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.
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