Argentina e-Invoicing Evolution

Click Image to Enlarge

For those of you familiar with the invoicing process, it is interesting to view the evolution from paper invoices, to e-invoicing, to real-time e-invoicing.  Let's use Argentina as our evolutionary example:

First - Traditional Paper Invoice

•Closes the commercial transaction;

•Describes products and services, including costs for taxes & freight

•Includes accounting codes used for matching, assigning costs within an organization

•Auditable by Tax Authorities for Value Added Tax compliance

Second - Basic Electronic e-Invoice

•Electronic version of paper document - contains the same basic information

•Digitally signed by emitter for non-repudiation and authentication to receiver

•Validated by receiver to prove that the integrity of message remains in tact

•Electronic file is the legal invoice – paper visualizations for human comfort only

Third - Argentina e-Invoicing

•Multiple CFD Document Types (export invoice, credit memo, debit memo, etc.)

•Real-time integration of CFD Summary with Argentina Tax Authority (AFIP)

•Export Invoices - cannot release truck for shipment without CAE number

•All Invoices, CAE Code and Expiration Date required on printed output.

•Mandates for Export Invoices now, Mandates for other CFD Document Types Coming Soon

As you can quickly determine, the involvement by IT jumps as the invoicing process evolves.  First it is digitized, and then integrated with real-time processes and data exchanges.  The image above (click to enlarge), shows a list of Latin American countries and their current e-invoicing status.

If you work in a company that sells products and services in Latin America, the need to support these current and future e-invoicing requirements is obvious.  For SAP customers, SAP has recently announced the acquisition of Crossgate, a leading global e-invoicing service provider.  This acquisition will make it far easier for SAP users to support these requirements now and in the future.

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Kevin R Benedict - EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Complexity, Costs, Global e-Invoicing and SAP

Complex Networks

I served as an EDI Manager for a large electronics firm in the late nineties, and I thought that was challenging enough.  However, these days I continually read about all the different changes around e-invoicing in each country.  Here is a recent blog article on changes to the e-invoicing requirements in Germany that I submit as a reference case.  It is hard enough keeping your EDI messages and mappings updated with your existing trading partners, not to mention trying to keep up with all the deadlines, mandates and systems requirements of each countries' tax authority.

Here is an example of complexity.  Brown-Forman, one of the largest American-owned spirits and wine companies sells its brands in more than 135 countries.  Each time they enter a new market it creates complex customer and supplier integration projects in order to comply with government mandates such as EU, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico's e-invoicing initiatives.  If you are growing rapidly, the cost of supporting these fast changing requirements can be enormous.

Here is another example of complexity.  LSI Corporation provides silicon, systems and software technologies.  In their product and services portfolio are capabilities and services including custom and standard product ICs, adapters, systems and software that are used by many businesses to power solutions in the storage and networking markets.  LSI Corporation had been using traditional EDI translator systems to communicate with their trading partners.  However, in a recent change they selected SAP Information Interchange to reduce costs and have the direct connectivity to their trading partners using a standard SAP integration.  SAP recently acquired Crossgate, the developers of SAP's SAP Information Interchange.

Brown-Forman, the spirits and wine company mentioned above, also chose to use the managed global e-invoicing solution available in the SAP Information Interchange.

Why are these global companies choosing to outsource their global e-invoicing and EDI communications to a managed service?  Their core business is not EDI and e-Invoicing.  The effort to develop and maintain all of their own EDI communications and e-invoicing was cost prohibitive.  Think about it - you would need people dedicated simply to trying to learn and keep up with every country's fast changing requirements.  I know from personal experience that many countries make their requirements available only in the local language.  Translation talent is also needed to understand many of the technical documents.  

SAP users especially are at an advantage supporting global e-invoicing these days.  With SAP's recently announced acquisition of Crossgate, and its pre-existing SAP integration and support, SAP users have only to subscribe to the service and allow the SAP Information Interchange and associated services to handle the complexity.

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin
 *Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Thoughts on SAP's Acquisition of Crossgate

In case you missed it, several weeks it was announced that SAP plans to acquire Crossgate, the developers of SAP's SAP Information Interchange. SAP had for a long time been a significant investor and supporter of Crossgate.

In this article from ZDnet on the acquisition, they describe the purpose of the acquisition as, "SAP is looking to provide a market to connect customers to business partners. In a nutshell, Crossgate builds services that allow multiple trading partners to exchange data even if partners have different technology platforms." In other words, it is a managed services EDI/B2B hub.

In my early career I worked as an EDI manager. During that time EDI vendors were independent software companies selling EDI translator solution. Today, much of EDI is operated in the cloud and most of the vendors have been acquired by much larger companies. In addition, companies like Ariba have emerged and now compete directly with ERP vendors like SAP. ZDnet adds, "SAP’s acquisition of Crossgate appears to be a direct threat to Ariba." Let the fun begin!!!

EDI today reminds of a Facebook or Linkedin for companies doing business with each other. Everyone connects, completes their profiles and then looks for others to connect with. These are the roles that the SAP Information Interchange and Crossgate now play.

In addition to traditional EDI, the past few years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of nations requiring electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) between buyers and sellers. In Latin America for example, many countries (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, etc.) are introducing and mandating very strict requirements. For most companies, simply monitoring and governing all of these changing requirements is a significant job, not to mention trying to technically support the real-time data exchange requirements. Many companies are quickly looking for a managed e-invoicing service provider to fulfill these requirements in the cloud and to provide integration with their ERP. SAP is now going to be in that business.

The SAP Information Interchange and the Crossgate e-invoicing services provide cloud based global e-invoicing for large companies around the world. They offer solutions for Mexico e-Invoicing, Brazil e-Invoicing, Argentina and over 35 other countries. This is a very interesting development indeed. 

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
-Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin
-Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Podcast Interview with e-Invoicing Expert Jason Jones, Part 2

This is Part 2 (listen to Part 1 here) of an interview I recently recorded with Crossgate's e-Invoicing expert Jason Jones.  For those of you who may have missed the news, SAP has announced they are acquiring Crossgate.  Jason works full time managing e-Invoicing projects around the world and is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subjects of global e-Invoicing.




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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
 Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Podcast Interview with e-Invoicing Expert Jason Jones, Part 1

In this podcast SAP Mentor Kevin Benedict interviews Crossgate's VP of Professional Services Jason Jones on the requirements for e-Invoicing in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.  This is a two part podcast.  You can listen to Part 2 of this interview here.

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:

 *Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

SAP Acquires EDI and e-Invoicing Company - Crossgate

Today it was announced that Crossgate, the developers of SAP's SAP Information Interchange, are going to be  acquired by SAP.  SAP had always been a significant investor and supporter of Crossgate, and many of us thought this would be the natural result of this relationship.

Here is the press release. 

Here is an article from ZDnet on the acquisition.

For those of you that may not know Crossgate, they build services that allow multiple trading partners to exchange data even if partners have different technology platforms.  It is a managed services EDI/B2B hub.

Crossgate manages global e-invoicing for large companies around the world.  They offer solutions for Mexico e-Invoicing, Brazil e-Invoicing, Argentina and over 35 other countries.

This is very interesting news indeed.  

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger

Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin

 *Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

The Latest on SAP EDI, B2B and E-Invoicing at SAPPHIRE 2011

Here are a couple of sessions that anyone interested in EDI, B2B, e-Invoicing or the SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate at SAP's SAPPHIRE conference next week might want to attend. These appear to be end user led sessions so you can likely learn the good, bad and the ugly.

Session Date / Time:Monday, May 16 13:30-15:00
Session Title: Brown-Forman l SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate
Session Description:

Brown-Forman, one of the largest American-owned spirits and wine companies and among the top 10 largest global spirits companies, sells its brands in more than 135 countries. Entering new markets creates complex customer & supplier integration projects as well as the need to comply with government mandates such as EU and Brazil and Mexico's e-invoicing initiatives. Organizations looking to expand their business into new countries must be able to comply with these integration requirements. Learn how Brown-Forman transformed their approach to Business Network integration to lower the costs of electronically collaborating with their business partners while complying with government mandates. Please join this interactive session limited to 10-12 individuals to understand first hand from The Dow Chemical Company about the selection process, implementation, lessons learned, and key successes.

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Session Date: Tuesday, May 17 10:30-12:00
Session Title: LSI Corporation l SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate
Session Description:

LSI Corporation is a leading provider of innovative silicon, systems and software technologies that enable products which seamlessly bring people, information and digital content together. They offer a broad portfolio of capabilities and services including custom and standard product ICs, adapters, systems and software that are trusted by the world's best known brands to power leading solutions in the storage and networking markets. LSI Corporation had been using e2Open and Sterling Gentran to handle communications, but as part of their evaluation, SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate was recommended as a potential alternative to standardize on one network using normalized content to offer less costly and more efficient trading. In the end, LSI chose to wait on SNC but selected SAP Information Interchange due to the superior integration into PI, using standard idocs and reduced costs compared to the competition. LSI's goal is to reduce costs and have the direct connectivity to their trading partners using standard SAP integration. Phase 1 implementation began in January 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by August 2011 to replace Gentran. E2Open will commence shortly after SAP Information Interchange is live with Phase 1. Please join this interactive session limited to 10-12 individuals to understand first hand from LSI Corporation about the selection process, implementation, lessons learned, and key successes.

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

SAP Awards 2011 Pinnacle Award to EDI and e-Invoicing Partner

SAP will hand out their 2011 SAP® Pinnacle award in the category of “Software Solution Newcomer of the Year” on May 16 at SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP’s international customer conference held in Orlando, Florida, May 15 – 18.  SAP's Pinnacle awards are presented annually to leading SAP partners that have excelled in developing and growing their partnership with SAP and driving customer success. Winners were selected based on over 150 nominations in 18 categories received from partners and SAP employees.

The 2011 award winner is Crossgate, a company co-owned by SAP and the developers of the SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate.  They are both a managed EDI services provider and a global e-Invoicing services provider that utilizes a cloud computing model.  SAP's field sales teams are reselling these solutions as the SAP Information Interchange.

Last month Crossgate and Hubwoo, both companies that are in the SAP investment portfolio, announced an alliance to better support the SAP customer base with shared business networks and cloud-based procurement and EDI/B2B services.

As more countries mandate electronic invoicing and companies seek more efficient ways to send B2B data exchanges, I believe you will see an increasing demand for these kinds of services.  It appears from SAP's interest in this space that they also anticipate this market trend.

Listen to recent interviews with SAP's Carter Johnson and Hubwoo's Rinus Strydom on these topics.

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

B2B E-Commerce Newsletter - May 3, 2011

The B2B E-Commerce Newsletter consists of the best articles, including the links to the original source, that I come across in my daily research on issues related to global e-invoicing, EDI, B2B E-Commerce, e-billing and cloud procurement.  I hope you find it useful.

Now for the news:

Ninety-seven percent of businesses believe that effective use of e-invoicing would help companies to achieve operational efficiency but adoption is hampered by the inability to offer suppliers the possibilities to transact electronically and suppliers being forced to use multiple portals


http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110406005742/en/Basware-Businesses-Globally-Cite-E-Invoicing-Key-Unlocking

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Western Union and 3i Infotech, an information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) company, have signed an agreement to deliver complete electronic billing and payment solutions to clients of both companies.

http://payments.banking-business-review.com/news/western-union-3i-infotech-to-deliver-e-billing-and-payment-solutions-050411

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City governments within Massachusetts have adopted e-billing programs for the delivery of real estate and property bills.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110405005632/en/Paper-Tax-Bills-Replaced-E-Bills-Time-Massachusetts

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Swiss federal communications office Bakom has introduced electronic bills with effect from 01 April. Bakom customers can use the e-bill function if they have an online account with PostFinance or a bank. Bakom is the first government office to offer the e-bill service, which will be rolled out across all federal administrative offices by end of 2012.

EDI and B2B Expert Podcast Series: Hubwoo's Rinus Strydom, Part 2

This is Part 2 of SAP Mentor Kevin Benedict's video podcast interview with Hubwoo's CMO Rinus Strydom.  You can listen to Part 1 here.  Last week Hubwoo and Crossgate announced a strategic partnership that involves both companies sharing their EDI/B2B business networks, and utilizing each other's services.  I am reading between the lines here, but this seems to be much more strategic than the average "strategic" alliance.  To me this seems like a direct competitive challenge to Ariba.  Both companies are in SAP's investment portfolio.  Both run managed services hubs, although with different primary focuses.  Both are SAP partners, and both companies have products sold by the SAP sales teams.




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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

EDI and B2B Expert Podcast Series: Hubwoo's Rinus Strydom, Part 1

This video podcast is with Hubwoo's CMO Rinus Strydom and covers a wide range of topics from e-invoicing and EDI to cloud procurement.  Hubwoo and Crossgate, both companies that SAP has invested in, announced an alliance last week that is also discussed in detail.  The fact that SAP resells both of their solutions also hints at the strategic importance of this new partnership.

This is Part 1 of this video podcast, you can listen to Part 2 here.



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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Business Network Transformation and EDI Revisited

In today's world of multi-enterprise supply chains, 3PL (third party logistics providers) and discrete manufacturing environments, companies can no longer be satisfied with business processes that stop inside the four walls. These business processes are extended outside the four walls through various EDI and B2B messages that can be sent in real-time to their relevant business network partners. The visibility provided by real-time data exchanges ensures that management can make decisions based on accurate and timely information and analytics.

Often the ability to communicate and extend business processes to your business network partners is inhibited by out-dated EDI/B2B methodologies and strategies.  EDI and B2B data exchanges are more important today than ever before but need to be considered in a new light.  New and different strategies must be adopted to ensure that quick and cost effective methodologies are implemented that enable large numbers of new business network partners to be quickly added or changed as markets and products change.  Traditional, costly, multi-year on-boarding EDI projects have not well and are not the answer today.

In an article by Scott R. Sykes, Principal of Supply Chain Solutions at SAP America,  Understanding and Managing Supply Chain Risks, Sykes writes about companies taking greater risks nowadays with increasingly complex and extended supply chains.  Sykes describes them as follows, "Supply chains today are growing continuously more complex, interconnected, and global."  Extended supply chains are no longer the concern of one company but rather all participants.

For decades SAP has been focused on developing business solutions that work together to form one large homogeneous ERP solution.  Much of this goal has been accomplished, and they now seem to be focusing significant amounts of attention on the next frontier - making one large homogeneous business network.  This involves making it easier for their solutions to speak to the world.  This is likely the reason they initially partnered with and invested in both Hubwoo and Crossgate.

SAP solutions are fueled by business data.  SAP solutions both produce and consume business data.  The data required is not all self-generated.  Much of the business data is produced by external business network participants (trading partners) in the form of Purchase Orders and Invoices (just two examples of thousands of different business documents that are exchanged between business network participants).

Over the last decade we have all witnessed the transformation of SAP solutions from many disparate components, to an integrated system based on a defined set of standards and technologies.  The process of transforming a trading partner community into a homogeneous business network will follow a similar path.  Utilize a defined set of standards and technologies and organize them in a manner that can be cost effectively implemented in a reliable and seamless manner.

This week's announcement that Hubwoo and Crossgate have formed an alliance to, "combine their B2B networks so that enterprises can gain access to hundreds of thousands of active trading partners globally through a single connection" is a giant step toward SAP's vision of business network transformation.  This is relevant to SAP customers because SAP is a significant investor in both companies and resells both of their solutions.

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin: .
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Big News in the World of SAP EDI and B2B!

It is not every day that you read big news in the EDI world, but today is one of them.  Here is the news.

PARIS, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hubwoo , a leading global provider of Cloud Procurement services powered by SAP® software, and Crossgate, a global leader in business-to-business (B2B) integration and e-Invoicing compliance, today announced a strategic global alliance.  Read more

Why is this big news?  Here it is - Under the terms of the alliance, Hubwoo and Crossgate have combined their B2B networks so that enterprises can gain access to hundreds of thousands of active trading partners globally through a single connection.  SAP's co-CEO Jim Snabe has been preaching the gospel of business network transformation for several years, and this is a big step in that direction - dare we say tipping point?

It gets even better.  SAP is a major investor in both of these cloud-based EDI/B2B companies.  Both utilize SAP technologies.  Both are resold by the SAP sales force.  You can bet that SAP was a match maker in this union.

Ariba has the potential to be the big loser in this new alignment.  It is very difficult and expensive to be an independent B2B HUB in a world dominated by large ERP vendors.  Think about the expense of trying to be all things to all people, rather than all things to one SAP.  This is a definite move by SAP to compete with Ariba and to make it difficult for Ariba to compete in the SAP ecosystem.

Jason Busch who writes for Spend Matters also wrote about this announcement today and added his analysis here.

Learn more about the SAP Information Interchange from SAP's Carter Johnson:

• EDI and B2B Expert Podcast: SAP's Carter Johnson, Part 1

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

New SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate Training Video

I came across this video on SAP's EcoHub site for the SAP Information Interchange.  The subject is how to improve your EDI and B2B system using SAP's cloud EDI service.

This video quotes a report that emphasizes the amount of data coming from outside and enterprise:

• 34% of the data your company uses comes from outside sources
• 56% of companies have consolidated EDI/B2B systems
• 47% of companies are expanding their trading partners and B2B transactions

The growth trend for EDI and B2B data exchanges is only going to continue:

• 47% observe customer service escalation demand
• 45% see increased complexity in their business networks
• 23% see increased supply chain risk exposure

All of these numbers simply mean that B2B and EDI are very important.  Today's trends are for companies to move EDI and B2B systems into a cloud computing environment in a managed EDI service model.  SAP is adopting this model and offering it to their existing customer base and to their new on-demand clients.

The emerging demands for e-invoicing in many countries around the world are also a big motivator for companies to seek a managed service to support all of these global requirements.

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Kevin R Benedict, EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

EDI and B2B Expert Podcast Series: SAP's Carter Johnson, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a very interesting discussion with SAP's Carter Johnson on the latest developments in the world of SAP EDI/B2B.  You can listen to Part 1 here.  We are discussing EDI, B2B, SAP Information Interchange, cloud computing, business networks and why SAP is now getting involved in EDI/B2B.



Be sure to follow me on Twitter @B2B_Benedict.

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Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

EDI and B2B Expert Podcast: SAP's Carter Johnson, Part 1

I had the good fortune of being able to record a two part interview with SAP Labs, VP, Line of Business Solutions, Carter Johnson on the subjects of EDI, business networks, cloud computing, on-demand solutions, B2B e-commerce and the SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate solution.  You may remember that I tried before but my recording service failed.  This time it succeeded!

My first question for Carter was, "EDI has been around for decades, so why is SAP getting involved with EDI/B2B in 2011?" Listen for the answer.

Listen to Part 2 of this interview here.

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Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Webinar on Mexico's New e-Invoicing Compliance Requirements

I saw the announcement for this upcoming webinar that may be important for those companies worried about the fact that the Mexican government is ceasing to issue folios.

In this webinar e-invoicing expert Jason Jones will examine the difficult situation that many companies doing business in Mexico are experiencing due to the new 2011 legislation removing government issued folios from the e-invoicing equation.  Jason will walk participants through:

• The 2011 Mexican e-invoicing architecture
• The Crossgate e-invoicing solution process
• Explain how the Crossgate solution solves the issues that many companies are experiencing

The webinar is planned for 1 hour and will include a Q&A session at the end of Jason's presentation.

REGISTER HERE!

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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger

Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Best in Class Financial Performance and Electronic Invoicing

I am always intrigued when I discover an interesting new niche business.  Here is an example - McKesson offers technology and services designed to help improve financial performance, reduce regulatory risk and save time managing the revenue cycle.  The article goes on to say McKesson has 4,000 people focused on this business.

Electronic invoicing is part of the revenue cycle, so it caught my attention.  McKesson also focuses on improving financial performance which can also involve e-invoicing.  Why would a company use this kind of service?  Here is how Pat Leonard, senior vice president and general manager of McKesson Revenue Management Solutions describes it, "Physician practices are experiencing unprecedented change, with growing pressures from federal payment reform, quality initiatives and tough economic challenges."

The McKesson folks spend much of their time focused on helping companies improve their billing and invoicing processes so they can collect faster.  This is a big deal to many companies and medical practices as Abdul Naushad, M.D. states here, "With increasing federal mandates and reimbursement cuts, we understood the amount of time, resources and administration required to protect the financial health of our practices."  They are now clients of McKesson's services.

Electronic invoicing can improve financial performance and save time managing the revenue cycle.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Market Growth Numbers for European E-Invoicing

In a new report on e-invoicing, written by Bruno Koch, an independent and internationally renowned industry analyst and owner of the consulting company Billentis, it is estimated that over 150 billion invoices per year are exchanged worldwide, and these are to a large extent still paper-based. However, a rapidly increasing number of companies and consumers are adopting electronic invoicing.  This is true especially in Europe and Latin American where government mandates for supporting e-invoicing exists.

It is also estimated that approximately 5 million European invoice senders and 75 million recipients exchange electronic bills/invoices. Since practically all large European companies are using this new electronic process, e-Invoicing is quickly spreading among medium-sized and small companies. Therefore, market growth rates of 30-35% are expected in the coming years.

As small to medium sized companies begin to support electronic invoicing, I predict a big up swing in cloud based electronic invoicing services as many SMEs, like many large enterprises, simply don't have the knowledge or internal IT resources to support it in house.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

10 Plus Benefits of Electronic Invoicing

I often focus on global e-invoicing on this blog, but I recently came across two good articles on general e-invoicing written by Steve Keifer with EDInomics. The focus of Part 1 is managing inbound supplier invoices.  To me, this is an interesting area.  There are many different names for these processes including transactional content management and vendor invoice management.  Much of the transactional content coming into an average company is still on paper, and these articles address the benefits of automating these processes.

The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing – Part 1
The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing - Part 2

In Part 1, point 4 - the topic is vendor self-service and I want to highlight this section.  If a company cannot efficiently manage, process and track the status of inbound invoices, then the cost of processing them jumps.  Why?  Because your call center begins to receive phone calls from suppliers wanting to know the status of their invoices.  Often it is more than one phone call.  If an answer is not quickly provided on the status of an invoice, it gets escalated up the chain, and the number of people involved and costs also escalates.  I know this from personal experience having been on both ends of this process.

There are many hidden advantages to automating your electronic invoicing systems.  Customer service, reputation, cost reduction, good will and professionalism are sometimes overlooked.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Is e-Invoicing too Hard?

YouGov recently conducted research on e-invoicing adoption and perceptions in the UK and released their findings this week. They found 36% of UK respondents would take up e-invoicing if there was a standard approach to this type of technology.

I have been involved in e-invoicing for many years and I can tell you that e-invoicing is very difficult.  It seems every country has e-invoicing mandates and requirements that change yearly.  In addition, all seem to have penalties for failure to be compliant and require an increasing amount of real-time B2B data exchanges with tax authorities.  Just take a look at all the various dynamic requirements for e-invoicing in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina).

As a former EDI Manager, I know my employers would not have been willing to continually expand my  budget to support each countries' increasingly complex e-invoicing environment.  My only remedy, which I would have been very happy to accept, would be to find a global e-invoicing service provider.  As an SAP user I would have looked at the SAP Information Interchange first since this service provider is sold and supported by SAP.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

B2B E-Commerce News Weekly

This is a weekly update of the most interesting articles related to EDI, e-Invoicing and electronic payments that I have found this week.  I am specifically looking for information about market trends and market numbers.

Now for the news:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is going electronic. And in switching from paper checks to electronic payments to pay all federal benefits, the Treasury expects to save $120 million a year.


http://www.banktech.com/payments-cards/229400223

Organizations can save the equivalent of 1-2% of their turnover by replacing paper invoices and optimising the related processes. Compared to traditional paper-based systems, electronic and automated invoice processes can generate savings of 50-80%. Consequently, the payback period on e-Invoicing projects can be as short as six months.

http://www.your-story.org/e-invoicing-e-billing-from-evolution-to-revolution-236545/

It is estimated that over 150 billion invoices per year are exchanged worldwide, and these are to a large extent still paper-based. However, a rapidly increasing number of companies and consumers are adopting electronic channels.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/e-invoicing--e-billing---from-evolution-to-revolution-118827439.html

Research shows that e-mail bill and e-mail statement delivery is the top consumer choice for electronic delivery.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42321:ebilling-and-estatements-are-you-listening-to-your-customers&catid=239

Research shows companies can save 60-80% compared to traditional paper-based invoice processing. Projects typically result in a payback period of 0.5 - 1.5 years. In 2011, roughly 5 million European businesses and 75 million consumers are expected to send or receive electronic invoices.

http://www.xyzmo.com/en/NewsEvents/news/Pages/e-Billinge-Invoicing-Report-2011.aspx

Irish businesses can save 2% of their turnover by cutting out paper invoices and optimizing related supply chain processes. Based on Irish GDP of €1.23 billion in 2010, this equates to €246m in untapped potential savings. In 2011, more than 5m European companies are expected to exchange more than 3bn e-invoices, but the majority of businesses in Ireland continue to send and receive paper invoices.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/e-invoices-could-save-businesses-246m-annually-148847.html

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

SAP Information Interchange and Carter Johnson

EDI/B2B Communities

I had the good fortune to be able to spend time with SAP Lab's VP, Line of Business Solutions, Carter Johnson yesterday discussing SAP's strategy around EDI and B2B E-Commerce. I actually attempted to record a podcast of our conversation that did not record (^*&%#@$%^)!!!!  So, I will try again and post it here.

One of the questions that I asked Carter was, "Why is SAP getting involved in EDI now with the SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate, since EDI/B2B e-commerce has been around for three or four decades." Carter responded, "It is about time SAP got involved in EDI." Carter makes a good point. Until SAP's recent involvement in EDI, SAP customers were each left to their own devices to figure out how to independently support EDI/B2B and connect with their trading partners. This was an incredibility inefficient way for SAP customers to support EDI. There is no way to leverage the work of the SAP community, and no re-use of trading partner maps in this model.

Carter says that SAP learned a lot from companies like Linkedin. Linkedin created an online community for individuals to upload their work and contact information. Each person connects once and sets up their account and personal information. If a person changes jobs, contact information or positions, all parties that are connected to this individual receives the update. Wouldn't it be cumbersome, if we all individually, had to manually update our address books each time someone in our network updated their data? Carter added that SAP EDI should work the same way and it does with SAP Information Interchange. SAP customers should be able to connect their EDI business processes to the SAP Information Interchange once, and then connect with all the other companies that make up the community. This is smart EDI and smart B2B e-commerce.

I asked Carter if SAP customers should rip out legacy EDI systems and replace with EDI in the cloud via SAP's Information Interchange? He said that is an unlikely scenario, but when companies are consolidating ERPs, merging businesses, or need to renew their maintenance agreements with legacy EDI vendors, then these are the times companies want to look for a smarter way to do EDI.

Carter shared that recently a large SAP customer called him and said that had employed 200 people to just keep the maps to their EDI trading partners updated. This represents millions of dollars in expense every year to support and keep updated their existing trading partner community. They were very interested to learn how the SAP Information Interchange could reduce this costs and make the entire EDI support system smarter and more efficient.

It is fascinating to me to think about an online community of SAP customers all connecting to an online community for business-to-business e-commerce, finding each other and exchanging business transactions in the cloud.

Click here to read more about SAP Information Interchange.

I will try again to record a podcast with Carter and share it with you.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies

Mexico e-Invoicing and Good Business

Many of us involved in the e-Invoicing industry understand the importance of being compliant with the local tax authorities (Nota Fiscal Electronica, Servicio de Administración Tributaria, Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, etc.) and their mandates around e-invoices, but what about supporting e-invoicing simply because it is good business? 

Let's take a look at a simple financial supply chain:

First let's look at it from the perspective of the manufacturer:

• Send Purchase Order
• Receive products
• Receive an invoice
• Clarify or dispute an invoice
• Issue payment (and thus impact working capital)
• Archive invoice and payment information

Now let's now look at the supplier side:

• Receive product order
• Deliver product
• Submit invoice
• Clarify or resolve invoice dispute
• Receive payment
• Clear receivables

When you review the above processes and see the words, "receive" or "send" they can both represent slow, costly and efficient postal services and manual handling of paper documents.  The more you can eliminate these inefficiencies with cost effective EDI, electronic invoicing and electronic payments, the better.

My point is there are more reasons to eliminate paper processes, than just being compliant with governmental e-invoicing mandates.

If you are an SAP user, you may want to discuss your e-invoicing needs with Crossgate, a global e-invoicing service provider co-owned by SAP.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

e-Billing, e-Invoicing and Virgin Media

I write mostly about e-invoicing on this blog, but a close cousin is e-billing.  In this article, Virgin Media  and their e-Billing partner, ebpSource, announce that 66 percent of their new customers are opting for electronic billing.  Very good!  These are easy savings that every company, especially companies with a large customer base, should be capturing.

Have you thought about how many ways e-Billing can improve your business?  Here are a few ideas:

• Reduced Days Sales Outstanding (DSOs)
• Reduced Cash Conversion Cycles - Best In Class companies are 5x faster at converting Sales into Cash
• Faster Invoice/Bill dispute resolution
• 60 percent Print & Postage Reduction – from $5 to $2 (Gartner)
• Lower Call Center Volumes –up to 60 percent of calls relate to invoice disputes
• More environmentally friendly (Go Green)
• Compliant with local tax regulations

Let's now ponder where cost savings and the ROI are found from implementing e-Invoicing and e-Billing:

1. Reduced paper costs
2. Reduced printing costs
3. Reduced handling costs
4. Reduced postal costs
5. Reduced payment processing costs
6. Reduced data entry costs (entering payment information from paper)
7. Reduced data entry errors
8. Reduced billing disputes
9. Reduced paper storage costs

All of these positive benefits that are available to those converting from paper invoicing to e-Invoicing, are simply a bonus for those in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina that are now being mandated to support e-Invoicing.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Global e-Invoicing Services is in Growth Mode

Servicio de
Administración Tributaria

I just read about the 2010 growth numbers for one of the leading global e-invoicing companies.  They were an impressive 30 perceny year-over-year.  What is even more impressive is they were able to sustain that growth through the recession.  This growth was due to both new customers and increased e-invoicing by existing customers.  Their transaction volume increased by 54 percent year-over-year.

New e-invoicing mandates all across Latin America may be one of the reasons for growth in the e-invoicing services business.  As reported in an earlier blog, Crossgate, a company co-owned by SAP, just announced they added 11 new global companies to their Mexico e-Invoicing services business.  Mexico had a January 1, 2011, deadline, and Argentina has an April 1, 2011, deadline which certainly creates a sense of urgency in the market.

Let's talk a little more about these deadlines.  I have been working in the e-invoicing world for some time now, and there seems to always be new deadlines.  How can the IT department execute their own strategic initiatives, when they are always being forced to support a new mandate or requirement from the national tax authorities?  Yikes!  How do you manage an IT development budget and schedule when you are always being distracted by new requirements.

I think working with a global e-invoicing services bureau sounds pretty good right now.  In fact, a lot of global companies are feeling the same way which is why we are seeing such growth in the e-invoicing services market.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

SAP, Mexico e-Invoicing and Servicio de Administración Tributaria

Most of us are aware by now that Mexico mandated some new real time requirements for e-invoicing that went into effect on January 1, 2011.  I have been in conversations with several folks within the SAP ecosystem that are now having difficulty supporting these requirements with on-premise SAP solutions.

These new requirements are changes from 2010's e-invoicing requirements.  The concept of the folio number is now gone, and there is a requirement to support real-time exchanges of data with SAT.

Some of the new requirements, as identified in this press release from Crossgate are:

• Regulatory compliance checks with government-certified organizations for both senders and receivers of invoices.
• Outgoing invoices must be prepared in a specific XML format and authorized in advance.
• Invoices in excess of 2,000 Pesos are required to be approved digitally.
• Incoming invoices must be externally validated, then archived and stored.
• Folio numbers have been eliminated and replaced by the Timbre Fiscal, which includes the signed “Sello del SAT,” along with a 32-character UUID code that is assigned by the SAT and remains globally unique throughout all invoices created in Mexico.

The press release that listed these requirements also stated announced that Crossgate, a global e-invoicing services company (co-owned by SAP) that specializes in supporting SAP customers, has recently implemented support for these requirements in 11 global companies.  They support these new requirements in a cloud computing SaaS business model that is integrated with SAP.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro


*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

European Commission Details e-Invoicing Plan

I found a great article today detailing the European Commissions thoughts and plans for e-invoicing.  The commission has identified 16 specific deliverables to help support their plans.  The EU was quoted as predicting, "In 2020 e-invoicing has to be the predominant method of invoicing in Europe."

The 16 action items and deliverables listed seem to be focused on ensuring that "stakeholders" are effectively represented, and that the steps and plans that each member state makes are in alignment with the other states' plans and frameworks. 

In addition, much of the effort seems focused on promoting e-invoicing and its value to SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises).  The majority of all businesses are SMEs, and there is a great deal of efficiencies to be realized by getting your SME customers to support e-invoicing.  Large companies can assign IT resources to specialize in EDI, e-invoicing and e-invoicing systems, but SMEs often don't have the resources to invest in learning and supporting e-invoicing and EDI requirements.  As a result, SMEs will often look to managed e-invoicing and EDI services companies to help them.

Even large companies, like most of SAP's customer base, seem inclined to use managed e-invoicing services to manage their global e-invoicing initiatives.  This Spring, even SAP announced their own solution called SAP Information Interchange which manages EDI and e-Invoicing services on behalf of SAP customers.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Nestle Takes the Plunge in EIPP

It appears from this recent article that Nestle USA has taken the plunge into electronic invoice presentment and payments (EIPP).  I believe this is a good move by Nestle as many SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) do not have the knowledge or budget to support traditional EDI systems and services for sharing electronic business data with Nestle.

Pete Knox, head of Nestle USA Credit and A/R Administration, explains that Nestle’s investment in EIPP will allow them to interact with a greater numbers of customers electronically, and this will streamline accounts receivable functions and accelerate cash.

The ability to support electronic invoicing is becoming a required best practice in many places in the world and a government mandate in many others. Over the last couple of years there have been many developments around e-invoicing in Latin America.  Here are some of the latest mandates for your reference:

• In Mexico there is a mandate to support e-invoicing.  The details can be found here.

• In Brazil there is a mandate to support e-invoicing.  The details can be found here.

• In Argentina there is a mandate to support e-invoicing.  The details can be found here.

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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

Jim Snabe, SAP Co-CEO on Business Networks and Crossgate

I came across an interesting video from SAP's last earnings call.  It is a video of SAP's Co-CEO Jim Snabe answering an analyst's question about third party SAP partners and talking about EDI and business networks.

He said that Crossgate is an example of a company with a next generation idea.  The idea that business processes are not just implemented and used internally, but rather they run across complete value chains.  

All of us who have been involved in B2B e-commerce, e-Invoicing and EDI can appreciate his comments.  SAP has invested in Crossgate, and Crossgate has developed a solution for SAP called the SAP Information Interchange for the purpose of bringing consistent integrations and methodologies to the SAP ecosystem.  This is a cloud based global e-invoicing service and EDI hub.

Electronic invoices are now a big part of the value chain in many companies.  In the last few years e-invoicing has become a big deal in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and across Europe.

I have written extensively on this blog site about many of the e-invoicing requirements.  You can use the "search" function on this blog to look up past articles.

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Kevin R Benedict
Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro

*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.

More on Argentina's New e-Invoicing Requirements




 I had the chance to spend some time with several e-invoicing experts this week, and we discussed the new Argentinian e-invoicing requirements.  There is a lot of work involved, so don't be surprised or caught unawares!  Here are some of the items companies need to think about and remember when preparing to support and meet Argentina's e-invoicing 2011 deadlines:

1. Different industries have different deadlines for supporting these requirements.  Some industries have deadlines starting April 1, 2011.  Make sure you find out about your industry's deadline.
2. Businesses in Argentina must obtain a valid digital certificate and register it for use through one of the certification channels provided by the Argentinian tax authority (AFIP).
3. In order to receive a valid digital certificate, companies must first obtain a Clave Fiscal password.
4. Remember to obtain all the required certificates, and be sure to register for online e-invoicing.
5. There are different requirements for each of the different invoice types (A, B and E), so your IT and business teams need to study these requirements.
6. You will be receiving data back from the AFIP that you will need to integrate with your SAP system.  Make sure your IT department plans for this work, or you understand how your managed services provider will integrate with SAP.
7. If you are going to support these requirements yourself, make sure you develop a contingency mode that preserves invoice sequencing even if a problem arises.  The AFIP requires that official document numbers be issued in sequence, so if there is a problem with one particular invoice, subsequent invoices must be placed on hold until the problem is corrected.   
8. Attention if you are an SAP user!!!  SAP users can comply with AFIP regulations, register for web services, and connect to the AFIP in real time through their SAP applications (click here to read about Crossgate's SAP e-invoicing support and services).

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Kevin R Benedict
SAP Mentor volunteer and Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Analyst
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro *Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.