[Dossier]An exciting time for the E-invoicing market!

2017 is the year we will see some important shifts in the e-invoicing market. Deployment projects that started as early as 2005 are really beginning to take shape and make an impact this year. In France, this is mainly because of certain governmental regulations going into effect in the public arena—the compulsory use of the CHORUS platform, for example—in addition to the private sector moving rapidly in the same direction. And with the phasing out of the B-Process-Ariba-Sap platform, 3,000 companies are now looking for a new e-invoicing partner. We can also expect to see the arrival of clearance certificate requirements in France in the near future, such as the existing cf SII in Spain and SAFT-AT in Portugal. Naturally, these new requirements create a demand for even more sophisticated and adaptable resources.

The exciting news is the French e-invoicing market is entering into a mature state, with over 30 companies offering different solutions spanning a large range of needs. Electronic invoicing has now become a commodity. We are seeing around 10,000 companies now using some form of e-invoicing solution, a 50% increase in the world of large businesses and SMEs! A mature market also means stable, highly functional solutions. With up to 15 years of practice under their belts, companies are now offering all types of solutions, including about 10 different “complete platforms” where invoicing is just one of the main perks. This also means that there has been a real move to create highly functional but affordable products, pushed by competition and necessity. And for the past two or three years, pioneers have been working on second generation solutions, and so a new, innovative e-invoicing market is already taking form. In short, we are seeing some rapid developments in the world of electronic invoicing, which is definitely something worth feeling optimistic about!

E-invoicing providers come from different areas, creating a diverse and interesting market. We are looking at SaaS, B2B, and EDI providers as well as digital trust, signature, and archiving providers. In addition, paper document processing companies, ERP publishers, and collaborative P2P, O2C and SCF platform providers have their own piece of the market. At the same time, most modern solutions are now provided as SaaS, making e-invoicing accessible and affordable to all types of companies.