Simplifying global e-invoicing solutions

The challenge: Finding the most effective mix of e-invoicing SaaS providers in a fragmented, global landscape

The push for clearance models based on e-invoicing continues to grow around the world. International companies now face the major challenge of locating SaaS partners who can deliver the right solutions to meet new requirements within the right timeframes. There is currently no single e-invoicing vendor that offers global coverage. As a result, international companies have been forced to patch together solutions from multiple vendors to achieve compliance with fast-evolving tax regulations.

Our client – a global, public company based in Europe, with annual revenues of over $10 billion – was faced with the daunting task of surveying the global e-invoicing landscape to find suitable partners capable of delivering the SaaS solutions it needed. Considering the global scale of the company, time was of the essence: long delivery timeframes are a continual concern for very large organisations like our client, who are under growing pressure to implement e-invoicing to comply with fast-approaching deadlines.

To simplify their search for the right vendors, our client turned to us for our extensive expertise and research capabilities in the global e-invoicing field. As the creator of the world’s largest e-invoicing supplier database, TriFinance is uniquely qualified to help global organisations navigate the complex international e-invoicing market.

We consulted our client to help them determine a clear set of criteria for the ideal suppliers:

Our global clients rely on our expertise, because they know that we are truly software provider-independent and focused solely on finding the best solutions for the client’s needs. At the same time, we have direct contacts with solutions providers, which enables us to gather key information on the client’s behalf without directly involving the client in the research or disclosing their identity.

We divided this research project into two parts:

We conducted a market scan in which we compared e-invoicing vendors based on the predefined criteria. The scan was based on the following principles:

The client and TriFinance jointly determined the key criteria, such as legal compliance monitoring, integration methods and project management methodology,  for the questions that we asked the e-invoicing vendors. Based on those criteria, we created a weighting and scoring methodology to use when evaluating each vendor.

We sent questionnaires to 22 relevant software suppliers based on geographical coverage, connections with ERP systems, SaaS functionalities and other factors; from among those 22 vendors, we received 17 responses. We analyzed those responses, rated each vendor, validated our findings and formulated conclusions to deliver to the client.

Following the scan and analysis, we held strategic workshops with the client. We presented the data we obtained and helped the client to identify the best path forward.

As a result of our research and strategic workshops, our client is now positioned to make the most informed solution. Our process brought structure to the highly fragmented e-invoicing market, which is difficult to navigate without in-depth knowledge and direct access to the vendors.