Fedict, Department of Health become PEPPOL authorities

The two entities have joined a group of other five Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) authorities including OpenPEPPOL AISBL, ESV in Sweden, Difi in Norway, DIGST in Denmark and SimplerInvoicing in the Netherlands.

Fedict is in charge of Mercurius, the gateway that receives all invoices for Belgian public entities and distributes them to their receivers. Mercurius is expected to be connected to PEPPOL by the end of 2016.

In Belgium, the PEPPOL network will be promoted by Fedict in partnership with other public and private organisations by running awareness programs and discussion platforms.

PEPPOL enables a standard exchange of information for all invoices between all parties while bringing advanced point-to- point integration and optimisation to a new dimension. Fedict will contribute to the evolution of standards that is required to make e-procurement a reality and a success for all involved parties.

In UK, the Department of Health finalized last year the legal agreements to establish a PEPPOL Authority, taking responsibility for the governance of the PEPPOL network for NHS Trusts. The Department will ensure compliance with the PEPPOL legal framework for access point providers that provide services to NHS, protecting the trustworthiness of the PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure, its model and operations.

What`s more, the Department of Health will implement a set of actions including setting up a centralised PEPPOL SMP, listing all NHS Trusts and suppliers capable of receiving PEPPOL messages. And they will initiate a framework agreement for the provision of PEPPOL Access Point services from which NHS Trusts can select their preferred access point provider.

The purpose of the PEPPOL is to enable European businesses to easily deal electronically with any European public sector buyers in their procurement processes, thereby increasing opportunities for greater competition for government contracts and providing better value for taxpayers’ money.