Draft EU directive on e-invoicing suggest the development of new a semantic standard

[Mikkel Hippe Brun <mhb@tradeshift.com>]

Dear fellow UBL'ers

I just wanted to bring your attention to the draft EU directive on
e-invoicing: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/e-procurement/e-invoicing/index_en.htm

It states that "a common European standard for the semantic data model
of the core electronic invoice should be developed" and that "The
European standard for the semantic data model of the core electronic
invoice should build on existing specifications, including in
particular those developed by European or international organisations
such as CEN (CWA 16356 and CWA 16562), ISO (Financial Invoice based on
the ISO 20022 methodology), and UN/CEFACT (CII v. 2.0)."

CWA 16562 is in fact the CEN BII work based on UBL so it seems that
UBL could be one of the cornerstones of the new standard.

However - do we really need a new standard? Is this formulation just
an attempt to keep everyone happy and take the fight later? Can Europe
afford to waste 12-18 months on fighting about which standard to us as
the foundation? I don't think so! Every month of delay in
implementation is worth tens of million Euros in unharvested savings
and lost competitive edge.

As a tax-payer (now in the US) I could care less, but I don't. We now
live in a globalized world where the "framework for doing business" in
any part of the world has a direct influence on local businesses
ability to compete with other businesses in other parts of the world.
Any large country or regional association of countries around the
world should look at a framework for digitalization of the
procure-to-pay cycle. This is core infrastructure for the business
environment that needs some kind of regulation.

And UBL is in my humble opinion one of the foundational building
blocks that is required to succeed sooner rather than later.

I have written two blog posts on this topic. They may be more relevant
to European readers but I think that the message applies to everyone
working with e-invoicing strategies in the public sector globally.

http://blog.tradeshift.com/failing-to-deliver-the-draft-eu-directive-on-e-invoicing-part-1/
http://blog.tradeshift.com/failing-to-deliver-part-2-the-draft-e-invoicing-directive-a-detailed-look/

Kind regards
Mikkel

Mikkel Hippe Brun
VP of Global Strategy, Co-founder

Cell US: +1 (415) 730 0110
Cell DK: +45 3118 9102
Skype: hippebrun
Twitter: @hippebrun @tradeshift

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