According to the 2013 Billentis report, sponsored by Finnish e-invoicing services provider Itella Information, in Europe, further growth is expected in the following five years as a result of the EU’s digital agenda and the increasing level of e-procurement usage in the public sector, for instance with PEPPOL-compliant e-invoicing. Moreover, SMEs have started to implement e-invoicing projects. Although the majority may be motivated by the requirements of trading partners, SMEs becoming more familiar with the new tools and processes can only contribute to mass market adoption of e-invoicing.
Despite current differences in legislation, cultural background and even in process optimization focus, organizations in all business areas can benefit from successful e-invoicing projects, provided the selected solution enables: timely and effective response to market dynamics; automation along the entire business value chain, onboarding assistance for all trading partners; and compatibility with cross-border invoicing, even if such arrangements are not needed immediately in the project.
The report has also found that the current main topics in e-invoicing have evolved to questions on functionality and how to build an invoicing framework compatible across Europe. As complete in-house solutions no longer deliver best results, relying on a service provider’s expertise becomes vital.
Finally, the report has indicated that e-invoicing will make use of even more advanced solutions in the future, such as solutions for the handling of e-invoices in a structured format. This could require end-to-end electronic solutions covering purchasing messages, e-invoicing and automated invoice matching - a set of functionalities that enable automation throughout the entire value chain, leading to more efficient overall processes and further cost reduction.
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