Digital invoice processing: no longer a logistical feat
The pandemic has led many companies to rethink their processes. Digital invoice processing in particular is proving to be an advantage for home office work, as Eros Merlini from Conextrade explains.
Conextrade, a Swisscom company, supports its customers in the entire digital process chain and thus helps them to optimize their digitalization. We spoke to Eros Merlini, Head of Conextrade at Swisscom, about current developments.
Mr. Merlini, as you know, many companies had to adapt their processes in the course of the pandemic measures. How strongly did this affect the demand for Conextrade's services? Was there something like a boom?
Eros Merlini: The work in the home office has shown many companies how difficult and time-consuming the processing of accounts payable invoices in the home office can be. Forced by the pandemic measures, a rethinking has taken place in large companies as well as in SMEs. This is because invoice acceptance, processing, forwarding, verification and archiving is a logistical tour de force in the home office. Accordingly, there has been increased interest not only in Conextrade services, but also in other Swisscom services such as Swiss TrustRoom.
To whom are the solutions of Conextrade available: Swisscom customers only?
Conextrade's services are available to all companies in Switzerland, regardless of the industry.
How much time is actually saved by switching to e-invoicing or e-procurement? Can this be quantified?
Various studies (e.g. from Billentis, Computerworld or the FHNW) put the savings potential digital vs. paper at CHF 3.- to CHF 6.- for invoicing and at CHF 20.- to CHF 30.- per invoice on the invoice receipt side.
And how high is the implementation effort for digital invoice processing?
This is not so easy to say, as it depends on whether the company has its own IT department or whether it wants to implement the solution itself.
What about interfaces to third-party accounting software and ERP systems? Which ones are supported there?
Conextrade is an ERP independent platform for digital processes and connects companies with different ERP systems. Our customers use e.g. SAP, Navision, Abacus, Sage, Sesam etc.
In addition to the whole "digitization wave," there are also changes in payment transactions elsewhere. For example, the familiar orange payment slip will soon be a thing of the past. To what extent would this be an ideal occasion to completely to e-invoicing?
The payment slip will be replaced by the QR code or the QR invoice. The changeover is not in itself a special reason to switch to e-invoicing. The real motivation for e-invoicing when sending invoices is the great savings potential as well as the environmental friendliness, since printing, paper, envelopes and, above all, postage are eliminated - this for e-invoicing in the B2B area and also now with eBill (digital invoice into the eBanking portal) for the B2C area.
Where do you see further potential for the digitization of business processes?
In addition to the invoice, there is great potential in combining it with the other processes in the Procure2Pay/Order2Cash chain, such as the purchase order, order confirmation and delivery bill. Digitizing these processes brings further efficiency and cost-saving opportunities, such as automatic invoice posting (order matching).
More information: www.conextrade.com
