Secure the continuity of your company’s order backlog – receiving orders digitally is the norm today
The digitalisation of society appears to companies as a rapid development. The financial administration industry and Accountor are at the heart of this change, helping to develop real-time economy, or digital economy.
The several different systems used by companies and their intersecting modes of operation make trading difficult, and do not help cooperation at all, especially in international markets. The development of the real-time economy also helps with this problem.
With the real-time economy, trading between companies becomes easier, as internationally compatible digital economy solutions are introduced.
One of the international digital economy solutions is Peppol, which allows different actors to transmit business documents to each other. The introduction of a new, unified mode of operation is a crucial prerequisite for Finnish companies to operate in the European market, but soon also in Finland.
Peppol, that is, the Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line protocol, was originally developed to digitalise public administration messaging traffic in the member states of the European Community, but its use is now becoming more common in business-to-business operations as well. With the help of Peppol, for example, digital invoices flow smoothly between different organisations and countries. The next step in the development, the digitalisation of sending and receiving orders, is now arriving in Finland with haste.
Ensure competitiveness – in this way you can easily join a unified solution
As part of the development of the real-time economy in Finland, the government has said that it will require its suppliers to be able to receive orders according to Peppol as of 1.4.2024. The state therefore acts as a trend setter for companies and requires companies acting as suppliers to it to develop digital capabilities.
At the same time, similar functionalities will soon become common in business-to-business trade as well. Digital invoicing has been extremely successful in Finland – now orders and other documents will follow.
Regardless of whether your company operates in a national or international market, the implementation of Peppol is crucial for growth and keeping up with the development.
In practice, implementing a digital procurement message solution is rather easy. It can be done by choosing an operator that has readiness to work in accordance with the network’s requirements as your company’s messaging partner – a so-called Peppol Access Point service provider. For example, Accountor’s message operator Apix is a Peppol-standardised service provider partner. As its customer, companies can smoothly integrate Peppol into their existing systems.
In Finland, the State Treasury acts as the official Peppol authority, which is responsible for the use of the network, monitors development and supervises the activities of the service providers.
Grab the benefits of uniform solutions for your company already now
Real-time economy means a financial system where information about, for example, invoicing, financial reports, taxes and official information flows in real time between different operators with uniform solutions.
Thanks to unified solutions, even smaller companies can become viable competitors in the Nordic and European markets. In the past, operating on the international market has required resources and the ability to develop bilateral connections so that the organisations’ invoicing and delivery systems can talk to each other.
Real-time economy enables the movement of orders, online invoices, digital receipts and financial data of companies of all sizes between different parties seamlessly, in real time and securely.
The majority of Finland’s most important trade partner countries promote the use of different real-time economy solutions in their own national territory. The international activity to promote the introduction of Peppol is one example of digitality and the benefits of the EU’s Digital Europe program, for which funding has been allocated in the EU budget.
Benefits of the international procurement message network
1. A prerequisite for competitiveness
Uniform practice enables operation as a state supplier and on international markets. Without the introduction of Peppol, neither of these will be possible in the future. The network has users in more than 40 countries and its usage is expanding all the time, especially in Europe, but also on other continents.
2. Fewer mistakes
Documents moving between organisations are always checked in accordance with defined and clear regulation. The reliability of the process and the conditions for automation improve when, for example, invoices will avoid errors or mistakes due to carelessness.
3. Smooth cooperation
Documents according to Peppol are compatible with several different financial management systems – from procurement to payment. In this way, companies avoid, for example, re-entering the same data into different systems, at various stages of the process.
4. Security of data transfers
Data transfer between service providers in the Peppol network is certified as secure. All service providers have to meet defined service level requirements.
