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Category: EIPP/e-invoicing

From industrial revolution to FinTech and how the market will evolve

This post was first published on Linkedin  One upon a time, UK’s manufacturing led the industrial revolution. And my adopted city, Manchester played a significant role during the industrial revolution thanks to the booming cotton trade at the time. As manufacturing moved to low cost labour markets, London became the centre for the financial services industry. Starting with trading stocks and commodities, the market boomed as financial wizards brought innovation through new instruments. With subprime mortgage fiasco in 2008 and the subsequent bailing out of banks, the industry lost a significant trust. Whilst pays are still high, it no longer…

Sage goes free with BillingBoss

It is not often I get to know a new product before Dennis Howlett, especially in the accountancy software market. But it seems Dennis as well as most people at the HQ of Sage in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne may not have been aware of BillingBoss released by Canadian subsidiary of Sage. I was contacted on 21st September, but only had time to visit the site today. This is a remarkable step forward for Sage, having ignored the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model for many years. Sage was not unique in this position. And their foray into SaaS later misfired with poor execution of SageLive.…

Once bitten, the e-invoicing bug remains forever

Let me first clarify what I meant by e-invoicing here. It is not about scanning and OCRing paper invoices with tight integration of accounts payable systems. It is about connecting disparate finance and procurement systems seamlessly, so that an electronic document (purchase-to-payment and supply-to-cash) from one system flows automatically to another system owned by the same or separate organisation without duplication of effort. At its very basic level, avoiding retyping of data created by the originating system. In my mind, you can only achieve this through a electronic document exchange hub. A prime example is OB10 (in the case of…

TBiConnect joins a foray of e-invoicing startups to be funded by Venture Capitalists

Latest to join the e-invoicing startups to be funded by Venture Capitalists is TBiConnect run by Simon Fox. Both OB10 and Burns e-Commerce top the VC funding tables for attracting the most cash to date. Among other funded companies include Accountis from North Wales, but they still require a significant funding round to enable an European expansion. For some reason, I do not see Accountis conquering the world similar to OB10, so their best hopes remain within the Europe, capitalising their key customer, DHL. UK companies looking for VC funding include United Data, which is yet to launch its e-invoicing…

United Data #2 – Teaming up with Accountancy Age

According to David Ferdinando, Regional Director – London South of United Data: “The decision to sponsor the Accountancy Age awards was a natural choice. Over the next three to four years, the impact of ‘open networks’ will have a significant effect on the way every finance department in this country operates. United Data will be at the forefront of that change with ExDox ?, Europe’s first free to join Open Document Network, which becomes available in November to coincide with the Awards.” Well done David with striking such an important strategic partnership – getting accountants and financial directors on your…

EIPP Market Analysis by Forrester

You can download the original powerpoint presentation from Forrester (thanks to Jean-Philippe Massin for the story). The title above is A/P EIPP. Once again, the theme is about purchaser-centric exchange solutions. I personally do not like the idea of segregating companies into purchasers and suppliers. In the long run, the solutions that cater for both will be the winners. Colour grid is (years are 2003 to 2006 from left to right): Light brown – service revenues Dark brown – subscription revenues Light blue – Maintenance Dark blue – License revenues Bit confusing with the title here, as it says EIPP…

Burns e-Commerce, Accountis, OB10 and Causeway get new facelifts in 2006

I used to really dislike the website of Burns e-Commerce. Probably they hated it as well. Look at the new facelift given (launched in Dec 06). Not just that, there is a new logo as well. But I am disappointed with the followings: Details on the management has been removed. I know they went through some turmoil in the past, and now the board is limited to two directors. But this should not be a reason to not display who is running the company. I like the presentation, but cramming too many sketches into a limited space clutter the site.…

EIPP is hotting up – Sprinter from Bottomline Technologies

Recently, Bottomline Technologies announced an Integrated Solution for End-to-End Purchase-to-Pay Automation. Bottomline has been in the Electronic Invoicing Presentment and Payment (EIPP) (also called e-invoicing) market for number of years, have supplied solutions to many organisations across Europe and North America. What is so special about, Sprinter? Its claimed to be a modular solution that streamlines Purchase-to-Pay processes through a combination of integrated invoice data capture services and innovative software for purchasing and requisition management, invoice workflow and supplier collaboration. Lot of keywords, but what does this mean to the layman? Ok, my analysis as follows: It integrates seamlessly with…

HSBC Launches Accounts Payable Integration

Continuing from my previous article, Two Heavy Weights enter EIPP market, GT News reported in March that HSBC has launched A/P integration service. HSBC calls this service, Accounts Payable Integration (API). I wish they chose a different name. In our industry, API stands for Application Programme Interface. APIs are needed to build interfaces between different programmes, for example, connecting ebdex Document Exchange to Access Accouting, Mamut, Oracle or any other. “HSBC API is an integrated accounts payable solution, the first in a series of a new suite of accounts payable solutions launched by HSBC. The platform accepts all types of…

Sage Visma and Hg Capital

Few weeks ago, David Terrar and I got excited by the news of Sage eyeing Norwegian Visma, who we thought had a SaaS model. But now it emegered that Hg Capital may have beaten Sage in acquiring Visma. I see participation of private equity in accounts/ERP/EIPP as a positive step, given that ebdex is also seeking private equity funding. It is worth analysing the portfolio of Hg Capital to understand the threat they pose to Sage, in putting a barrier to increasing Sage’s dominance. Some of technology investments include: Addison Software – German Accountancy and business software software. Burns e-Commerce…