I mentioned the SEPA conference last week and only now have had the chance to write up its’ follow-on event, a one-day meeting focused upon e-invoicing.
The e-invoicing conference was far more optimistic than the SEPA event,
probably because it focused upon creating revenue-generating services
for banks.
First and foremost, a definition of e-invoicing always helps, and the
EU Council Directive 2001/115/EC of 20 December 2001 provides the base
definition of e-invoicing:
“The sending of invoices ‘by electronic means’ i.e. transmission or
making available to the receiver and storage using electronic equipment
for processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, and
employing wires, radio transmission, optical technologies and other
electronic means.”
With that definition in mind, the programme kicked off with David
Ellard of the European Commission who held out the tantalising morsels
of savings and benefits for corporates, citing various studies that
demonstrate e-invoicing will save the EU €40 billion per year (Cap
Gemini) and €24 per invoice to process (EACT) or more.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
