Keywords: electronic invoicing, e-invoicing, einvoicing, interoperability, Direct Insite, open network, accounts payable

Electronic invoicing providers should solve interoperability issues

Anna Bowsher | News | 6 September 2012

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Matthew Oakes, CEO and President of Direct Insite, a provider of on-demand solutions that simplify complex accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, has called for electronic invoicing providers to solve the interoperability issues between them.

In a blog posting on the company’s website, Oakes has said that electronic invoicing networks need to take a lesson from the mobile phone industry where users can call any other mobile phone user without having to worry about the network they are assigned to.

Oakes says, “Like those early cellular phone users, corporations are clamouring for open invoice networks. They want the ability to distribute and receive as many electronic invoices as possible, to and from as many companies as possible, without having to interface to a bunch of different networks.”

Oakes further claims that the end goal is not just about open networks, but rather the value-adding services that electronic invoicing providers can offer from being interoperable. He states that while open networks will help invoice distribution problems, they will not solve the problems businesses face internally – such as invoice processing, which is where, according to Oakes, accounts payable face their biggest challenges.

If service providers swiftly move towards truly open and interconnected networks, they can then focus on the ‘edge’ services that will add the most value to customers.