1. Experiences of a cross-country harmonization project.
Case: e-Invoicing in EU
JCI Cosmopolis Intercultural Leadership Seminar
Helsinki
27.10.2012
Bo Harald

2. Agenda
1. European challenges
2. European solutions
3. e-invoicing – not a goal in itself – but a platform
4. EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing 2008-10
5. Experiences
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

3. 1. European challenges
• Expensive welfare state models
• Too much debt
• Low growth
• Fragmented markets, practices and legislation
• Change resistance instead of innovation drive
• Grey economies
• Demography
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

4. EU workforce nosediving!
2020:
35
million
smaller
25 m
larger
Bo Harald 2012 Tieto Corporation
© 1.11.2012

5. 2. European solutions
• Spend less = borrow less & tax less
• Drive innovations
• Drive harmonization – create true single market
• Collect taxes (VAT Gap 118,9bn)
• Improve productivity
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

6. 3. e-Invoicing – not a goal in itself
But a platform for:
1. Productivity improvements (250bn/year) – structured (not
PDFs) e-invoice data lay the foundation for automation of
payments, accounting, cash flow estimates, VAT-reporting,
invoice financing etc
Especially important for the SME segment (60-65% of turnover
and employment) – cut their administration cost in half
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

7. Unified reporting codes
Real time VAT (on payment)
Risk mitigation tools Automated auditing
Automated invoice financing Automated real time cash flow estim
Same tool for E-rfp, e-offer, e-order Automated accounting
Payment automation Automated reconciliation
Procure-to-Pay/Order-to- Cash domain Payment-to-Accounting domain
E-invoicing dominating mode = platform for next steps
Imple-
Invoice senders to charge for paper
ment
Invoice receivers to set deadlines for unstructured invoices
Funda- Service provider network – agree with one – send to all
ment
Service offerings for SMEs – 0-investment, 0-ITskill
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

8. 3. e-Invoicing – not a goal in itself
But a platform for:
1. Productivity improvements (250bn/year) – structured e-
invoice data lay the foundation for automation of payments,
accounting, cash flow estimates, VAT-reporting, invoice
financing etc
2. Real time liquidity management
3. Lower financing costs
4. Major improvement in risk mitigation
5. Release staff for productive work
6. Cost-efficient weapon against grey economy
7. Cut CO2 with 10m tons/year
8. Major step towards a single market
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

9. 4. EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing
2008-10
• Task: Make harmonized e-invoicing happen – fast
• 31 members from most EU-countries and different
sectors, 15 EU-officials
• 24 full working days, innumerable telcos and hours of work
• Result:
- Report making migration necessity clear
- new VAT-directive,
- ISO20022 standard,
- multistakeholder forums in all MSs
- etc
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

10. 5. Diversity - Experience from chairman’s
point of view (1/2)
Intercultural issues:
- Different terminology (same term for different things and
different words for same things)
- Different starting points (e-banking – ingrained in “culture” in
some countries)
- Different sectors (service providers, banks, large
enterprises, SMEs, officials)
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

11. 5. Diversity - Experience from chairman’s
point of view (2/2)
Intercultural issues:
- Different agendas – some hidden
- Different attitudes (good for society at large – versus
lobbying)
- Different attitudes towards the state
- Different attitudes towards EU and the single market
- Still – we made it - a unified report:
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

12. Old habits die hard.. Time to stop bloodletting!
Stop de-electronizing
information!
Unify Europe – with
global standards
SME
Create a real EU
Innovation Culture
Liberate SMEs for Business
© 2012 Tieto Corporation

13. Why Is Innovation Needed?
 Innovation is the single most important factor for
long-term business success
 Continuous innovation is the only way to create truly
new value to customers
 Innovation means new or improved products, services
& business processes making it possible to:
Create customer
Improve Decrease delight
productivit costs
y

14. The future is not planned
nor prognosed
It is created !
Thank you
bo.harald@tietoenator.com,
http://boharald.blogspot.com
© 2012 Tieto Corporation