Nordic Practice and Experience on e-invoicing Erkki Poutiainen 20 November 2007
E-invoicing challenges Country A Invoice Issuer (Supplier/Seller) This works already today well inside many single countries Country B Invoice Receiver (Buyer) Will the buyer accept an e-invoice? What does the buyer require from the e-invoice? What are his business processes contra mine? Are the legal requirements the same in country B as in my country?? What form of e-invoice should I create? How can I deliver the e-invoice to reach? To what address, which channel? Who has originated and sent this invoice? Can I be sure? Is the invoice in its original content/intact? Would my VAT authorities accept this e-document for tax deduction? Can I automate processing of this document in my processes? Link and match it to my purchase order? What if I do not agree to the content? Link it to payment generation? 2
Needed: Solutions for cross-border E-invoicing Country A Invoice Issuer (Supplier/Seller) A pan European e-invoicing black box Country B Invoice receiver (Buyer) 3
European e-invoicing Country A Invoice Issuer (Supplier/Seller) A pan European e-invoicing black box Legal and tax disharmony Trust and authenticity Business uncertainty Risk and cost of implementation Lack of common technical standard Country B Invoice receiver (Buyer) Issues scope for the e-invoicing initiative of the EU commission Lack of business rules 4
How to reach the counterparty? Large corporate SME Consumers Solution for wide masses needed 5
Electronic banking corner stone for federated authentication - Trust on banking BankID The sender is known The receiver is known The banks are responsible for ID The information is carried through a secure network end-to-end Responsibilities are clear Is this enough for making business? BankID Bank A Know your customer Bank B Know your customer just like payments 6
Example FINVOICE: Enabling electronic invoicing by re-using payment infrastructure Trust Scheme Interoperability Standard Business model Seller E-bank Invoice Payment Advice / Receipt Reconciliation Bank A Order Order confirmation Invoice finance Payment infrastructure Interbank networks Buyer E-bank Invoice / Invoice alarm / payment proposal Automated payment order single / bulk Bank B 7
e-invoice B2C (examples of lessons learned) Basic functionality supported by all banks (connect once connect to all) Easy and simple customer enrolment Major invoice senders have enrolled VAN operator(s) involvement and open business models ERP systems provide standardized integration Current volumes (Nordea): 2.500.000 e-invoices per month > 100 % growth last 12 months Banks and Invoice senders cooperate and also have coordinated marketing activities 8 Invoice Biller Technical Service Providers Netbanks (private customers)
E-invoicing B2C (future challenges) Enrollment of SME require more standardized, simple and cheaper solutions than today Different consumer behavior in different markets cooperate with other banks/partners in order to achieve success in the specific market 9
Bringing in all counterparties - Example of sending invoices Invoice Sender: 1) Netbank 2) ERP systems 3) 3rd party software 4) Future: Invoicing Netbank customer E-INVOICE Operator House bank Receive Check and control Processing Archiving Deliver Payments Other bank Operator Through one channel reach all (kinds of) counterparties File service customer Non- E-customer 10
Our experiences and lessons learned (when implementing a fully automated procure to pay solution) It takes some time!! 11
Procure to pay Solution (Overall solution goal characteristics) One common Nordic procurement portal (with considerable improvement of the end user & back office functionality) Use Application Service Provider standard solution (as much as possible - enables to close down of old Procurement systems) Improve compliance and the transparency of spend data Massive reduction of manual orders Approval of Order, not invoice (when applicable) Centralised and standardised catalogue content (with very few local adaptations) Focus on automatic invoice matching (e-invoices and/or scanned paper invoices) Harmonisation and standardisation (process, roles and responsibility) 12
Procurement Processing Procure to pay Solution Case Nordea (New procurement processes) High-level process flow in operative purchasing Web shop Purchase Requisition Approval Purchase Order Order Fulfillment Web shop Receipt Invoice Handling Request for New Product and Services (based on free text input) Web shop Purchase Request new item Approval Purchase Requisition Sanity check Request Clarification & evaluation Products or Service decision Content Management Order Completion 13
Challenges and lessons learned Takes time to establish supplier catalogue and data Takes time to load back-office databases with all data Legacy systems not always designed to manage STP Important to have well defined activities/processes for supplier activation/integration Takes time when suppliers have to invest in own systems/processes - standard solutions not always available 14
Conclusion Keep it simple and cost effective!! Cooperate with Banks and other service providers!! Manage the situation where your partner also is your competitor!! 15
einvoice Status and initiatives in the Nordic countries Even if the countries can be compared seen from a demographical and technological perspective, coverage, drivers and initiatives among the countries vary. Population 5,3 mio 5,2 mio 4,6 mio. 9,1 miol. Banks / netbank users 160 / 2,2 mio. 94 / 3,0 mio 143 /2,5 mio. 124 / 4,7 miol. E-invoice B2C coverage Low No High Medium E-invoice B2B coverage High High Low Medium Drivers in the market Public sector Vendors Invoice receivers Vendors Bank share of B2B market Low Medium No Low Main initiative each country OIOXML FINVOICE e2b Svefaktura Main initiative in banks Nordic e-invoice Nordic e- invoice Nordic e-invoice Nordic e-invoice 16
Examples of Nordic einvoicing solutions Denmark: E-Faktura (B2B), OIO XML (UBL) Public administration, No B2C invoicing Finland: Finvoice bank scheme and standard (B2B & B2C) Edifact, TEAPPS, B2C emerging (based on Finvoice) Norway: e-faktura B2C, E2D emerging Sweden: e-faktura/egiro B2C. Many standards on B2B, Incl. Finvoice 17
Popular B2B e-invoicing Originally a large corporate business based on point-to-point operators and EDIFACT and a XML standard (TEAPPS) Banks created a payment-integrated standard FINVOICE in 2002 In Nordea agreements 45.000 (4/2006) Total number of B2B invoicing customers ca. 70.000 in Finland Now more and more large corporate adopting Finvoice because of the reach power Importance of browser interface (netbanks) to SME customers (both viewing and single invoice input service) Typically slow and long take-off for an individual corporate. 40000 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 Year-to year growth of transaction 10000 volumes in Oct07 120% 5000 but still modest (100 000/month) 0 03/04 05/04 Nordea agreements 07/04 09/04 11/04 01/05 03/05 05/05 07/05 09/05 11/05 Netbank Files out Files in 01/06 03/06 18
Example - E-Procurement and Leasing The City of Espoo User -benefits Faster Procurement Process via automated process Significant Cost Savings (handling time 35->5 min) Better Quality of Service, manual errors eliminated Enhanced Security Nordea & Nordea Finance Integrated service offer (Finvoice, bankid, Leasing) 19
New ICT Procurement Process User: End User or or Superior Intranet Manual data update Automatic transfer of data into other systems Filling up an Intranet form City of Espoo = Orderer Procurement/ Orderer ERP system ERP system Efecte IT Asset Management Efecte IT Asset Management Comprehensive Reports ICT Equipment Suppliers ICT Supplier 1 ICT Supplier 2 Nordea Financing Nordea Finance Nordea Finance Financing Agreement einvoice to to Espoo 20
Concluding message to our Italian colleagues E-invoicing is not equal to e-mail. Getting the benefits require very skillful collaboration with all stakeholders E-Invoice users: E-Invoicing is not stand-alone function. It is at least closely linked to ordering and payments (and financing), but also to the physical supply logistics. Users need to re-design their procurement and invoice-processing - > not possible to reach quick solutions Service providers: Keep in mind that the simplier the solution, the better possibilites to success. E-Invoicing is depending on the reach of critical mass of counterparties Align local solutions with the emerging European framework! Regulator: Put focus on promotional aspects, rather PULL than PUSH. 21
Huge opportunity for the economy E-Invoicing is in the middle of the physical supply chain and financial services functions Adopting e-invoicing is equal to opening the door to large number of further opportunities to gain efficiency benefits (e-invoice finance, payments STP, order automation etc...) THANK YOU! erkki.poutiainen@nordea.com 22