With Anders Olsen, Sales Director at efacto.
How are regulation, digitalisation, and emerging technologies like AI influencing our work with electronic invoicing? What trends are shaping our industry? And how do we navigate them in practice?
These are some of the questions we’ve asked five different employees at efacto. In the coming weeks, we’ll share their insights and perspectives, each based on their specific professional role. We hope you’ll follow along.
The e-invoicing industry is constantly evolving. And efacto is evolving with it.
In this interview, our Sales Director, Anders Olsen, shares his perspectives on a rapidly changing industry.
It’s going well. Most Danish companies are now capable of invoicing digitally. For the vast majority, it’s no longer a new or unfamiliar workflow. There are still some differences between industries in terms of their level of digital maturity. Companies invoicing the public sector have been subject to e-invoicing requirements since 2005.
Where automation really makes sense is for companies with a high invoice volume. Fortunately, I’m seeing a rapidly growing interest in solutions like our InvoiceFirewall. More and more organisations are realising how much time and how many resources can be freed up by having control over their invoicing processes.
It’s clear that finance departments have developed a growing ambition for more automated and touchless invoice management. Where automation used to be “nice to have”, it has now become a necessity and a competitive advantage. This is due both to technological progress and to a shift in mindset – particularly as younger generations enter finance functions and expect modern, user-friendly tools.
We’re also seeing greater understanding and acceptance of the potential in AI and RPA technologies. Many are curious about how these can concretely support workflows and processes in everyday life, while also creating value on the bottom line. Finally, legislation naturally plays a major role. Both the current regulations and expectations for future ones are driving the development forward and creating a solid foundation for digital transformation.
Since Danish companies trade globally, I’ll allow myself to answer more broadly. I wish we could achieve global agreement on a single, open digital format. Today, there are many local variations and older formats still being accepted. This makes everything more complex than it needs to be. For both sender and receiver.
If we all worked from one common, standardised format, such as PEPPOL BIS, it would make life easier for everyone involved. It would create more transparency, reduce errors and make it easier for companies to trade across borders. That’s definitely a development I truly hope we are moving toward.
No two customers are alike, and the argument for implementing an InvoiceFirewall depends on where the customer is in their digital maturity and in their internal processes. What I find unique about InvoiceFirewall is that it grows with the customer. You can start simple and then expand as you become ready. The flexibility and scalability built into the solution are key selling points.
It varies a lot from customer to customer, but one module that almost always sparks enthusiasm is our communication module. It automatically manages communication with the customer’s suppliers, and it’s both easy to understand and easy to measure the effect of.
A lot of manual resources are spent on supplier communication. That can be time spent dealing with invoice errors or on follow-ups and status emails. When this is automated, a significant amount of time is freed up in accounts payable. That automation provides a very tangible value that can be felt from day one.