One of the key differentiators of ebdex was that it would have been partner-led (essential ingredient to become high volume transaction business), leaving ebdex to concentrate on developing and operating the ebdex Document Exchange. This is one of the issues I discussed when I met Accountis’s senior management in Q1 2007 in Bangor. Ifor Williams, Sales Director of Accountis pinged me yesterday to advice their partnership with Billportal of Germany. According to the press release:
Werner Schneider, founder, owner and managing director of Billportal, explains: ?To take advantage of the fast growing European e-invoicing market, we looked for a product that could add value to our existing activities. We were impressed with the Accountis system – especially its technology and range of services. By partnering with Accountis, which already operates in most European countries, we’ll be able to develop and strengthen our customer focus, and position ourselves as a premier provider of EIPP services in Germany.?
According to Ulrich Tiegel, senior vice president of Commerzbank AG, Germany’s SME sector is one of the most thriving in Europe, powering Europe?s biggest economy.
Ifor Williams, Sales Director at Accountis, adds: ?The e-invoicing market in Germany is expanding rapidly, and it is quickly catching up with other European countries. We recognised Billportal?s reputation for electronic billing in Germany, and saw an opportunity to work together, catering for the e-invoicing needs of corporates and SMEs. For Accountis, working with Billportal provides a depth of knowledge and understanding of the local market requirements; and strong and powerful platform for VAT compliant e-invoicing in Germany.”
Billportal will resell Accountis service under its own branding. This is an essential ingredient of partnerships. Causeway’s Tradex was once sold by Lloyds TSB under its own branding as part of their Vantage offering. But none of these are revolutionary – ebdex built partner capability from ground up, giving partners full access to run their part of the operations without ever having to liaise with ebdex.