To date, eInvoicing has been the realm of large enterprises that have the capital and IT budgets to implement bespoke industry solutions, but the future of eInvoicing is getting brighter for SMEs.

eBilling Insight chats to Striata CEO, Michael Wright about the evolving eInvoicing landscape, particularly for SMEs.

Q: eInvoicing adoption – What are the main stumbling blocks for SMEs?

A: “For smaller organizations, one of the big stumbling blocks to widespread adoption is standardizing the format and delivery of the eInvoice. For SMEs, eInvoicing can be prohibitively expensive, particularly when trying to fit in with the requirements of a variety of customers, each with their own proprietary format and process.”

Q: What latest developments in eInvoicing are changing this ‘big business’ paradigm?

A: “Recently both Tradeshift and Cloudtrade (no connection) announced functionality that lowers the barrier to eInvoicing adoption for SMEs. Their solutions accept emailed invoices in PDF format and automatically extract the information for input into application eInvoicing data formats.”

Q: Will PDF eliminate the eInvoicing barriers for SMEs?

A: “Companies have been using PDF eInvoicing for many years. SMEs are already adept at generating and sending PDF invoices – having the ability to join the eInvoicing bandwagon without any change to existing processes will inevitably increase user adoption.”

Q: As with eBilling, convenience is also key to the success of eInvoicing. Agreed?

A: “Most definitely – the premise is simple; if you can make eInvoicing or eBilling the easiest and most convenient option for either a business or consumer, then your invoice will be processed and paid quicker.”

Q: What will the key driver of adoption for this paperless process for SMEs be?

A: “Striata maintains that ‘Push’ eBilling drives paperless adoption. ‘Push’ email billing solutions produce triple the adoption of paperless processes when compared to web portals – the proof is in the adoption statistics. Similarly, the most logical choice for eInvoicing for SMEs is to utilize a multi-layered PDF as the format and email as the transport layer.”

We’ll be keeping a close eye on things in this sector, and if you’re in a business that could benefit from eInvoicing, get in touch with us – let’s see what savings can be achieved closer to home.