Standardized solutions for eProcurement and eInvoicing

1. Interoperable Standardized solutions for eProcurement and eInvoicing Brussels November 24, 2009 Jostein Frømyr jostein.fromyr@edisys.no

2. The interoperability challenge • eProcurement, as well as eInvoicing, is more than just the exchange of electronic messages! • What is the business process? • Who is exchanging business documents and in what sequence? • What are the business rules governing the business process? • What is the content of each message? • What are the business rules governing the information content? • I which form (syntax and version) should the messages be represented • Which infrastructure should be used for transport? Process level Data level Technical level

3. BII deliverables enables interoperablee-procurements solutions BII Profiles allow for interoperability at the organisational level. BII Transactions Data Models allow for interoperability at semantic level. BII work with the UBL TC and UN/CEFACT ensures that appropriate syntax solutions are available. Together with BII syntax binding and toolbox this supports interoperability at technical level. Use of BII guidelines on project execution, evaluation and testing provides for efficient and effective implementations by our users. 3

4. BII addresses the whole eProcurement process • The specifications provided by BII supports the whole procurement process, from publication of the Prior Information Notice through to the final Invoice. • The BII Profiles for the pre-award area can be combined to meet the requirements of most procurement procedures. • The BII Profiles for the Post-award area represents a combination of frequently implemented functions.

5. BII Profiles • The aim is to • facilitate implementation of electronic commerce in a standardized way, • thereby enabling the development of standardized software solutions, • as well as efficient connections between trading partners • without case by case specification of the data interchange. • The end goal is to reduce the cost of implementing support for eProcuremente to a level that is economical even for small and medium size companies and institutions. • A technical specification describing • the choreography of the business process(es) covered, i.e. a detailed description of the way the business partners collaborate to play their respective roles and share responsibilities to achieve mutually agreed goals with the support of their respective information systems, • the electronic business transactions exchanged as part of the business process and the sequence in which these transactions are exchanged, • the business rules governing the execution of that business process(es), its business collaborations and business transactions, as well as any constraints on information elements used in the transaction data models • the information content of the electronic business transactions exchanged by pointing to a given data model for each of the business transactions.

6. Syntax binding • As well as determining what business transactions are used, the profile restricts their content in terms of elements and the cardinality of elements. The key standardization aspect of the profile description is thus on the organizational and semantics interoperability levels rather than on syntax within the technical interoperability level. • Consequently the business transactions within a profile can be structured based on different message standards/syntax as long it contains all thenecessary data elements. • Although the profile descriptions and transaction data models provided by CEN BII will be neutral of syntax, the workshop has agreed to provide specifications of how its data models may be mapped to defined syntaxes. • UBL 2.0 and UN/CEFACT • This is done in order provide the market with implementable specifications. Profile Is used in Business Transaction Is mapped to Syntax message

7. Scalable solutions • Trough the use of ”building blocks” (collaborations), BII provides for flexible and scalable support for the various business processes in eProcurement.

8. Different purpose – different content A business document, like the Invoice, serves different purposes and thus requires different information content. The “everything” Invoice The marketing Invoice The control Invoice The VAT voucher • A VAT voucher to justify a posting in the accounts • A claim for payment • A tool to facilitate control and matching against order and goods received • A tool for market communication • The EU directive requires some 20 information elements • Additional payment and banking related information required • Additional information elements related to the Order required • Even further information elements required

9. BII Core Transaction Data Models The “everything” Invoice The marketing Invoice The control Invoice The VAT voucher BII Core BIIFull The core transaction data models contain the set of information elements expected to be sufficient to cater for the generally expressed business requirements applicable throughout the European market. This will typically be a practical minimum information content that works for most users, i.e. those information elements that supports the majority of user requirements. It is likely to be more than the minimum technical and/or legal information content, but it will be less than what is required to support all requirements from various industries. The full transaction data models contain an extended set of information elements that is expected to cater for all known business requirements applicable throughout the European market. The full transaction data models should thus be viewed as the outer borders of what is expect to be supported by a very advanced system. The actual use of information elements outside of the core, but within the full, should be bilaterally agreed between the partners.

12. The deliverables from BII provides for ... • Interoperable and scalable e-procurement solutions • It allows implementers to start with a focused implementation, while still allowing them to grow into consistent support for the full e-procurement process • Removing technical barriers to cross-border and cross-sector trade • Being aimed at common European needs the same specifications and solutions can be used for both domestic and cross-border trade • Allows member states to focus on specific national requirements within a well defined framework • Being based on common European requirements it is expected that the BII deliverables meets most, if not all, national needs 13

13. Thank you for you attention!