The 9 key factors of successful e-Invoicing projects

March 18, 2011 - PRLog -- In 2011, roughly 5 million European businesses and 75 million consumers are expected to send or receive electronic invoices. They will exchange more than three billion e-Invoices.
Even though three billion is a large number it only represents 10% of the 30 or so billion invoices printed in Europe every year. Also, since 2004 an e-Invoice is a legally accepted document in the EU and in most other countries, so why is there such a slow uptake in what appears to be a smart way of generating efficiencies and saving money.
The report points out four key reasons that are encouraging the uptake of e-Invoicing:
1.   Traditionally the biggest single inhibitor to e-Invoicing as e-Invoicing projects were the preserve of large corporations but cloud-based solutions now make e-Invoicing an affordable option for the SME sector.
2.   The unfavourable economic climate that has prevailed in Europe has forced an overwhelming consensus amongst businesses over the need to reduce overall organisational costs.
3.   E-Invoicing is mandatory in seven EU member states and this is driving adoption
4.   Might be seen as a slow burner but the European Union has e-Invoicing firmly in its sights as a key deliverable by 2016.
“The report provides valuable insights into the challenges facing the implementation and roll out of an e-Invoicing initiative and lists 9 key factors for any project manager to reference before embarking on such a business critical project,” said Michael O’Brien, Head of Marketing at Celtrino. “By embracing business process change such as e-Invoicing, business managers can make real-time decisions based on access to key supply chain data, establish long term competitive advantages and drive out excess costs.”
An organisation can save 1-2% of their turnover by replacing paper invoices and optimising the related supply chain processes. According to Bruno Koch, the report’s author, “Electronic and automated invoice processes can result in savings of 60-80% compared to traditional paper based processing. Thus the payback time on investments in E-Invoicing projects can be as short as six months.”
We are delighted to sponsor the ‘E-Invoicing / E-Billing in Europe and abroad’ report,” said Michael O’Brien, Head of Marketing at Celtrino. “There is a wealth of useful information contained within the report and from our perspective, it reinforces Celtrino’s concept of Smart Admin™ which underpins the effective and efficient management of B2B intercompany transactions.  You can download a FREE copy in our reports section at http://www.celtrino.ie “

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Celtrino specialises in business process and supply chain document automation solutions. With over 20 years of successful trading under our belt, Celtrino has consistently delivered outstanding business value to our customers.