E-invoicing perceived as key trigger for operational efficiency by businesses – research

The 2011 e-Invoicing: A Global View research report released by Basware further reveals that while businesses seek to create greater cost efficiencies in 2011, the reality for most organizations is that achieving this strategic goal is challenging, as e-invoicing adoption is hampered by the inability to offer suppliers the possibilities to transact electronically and suppliers being forced to use multiple portals.

Businesses in the study were thus shown to struggle with interoperability challenges, supplier enablement issues and the removal of paper and manual processes from payment systems struggling to meet corporate expectations.

The Basware research report has found that 72 percent of respondents cite ‘improving operational efficiency’ as a key financial priority for 2011, while 93% of interviewees believe that invoice processing can be somewhat or significantly improved and a further 50 percent of respondents believe that e-invoicing can help significantly to achieve operational efficiency objectives.

Moreover, 64 percent of survey respondents claim to suffer time loss as a result of manual processes related to payment processing, and only 9 percent of survey participants report having achieved high levels of e-invoicing activity (that is, over 80 percent of their invoices managed electronically). Furthermore, 41 percent of respondents were found to not send out electronic invoices at all, and 18 percent of interviewees do not receive them. On average, the Basware study found that 1 in 4 invoices (26 percent) are not captured in systems where invoice scanning is in place.

The lack of interoperability between different e-invoicing networks was found to be a significant challenge, leading suppliers to be limited by networks that support only proprietary document formats. 61 percent of survey respondents have claimed that an open network – where any supplier, buyer or third-party vendor can participate in sending electronic documents irrespective of whether proprietary technologies are in place or not – would increase efficiency and cost savings. Alongside this, 46 percent of financial professionals cite the (perceived) cost of adoption as the primary challenge preventing the rapid uptake of e-invoicing.