Author: Pete Loughlin

30 Jan

Posted at 16:22h in e-invoicing, Electronic Invoicing by
0 Likes
This is the fourth in the series The World Map of e-invoicing focusing on Asia Pacific. With many aspects of the economies and cultures in Asia and the far East, it is a mistake to make direct comparisons with the West. While the eastern economies have very skillfully learned to adapt to do business with the West in a western way, the fundamental cultural differences remain and the way eastern businesses deal with each other can be difficult to fathom through western eyes. Indeed, expert analysts observe that as the balance of power tips toward the eastern economies, it is increasingly apparent that the East knows much more about the West than the West knows about the East.

20 Jan

Posted at 06:10h in Supply Chain by
0 Likes
It's been my guilty secret for a few years now. I buy Apple stuff. Why the guilt? Because of Apple's reputation about their supply practices. The reputation says that Apple products are built in factories in far flung places where working conditions are so poor that overworked and underpaid staff are flinging themselves from the rooftops. But actually, the facts about Apple's supply chain have been difficult to ascertain because, like their product development, the details have always been a closely guarded secret. Until now that is.

18 Jan

Posted at 15:25h in Purchase to Pay by
0 Likes
Purchase to pay process, SOX controls, segregation of responsibilities - to a business they can, and are, seen as obstacles to just getting things do. But they are a necessary evil. Without them fraud would be rife. So what are the most common purchase to pay frauds? We can't know for certain which are employed most often but based on common knowledge and a bit of personal experience we think these are good candidates for the top six.

11 Jan

Posted at 10:57h in e-invoicing, Electronic Invoicing, The Rest by
0 Likes
The global economic crisis is bad enough and forcing business to work with their hands tied behind their backs isn’t helping. The failure of the dominant western economies, the US and Europe in particular, to encourage better business processes is testament to their lack of vision, their ignorance and their weakness. While their economies are crumbling, their governments’ paranoid insistence in archaic and bureaucratic  record keeping is allowing competing economies to take leaps ahead.