The coronavirus has upended our way of life, putting the global economy at risk. In this difficult situation, the sustainable development of each company, in addition to its own efforts, depends on the behavior of its partners. Against this background, the shocks in the supply chain, which occurred as a result of the measures taken to limit the infection, require special attention.
From paper to electronic exchange
Operations that depend on physical assets such as paper can face serious problems when physical presence is hampered, analysts from the World Economic Forum said in a paper titled “Supply Chains Are Disrupted, How to Make Them More Sustainable.” They are adamant that in the current pandemic, companies with strong digital infrastructure are coping with supply chain problems much more successfully than those that are not well digitized.
However, paper document exchanges continue to account for a large share of document exchange between organizations, although it leads to delayed payments, higher costs, and limited access to document history.
When using paper to generate orders, stock receipts, and invoices, some industry professionals don’t realize that this outdated approach is risky, especially in terms of security and privacy. To address these challenges, companies need to realize that the real value lies in the data itself, not in the paper documents.
However, what do the facts show? According to the leading e-invoicing consultancy Billentis, the total annual exchange of invoices in the world was 550 billion in 2019, with only 10% of them sent electronically. Of all paper-based documents, 7.5% were lost, while another 3% were filled in incorrectly. Statistics from recent years show that electronic cargo transport documents (e-FTD) represent only 12% of exchanges in cross-border road transport.
The Solution – Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Electronic data exchange is a service that the manufacturer of fiscal devices and commercial software Eltrade offers on the Bulgarian market as an authorized partner of the Polish IT company ComArch.
Based in Krakow, Poland, ComArch is a global provider of innovative software solutions for markets on six continents, operating with 57 subsidiaries and over 6,500 employees.
The Comarch EDI service or the exchange of business documents in electronic format is an automated process that optimizes business operations related to the b2b communications of companies.
The benefits are many. According to a survey of ComArch customers carried out in 2019, 83% of companies that have implemented electronic exchange have saved more than 50% of their administrative costs. Errors in documentary exchange have fallen by 60-70%, and for one-sixth of the participants in the survey – by 100%. Faster exchange of electronic invoices was reported by 90% of respondents, with the same number saying that their logistics operations had accelerated by 50%.
Uniting more than 130 thousand. companies from 45 different countries that exchange approximately 650 million documents each year, the Comarch EDI Network enables dynamic and secure data transfer between businesses and their business partners.
The first retail chain to choose this form of document exchange with its suppliers was Billa Bulgaria, and in 2009 Eltrade introduced electronic invoices in Metro. Since then, most large retail chains, chains of pharmacies and drugstores in the country have trusted the EDI platform, which allows automatic processing and exchange of thousands of documents.
“Through the service, we provide them with easy access to a global EDI platform, and through the Customer Service Center we offer training and overall management of the EDI project according to the current international standards for information exchange,” says Tanya Aidanliyska, Head of Comarch EDI Department at Eltrade. The system is adapted to the requirements of Bulgarian legislation and European directives, guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin of the documents and the inviolability of the documents content by encrypting the connection. This ensures full protection of the information exchanged.
According to Tanya Ginova, Process Management Manager at Kaufland Bulgaria, the main motives for the introduction of electronic data exchange in the retail chain are related to the company’s environmental strategy and the policy pursued for digitalization and optimization of processes. According to her, the processing of documents after the introduction of EDI becomes much faster, the costs of this process, as well as the risk of errors, are significantly reduced. Costs for paper, printing, courier services and the labor of employees who reorient themselves to other activities are saved. Documents are automatically received and processed in the ERP system used by Kaufland, thanks to which suppliers receive invoice payments on time, there is no need to return documents to them due to errors, and archiving is done in an EDI archive instead of in a physical one.
In the current crisis situation, the slightest inefficiency leads to direct losses, and working in health-threatening conditions requires special measures. Therefore, the experts of “Eltrade” and ComArch advise – give up paper now and work safely and efficiently!
Digital transformation is no longer an option, it is imperative, Billentis’ analysts are adamant, who predict that the global e-invoicing market will continue to grow, reaching approximately 18 billion euros in 2025.
