppliers), they might just send considerably lower invoice volumes compared to buyers. And so again the benefits of enhancing operational processes might not make a considerable difference for small enterprises, also because the implementation costs are significant for the latter. So instead of improving operational processes, e-invoicing adoption may actually complicate them in the eyes of a small supplier. The point is that so far, all the benefits related to the adoption of electronic invoicing focus on operational efficiencies, which are of little value to companies which manage invoices in small amounts. ne potential approach to boosting e-invoicing adoption is to make it free and easy for small companies to send their invoices. Is that like Tradeshift is doing for example? Enrico Camerinelli: Well, Tradeshift is offering invoice submission services for free for a limited number of users. Still, there is a limit beyond which a payment is required. f course Tradeshift goes beyond that: they use the electronic invoice as a channel, as a means of also providing a financing solution - which is, I believe, a real motivator for small companies to deploy electronic invoices. ther companies such as Basware, Bottomline Technologies or B10 can still focus on improving the process management of invoices even if they do not necessarily attach the financing part but focus on extending the reach of the digitization back into the purchase order management. Because if you offer a mid-size or small company (which serves as supplier to a big buyer) the possibility to receive their orders electronically and thus gain higher visibility of forecasts or visibility of the payment status together with the fact that invoices are sent electronically, then there might be a higher benefit for this supplier, which may not have all this information integrated. Dynamic discounting basically functions like a sliding scale. This model has a system which works in the background using algorithms and which allows companies to add or opt for a certain level of discount and then calculate and see what is the date of the advanced payment or vice versa. And there are of course some additional parameters such as maximum discount allowed or minimum payment date. This type of model is typically applied in the case of large corporations that have sufficient cash available, which they prefer to put into receivables programs rather than locking down the money in bank deposits that give very little return. If a financial institution is involved instead, then receivables finance is used. In that case it is the financial institution that anticipates the payment to the supplier and then collects the money from the buyer at invoice due date. It can be somehow associated with factoring Another supply chain finance instrument frequently is used is the, namely the so called reverse factoring. This is based on the principle that the buyer has better credit rating in the eyes of the bank than the supplier. Therefore, given that it s the buyer that approves the invoices (and if invoices are exchanged in electronic format), the visibility of this approval process is immediate and the bank can subsequently offer financing to the supplier at a lower interest rate on account of the credit worthiness of the buyer. When it comes to bringing SMEs on board (because they are the critical mass, over 90 percent of companies in Europe are small and medium-size enterprises), in addition to what we ve already discussed are there any other motivating factors for SMEs to adopt e-invoicing? Enrico Camerinelli: I would say that right now having e-invoicing combined with working capital financing is quite enough for small companies, in the sense that they need to get money, to get financed and so anything that can improve the collection process is important to them. As a result, the possibility of attaching the electronic invoice to the possibility of getting early payment or certainty of payment is definitely something of importance. As as I was saying before, some large buyers across Europe tell their suppliers: you have to do electronic invoicing if you want to keep doing business with us. This is also what the public sector is doing, the business to government (B2G) area. So in B2G, companies which do business with public authorities must deploy e-invoicing, as it is or can be made mandatory. This could also happen in the B2B sector, but the resistance can be higher or at least the cost for large buyers to get all their suppliers to adopt electronic invoicing can be higher in this sector, so that at the end of the day, they might achieve the results but with very high costs associated. And so they need to find a compelling reason to drive e-invoicing adoption among their suppliers. So the more the use of electronic invoices can be attached to financing, the more small companies can be made to see this as a benefit. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

16 You ve mentioned banks. Is there a role for them in the e-invoicing ecosystem? Enrico Camerinelli: I would say that banks have so far concentrated on building platforms or providing their own white-label platforms. When you offer a platform, when you offer a technology you also have to take care and make sure that people use that particular technology and I think this has distracted banks, preventing them from focusing on what they are really good at doing - which is, of course, providing financial solutions. So in my representation of supply chain finance, I have identified two big areas. ne includes supply chain transaction enablers, which provide the electronic invoicing or payment systems which form a sort of infrastructure; on top of this you have what I call the supply chain finance enablers which provide access to applications like invoice discounting or dynamic discounting or reverse factoring or let s say electronic letters of credit for instance. Banks should concentrate on the second group, on the supply chain finance enablers, letting the software vendors build the applications but then providing the parameters and the criteria to run those applications. And that s what banks should focus on: what is the level of risk (appetite?) that they accept, how they manage the risk of their counterparts, etc. Banks should go back and do what they know best and leave the technology to the technology providers. f course, many banks have spent quite a lot of money on building and running and maintaining these platforms and so it s difficult to just get rid of all that technology and saying now we do something else, but that is the role that I see for banks. We were talking earlier about the advantages of e-invoicing for small businesses, which extend beyond just eliminating paper. You ve mentioned all these financing opportunities and credit worthiness in front of banks, and liquidities and all that. My question is a bit more abstract. Do you think that these benefits of e-invoicing for small businesses are evident or obvious to the right people in the right places because in your opinion in terms of awareness, are European small business owners aware of what benefits they could derive from this or is there still work to be done on that front as well? Enrico Camerinelli: Well, certainly communication is never enough and education is never enough but as I said before there is visibility, I see that especially small and medium enterprises are being involved in these studies on electronic invoicing and made aware of the benefits. I would say that in the past years a lot has been done to generate that level of awareness, but this is not sufficient. Again, it s the operational improvements that you can get that are significant for those who handle huge amounts of invoices but not for those like the small and medium enterprises that handle a small amount of invoices. So again I don t think the main problem is the lack of information, but rather the fact that everything is concentrated on this process, operational excellence process reduction which is not that appealing to small enterprises. The next two e-invoicing s-curves: collaboration and more value Considerations for a future-proof e-invoicing strategy by Jaap Jan Nienhuis, Financial Services Consultant at Innopay An e-invoicing paradigm shift is needed if mass adoption of e-invoicing is to be achieved. New business models are needed that go beyond e-invoicing, and look to support the whole of the collaborative financial supply chains. This article explains the innovation curve of e-invoicing, and how service providers can successfully move upward on that curve and why interoperability between service providers is the key driver of this paradigm shift. Jaap Jan Nienhuis (1979) is consultant at Innopay ( com). Jaap Jan focuses on product development in two-sided markets, with a special focus on e-invoicing and related topics such as e-payments. Jaap Jan holds an MSc in Management from Nyenrode University, NL. Innopay is an independent consulting firm specialised in payments and transactional services. Innopay works for major international financial institutions, public sector and corporates helping in developing products, services, businesses and strategies in the field of transaction services. Innopay is member of ECA (www. epca-group.com), a pan European network of independent payment consultancies. Electronic invoicing has been out ever since. It is practised in various industries for over 25 years, using technologies such as EDI over Value Added Networks (VANs) and later XML over the internet. Much is written about the increasing adoption rates of e-invoicing in the past years, and many believe that mass adoption of e-invoicing will be achievable in the years to come. In the meantime e-invoicing has become a significant topic for both national and European policy makers. To understand where e-invoicing will lead us, we need to learn where it has brought us. This article will explore the history of e-invoicing and explain what will come in the future. It will help service providers to assess their readiness for the coming e-invoicing revolution. The e-invoicing innovation curve E-invoicing has gone through a number of development stages, as we outline below: Stage 1: Document exchange networks This stage focused really on the dematerialisation of the invoice using structured formats, such as EDIFACT or XML. Cost benefits were realised by eliminating cost of paper, postage, and more efficient processing of inbound invoices. It was mainly applied in very tight supply chains dominated by a single powerful buyer (for example the automotive industry). E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

17 Stage 2: Linkage with other processes, such as payments, ordering, reconciliation In this stage, service providers created some links with other processes. This included the creation of an invoice based on the purchase order ( Flip), invoice status information, dispute resolution and matching of invoices, payments, and purchase orders. As in stage one, the adoption paradigm is driven by large buyers forcing SMEs into their e-invoicing service. As a result of this, e-invoicing is mainly adopted by supply chains with a strong relation between a supplier and large buyers. This is estimated to be between 40% - 45% of all B2B invoices. Without a revolution, e-invoicing adoption is likely to stabilise at 50% of B2B invoices. Stage 3: The paradigm shift: broader availability of e-invoicing services to SMEs In order to reach mass adoption (>80% of B2B invoices), the market of e-invoicing service providers should embrace an SMEfriendly paradigm. This SME part of the market is characterised by a large number of companies with relatively small numbers of invoices (the longtail). More and more service providers emerge with compelling value propositions for SMEs, addressing both the inbound and the outbound invoice flows. Have a look at the website of the most innovative e-invoicing service providers, and you will find one or more of the following concepts: Low cost and highly scalable infrastructure (cloud) that enables service providers to serve the long-tail of SMEs. SMEs can not only send invoices, but are also able to receive invoices from other companies. Another onboarding paradigm is required where SMEs are able to self-register for e-invoicing services instead of being onboarded by account teams of e-invoicing service providers. The freemium business model where SMEs can register for basic services for free, and when they need more services, they become a premium customer. A move towards supporting other financial supply chain processes, enabling such service providers to become the single window to financial supply chain management for SMEs. In the future an ecosystem of service providers will emerge that focus on optimisation across financial supply chains. This covers not only collaboration in e-invoicing, but also in related processes, such as e-finance, e-payments, e-ordering and e-cataloguing. Such service providers act more as B2B e-commerce collaboration platforms. This includes a focus on the optimisation of the flow of capital between trading parties. Interoperability between service providers is the key driver for this paradigm shift, as it allows SMEs to onboard to the service provider of their choice, while still being able to send invoices to other service providers. The key issue in stage 3 is that the growing number of contenders in this market results in increasing fragmentation terms of addressable reach for both the supplier and the buyer. This is a phenomenon very native to nascent two sided markets. We have seen this problem in the payments arena and telecoms sector where this has been solved by standardisation and cooperation ( schemes ). Strong business leaders are required to take the lead in developing such an interoperable eco-system for e-invoicing. Stage 4: Development of the next generation of e-invoicing services based on e-invoicing and related processes In the fourth stage, new innovative services are developed on top of e-invoicing, such as financing, dynamic discounting, liquidity management, B2B e-payments and other services. Strategic options E-invoicing service providers need to develop a strategy that enables them to remain competitive in the e-invoicing future envisioned above. Such a strategy should consider the following aspects: 1. Focus on corporate or longtail: Service providers may decide to focus on the optimisation of document flows for large buyers, really focusing on excellence in achieving ST processing of inbound invoices in large corporate environments. Such service providers must realise that the SME side of their network may erode over time, as SMEs will be better served by more SME oriented providers. ther providers may choose to focus on serving the longtail of SMEs. Such service providers will be challenged to develop a onestop shop that supports not only the e-invoicing process, but allfinancial supply chain processes of SMEs. This would also include e-ordering, e-procurement, and e-payment. ne very interesting mechanism to accelerate the development of new services on top of e-invoicing is to open up the platform for third-party developers using AIs, a concept known from platforms such as apple, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. In such networks, a community of innovative product developers becomes an important and powerful driver for innovation. Stage 5: The future is collaborative financial supply chains 2. artnerships: An e-invoicing service provider will need to think about what partnerships to develop to integrate specific capabilities. Examples include partnerships with companies such as Taulia, Flinqer, InvoiceMarket, Bilbus, and also ER vendors etc. that offer very advanced specialised capabilities related to e-invoicing. ne scalable, low cost and low risk way to achieve such partnerships is by developing a business model that allows third parties E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

18 to develop innovative services on top of your platform. 3. E-invoicing specialist or B2B e-commerce cloud: Service providers may decide to specialise in e-invoicing, and develop various services around e-invoicing. ther service providers may move up and downstream in the financial supply chain, also offering services around e-ordering and B2B e-payments. 4. Network effects: Although more and more service providers start exploring interoperability (allowing one of the trading parties to be through another service provider), they may still need to create network effects that provide a higher level of collaboration between trading parties that are with the same service provider. Such business models need to think of enticing value propositions for both sides of the market, as they are challenged to create network effects. Conclusion Whatever strategy is chosen by e-invoicing service providers, innovation is the paramount topic which should be high on the agenda of e-invoicing service providers. The service provider that is able to offer innovative services that really help businesses to engage in collaborative financial supply chains, positions itself at the heart of the e-commerce transaction. Yesterday this position was held by banks with their transaction services. Who will it be tomorrow? What to ask when buying e-invoicing The five less obvious but hugely significant considerations by Susie West, Founder and CE of sharedserviceslink.com The e-invoicing market can be tough to negotiate. With so many different areas to take into consideration, it can be difficult to know what to ask. While you may know the obvious questions, there are some that are less obvious and can be overlooked. Here Susie will talk you through the five less obvious but hugely significant considerations and questions you need to ask when purchasing e-invoicing. Susie West is the Founder and CE of sharedserviceslink.com, the business community for leaders in finance shared services. Susie worked in the shared services and e-invoicing markets for 8 years before setting up the company, as a consultant and selling e-invoicing technology to the market. It became apparent during these 8 years that what leaders in finance shared services needed was a place where they could learn from each other, share ideas, and exchange secrets and horror stories. sharedserviceslink.com has become that place, and the outcome is impressive. Customers access a previously unavailable level of information needed to drive real business improvements. Susie chairs each of the conferences, speaks at other leading events, leads radio interviews and webinars, writes thought-leading articles and is an expert in this field. Knowing the questions to ask service providers when looking to purchase e-invoicing solutions can be a minefield. With a number of service providers offering different solutions, often the nuances of what they are offering are difficult to differentiate. The e-invoicing market has certainly matured over recent years and there is now a higher degree of awareness surrounding the questions that need to be asked. However, there is still confusion about, not just exactly what those questions should be, but also what to do with the feedback received. Here we will be examining five not-so-obvious, but very important areas that need consideration when you are choosing your network. 1. Supplier on-boarding Supplier on-boarding is an important consideration. Without suppliers sending you invoices electronically, you have no e-invoicing programme. Realising that the supplier on-boarding piece is key, you ll come to realise that the service part of this project is instrumental to success. E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

19 The change management component of e-invoicing needs to be held in high regard by your service provider, and getting this right will hugely impact on your chances of being successful with the implementation. Most service providers will on-board your suppliers for you, but the way they do this differs from network to network. Ask them exactly what their process is in detail and they will hopefully tell you that they will: Ensure that your vendor database is clean so that any communications will land on the right desk and keep the momentum of your campaign Write the communications piece based on communications that have been successful in the past with other clients Follow up with the suppliers once they have received the request/instruction to join the network and walk them through any implementation Report on supplier uptake and advice on how procurement should liaise with suppliers that refuse to join Do you want to meet the people that will be liaising with your suppliers on your behalf? If so, go and meet them. Take the afternoon to sit with the supplier on-boarding team to see how professional they are, what native languages they speak, what systems they use to log calls etc. 2. pen vs. closed? pen vs. closed refers to the service providers views on interoperability which is fast becoming a popular method in very mature markets, such as Scandinavia. Whilst most geographical markets have some time to shunt their way up the adoption curve from 10% electronic to perhaps 30%, interoperability is currently a key consideration rather than a key requirement. But this will change as markets mature. Questions to ask are: How many interoperability relationships do you have and with whom? To what degree do you actively seek interoperability with other service providers? What volume of invoices cross your network from interop partners? With the view that once the market becomes fully mature, and interoperability will be common practice, you will want to partner with a service provider who is open to it today (even if they do not currently have many invoices coming through this arrangement.) 3. Commercials It will be fairly obvious to you that you need to discuss the commercial aspects of the deal. However, what needs to be understood is the total cost of ownership for you and indeed the supplier. You also need to understand the value e-invoicing represents to your business. Therefore your questions need to be about pricing, but also about the cost of change for you and the supplier. Understanding the cost of change for you, and the supplier in particular, will give you a clear idea of what your conversion will look like, and therefore the value that e-invoicing will lend your organisation. Here are some of the questions to ask: What is the forecasted/guaranteed conversion and over what period? What cost will the network remove from the business and what opportunity will using this solution open up? What is the cost of change to you as a business when setting up with this network? i.e. how many man days will it cost you to go live? What is the total cost of ownership for the supplier? Talk through the supplier technical set up (large supplier, mid-sized supplier, low volume supplier) -what is involved? Can you talk to the supplier directly about their experience? How much will the network charge you and what is the charging model? What is the commitment you need to make? Can you opt out at any time? Is there a large upfront fee? What is your risk? What happens if you follow all the best practice guarantees and your network fails to deliver? How long is the contract and can you get a better rate if you extend the contract? How much will you be charged to take invoices out of the archive? Are there any extras? What are they? What will they cost? What are the terms of the supplier s contract? What other services exist (like supply chain financing or dynamic discounting) that will mushroom your business case and increase the value for suppliers? 4. roject management is a change management programme, so you need to make sure that you are working with a programme manager from the network that can drive through change. The best way to ensure you get the best candidate is by meeting them. The programme manager will be responsible for driving through the change both internally and externally so it is important to make sure they have all the qualities needed to do so elegantly and effectively. When you find a project manager that you feel you can work well with, lock them into a contract before you sign it. roject management is also about more than just the set-up. You will also need to discover what support looks like once you are operational. You want to make sure that, even when you have reached 70% or 80% conversion, you are still being looked after and suppliers are still being on-boarded. 5. Resource planning A service provider sees clients at every corner existing, mature, recently signed, at contract stage, in sales. nce you sign as a client, how can you be sure that as you move through the implementation cycle your project and your suppliers will be prioritised? It is important to ensure that your programme is not de-prioritised as new, fresh, larger accounts come on board with bigger suppliers that can yield more for the network than your harder-to-convert mid-volume suppliers. As you run your campaign, it s in your interest that mid volume suppliers come on board. But how motivated is your network to on-board these suppliers over and above larger suppliers? This is a key area that requires full investigation. Here are some of the questions to ask: How many accounts does the service provider win each month? How will they manage all accounts won? What resource do you have ready and trained? Where will you come in the list of accounts won? How many people will be working on your account? What will happen when more accounts come on board? How can you make sure they will put as much effort into getting hard to on-board suppliers as the easy-wins? What will happen if 5 accounts come on board in one month instead of the forecasted 3? How are they incentivising their supplier on-boarding team to on-board mid volume suppliers? What does their commission plan look like? Are they the same people that on-board larger suppliers? If so why? The answers to these questions will assist you in deciding whether or not you are going to receive the right amount of attention the whole way through the process. Ask your chosen service provider to add KIs to the contract, so they have targets to meet E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE 2012

20 on your account all the way through the process. These areas are the less obvious to explore when looking at e-invoicing. However, getting answers to these types of questions can mean the difference between a 30% conversion programme and a 70% programme. Make sure they feature in your buying process. sharedserviceslink.com provides a wealth of information and resources on electronic invoicing. I invite you to have a look at the dedicated section on our website and become member for free. Alternatively if you have any questions please feel free to contact me at susie.west@sharedserviceslink.com FC N SULY CHAIN FINANCE E- and Supply Chain Finance, a greater sum in combination By liver Belin, Business Development Executive, rimerevenue Flinqer optimizes the use of cash by smarter timing of payments By Reinier Weerman, CE, Flinqer E-INVICING MARKET GUIDE