Electronic Invoicing - the future is coming - or is it?
How many times have you tried to predict the future and spent some time trying to understand those things that would influence your prediction? I picked up on an article published by gtnews.com on July 04 2005 that had a stab at the 'Future of Electronic Invoicing'. gtnews.com is read by those in finance and treasury.The future was described like so: The electronic invoicing industry is moving towards more inter-connected B2B solutions like federated networks.
So, some 18+ months has passed is there any indication that this future is coming?
The article correctly highlighted the obstacles to buyers and suppliers from 'lock-in'. To strike an analogy; if you had to choose your telephone provider (telco) based on who you could reach by telephone using that telco then that presents you a problem if one telco can not povide you a service to reach everyone that you need to or might want to speak with. Of course this is not an issue because the telco industry understands their customers want a service that provides any to any connectivity.
The article also suggested that the service providers that deliver electronic invoicing will need to deliver the same any to any connectivity that your telco does. Is there progress towards any to any connectivity using federated networks?
To take an example:
Supplier A uses Vendor B to transact their eBusiness with Customer C
Supplier D uses Vendor E to transact their eBusiness with Customer F
Customer C invites Supplier D to transact their eBusiness through Vendor B whereas they would prefer to use their existing Vendor E and for Vendors E and B to provide a through connection to Customer C.
This idea of federated networks is highly appealing but is not a reality today and I know of no commercial discussions between vendors.
Let me know your views and I will compile your replies in a future blog.
Labels: accountants, electronic invoicing, federated networks, treasurers
posted by FrankB @ 8:55 AM
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