Manoj Ranaweera's Blog

29-Jan-07: Moving on...new website for this blog

2007-01-29T08:50:00.000Z

The blog has been moved again, this time to http://www.manojranaweera.com

Please reset your links

My Blog is now at http://manojranaweera.wordpress.com

2006-07-25T22:02:00.000Z

My Blog is now at http://manojranaweera.wordpress.com.

The old articles will remain in this blog and will no longer be updated. Please reset your RSS Feeds etc to my wordpress blog.

Standards - American or British

2006-07-10T14:02:00.000Z

Sri Lanka was a British Colony for over 200 years before gaining independence in 1945. As such, institutions large and small followed and continue to follow British standards. But adaptation of these standards in Sri Lanka are continually been influenced by American standards, as more and more people are trained in US universities than in British universities.

As an example, I was educated at Royal College in Colombo, the most prominent and the largest school in Sri Lanka with a history of over 150 years. After completing my GCSE Advance Level examinations in 1987, I moved to UK to undertake an undergraduate degree at University of Brighton in 1988. At Royal College, I was one of the 40 students in my class. We had 14 classes in the same grade/form, i.e. 560 students undertook the same exam at the same time. As far as I know, I was the only one to come to UK to further my education straight after receiving the results (some migrated much later). However, at least 3 from the same class of 40 went to US for further education.

This trend continues to date, i.e. more and more students join American universities than British. Now, there are many affiliations of foreign universities in Sri Lanka, these being British, American and others. It has become a lucrative industry for western universities. Sri Lankans have a thirst for knowledge which comes from undertaking further studies and fighting for the few university places in Sri Lanka. It is much easier for Sri Lankans to travel (still need visas) now than it used to be.

This has created a dynamic economy with ever increasing trading relationships with foreign banks and companies. Sri Lankans who run companies abroad do not abandon their country of birth. They somehow tries to give something back. Good example (other than ebdex) is Virtusa, which has a large development centre in Sri Lanka. Virtusa is run by Kris Canekeratne, who started the company with his wife, both Sri Lankans, and now one of the biggest employers of IT staff in Sri Lanka.

Basel 2 - Why is it a hot topic in Sri Lanka

2006-07-10T14:01:00.000Z

Why is Basel 2 important to Sri Lankan companies?

Sri Lanka has set 1 January 2008 as the target date to implement "Basel 2". The key reason for adaptation seems to be the "credit ratings". Like all companies around the globe, Sri Lankan companies do need to borrow for growth (and other reasons) and would like to avoid paying high premium interest rates. Sri Lanka does not seems to have a decent credit scoring system and instead credit officers seem to rely on assessments made with their minds. The state of the mind of the individual at the time of application assessment having significant influence in the decision making! What happens if s/he got out from the wrong side of the bed that morning!. OK! We are all professionals and this is bit of a dramatisation of the thinking process, or is it?

According to Joan de Zilva, Director of Bank Supervision of Central Bank (as reported on The Sunday Business Leader):

Credit officers in banks are lazy!! There is nothing to say that the loan will be repaid. Banks must veer off from collateral lending to cash flow lending.

According to Ranjith Samaranayake, of Commercial Bank (as reported on The Sunday Business Leader):

Basel 1 was too simple and was confined to the accounts department, with the rest of the business not included. Basel 2 is much more than an accounting exercise. The credit and risk managers must now be involved.

As far as ebdex is concerned, we are doing all we can to ensure there is a full audit trail on all transactions. In terms of presentation, a simple icon is provided against each transaction, which displays full audit trail associated with that particular transaction. In addition, we are discussing about providing an event log at System Administrator level that will show every action taken from System Administrator to every User of the ebdex Document Exchange.

I welcome any thoughts you have on provision of compliance within an document exchange environment, as well as any comments you may have on Basel 2 and Sarbanes Oxley.

Distracted by MBA Jokes

2006-07-10T05:21:00.000Z

Outlook just delivered a comment from Pankaj Shukla about blogging editors and Karan Bilimoria. I had a quick looked at Pankaj's website, and I find myself another guy who has completed a MBA. I quite like the following he has written:

When most of the following is true (see his article for the full list) then you know that you have completed your MBA:

You ask the waiter what the restaurant's core competencies are.

You do not believe in any problems in your life, just issues and improvement opportunities.

You can actually use the term value-added without falling down laughing.

You can easily understand the rational behind traffic jams - market inefficiencies indeed!!

Share your MBA jokes!

Cost of Imminent War on Economy and Business

2006-07-07T18:40:00.000Z

Sri Lanka is currently going through a bad period. Smell of a forthcoming war with LTTE (Tamil Tigers, most ruthless terrorist group in the world) is in the air. Tourism is down. The hotel I am staying in, Trans Asia, is nearly empty. People are keeping a low profile and keeping away from busy crowded locations. But life and business continues. People in here are used to worst conditions than this. Government is taking all it can to avoid repeat of another war.

However, this is having a profound impact on ebdex, which I am trying to address. We have lost some of our development team. Most of the Tamil staff has either left the country or in the process of leaving. So, I got more or less a brand new team to deal with. Always a problem, when you outsource! But I am putting a framework to stop this repeating. We will come out trumps! As Karan Bilimoria said, one should never ever give up!

Lord Karan Bilimoria - Key messages from his "talk"

2006-07-07T18:06:00.000Z

I promised to report after attending the excellent and inspiring "talk" given by Lord Karan Bilimoria at Manchester Business School. Karan has gone through similar "pain" that I am going through 15 years or so ago. When Karan started he knew nothing about brewing beer. He had to learn fast. He constantly received "NO" as an answer. It motivated him further to be successfull. Here are the key messages I took home:

1. Make it a global brand - it's all about brand equity. ebdex was set-up with this in mind.
2. Against all odds - Karen had a partner. I don't. My closest partner is Affno (tied to ebdex in many ways - vice versa). I am now seeking two partners (a Sales and Marketing expert and Operations and Customer Service expert). These guys/gals will get significant equity. Visit our website for further details
3. Overcoming credibility gap - faith andconfidence on the idea - your total commitment can overcome this - What I also have in abundance is "commitment" which comes with a price tag (no need to go in to details here!!!). In addition, I have teamed up with some excellent partners, some of these being: Affno, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Access Accounting, Pegasus, etc.
4. Accept the word NO: This happens less and less as we mature as an organisation. Yet this is a crucial part of the learning process. The word "No" increases my determination to succeed further. Why does an organisation say "no" to you? I believe, in most cases, the fault lies at our end, i.e. we fail to explain the compelling benefits it (whatever it is) will bring to that particular party.
5. Always carry out SWOT analysis - I got a MBA, which comes with a variety of tools I can use. SWOT is a valuable tool.
6. Away day - with actions - Bit too early for ebdex.
7. Convert threats to opportunities - This is exactly what we continue to do. ebdex will work with our competitors for the benefit of our clients. I will blog on this separately later.
8. Advertise on trade magazines - if not available, launch one! - Yes we would do this when the time is right. Launching a magazine is not in our five year plan. However, we can either sponsor a regular column/page or provide articles for the column/page.
9. Never ever give up - This has also been my trade mark!
10. Address the problem. Here I am in Sri Lanka doing exactly that!
11. Keep an open mind. Very vital! But you also need to stay focus, otherwise you will not achieve your objectives.
12. Proof the concept. We are almost ready to do this.
13. Hold on to the equity - be innovative. We need equity and debt finance to meet our strategic goals. Equity cannot be seen as a constraint. Instead it should help achieve the overall objective.
14. Whole team must be passionate. Goes without saying. Our team includes both ebdex and Affno staff.
15. Building the team - find the best. Refer to item 2.
16. Culture - can never be copied - give people trust. I fully accept an organisational culture cannot be imposed. We promote a client-centric organisational culture..
17. Trademark must be protectable. Another task to do. We also need to buy the rights to .com.
18. Doing things differently and better. This is all about ebdex.
19. Product - no cutting corners - price - place -promotion - finance - people - passion. Should not be under estimated, built in to our strategic business plan.
20. PR - POS - promotions/sponsorships- advertising. Equity funding will allow us to achive this.
21. Get expensive adverisers - PR + accountants. I wish!
22. Constant innovations - don't stand still. R&D is very important to our business. We are constantly improving our domain knowledge.
23. Mission can be measured - not the vision. vision is more important than mission. We need to rethink about our vision and mission.
24. Aspire and achieve against all odds with integrity - sky is the limit. Certainly
25. Never go without testing with customer - ask everytime major change is introduced. Current objective is to trial ebdex Document Exchange with number of customers first before roll out. We need to get the testing and debugging completed. It has taken lot longer than planned due to number of reasons.

Bit longer than I thought. But all vital points. Share your thoughts!

Blogging Platforms

2006-07-06T12:20:00.000Z

I have been chatting to Dennis Howlett regarding blogging platforms, as I recently decided to use wordpress as my blogging platform, moving away from Blogger due to less functionality. Dennis has recently written an excellent article about blogging platforms. He summarises the article by saying......

Geekiness is pretty much a requirement once you get past the no-brainer freebies. Instructions for add-ins like Technorati, FeedBurner and so on are not as clear to end users as they are to geeks. But then it is important to remember that despite the ‘age’ of blog technology (it’s been around for 5 years), it is still evolving and end user assistance hasn’t caught up yet. Using an experienced person will save hours of frustration and, hopefully, a pleasant and useful presence.
As I am not a geek (at least not yet! Not sure whether one can be a geek at the tender age of 38!), I still need to spend time getting my blog to give the right look and feel. In the meantime, Dennis, do expect more requests for help from me.

Tags: Blogging, Blogging Platforms

My Trip to Sri Lanka - Diary of Events - 3rd July

2006-07-04T01:54:00.000Z

I arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday the 3rd for a fortnight to discuss testing and debugging with our strategic technology partner, Affno.

The Etihad flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi was almost empty, but the flight from Abu Dhabi to Colombo had only 7 spare seats. It was jam packed with Sri Lankans returning home from employment in Abu Dhabi - mainly due to start of the summer holiday season! The heat in the Middle East during summer is unbearably over 40 degrees Celsius. Many families escape the summer all together. Specially the families of expats - I used to be an expat living in Abu Dhabi from 1996 to 2000, when I worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Corporation.

One of the mistakes I did when I returned from Abu Dhabi in 2000 was to sell my 2 year old Dodge Intrepid in the month of August. There were hardly any expats left in Abu Dhabi that month. A local Arab bought if for one third of the price I paid. Day light robbery! It was a car we all enjoyed. Very spacious and fast for long Arabic tarmacs. Only thing I did not like was the automatic speed controller which kicked in at 180 kmph, which was linked to the warranty. I still regret not shipping the car to UK.

The Abu Dhabi airport continues to be a less attractive transit hub! It was certainly not designed to offer comfort to transit passengers. Other than Costa Cafe and another small cafe, there are no other restaurants, given that it is the commercial hub for Etihad Airlines. They ought to learn from their neighbours, Abu Dhabi.

Tags: Airlines, Cars, airports, partners

Software Support - From Dogbert's Tech Support Team

2006-06-20T07:19:00.000Z

Could not resist not sharing such an interesting cartoon with you.

An Evening with Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer

2006-06-19T16:06:00.000Z

Karan Bilimoria, Founder of Cobra Beer and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) UK Board Member is expected to deliver an inspiring lecture at Manchester Business School on 21 June 2006.

It was scarcely 15 years ago that Karan Bilimoria made a choice that would change his life forever. Spotting a gap in the beer market between the fizzy lagers and heavy ales that clogged the shelves – and paired poorly with food – Karan came up with an entirely new idea: Cobra. Specially brewed to be smoother and less gassy than regular lagers, Cobra is the perfect accompaniment to all foods and just as good on its own. From the days of the student dream, Cobra has become one of the fastest growing beer brands in the UK, with a retail value turnover of over £80m and exports to over 40 countries.
Karan is expected to share the story of his remarkable journey in business: from taking £20,000 of student debt and no experience into a market full of giants, to achieving rapid growth and wide acclaim.

I will report after the lecture / speech to state my own thoughts on the man!

Tags: entrepreneurship, branding

Why I have not blogged recently?

2006-06-19T15:40:00.000Z

Having blogged for two months at http://manojranaweera.blogspot.com, I got to the point where I found the presentation of my blogging pages no longer acceptable. This was as a result of looking at blogs written in Wordpress. My first blog was written in and hosted by Blogger.com.

At the same time, I felt that there need to be more focus on marketing of ebdex. I also want to continue to speak about the industry and the pain and joy I am experiencing whilst getting ebdex off the ground to deliver our strategic plans.

So on one crazy night I ended up creating multiple blogs on Blogger and Wordpress, to address different themes. Obviously, I cannot maintain multiple blogs without having to spend significant amount of time. Then David Terrar introduced me to Qumana, a writer and publisher for multiple blogs. The plan is to maintain three blogs:

General blog, known as ManojRanaweera's Blog, which will have a copy of all articles written by me.
Blog for issues related to ebdex Ltd
Blog dedicated to EIPP and Document Exchanges, perhaps with guest bloggers

I still have to spend some time sorting out the look and feel of each of these blogs. In the meantime, I will continue at http://manojranaweera.blogspot.com as usual.

Tags: Blogging, Qumana, ebdex, EIPP, Document Exchange

Another SaaS EIPP - InoviumPay Central

2006-06-03T21:54:00.000Z

In May 2006, Inovium Corp. announced the launch of InoviumPay Central, an electronic billing and payment system designed for businesses that currently accept credit cards payments.

Built-in functionality includes payment scheduler, electronic submission of all invoices, integration and batch uploading to any major accounting system, and full management control and reporting, allowing the company to streamline operations and free up labor.

The solution is offered free to any company or organization worldwide utilizing their existing merchant card provider for a limited period.

Tags: EIPP

ICAEW Survey 2006 - Use of e-Invoicing within the surveyed businesses

2006-06-02T23:09:00.000Z

Based on a survey sample of 1012 businesses in UK, 69% have said that their invoicing systems are not integrated with their own accounting systems. Among those who have integrated, only 10% achieved seamless data exchange between their own systems. It seems that the survey has not collected data on exchange of invoices electronically between organisations (suppliers and buyers). One can assume this might be close to 0%.

Another figure from the report shows 14% of the businesses using e-invoicing at present, with another 9% planning to implement such solutions within the next 2 years. Once again there is no reference to use of many-to-many Value Added Networks (VANs) such as ebdex Document Exchange for document exchange seamlessly between suppliers and purchasers.

Reference: IT in Business - a review of the market for financial and business software - Research Report Apr 2006 (ICAEW Survey 2006)

Tags: ebdex Document Exchange, ICAEW, e-invoicing, Survey 2006, VAN, EIPP

Dennis Howlett - The master Blogger on accountancy, enterprise and integration software

2006-05-31T05:45:00.000Z

Dennis Howlett is one of the few individuals who influenced me to start this blog in early April 06. I have been a keen reader of Accman Pro since start of my blog. It seems Den also runs two other blogs, these being Enterprisey and Integration Monitor (perhaps there is more..). Den speaks about anything and everything in Accman Pro, whilst Enterprisey as the name suggests is more geared towards enterprise software, and Den was kind enough to mention ebdex recently.

Some of the other subjects Den covers in Den's Enterprisey Foghorn include Business integration, Business intelligence, Compliance, Enterprise Web 2.0, IBM/SAP/MSFT/ORCL, Infrastructure, New business models, Outsourcing, Results analysis, Saas/On-demand, Sprend management, Startup players and Strategy.

On the other hand, Den speaks about SOA, webservices and similar technologies on Integration Monitor.

For me, Den's Enterprisey Foghorn is the most relevant, yet I am still drawn to Accman Pro. Perhaps its "speak about everything that comes to my mind...I am not scared to offend you" unstructured free writing is the best, rather than more strategic and structured content on Enterprisey.

Dennis, keep up the good work. You got a fan for life!

Have you thought of collecting all the articles you have ever written and will write? This could be "archives of Den". I am not aware of any other blogger capturing all their work before. You could be the first!

Tags: Enterprise Software, System Integration, Blogging

Another Introduction to ebdex Document Exchange

2006-05-26T00:30:00.000Z

ebdex Document Exchange is a Business-to-Business (B2B) solution that sits between various accounting and enterprise software systems used by companies, automatically allowing these disparate systems to 'talk' to each other and transmit all manner of structured documents, without manual handling.

It requires no capital spend by users in order to adopt it into use, requires no user set-up or annual contract charges, but relies simply on a range of 'pay-as-you-go' pricing plans, with each transaction costing less than a 1st class stamp. (Disclaimer: ebdex reserves the right to charge for integration costs, and trading partner recruitment and enrolment costs).

It is suitable for users large and small, linking all trading partners regardless of size or industry sector. As such, it is suitable for complementing existing EDI, enterprise and accountancy systems, thereby generating extra benefits to the user organisation.

It is important to recognise that it does not seek to displace or compete with such systems, rather to enhance them and extend their reach. Its modus operandi, technology platform and pricing model offers a unique product offering.

Tags: ebdex, EIPP, e-invoicing, Documents, Exchange, B2B, EDI

Zansibar - The Technology relationship

2006-05-25T17:10:00.000Z

What an awful picture? Surely, the UK Government can afford a better image than this to describe the complex arrangements between public sector buyers and suppliers of products and solutions through its multi million £ web based hosted and management e-Commerce platform (I know there is a slighly better image elsewhere)!

I assume you have heard about Zansibar Project. I did some research today to find out the technology house behind this public sector solution and thought of sharing it with you. Basically, OGCbuying.solutions (on behalf of Executive Agency of the Office of Government Commerce in the Treasury) has signed up a contract with PA Consulting Group to provide the UK Government with an e-Commerce platform for procurement. For this project, PA Consulting Group set-up PA Shared Services Ltd, as a wholly-owned subsidiary with technology partners Elcom Systems Ltd, Impaq Business Solutions Ltd and @UK Plc. In addition, Serco Group plc also provides various strategic services.

Zansibar handles 14 XML business documents. These are being considered by OASIS for incorporation in to UBL 2.0 standard. Currently, UBL has released V1.0. ebdex Document Exchange is built using eBis-XML, and can easily accommodate UBL and ebXML promoted by OASIS and others.

Elcom provides the hosted eProcurement and e-Commerce platform. PA Shared Services provides system integration and implementation services. Impaq's supplier portal also plays a role. Further research is necessary to understand these relationship, and what role ebdex Document Exchange could play in future to extend the coverage.

Please do share your knowledge, as I am always fascinated by the way consortiums are set-up.

In the past, I was part of number of consortiums who bid for Light Rail Transit (LRT) projects. I started with South Leeds Supertram and lost, but then went on to win Croydon Tramlink. We then lost Manchester Metrolink Phase II, but the winning consortium's bank hired us to do due-dilligence on the proposed systems. One of the best projects was developing the Croydon Tramlink proposal from a thought to conceptual design, and then negotiate with London Regional Transport and then re-negotiate with suppliers for better terms after winning the concession to build and operate the Tramlink for 30 years. Basically, I had 10 systems to play with and a budget of £10 million. I and the rest of the team had to go through a steep learning curve after loosing South Leeds Supertram. Basically, we found out that some of us did not know much about the relevant solutions and technology...We would have been in bigger trouble had we won Leeds. But the consortium stayed on (with few changes), learned the lessons and won the next bid. At that point I took an assignment to Middle East - the end of my role in LRT systems. No regrets though!

Tags: Light Rail Transit , LRT, Document Exchange, eMarket Place, eProcurement,

Great debate about Supply Chain Management vs. Spend Mangement

2006-05-24T01:16:00.000Z

There is a great debate taking place within number of prominent North American blogs about supply chain management vs. spend management. These being, Tim Minahan's Supply Excellence, Jason Busch's Spend Matters. Dave Stephens’ Procurement Central and Dave Bush's eSourcing Forum. There may well be others..

In UK, procurement and supply chain management are the terms most commonly used. Spend Management is used by Ariba and Marrakech.

Obviously, if we consider US terminalogy, Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) forms part of the "spend management" solutions (as far as Ariba and perhaps others are concerned).

What about "financial supply chain management"? Could this be the next corporate paradigm after Spend Management, ERP, etc? SAP already has a module addressing this area. Debate ought to be extended to cover financial supply chain management. Currently Wikipedia does not seem to have a terminalogy for fiancial supply chain management.

Are there any other buzz words that address similar space? Please share your view points.

Tags: supply chain management, EIPP, spend management, financial supply chain management

What business are we in? Document Exchange or EIPP

2006-05-24T00:42:00.000Z

Very interesting question! The competitive landscape changes according to the response given.

What is the primary business of ebdex? We are in the business of allowing organisations to exchange structured documents with their trading partners (suppliers, customers, partners, resellers, etc) utilising investments already made in technology (no need for new hardware or software licenses). This is achieved by integrating with accounting/ERP/CRM/other systems at both ends of a transaction through ebdex Document Exchange. Another way to put this is: if system A has structured documents and these documents are required by System B, then ebdex is interested in reading from System A and writing in to System B.

For purchasing, the documents exchanged could be purchase orders, delivery notes, goods received notifications, etc. For accounts, this could be invoices, payment instructions and remittance notes. For medical industry, this could be clinical reports, surgery records, etc. The list goes on!

So why does our website go on and on about EIPP and e-invoicing? The financial documents associated with purchase-to-payment (P2P) and supply-to-cash (S2C) falls into Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) market. The second "P" stands for on line payment solutions. Presentment being presenting to recipient and on-line for access, storage and retrieval.

So, have we confused our audience with a mixed message? Let us know! Your feedback is important to us to get a clearer message out.

Tags: ebdex, EIPP, e-invoicing, Document, Exchange, P2P, S2C, ERP, CRM, accounts, software

Open Source Software vs. Sun Microsystems

2006-05-17T20:25:00.000Z

Is Open Source software really free? My limited knowledge suggests you still have to pay for support. Same can be said for record beating Solaris 10 from Sun Microsystems (in fact all Sun Software is free and you just pay for support). So now you have a real choice.

Sun offers an alternative to Windows with the Solaris Enterprise System, a unified platform of Solaris 10, Java Enterprise System, developer tools, desktop infrastructure and N1 management software.

Sun claims "Solaris 10 includes more than 600 features that make it the most efficient, secure, and reliable operating system ever built". Sun has spent $500 million to produce Solaris 10. What's more interesting is that its bundled with 188 Open Source software products from:

Apache, Tomcat and Zebra software for network and Web services
Bison, GCC, Perl and Python tools for software development
IP Filter, TCP Wrappers and Secure Shell utilities for security
GNOME, Mozilla, and Evolution for desktop usability

Performance of Sun Java System Web Server against Apache 2.0, Tomcat, and OpenSSL shows Sun is faster.

Do share your thoughts!

Tags: Sun, Java, Solaris, OpenSource, Apache, Tomcat

External Sales Consultants on Revenue Share - We need you?

2006-05-16T17:24:00.000Z

With the imminent launch of ebdex Document Exchange, we are currently recruiting External Sales Consultants on revenue share basis. You have the opportunity to earn well over £100,000 per annum. If interested, please get in touch through http://www.ebdex.co.uk/jobs.html. Please state three reasons why we ought to consider you for this role.

We are looking for motivated individuals that have demonstrable track record in closing deals. Your role include pre-sales, sales and post-sales activities and may also lead into customer relationship management (CRM). We are especially interested in those who have worked for accounts and ERP software vendors. Sector specialists are encouraged to apply.

The possibility also exists for joining ebdex at a later date.

Tags: ebdex, Sales, Consultants, Revenue Share

How famous have I become since start of this blog?

2006-05-16T11:26:00.000Z

I just spent few minutes trying to understand the power of blogging in making “Manoj Ranaweera” famous. Here are the results to my astonishment:

Search word: Manoj

On Google - Not within Top 10
Google UK - 5 (ecademy) and 7 (ebdex)

Search word: Ranaweera

On Google: 2 (blog), 4 (deal architect) and 6 (ecademy)
On Google UK: 1 (ecademy) and 3 (ebdex)

Search word: Manoj Ranaweera

Google: All top 10 positions - 1 (blog), 2 (deal architect), 3 (ecademy), 4 (blogger.com), 5 (business two zero), so on ...

For Manoj, unfortunately not in the Top 10 globally due to many Manojs from India. Without a doubt, my blog has played a major role.

Search your name and see how it performs.

Infor to acquire SSA Global - Threat to SAP and Oracle?

2006-05-15T22:23:00.000Z

SSA Global announced signing of a definitive agreement which allows the company to be acquired by Infor, creating third largest ERP vendor. The combined entity will have over £1.6bn sales revenues. Infor has recently acquired number of companies, causing concern within customer base for product continuation.

Tags: SSA Global, ERP, Infor, acquisitions

EIPP is hotting up - Sprinter from Bottomline Technologies

2006-05-12T05:40:00.000Z

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 existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems - A must, but what about accounting systems? This suggests that the solution is aimed at larger companies as usual.
It integrates with Bottomline’s market-leading payments platforms - a positive, given that HSBC and other promotes Bottomlines BACSTEL-IP solutions - there is also possibility that even ebdex can integrates this solution into our ebdex Document Exchange - from my point of view, ebdex is very happy to work with our competitors. We tend to look at them as partners! More to come on this point later.
Is it as flexible and cost-effective as they claim? - I do not have figures to comment on this?
Pay-as-you-go transaction pricing model - Positive move. Need to further obtain information on validity of this statement - need to understand hidden costs.
An alternative to inefficient paper-based invoice management processes - certainly true
Bottomline Transaction Centers enables businesses to transform paper invoices into clean electronic data files - Version One and number of others can do this. Use of Centres make the operation very cost effective. I have also been thinking about this, hence my discussions with Version One.

A positive move! Wouldn't it be nice to see some comments from Bottomline Technologies?

Tags: ebdex, Bottomline Technologies, EIPP

Customer Profiling

2006-05-11T00:08:00.000Z

So, you are a start-up bringing your first product to market and potentially every business on the planet is a target. How do you decide which companies to target initially? This is when customer profiling become important. Customer profiling focuses you to identify the type of company you believe you have a higher chance of converting to a revenue generating client. How do you go about accomplishing this given UK alone has more than 2.1 million registered companies?

You need to apply number of criteria to reduce this number to about 50 companies to initially target. Once you got your initial 50, then you can analyse them to identify any patterns, and then decide whether to further focus on these patterns - perhaps add further companies that fit into this pattern to the initial 50. Next step is to review the responses your receive and refine the criteria to increase 50 to 100 and beyond!

How did you identify your first 50?

Tags: customers, profiling

Vital Topics - Manchester Business Schools

2006-05-10T23:38:00.000Z

I just got back from listening to Martin Beaumont, chief executive, Co-operative Group Ltd at Manchester Business School. Martin spoke passionately about the corporate turnaround that is taking place within Co-op Group under his leadership. Their vision is to be the best co-operative business in the world. How does this vision relate to typical UK business? Very differently. Because his stakeholders include co-op members and focus is not just on revenue, profitability and growth. To get your head around this, first you need to understand what a co-operative is...

"a co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise"

So the key objective is to:

"optimise profits from businesses where co-operative values gives a positive marketing advantage, allowing to serve members and to deliver social goals as a successful co-operative, while making a reasonable financial return to member-owners, both corporate and individual."

This means that they cannot compete on the same grounds as Tesco. Yet, they hold No. 1 slot in the funerals sector. It is a very challenging environment. Good luck to Martin.

Press here for next Vital Topics lecture...

Getting round the VC hurdle

2006-05-10T22:46:00.000Z

A friend just introduced me to "the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint". Guy Kawasaki is right! It is true. Most start-ups are poor at delivering a clear strong message to VCs. VCs are not interested in working with companies that does not have the right management structure, etc because its hard work and they have many other propositions to choose from.

Many start-ups, specially those in the technology space, falls into catch 22 scenario, i.e. cannot develop product, generate revenue, let alone acquire clients without external funding. You have no chance of getting funding if there is no product, no revenue and no clients. So, what is the answer! Pack up and get a job! Perhaps there is another away.

You can attend many workshops that teaches you how to write a business plan, structure a business, get inside the mind of the VCs, elevator pitch, etc. You come out of the workshop thinking if I do a, b and c, then VC would come running to fund the business. Hell no chance! short dreams!! Remember, most VCs are risk aversed - most have never started a business - some comes from banking sector. So, what can you do?

How about you hire a VC to become your mentor. You work with the VC to identify the gaps. Both come up with joint solutions. Both take responsibility to deliver. Have you ever known a VC getting their hands dirty!! Perhaps not. But then again there could be few who might just do it!!! So, in a way, you hire the VC, infact paying him to do his own due diligence. You build a good relationship and once both parties deliver, you should be in a strong position to get funding. In addition, the VC gets a case study, which puts him in front of other VCs. A win win for all. Money well spent!

What do you think? Do you have more innovative ideas to share? How did you raise finance - share your story!

Tags: VC, funding, start-up

BT and Entrepreneurship

2006-05-07T00:33:00.007Z

Everyone knows who BT is. But do you know how much influence BT had in creating entrepreneurs? I had the fortune to work with BT Retail in the past. And during my involvement, I had the opportunity to research Internet Service Provider (ISP) market. Most of the CEOs who run top ISPs today, worked for BT in their career at one point or another.

Today, I was told by Vodafone that SE 990i I have been awaiting for since X'mas 2005 may not be released this month. So, I started looking for alternatives and I came across i-mate, a company founded by Jim Morrison in 2001. He was one of the key members of the team that conceived and designed the product which became O2 Xda, another alternative to SE990i.

Some of these entrepreneurs continue to give headaches to BT, as BT's market share is under pressure. These individuals have been crucial in driving the industry forward. BT still has a very large R&D capability. The market pressures has resulted in creating an innovative organisational culture in certain pockets, continually exploring new ways to generate non regulated revenue.

Tags: entrepreneurship

Vyew - threat to gotomeeting and webex - perhaps not yet

2006-05-02T17:33:00.000Z

I recently came across vyew pronounced as "view" from Zoli's and Dennis Howlett's blogs. In the past I have trialled both gotomeeting.com and webex, and came to the conclusion that webex is priced too high and bandwidth hungry. So, I was going to settle with gotomeeting.com.

We need a on line meeting product that has following features:

Web based - because we are a web based company and therefore promotes such applications. Thereare other valid reasons than this!!
Can be easily set-up - if it does not require software installation on your machine, this is even better
Can use to demonstrate software
Can run powerpoint slides - not as documents flicking one page at a time. Animation intact if possible
Whiteboard
Allow attendees to take over your computer only to interact with the presentation.
Price - free if possible or single and group user licenses plus pay-as-you-go model.

Now I cannot remember how gotomeeting and webex featured against above, but my take on vyew with limited knowlege is as follows:

Yes - you can save your files permanently (or until you run out of space - 25MB free space offered)
Yes - web based. Therefore better than gotomeeting and webex
No - real disappointment
No - real disappointment - can flick pages without animation, etc.
Yes - seems very good
Not sure
Free - at least during beta testing

I tried to run a ppt with Dennis and failed. Then I commented on Zoli's blog. To my amazement, Tim Hon from vyew got in touch on the same day and agreed to give me a demo. I am yet to agree a time. 10/10 for listening to potential clients. Now I have fixed a session with David Terrar for next Monday to run whatever I can, as part of our on-going discussions to explore possible partnership opportunities between D2C and ebdex. I will report back afterwards.

What do you expect from such a product? And what do you use right now? Do you have any advice for us in product selection?

Tags: ebdex, webex, gotomeeting.com

42% of UK Small Businesses feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology

2006-04-30T20:24:00.000Z

On January 2006, Cisco reported "British small businesses are receiving inadequate customer support and intelligence prior to making crucial technology buying decisions. According to the survey of 400 UK small businesses, the majority of small businesses (42%) feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology, due to insufficient post-sales support or training."

I came across this article on outserve.biz blog, and the author of blog comments " I think the above can be caused by the standard VAR (value added reseller) model, whereby the emphasis (and majority of the income and therefore profit) is centred on the initial sale with less attention given to the post sales period which is traditionally less profitable. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model should help to rectify this by having an income model which is interested in the long term for ongoing revenues (and less based on the initial income) which should ensure a better post sale and support experience. "

Spot on. ebdex Document Exchange is offered as a SaaS without any capital outlay or upfront subscription fees. Whilst we would sign each client for a three-year period, our revenue more or less dependent on the usage, which ensures we deliver a superior customer service. This is far better method than what can be achieved by licensed software model. The business case for SaaS is increasingly being accepted by both larger and small organisations.

Tags: ebdex, SaaS, Cisco, VAR, Benefits

Sony Ericsson P990i - the waiting game

2006-04-30T13:50:00.000Z

I have been awaiting for this phone since back end of last year. Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse is promising delivery in May 06. I am not sure I believe any of them, as they both promised delivery in Q1 06 before.

What do you use and why? I am looking for an alternative if SE 990i is further delayed. David, thanks for your suggestions through Skype and your blog.

Update 1: Signed up with O2 and got XDA Mini S. Vodafone just lost me as a customer, as they were not flexible enough to upgrade my phone free and sign up for a higher tariff. Looks like customer retention does not form a strategic part of their business. Pity!! In ebdex customer retention is No. 1. That's how our organisational culture will be built!

Ok. So what do I think about my new phone whilst its being charged. I have been told it has the same functionality of its big brother, the over weight XDA Exec. But XDA Mini S, is not a 3G phone. Will I notice the difference! No, as my old phone is GSM and I never used it for e-mails or web acess.

I know how I will spend my time tomorrow!!!

Update 2 It took me at least good 1/2 day to get the phone going. First, they had to e-mail me two files to set-up internet and e-mail access. O2 could have easily enclosed the contents of these two e-mails with the phone. I heard from other owners of having similar problems. My firewall stop synchronising with MS Outlook. O2 helped me sort this out by reading a help page from MS website.

I am disappointed with phone's ringing tones. I suppose these can be downloaded. Overall, very happy! I am hoping this will last..

HSBC Launches Accounts Payable Integration

2006-04-30T08:55:00.000Z

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 invoice in whatever format, including paper and e-mail, and converts them into a useable data format as required by the accounts payable industry."

So, who is providing the technical know-how to HSBC? Could this be Bottomline Technologies? In Mar 05, GT News reported, Bottomline becoming the sole supplier to HSBC for providing BACTSEL-IP solutions. Both parties have at least been working together for 5 years.

Perhaps, its worth tracking development (relationships - perhaps not full EIPP offerings yet) within the banking sector (free research for our competitors!):

Lloyds TSB with Causeway
Deutsche Bank with Computer Sciences Corporation
Royal Bank of Scotland with Accountis
HSBC with Bottomline Technologies
Nordea
DnB

So, what is Barclays, Bank of Scotland, NatWest (part of RBS) and others are up to?

Tags: ebdex, EIPP, HSBC, Bottomline Technologies, GT News

On Death Bed - How do you want to be remembered?

2006-04-29T21:13:00.000Z

I learned yesterday that one of my business acquaintances father in law has passed away after illness. My wife also lost number of her family over the years. It is taking her a long time to come to terms with her losses. This got me thinking. How do I want to be remembered? What thoughts do I want to have just before I die? Obviously, we all want to be loved, and want to give the best possible opportunities for our kids. If you take family and close friends out of the question, what then?

I think I want to be remembered for leaving a legacy. How does one go about creating a legacy? My simple approach is to create a business (not an empire - would be nice though!) that at least the next generation can participate in. Is this ebdex? Time will tell, as this is my first business. Whilst the scope is there, is the structure flexible enough to allow internal change to meet future needs. I think the answer is yes. ebdex was set-up completely different to most other IT companies. In fact, ebdex is not an IT company. It is a commercial organisation with an Internet based technology solution offering. ebdex was set-up with two intentions, be the highest performing company in our market sector delivering superior customer service and be in tune to market needs (customer-centric market driven company). Obviously, we have to prove this point to our stakeholders. Only then can we truly claim "customer-centric market-driven" company status. The organisational culture must reflect this throughout from the most junior to the most senior. The organisation must also believe it can achieve this status. Only then can one have a chance of achieving it.

OK, so we want to be customer-centric and market-driven. What about product and operations? What about sales? Do we also want to remain lean? This is where we need our partners. ebdex believes in sharing risks and rewards with our partners. Can we get our partners to buy-in to the organisational culture we promote? What skills do we need to achieve this vision? Many questions...

I truly believe ebdex has a unique opportunity to change many aspects of the game. We must build the right framework today to allow that grand vision to be realised tomorrow. So if we do all that, will I be able to leave a legacy? Perhaps!!! What about you?

Should Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) be taken seriously?

2006-04-27T23:28:00.000Z

I just came home from attending a lecture given by my friend, Felix Martin, Alum of Manchester Business School on CSR. For simplicity, he titled the presentation "Should psychology of CSR permeate management decision making?". Felix is corporate counsel at GE Commercial Finance. Based on the case studies and discussions that took place, I split companies generally into:

Those who does not have the budget or has the inclination to see benefits CSR brings
Those who has a budget but are bad executioners due to lack of senior management buy-in
Those who build it into organisational culture, thereby using CSR to achieve competitive advantage

In my books, GE falls into the 3rd category. This is mainly due to the existing culture. GE wants to be the leaders in whatever they do. Therefore, senior management has taken CSR into the heart of the organisation.

Felix was kind enough to depart with the following image:

All I want to say with this image is that at the centre, we have "be open and transparent". Isn't that blogging!

ebdex continues to adopt an open and transparent policy - hence the start of this blog to get that message informally out into the public domain.

The image infact address two issues, corporate governance and CSR. Can you guess which squares applies to which?

How can a young company like ebdex promote CSR? Do we have time to even allocate few hours to discuss such? Perhaps not! But we can run the organisation as ethically as one can. Perhaps adapting BASDA code of practise is one way towards that goal. This is strictly not CSR, but it is in the right direction.

I will leave you with a quote from GE's Jeff Immelt "if you want to be the most admired company of the 21st century, you have to not just perform, hit your numbers, be great, but you also have to have a real connection with the world, be good". Doesn't this simply boil down to common sense?

If you are interested, further information on CSR can be found through Business in the Community website. Few interesting blogs on CSR: McDonalds and CSR in China.

Technorati Tags: CSR, BASDA, ebdex, GE, McDonalds , Manchester Business School

Sage Visma and Hg Capital

2006-04-27T12:13:00.000Z

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 Solutions - competitor of ours, right in our neighbourhood. Do they know us, perhaps not yet!
Checkpoint - another sort of competitor - now sold to Bottomline Technologies who competes with us in EIPP sector.
IRIS Software - Accounting and business software - We need to establish partnership agreement with them

Visma might be the largest investment todate within the technology sector. What is the overall game plan? Sage does not have an EIPP product yet! They seem to be pushing Sage Transaction E-mail at present to address the gap. Does this mean Hg Capital is one step above Sage? Time will tell, who got the right strategy.

Getting mentioned on other blogs

2006-04-27T09:10:00.000Z

I think this is my 13th blog. So thought of finding out who reads my blogs. So far only Dennis Howlett and David Terrar have mentioned my blogging activities on their blogs. Thanks guys. Is there a way to track who reads my blogs? Much appreciated for any help anyone can give. I am still learning "blogging"

Update 1 (17/05/06): To my amazement, this blog has now ranked at 733,456 on Technorati. Some achievement, given I only started blogging last month

Two Heavy Weights enter EIPP market

2006-04-27T08:05:00.000Z

I just came across this article: Deutsche Bank and CSC launch electronic corporate invoicing service. Should we be scared! Hell no!! This confirms that market is ready for such innovative solutions.

Analysing the story....the solution seems to be aimed at Euro Top 1000. It is right for these two companies Deutsche Bankand Computer Sciences Corporation) to join forces together, as one complements the other. Deutsche Bank would never be able to operate an EIPP system alone without a technology specialists, who has experience of integrating complex ERP systems.

The solution is internet based, which is a positive. I presume it is offered as an enterprise solution. Refer to my article on EIPP segmentation. I agree with Steve Mitchener's statement "will deliver significant business results to those corporations that have the ultimate objective of truly integrating their financial supply chain". Recently, we at ebdex, have been speaking a lot about closing the financial supply chain.

Lloyds TSB has been offering similar services for number of years through technology provider Causeway. I believe this is a cash cow for Causeway. Philip, I like the new website (easy to navigate - not too sure about the orange) and new identity.

Of course, ebdex also have a desire to offer ebdex Document Exchange through a commercial bank. But first things first!!

I need to further investigate Nordea and DnB Nor offerings - especially to understand the technology providers.

Accountis also have an affiliation with Royal Bank of Scotland. HSBC has also recently been making statements regarding EIPP. Perhaps there is competition looming within the banks.

Update 1: Ovum finally covers the story in more details.

The solution comprises several modules, including electronic invoice creation, invoice dispatch to the debtor, intelligent (online) workflow solutions for invoice approval and/or dispute resolution, and helpdesk services. This combination of modules covers the entire invoicing process centrally for any location worldwide, and is able to handle a wide range of differing invoice formats (as specified by the creditor/debtor) as well as meeting the regulatory specifications required by different countries.

The first customer is due to go live in June 2006.

Tags: ebdex, EIPP

Zoli Erdos - Entrepreneurship and early-stage funding

2006-04-26T22:51:00.000Z

I recently came across Zoli Erdos through Dennis Howlett's blog. Zoli writes extensively about entrepreneurship and early-stage funding. Couple of interesting articles I found from his site include:

Why Startups Shouldn't Bother About NDA's - This article took me to Dharmesh Shah's blog. Another guy who has done it and can proudly wear the T-shirt. Just dropped an introductory e-mail to Dharmesh. Need to identify synergies between the two businesses. With regards to NDAs, I still demand signing a NDA before going into lengthy discussion about ebdex. However, this does not always work with VCs, as they generally refuse signing such documents, let alone NDAs. I also know a friend, who is very protective of her idea and would not even reveal to me, after discussing many aspects of start-ups for well over a year. Also in the same article, Zoli states a very valid point "I mostly work with software startups, and I think it’s safe enough to claim that in this field concepts do not get funded. You need a prototype – partial functionality, alpha, demo (not slides!) ..etc, and some form of market / customer validation. Anything less is just fluff." I fully agree with him given the first hand experience now I have.
Blogging Essential for your Career - Not sure whether I fully agree, as blogging is time consuming. So you need to understand what ROI do you expect. So far, my experiences have been positive. I need to turn these positive experiences to commercial success. One might be with David Terrar. Time will tell.
Enterprise SaaS Startups from an Investor's Point of View - "It takes 70% to 100% more capital to fund a SaaS company to break-even than a traditional perpetual license company. It also takes 2 to 3 times longer to get there.” I am not sure that I agree with this statement. I assume the speaker has real experience to come up with these figures. Our business model is radically different. Cannot comment too much here without that all important NDA!! According to Zoli, "only SaaS gets funded today". I wish I am based in Silicon Valley!
Software 2006: Questioning the McKinsey Study - "Two major business models are vying for a growing share of software spend: Software as a Service and Open Source. …SaaS has already gained traction in number of application areas – such as payroll, human capital management, CRM, conferencing, procurement, logistics, information services, and e-commerce) – and should make gains across a much broader cross-section of applications over the next 3 years. Out of 34 application areas we have examined, only nine are unlikely to see some SaaS adoption over through 2008”. McKinsey identifies "document and records management" as an area that is unlike to be offered as a SaaS. This is the closest area ebdex comes into, and our offer is SaaS and we are in EIPP market.

I now have a RSS feed from Zoli's blog. Hope you enjoyed above - this proves that if you do not have anything worth saying, talk about somebody else's blog. Perhaps I will write about business plans tomorrow, as I just finished updating ours! Good night!

Who else blogs on EIPP or e-invoicing

2006-04-26T08:06:00.000Z

I have tried to find other bloggers blogging on my favourite subject, i.e. EIPP and e-invoicing. If you do come across any, please let me know.

I found this article from Rich Miller's blog dated 02 July 2003 why old tech is beating new in B2B bill payment. Surely, there must be others out there in the wilderness telling stories about EIPP!

Update 1: 30 April 06:

I came across an article on ebdex on outserve.biz Blog. Key theme "The move to a near paperless office and more importantly the avoidance of data entry of information that is held elsewhere (usually with your supplier) still seems a long way off." Update: Now I know who wrote this article...

Update 2: 16 May 06

Spend Matters - the business blog for spend management sponsored by Ariba and Procuri written by Jason Busch
Justin Sully - Strategy Consultant of Ariba
Tim Minahan - Supply Excellence - sponsored by Procuri

Tags: ebdex, EIPP, e-invoicing

Version One & Routes to Market

2006-04-25T15:07:00.000Z

I recently had the pleasure to visit Version One, which provides document management, imaging, electronic fax, email and forms software. I have been meaning to visit them for over a year, as they are located in Poynton, few miles from where I live. What is noticeable is that Version One has been recognised as one of the fastest growing companies in the EMEA by Deloitte. In fact they have won many awards than one can remember.

Interesting point to note is that Version One has achieved significant success rate with its reseller network. What is the optimum route to market for a software product, licensed as well as SaaS? As far as I know Coda does not use resellers. Yet they are a significant player within the accounts/financial system market. Most of the other players including Sage has adopted a strategy of using resellers. Therefore, what lessons can ebdex learn from these two case studies and what should be our own route to market? Our success depends on achieving the right balance between direct in-house sales and indirect sales. I appreciate receiving any views you may have.

Tags: marketing, ebdex, Version One, Sage, Coda, Deloitte

Impact of key person falling ill

2006-04-25T14:52:00.000Z

Since setting up of ebdex on 25 Nov 04, I fell ill (flu bug - not a common cold) seriously resulting in out of action for whole of last week. I have been trying to assess the impact this had on ebdex, as I am that individual who keeps the ship sailing in the right direction. We are at a critical juncture where Mark and I are steering the company to eventual product launch in Q2 06. Loosing couple of days can be davastating to a company in our predicament, i.e. product testing.

EIPP Market - Segmentation

2006-04-18T11:09:00.000Z

EIPP market can be split into four segments, these being: supplier-centric (sending invoices electronically from A/R systems), buyer-centric (receiving invoices electronically into A/P systems), enterprise-centric (sending and receiving invoices electronically from/into A/R and A/P systems - a customised solution usually based on ERP solution) and exchanges.

The first three types generally cater for one party, usually the dominant player to the cost of its trading partners. They also provide partial solutions, which limits benefits that could be gained by parties involved in a transaction. The enterprise (and DIY) solutions are costly due to underlying ERP solutions and high consultancy fees usually charged by system integrators (including VARs, management consultancies, etc).

Exchanges have emerged over the last six years. Some of early exchanges have become supplier networks catering predominantly for larger purchasers, e.g. Ariba. Some are industry specific and caters for large buyers and tier 1 suppliers (e.g. Exostar for A&D industry and Covisint for Automotive industry). Some have become e-procurement platforms used by large retailers, e.g. Marrakech.

However, a number of true non sector based exchanges have emerged that cater for both end of a transaction (i.e. buyer and purchaser) equally irrespective of their size or geographically, i.e. they offer the same functionality to both parties. ebdex Document Exchange is such an EIPP solution. I truly believe that success of such a solutions lie when they can be offered to both large and small companies, where both parties gain substantial benefits, be they reducing of debtor days, early payment discounts, corporate governance, upto date information for sound decision making or improving trading partner relationships.

Tags: ebdex, ebdex Document Exchange, EIPP, Exostar, Covisint , Marrakech

Problem with e-invoicing

2006-04-18T10:53:00.000Z

Do you use an e-invoicing solution? Is your solution simply based on sending an invoice via e-mail? Have you thought of what happens when this e-mail or e-mail attachment is received by the recipient? Unless the same system format is used by both the sending party and the receiving party, the invoice information cannot be easily interpreted by the receiving party's accounting/ERP system.

This results in recieving party having to re-key invoice data manually into the A/P system, duplication of effort leading to potential re-keying errors and delays. This method whilst may include buzz words like "e-invoicing" has no clear advantage than sending by post or fax other than in reducing the delivery time. Sage's Transaction E-mail as mentioned earlier is such a solution. It works well if both ends have compatible Sage systems.

Where as e-invoicing or EIPP systems that integrate tightly with accounts/ERP systems allow invoice data to flow from the sending party's A/R system to receiving party's A/P system without having to re-enter the invoice data. These systems can add significant benefit to both parties. E.g. headcount reduction.

What is e-invoicing or EIPP?

2006-04-13T16:55:00.000Z

It is worth understanding what EIPP (or e-invoicing) means if you are thinking of stream-lining your Accounts Payable (A/P) and/or Accounts Receivable (A/R) function(s). Unfortunately, wikipedia does not have a definition or information on EIPP or e-invoicing yet. Google search defines EIPP as follows:

Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP). EIPP refers to the invoicing and payment process between businesses, or B2B applications, over the Internet and typically via a third-party EIPP vendor. See EIPP under Technology in the Main Topics section.

EIPP is an American term now used in UK and stands for Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment. Its definition includes three functions; an electronic invoice (sending an invoice electronically from A/R system), presentment of the sent invoice (on line and/or on the recipient's A/P system) and a facility for handling payment for the approved invoice. Modern EIPP solutions use internet technologies to achieve these three functions cost effectively.

On the other hand e-invoicing means sending an invoice electronically. This could be through a number of mediums (e.g. via e-mail). Most accounts and ERP systems can easily achieve this functionality without using a third party provider, e.g. Sage's Transaction E-mail.

ebdex Document Exchange or more accurately, ebdex EIPP, is such an EIPP solution. There are only a handful of players in the UK market offering innovative EIPP solutions.

Tags: ebdex, ebdex Document Exchange, Sage

Do you need to be inspired to start blogging?

2006-04-11T21:03:00.000Z

Recently (actually 22/03/06) I attended BASDA CEO/AGM event, where number of speakers presented thier blogging experiences. Having read, Dennis Keeling's blog prior to this event, it was fascinating to learn the key reason why Dennis started his blog (simply to get a clearer informal message to his audience - BASDA members, press, etc).

From Dennis Keeling's blog, I came across professional blogger, Dennis Howlett. Dennis has immense knowledge of the software industry, especially of the accounts and ERP sector. After a lengthy discussion, it became clearer to me that if used wisely blogging may infact help ebdex Document Exchange establish its brand identity quickly - basically allowing more people to be aware of ebdex than otherwise possible without departing large sums of cash.

From Dennis Howlett's blog, I came across David Terrar, CEO of D²C Limited and Twinfield UK. David has launched Twinfield in UK recently, which is expected to revolutionise the way accounts software is used. Twinfield is another SaaS product. Let's continue our discussions David, who knows where this might lead to...

Tags: ebdex, BASDA, SaaS, ebdex Document Exchange

Start of this blog

2006-04-09T23:44:00.000Z

I started this blog to share my thoughts and views on Electronic Invoicing Presentment and Payment (EIPP) industry in general and the development of ebdex Document Exchange which addresses a number of corporate pains felt by both SMEs as well as multi-nationals.

ebdex's overall goal is to understand the market, as it changes and respond proactively at a faster pace than any of other whilst delivering a superior service second to none to all our clients irrespective of their size or geography.

I appreciate you joining me in our journey...

Manoj

Tags: ebdex, EIPP