Posts Tagged ‘ERP’
On December 2nd and 3rd 2008, a forum is dedicated to amongst others international developments on electronic invoices, the analysis of international scenarios and the in-depth examination of business and technical aspects of the new advanced services dedicated to banks and enterprises. The event will take place in Rome.
This is the agenda of the event.
If you are interested in visiting this event, you can view the registration form here.
In its Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burden, the European Commission proposes actions in order to reduce the cost stemming from EC and national regulations by 25% until 2012. The cost for businesses for filling forms and reporting according to obligatory regulations is estimated to add up to 3% of the GDP in the EU. Reducing unnecessary obligations could therefore save costs and increase productivity and competitiveness.The Commission is not only concerned with reducing unnecessary EU regulations, but also with accelerating the sharing between national simplification programmes which in many member states already exist. Necessary elements of such programmes are methods for measuring and reducing the administrative burden such as the Standard Cost Model (SCM) and principles, which includes procedural simplification and integrates different reporting processes into one single filing provision.
OBJECTIVES of the workshop
- Discuss and look at how eGovernment can be an effective tool in the reduction of administrative burden for public administration, business and citizens.
- Inform about the present activities of the European Commission by speakers from DG Enterprise and DG Infosoc including the latest call within the ICT PSP Work Programme 2008;
- Provide an up to date overview of the latest activities of the SCM Network;
- Present good practice cases from Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, among others, showing how administrative burden is being reduced for business, citizens and government;
- Provide participants an opportunity to raise questions and discuss these good practice examples with the case presenters in three parallel working groups.
More informations you can find on the website of ePractice.eu.
Oracle On Demand customers can now rapidly extend their Oracle financials solutions to include the 170 MarkView Financial Suite, a set of products from 170 Systems that integrates unstructured content such as paper, faxes, spreadsheets, and e-mail into key finance processes, from accounts payable to asset management.
“Because our products are already deeply integrated with Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft Enterprise financial applications, On Demand customers can simply ‘turn on’ our solutions as needed,” explains Karl Büttner, chairman and chief technology officer of 170 Systems, Inc.
“Since Oracle provides the hardware and manages the database platform on which 170 MarkView Financial Suite runs, this solution is powered by Oracle On Demand,” says Büttner.
The 170 MarkView Financial Suite integrates all unstructured content associated with a given transaction-paper, fax, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic invoices, spreadsheets and e-mail-directly into Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft Enterprise financials applications.
The result: On Demand customers strengthen internal controls, lower transaction costs, promote adoption of self-service solutions, and enable e-invoicing.
Lowering the Cost of Compliance
By automating the integration of unstructured content, the 170 MarkView Financial Suite lowers costs even as it reduces the risks inherent in dispersed, paper-based systems.
And internal controls guarantee segregation of duties for each transaction.
“We turn core financial functions into self-documenting, Sarbanes-Oxley-compliant processes with comprehensive audit trails and real-time monitoring,” says Büttner.
The 170 MarkView products also shrink transaction costs and timelines, thanks to automatic routing of each transaction and its associated information to the appropriate individual for review, coding, and approval.
And by automating processes and bringing them online, the 170 MarkView Financial Suite enables self service as well as real-time audit capabilities.
“The beauty of this partnership is that our products are in tight coordination with Oracle financial application products and live on Oracle On Demand,” Büttner adds. “That means customers get all these benefits of the software with simplified, proven integration and with a single point of accountability for the management of their solutions.”
Source: Oracle
E-invoicing could help businesses cut costs as they brace themselves for recession.
The technology is moving to the mainstream as the European Commission pushes it as part of its drive to cut costs in supply chains.
The Corporate Action on Standards project, set up by the European Payments Council, said that e-invoicing allows companies to cut the average EUR30 cost of processing a paper invoice by 80%.
Businesses that want to take advantage of e-invoicing can do it themselves, use an e-invoicing service provider or work with their banks.
Stefan Foryszewski, senior vice-president at e-invoicing service provider OB10, says businesses are looking at e-invoicing but only “the more enlightened ones.”
“The market is still fairly immature but awareness is beginning to grow,” he says.
Forysewski advises businesses moving to e-invoicing to ensure that their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are compatible with the system they chose. They must ensure the system they chose can be easily integrated with all suppliers. And they must ensure they comply with the taxation laws in the different regions they receive invoices from.
Building an e-invoicing system is challenging for companies to do on their own and the capital investment required may be hard to justify as the economy slows.
DHL began rolling out an electronic invoicing and payment system from Accountis in July last year. The project aims to save millions of pounds across Europe by reducing billing costs by 15%.
Brian Thumwood, e-billing programme manager at DHL, says the company chose a third-party supplier to avoid the risks of building its own system. “We looked at doing it ourselves but the complexities associated with the legal structure in different countries and the technology made us work with a supplier.”
Businesses only need minimal technology in place to use a third-party service, such as dedicated servers, a connection to the e-invoicing service, and the use of workflow systems.
Peter Ratcliffe chairman of Accountis points out that many e-invoicing suppliers have been bought up by larger businesses which means their software is no longer commercially available. For example, E-invoicing software providers Harbor Payments and Xign were acquired by American Express and JP Morgan respectively in 2007. As a result, companies that set up their own e-invoicing services would have to write their own software, he says.
Banks are using e-invoicing service providers to create their own services. Abbey launched a corporate e-invoicing service in July last year in partnership with e-invoicing network provider OB10, as part of a service to offer finance to supply chains.
Tom Crowe, director of sales and delivery financial supply chain solutions at Abbey Corporate Banking, says take up of e-invoicing is slow because it is a new concept in the UK.
But he said that businesses will take it up because of the savings that can be made. “Anything they can do to make businesses more efficient they are keen to look at particularly in a period of economic uncertainty,” he says.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that the first customers of its e-invoicing system, provided by Accountis are going live this month.
In the current economic climate an 80% reduction in the cost of a paper invoice will be attractive to business managers attempting to cut unnecessary costs. IT departments must, however, decide how they are going to implement e-invoicing to maximise the return on investment.
What is E-invoicing?
E-invoicing is an alternative to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a method of dealing with supply payments electronically. It also helps get the best out of ERP systems by automatically putting more accurate information into the systems.
E-invoicing uses the internet to connect businesses with their suppliers and automates the processing of invoices in accounting systems. It speeds up payment times, improves the information in ERP systems, reduces the human resources required and eradicates inputting errors. It also cuts postage costs and reduces waste paper.
EDI is a point-to-point computer connection between a business and a supplier which uses a network provider to process transactions. Large businesses use this method to connect with their major suppliers.
Source: Computerweekly
TietoEnator, one of the leading financial value chain and eInvoicing service providers in Europe, and Seeburger, an integration specialist from Bretten in Germany, have announced that they have embarked on a global cooperation. The partnership will focus on eInvoicing and long-term archiving, which complement Seeburger’s service offering and bring TietoEnator’s eInvoicing network new customers.
TietoEnator offers eInvoicing services to both enterprises and banks and can reach a large number of invoice issuers and receivers. Mats Wikström, Vice President of Value Networks at TietoEnator Digital Innovations says: “Together with our customers, we’ve received several international innovation awards in business integration and financial value chain services. This co-operation is an important milestone in improving services for our international customers.”
The cooperation makes TietoEnator’s on-demand services for eInvoice exchange and archiving available to Seeburger’s EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) outsourcing customers. The new joint service already has its first customer, a leading company in the packaging market.
Bernd Seeburger, founder and CEO of Seeburger says: “By using TietoEnator’s eInvoicing service with Seeburger’s EDI outsourcing services, our common customer can optimize its invoice handling processes, as well as take care of tax and legal compliance requirements. They chose this solution in order to ensure a secured exchange of invoices with all of its business partners.”
Source: Sibos Online
MasterCard Worldwide today announced that it has integrated the MasterCard Payment Gateway with iPayables’ electronic invoice delivery capabilities to provide expanded payment solutions to corporations and financial institutions.
The combined offering provides a complete procure-to-pay solution that supports settlement using a MasterCard payment card account or electronic funds transfer (EFT).
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAWW), a leading provider of global air cargo assets and services, is the first company to utilize the integrated capabilities of the MasterCard Payment Gateway and iPayables.
“We manage and operate the world’s largest fleet of 747 freighter aircraft, providing a unique value proposition to our customers through highly reliable, cost-efficient assets and operating services,” said Joseph Lopez, Sr. Manager, Indirect Procurement for Atlas Air. “Similarly, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is a highly reliable, cost-efficient service that will streamline the process for paying our suppliers, saving time and money for us and our vendors.”
First introduced in October 2007, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is a flexible enterprise-wide payment processing platform for routing commercial payments between buyers, suppliers and their financial institutions. iPayables is the first non-bank reseller whose functionality is coupled with the MasterCard Payment Gateway, creating an end-to-end solution that offers companies a more streamlined, faster and secure way to make payments.
“The combination of iPayables’ electronic invoicing capabilities with the MasterCard Payment Gateway provides Atlas Air with one efficient and secure B2B payments solution,” said Shari Krikorian, vice president, Advanced Payments, MasterCard Worldwide. “By managing multiple payment types, the MasterCard Payment Gateway is simplifying the historically inefficient, check-dominated process of payment, and solving corporations’ growing demand for straight-through processing.”
Using the MasterCard Payment Gateway, a buyer can initiate payment card and EFT payments directly from its financial system to the banks of its suppliers. Remittance data is provided to both the buyer and supplier to speed up reconciliation processes. No account information is shared between the buyer and supplier, and the supplier does not need to use a point of sale device to originate payment.
“The MasterCard Payment Gateway expands our electronic invoicing capabilities and enables us to provide our customers with a complete payables solution that delivers increased efficiencies for all of their commercial payments needs,” said Ken Virgin, CEO, iPayables.
The modular nature of the MasterCard Payment Gateway also provides financial institutions with an enterprise-wide electronic solution that they can re-brand and make available to their corporate customers, or integrate into their current product offerings to enhance their functionality and efficiency. This can enable them to increase payment volumes without building infrastructure, potentially grow profits with additional fees, deepen customer relationships and differentiate from the competition.
Suppliers that process payments with the MasterCard Payment Gateway enjoy automated payments with straight-through processing, decreased paper check processing costs, automated reconciliation via enhanced remittance information for common payment types and preference among buyers that pay electronically.
Buyers that rely on the MasterCard Payment Gateway can drive efficiencies by streamlining their payment options, integrating with existing accounts payable processes and can potentially save money by enabling one connection. Through this method/gateway, buyers can have one streamlined total payables solution that can help them increase productivity, enhance security and increase profits.
Source: Sibos Online
The Expert Group on Electronic Invoicing, set up by a European Commission Decision with the task to contribute to the creation of a European eInvoicing Framework, has published its first status report.
The Expert Group on e-Invoicing started its work at the end of February 2008. The Expert Group consists of 30 specialists representing all stakeholders: consumers, SMEs, large enterprises, service providers and public authorities.
The tasks of the Expert Group are to identify business requirements and responsibilities for the execution of specific work, as well as to steer the creation - by the end of 2009 - of a European e-Invoicing Framework.
The purpose of the European e-Invoicing Framework is to establish a common conceptual structure to support the provision of e-Invoicing services in an open and interoperable manner across Europe.
The Expert Group has issued a short status report which provides stakeholders with information about the progress of the Group’s work since its formation. Until now, the Group has held several meetings and established a series of initiatives to address a key opportunity for enhancing efficiency and productivity in the digital environment. A mid-term report will be issued before the end of 2008.
Source: epractice
Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY), a leading provider of collaborative payment, invoice and document automation solutions, today at Microsoft’s 2008 Worldwide Partner Conference announced expanded functionality for automating business-critical transactional processes within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.This new release allows the growing number of organizations standardized on Microsoft Dynamics AX to achieve the business benefits of more streamlined, electronic processes involving transactional documents such as invoices, payments and purchase orders.
Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, Bottomline’s document process automation solution allows organizations to quickly extend the capabilities of their Microsoft application without custom programming. Through this functionality, organizations can build upon the strengths of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to further increase user productivity, reduce costs associated with managing complex global financial and supply chain processes, and respond to the changing demands of the regulatory environment.
“The ability to manage the generation and delivery of transactional documents electronically has become a strategic factor in helping organizations compete more effectively in a global marketplace,” said Gareth Priest, Vice President of Global Product Management, Bottomline Technologies. “Since first introducing support for the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform in 2006, our solution has provided this growing community with the transactional document automation capabilities they need to maximize their investment in Microsoft Dynamics AX as a core financial and business system.”
In deploying the new capabilities announced today, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 users can:
- Improve the security of electronic transactional documents and payments through configurable preferences based on role and delivery destination;
- Share configuration options across multiple company accounts, and enable unattended batch processing based on recipient-specific delivery preferences during non-peak times to reduce operational complexity and IT overhead;
- Increase user productivity with a fully integrated and intuitive interface that mirrors the MicrrMicrosoft Dynamics AX 2009 user experience;
- Support global implementations through user interface localization in common international languages;
- Enhance communication and reporting through the ability to group related, but independent documents, into a single PDF file for preview and delivery; and
- Utilize Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Portal to access and view Bottomline-generated reports on-demand without a Windows AX client.
“We believe that with the combination of our domain expertise and new capabilities specifically designed for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, customers will gain the security, reliability and control they require to make efficient transactional document processes part of their long-term, global business strategy,” said Priest.
Source: Sibos Online
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