Barentz sends approximately 250,000 invoices annually to its thousands of customers in more than 65 countries. One of the biggest challenges in sending the invoices is to ensure that this is done in accordance with laws and regulations and the wishes or even requirements of the customer. This can be quite complex.
Customers are switching to e-billing
Because so many customers, just as many needs. Jimmy notes that more and more customers are making the switch to e-billing . They expect their suppliers to go along with this and deliver their e-invoices via the customer's preferred network, such as SAP Business Network (formerly Ariba), Tungsten, Tradeshift or Peppol. Barentz is happy to comply. Jimmy: "It's heartening when we can say to our key customers that we facilitate e-billing around the world through their preferred network. If competing suppliers can't or won't do that, then maybe that generates new business for us."
But satisfying all these different preferences is no easy task. Partly because each e-invoicing network works slightly differently. Jimmy gives an example and explains that at Barentz invoices for Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are sent from one central administration. "But the link with Tungsten, for example, is based on VAT number. And because we invoice for three countries, we also have three VAT numbers. So that also means that three links are needed. And that's quite complicated," he sighs.
Another practical stumbling block Jimmy regularly encounters is retrieving invoice status. "Once a customer has switched to e-billing through a network, often all communication goes through that network. You can no longer just call or email, but you have to log into a portal to see if the invoice arrived properly. That seems convenient, until you have to start doing this for maybe two thousand customers in all kinds of different portals."
outsourcing in the field of e-billing
Reasons enough for Barentz to look for a party that could relieve them of their concerns regarding e-billing. Jimmy continues: "You don't want to have any unnecessary stress about sending invoices; it just has to work. It's great that we can rely on 4Exchange Sending for this. I expect e-billing to become increasingly important in the coming years, driven in part by stricter laws and regulations. We want to be ready for that!"
