Difi also invites VAN-operators* and large invoice issuers and invoice receivers to utilize PEPPOL’s infrastructure for exchange of electronic procurement messages on standard formats, and by this take the opportunity to provide what is known as an access point**.

By connecting to the PEPPOL infrastructure, which will act as a central hub, all issuers of electronic invoices will able to send these to their customers both within Norway and across Europe.  Currently this is challenging due to the variety of incompatible systems in use. Increasing public and private sector access to the PEPPOL infrastructure will help Norway realize the benefits of electronic procurement.

Electronic invoicing in public sector in Norway

Norwegian state entities and regional health organization should be able to receive invoices electronically on standard format as of 1st of July 2011, and by 1st of July 2012, it will be compulsory.
 

One access point is sufficient

According to Dag Strømsnes, Head of Department for Public Procurement in Difi and chairman of the PEPPOL board, more access points will make it easier for public entities to promote electronic invoicing. Access points act as information interchange centres.  By connecting to only one access point any supplier or public sector buyer will be able to reach all the other suppliers or public sector buyers, says Mr. Strømsnes.

New access points will contribute to increased competition in the supplier market, he continues. He welcomes both financial (such as banks) and non-financial entities to become access points.

Contact person, Norwegian electronic invoicing project:

• Olav Astad Kristiansen, senior adviser at Difi: olav.astad.kristiansen@difi.no, tel. +47 22451131, mobile tel. +47 905 84 377

Olav Astad Kristiansen, Difi.

FACTS:
 

*Value Added Network (VAN) Operator

A Value-Added Network (VAN) is a host service offering that acts as an intermediary between business partners sharing data between their business processes.  The offered service is referred to as "Value-Added Network Service".
 

**Access point

An access point is an service that uses the PEPPOL infrastructure to receive and forward procurement messages, such as invoices, in a standardized way.  The advantage of using an access point for an organization is that they do not need to specify the network requirements of their trading partners. Rather like email, once received by their access point, their documents will be re-routed  to the correct  recipient regardless of any intermediary networks or service providers involved.

Electronic invoicing

Difi is in charge of a project to promote electronic invoicing to the public sector in Norway. The goal is to save the Norwegian State NOK 1.1 billion over a ten year period as a result of the simplified and safer processing that electronic invoicing can provide.  In order to achieve this goal in an even shorter time, Difi is encouraging more service providers into the market. More information about the Norwegian electronic invoicing project (in Norwegian) can be obtained from: http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura

PEPPOL

The EU plans to make it easier for suppliers to enter public procurement processes with agencies in other countries. They have initiated a large scale pilot project, PEPPOL – Pan-European Public Procurement On-line.  PEPPOL is partly financed through the ICT-part (ICT-PSP) of their Competition and Innovation Program (CIP).  PEPPOL is carried out by a consortium of 18 public entities from 12 different countries, coordinated by Norway. For more about PEPPOL in Norwegian see: http://www.difi.no/internasjonalt/handelssamarbeid-peppol.