The migration from the old habit of de-electronizing invoices by printing them on paper - and thereby loosing much of the valuable information - and causing a lot of cost for re-electronizing what is left of it - is gathering speed in many ways. Some examples:
- invoice receivers both nationally and multinationally are setting deadlines for paper or unstructered PDFs (really important to get all-to-all concepts and standards in place fast - to avoid fragmentation)
- invoice senders are charging consumers for paper - they have of course paid for them before - but now when it becomes visible the consumers are motivated to act in their own interest (help the service provider to cut cost)
- b2b invoice senders have also started to charge for paper invoices - recent example Shell (3€) and TeliaSonera (5€). What could be more natural and just for all- and more beneficial for the receiver who will not only avoid the hidden cost but also save
in the region of 15-25€
Easy to see that this train has left the station.