Partner Article

Basware improves collaboration and boosts e-invoicing

Basware Commerce Network becomes more interactive and immersive with Vendor Management Services and a new Business Directory

Basware, the leading provider of e-invoicing and purchase-to-pay solutions, has added two new services to the Basware Commerce Network. With the global launch of these new services, buyers and suppliers will find it easier to connect, transact and manage trading relationships over the network.

The Basware Commerce Network is more than just an infrastructure for e-invoicing. As the largest open business network in the world, it acts as a marketplace connecting 1 million companies across 100 countries, helping organisations of all sizes grow their business and improve cash flow.

The first feature, the Business Directory, allows businesses signed up to the Basware Commerce Network to easily search and find any trading contacts, such as suppliers and customers, and add them to their personal e-invoicing address book. This will boost further adoption of e-invoicing and bring greater payment efficiencies.

There are two ways to use the Business Directory. The first is simply to search for your customer or supplier manually by typing their name into the search field. Once found, it’s just one click to ‘Add to My Network’. The second method, to be introduced during the second quarter of 2016, is to import a list of your suppliers or customers and let the network match them against the entire Business Directory. This makes it easy to search the network for your trading partners quickly and efficiently.

The second feature is the Vendor Manager – a tool for larger organisations to provide self-service for vendors to manage their own data on the network. Vendor data maintenance is a key challenge for both Accounts Payable and Procurement functions in an organisation.

In effect, buyers empower businesses in the supply chain to manage key data required to process and pay invoices to the right accounts, on the right terms and in a timely manner. In making the changes themselves to certain fields, they can get paid more efficiently. This might include a change to the accounts payable contact, a new bank account number, or enriching the invoice data with the buyer’s own internal vendor code for improved invoice-to-order matching. Vendors can also upload documents required to establish a business relationship with the customer such as industry certificates or annual tax forms (US).

“By adding more valuable services and capabilities to our network, we’re creating an exciting marketplace that is changing the way business is done. More tightly linked financial and informational supply chains are creating new opportunities for business growth and working capital management,” said Ilari Nurmi, SVP, Products & Services at Basware.

“Traditionally, many large firms have invited suppliers to submit e-invoices via the Basware Commerce Network. Suppliers might not realise that being part of the Basware network gives them free access to interact with other customers. Now, by using the Business Directory it becomes easier for suppliers to find and connect with more of their customers. Our Vendor Manager tool also greatly improves collaboration between buyers and suppliers, and we hope this ability to work together more efficiently will bring about bigger benefits, including better cash flow, fewer late payments and a stronger supply chain overall. The network is continuously evolving and we’ll be looking to add new features to further cement its position as the global network of choice for businesses and government,” added Nurmi.

Vendor Management will be globally available via the Basware Commerce Network from January 1, 2016. The Business Directory will be available in the Nordics immediately and in further markets throughout 2016.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Basware UK .