Tuesday 8th July, 2014

A couple of weeks ago we heard about a new service being offered by supplier financing company Taulia, which the company has said, aims to provide a means of rescue for firms whose e-invoicing project has stalled. Taulia’s e-Invoice Rescue Service is of course a nice piece of marketing, but it also happens to be something which highlights a very real problem. So I caught up with Taulia’s European Marketing Director, Matthew Stammers to see what the service was all about.

Q: An e-Invoicing Rescue Service – that’s an interesting idea. You must feel that there are a lot of organisations out there who need rescuing! Why do you think that is? Presumably organisations have spent a lot of time and effort researching their implementation project – what’s going wrong?

A: Well, I can answer that question in two ways – firstly let’s look at why we’re in this problem in the first place. UK business is running on trade credit – with the gap getting wider. In a recent survey we discovered that the average DPO rate was 58

days. And if companies are to come out of the downturn in good shape, the cash needs to flow in a free fashion. And to do that properly it needs an enabling platform, like ours. And in terms of the existing solutions themselves, the problem is simple. Usually any automation implementation is seen as a way to eliminate paper. We all know that paper = bad, right - so getting rid of it must be the end goal. But…of course, there’s more to it than that. The solution is often only seen from the buyer perspective. In other words companies often don’t solve the “what’s in it for me?” question from their suppliers.

Q: So was the idea for the e-Invoice Rescue Service something that had been in the plans for a while, or something that sprung up as a result of a few people coming to you for help?

A: A bit of both to be honest. We’ve had companies who’ve got into difficulties coming to us for help for a number of years, but recently – probably as a result of the issues we’ve just spoken about – it’s increased dramatically, hence the plan to roll the service out, and hence the idea in the first place! We’ve had companies coming to us 2 or 3 years after an implementation project where the benefits are just not being realised in the way that they’d hoped, or in some cases, where the solutions are just not being used at all. And the truth is, we’re good at it. And don’t just take my word for it! For example, we’re in the process of rolling out the solution to a major French manufacturer at the moment and so far from suppliers we are enrolling , we’ve had 89.9% acceptance.

Q: Sounds great! So is it a global offering, or targeted at specific regions?

A: Definitely global. That said, there’s probably more of a market – ie a greater need for the service in Europe. Doing business electronically across Europe is always going to involve a greater level of complexity when you’re dealing with different laws, tax and compliance issues. And in fact, even where some countries have led the way with mandating the use of e-invoicing (particularly in the public sector), the terms of the mandate differ to some extent across the regions.

Q: Talking of mandates, I saw an interesting infographic yesterday which suggested that of the 500bn invoices sent annually, only 5% are e-invoices. Why do you think things are taking so long?

A: I think you can boil it down to a few simple facts, the first one being that things need to be easy. The minute organisations have to step back and begin to question whether they’ll really see an ROI, or how they can enrol enough suppliers, or whether the system will integrate effectively with their existing infrastructure, the plan goes off the boil. The second point comes down to education – if companies are happy with the way things work currently, there’s little incentive to change. The change management piece has to include C-level executives as well as those involved on a day-to-day basis.

Q: And finally, what part do you think things like interoperability and free onboarding of suppliers make to the uptake?

A: Oh a huge difference. Listen, if for example I’m a business with a $1.4bn spend, suppliers are going to be spending about $2.5m in fees with some platforms in the market. Of course as a percentage that’s only small – but that’s still millions that could be directed to the bottom line. And in terms of interoperability, yes it can be an enormous headache for a global, multi centred business. Many of the older, more established vendors have invested heavily in their platforms and some still take a protectionist view. But others will partner or work alongside companies like ours as a best in breed solution. Ultimately the e-Invoicing rescue service is here to get people out of a rut, enabling companies to maximise their working capital and freeing up the wider economy as a result. In short, just where all companies need to be right now to take advantage of any economic upturn.