Electronic Invoicing
03 Dec Nigel Taylor Joins Taulia as European Business Development Director
I was delighted when I heard a few weeks ago the news that was made official this week that Nigel Taylor has joined Taulia. It's great news for Nigel and great news for Taulia. Nigel moves from GXS where he led the marketing, business development and strategy of their eInvoicing solutions but I got to know him through his chairmanship of the UK National e-invoicing Forum. He’s won a great deal of respect in that chair role where he’s been able to steer the delivery of some excellent thought leadership from the group. He also represents the UK at the European Commission’s forum on eInvoicing and is an executive committee member of the European eInvoicing Service Providers’ Association.02 Dec Another e-invoicing miracle announced
Today the world of e-invoicing witnessed the birth of it's latest miracle. "A business model considered 'impossible' by the industry is now the new reality." the press release states. "A bomb in the world of paid electronic invoices." Not just a miracle, a spectacular miracle. Although, I have to say, some of the impact has been lost in translation. And it gets better. "The InvoiceSharing business model is similar to companies like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, that all have one thing in common: They have been changing the world." Let me rephrase the above: "Spot the odd one out: InvoiceSharing, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn" InvoiceSharing are new and they've just launched themselves into the e-invoicing world with a level of self-delusion that makes some of their competitors appear almost realistic in their assessment of their ability to disrupt. But don't be misled by my mocking tone - InvoiceSharing might just be onto something.25 Nov The EU and the draft directive on e-invoicing – grumpy pedantry this is not
A couple of articles ago I mentioned the EU’s draft Directive on eInvoicing. It is a sensible document. However it has some problems which raise important questions. The core problem is that the reasoning in the Explanatory Memorandum to the draft is flawed. This is not just grumpy pedantry but something fundamental.14 Nov Supplier side benefits of e-invoicing
For years the growth in the use of electronic invoicing was hampered by a very simple fact. There was nothing in it for suppliers. Think about it. A supplier wants to be paid and needs to send an invoice. Whether that’s a paper invoice in an envelope with a stamp on it or an email makes very little difference. The cost of a stamp has got nothing to do with it – unless a supplier is sending many very low value invoices, the postage cost is trivial. While only a few customers demand electronic invoicing, while the business world was largely paper based and while suppliers were being asked to subsidize the cost of their customers' e-invoicing programs by paying for the privilege of sending an invoice, there was always going to resistance. But the world has now changed and the business case for e-invoicing is now fundamentally different to the one-sided calculation with all the benefits loaded on the customer side that would have been built perhaps 5 years ago.08 Nov Electronic invoicing in Europe – the countdown has begun
A few weeks ago, somebody asked me why supply chain finance had suddenly burst into life - especially in the UK - with a new breed of SCF providers appearing at the same time?. Why is it that in the space of a few months the market place seemed to blossom? Tungsten bought OB10 to create a new SCF proposition. Crossflow Payments emerged in the summer and there were others. Why the sudden explosion? There was nothing sudden about it. These operations have years of planning and preparation behind them. It appears sudden – but it’s not. And we’re about to see something similar happen in Europe around e-invoicing.09 Oct I’m walking backwards for Christmas
Posted at 09:09h
in AP Automation, e-invoicing, e-Procurement, Electronic Invoicing, EU Commission, P2P Europe
In October 2008, some colleagues and I were in Brussels for a European Commission/PEPPOL session. Halfway through the morning we called our office travel agents and asked if they could book us onto earlier flights home and left. During the morning session I wrote in my diary “trying to decide between slitting my wrists or hurling myself from the window. One of the most dispiriting experiences of my life is sitting here listening to policy officers and IT staff talking rubbish and reinventing the wheel. Do our taxes pay for this nonsense? Yes they do”.
Two things reminded me of this recently: the first was reading a PEPPOL Business Interoperability Specification (BIS 28A – Ordering) which was out for review; the second was the reaction when the Draft Directive on eInvoicing managed to omit any mention of PEPPOL.