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Purchasing is a complex set of interconnected and dependent people, processes and technology. - market knowledge; benchmarking information; purchase to pay and accounting systems and processes and last but by no means least - data. Data - your procurement organization's Achilles heal.

There's been a good debate on linkedin over the past few days full of insightful and educated opinions on every side of the e-invoicing discussion. It was started by Christian Lanng from Tradeshift asking what free really means but it spawned into a wide debate about e-invoicing generally and the relative merits of PDF, EDI, XML and of course, scanning which some of the the purists believe, is not the answer to the "e-invoicing problem" because it requires manual intervention.

Taulia, Inc., the leading cloud-based dynamic discounting solution provider for SAP®, today announced that it has acquired billFLO.  billFLO helps small businesses monitor cash flow and identify liquidity gaps by automating the accounts payable, accounts receivable and expense reporting processes.  The combined company turns the conflicting cash flow needs of large buying organizations and their smaller suppliers into a win-win with its cloud-based financial supply chain solution.

I knew somebody a few years ago who ran a small, very successful business. When it came to negotiation he had a unique closing technique. Right at the end, when contacts were to be signed and hands shaken he'd go along to the final meeting with a briefcase and before he signed the contract he'd ask for one final reduction in the price. The reaction was predictable. After weeks, perhaps months of selling, discussing and fine tuning the deal, to be asked for a further discount on top of what was already agreed, the seller would invariably be perplexed and disappointed. Then the briefcase would be opened. Cash. The full amount in cash, now, if they'd take the revised offer. Did they accept the offer?

Research published earlier this year by Basware indicates that costs of e-invoicing to suppliers is one of the dominant reasons for poor adoption of electronic invoicing. A huge 46% of respondents to Basware’s survey said a combination of cost to suppliers and supplier reluctance was the biggest challenges to automation. This is hardly surprising, for years the big e-invoicing networks have loaded the implementation and running costs on the suppliers and it is now limiting further growth. It’s time to take another look at the charges for e-invoicing generally and how it is distributed between buyers and suppliers.