Several months back, David Terrar tagged me on "must have tools" for blogging. Here is my list:

1. WordPress – the host of this blog
2. Technorati – ranking that is all important. I am getting closer to 100,000th mark.
3. Qumana – Blog writer/editor
4. RSS Feed – tracking other blogs – Now that I use IE7, there is really no need for bloglines anymore
5. Mybloglog – unfortunately I cannot use this with my blog due to it being hosted by WordPress. However, it is useful when visiting other blogs to identify who else have recently visited those blogs. That gives instant credibility and also gives an opportunity to discover like minded bloggers.

I deliberately excluded sitemeter, as I no longer visit it even though I still have a counter on my blog.

As it is late, I will tag the same people again. Dave Stephens of Coupa, Philip Hemsted of Yuuguu, Paul Walsh of Segala, Ivan Pope of Snipperoo, and Gary Turner of Pegasus.

Tags: Dave Stephens, Coupa, Philip Hemsted, Yuuguu, Paul Walsh, Segala, Ivan Pope, Snipperoo, Gary Turner, Pegasus,  WordPress, Technorati, Qumana, RSS Feed, Mybloglog, Bloglines, Sitemeter, David Terrar

It’s the festive season as well as the silly season, i.e. people are less stressed. It seems that there is a game of blog-tag going around the blogsphere in which bloggers are sharing 5 things about themselves that relatively few people know, and then tagging five other bloggers to it. David Terrar tagged me yesterday asking 5 things that typical reader of my blog might not know about me. Here goes:

1. I went to a primary school in Sri Lanka called Gothami Kanishta Vidyalaya (GKV). Kanishta means primary. Vidyalaya means School. Gothami is a name of a woman. In fact its the name of the step mother of Prince Siddhartha, who looked after the Prince since his mother passed away when he was only 7 days old. Prince Siddhartha later became the Lord Buddha. In Sri Lanka, there is segregation between sexes when it comes to top schools. After Grade 5 (same as Year 5), I joined Royal College, the largest and the best (subjective, of course!) boys school in Sri Lanka. I was always conscious about GKV  (because it had a woman’s name) and therefore only spoke of my time at Royal College.
2. I came to UK in 1988 because I was not qualified to do an Engineering Degree in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, every parent wants their child to be a doctor, engineer or a lawyer. This created such a high level of competition, that you have to have exceptional results to get in to a Sri Lankan University. So, my father enrolled me to Brighton University (it only became a University in my final year, previously a Polytechnic). First few weeks were tough. I stayed with an English family for several weeks and they thought I was a son of an ambassador. How weird! I used to get up very early when I was in Sri Lanka. Rules of the English family was that I was not to use the facilities until they use it first in the morning. Good way to learn to control one’s bladder. Getting used to traditional English food was bit of a nightmare. After three weeks or so, I moved to university accommodation. Took me three years to start liking bake beans. How sad is that? Talking about bake beans, I was training at Alcatel in France in 1993 (after graduation) when one of the British trainers went on and on about how he missed Heinz bake beans…
3. I became the Lead Engineer for designing control, command, non-vital signalling and communications systems for South Leeds Supertram after 30 minutes introduction to such systems from a senior Engineer. He buggered off on holiday whilst I learn quickly to design, specify, evaluate quotes and put together relevant proposals for our consortium’s bid to build and operate the Supertram. Luckily, we lost the concession. Then went on a weekly training course and won the concession for Croydon Tramlink. I did the initial design works for Croydon Tramlink including choosing Syseca as the contractor for all light current systems, roughly worth £10m in mid 90s, best project I worked on.
4. In 1999, I managed to get out of a project I inherited from a predecessor, when I was working for Parsons Corporation in the United Arab Emirates. The project was to design and supervise a SCADA System for one of the Emirates’s potable water networks. PB Kennedy & Donkin was managing the Electricity SCADA, which was delayed due to many reasons. This resulted in our project been delayed intentionally by the client. This was costing us a small fortune (having revised the bid/design documents four times) that could not recover from the client due to the contract I inherited. The client was threatening to blacklist us if we withdrew. We won at the end by withdrawing – we managed to convinced them that having worked on the electricity SCADA system, the client’s engineers were well experienced to continue with the project without having to pay us consultancy fees for the next phase. Later that year I joined PB Kennedy & Donkin and few months after I inherited the Electricity SCADA project. Talk about change of fortunes! It was in complete shambles. Everybody lost a fortune (us the consultant, contractor and client).
5. Before Autumn 2002, I did not know what an ERP system was, even though the company I worked for used Oracle Financials. This is when I started my Executive MBA at Manchester Business School. First module I took was on Management Information Systems, which touched ERP systems. Some of my classmates knew much more about software and ERP systems than the bunch of lectures we had, especially learning about the legacy systems at Barclays and the astronomical cost of maintenance. Two years after, I was setting the building blocks of designing a solution to integrate ERP systems.

That should do it. Bit wordy though! So who can I tag. Let’s go for Dave Stephens of Coupa, Philip Hemsted of Yuuguu, Paul Walsh of Segala, Ivan Pope of Snipperoo, and Gary Turner of Pegasus.

Tags: Dave Stephens, Coupa, Philip Hemsted, Yuuguu, Paul Walsh, Segala, Ivan Pope, Snipperoo, Gary Turner, Pegasus, ERP, Manchester Business School, MBA, SCADA, Parsons Corporartions, PB Kennedy & Donkin, ERP, Croydon Tramlink, Gothami Kanishta Vidyalaya, Brighton University

You can download the original powerpoint presentation from Forrester (thanks to Jean-Philippe Massin for the story). The title above is A/P EIPP. Once again, the theme is about purchaser-centric exchange solutions. I personally do not like the idea of segregating companies into purchasers and suppliers. In the long run, the solutions that cater for both will be the winners.

Colour grid is (years are 2003 to 2006 from left to right):

1. Light brown – service revenues
2. Dark brown – subscription revenues
3. Light blue – Maintenance
4. Dark blue – License revenues

Bit confusing with the title here, as it says EIPP market dominated by SaaS. SaaS implies that there are no license fees nor maintenance fees, as the solution is usually offered as a hosted and managed service. And Forrester has not recognised transaction revenue, unless service = transactions.

Tags: EIPP, Forrester

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I checked my technorati rankings today, and to my amazement, I have moved up to 125,161th position. This is as a result of 102 links from 28 blogs. How have my friends and I done in relation to progress since 27th Oct 2006:

• Dennis Howlett – 9,607 (680 links from 210 blogs) –> 15,597 (717 links from 199 blogs 20 members) – what’s going on here Dennis?
• David Terrar – 45,307 (108 links from 49 blogs)     –> 41,864 (193 links from 79 blogs 3 members) – that’s more like it.
• Dave Stephens -79,650 (360 links from 29 blogs) —> 101,250 (343 links from 34 blogs 0 members) – reverse trend!
• Stuart Bruce —->15,203 (571 links from 204 blogs 14 members)
• Manoj Ranaweera – 152,874 (56 links from 16 blogs) —> 125,161 (102 links from 28 blogs)

So the target for me is to get in to the top 100,000.

Tags: Technorati+Rankings

I used to really dislike the website of Burns e-Commerce. Probably they hated it as well. Look at the new facelift given (launched in Dec 06). Not just that, there is a new logo as well. But I am disappointed with the followings:

1. Details on the management has been removed. I know they went through some turmoil in the past, and now the board is limited to two directors. But this should not be a reason to not display who is running the company.
2. I like the presentation, but cramming too many sketches into a limited space clutter the site.
3. News is limited to recent news. There should be links to archived news.
4. Nice to see a page for credits of images. Not sure whether this is mandatory.
5. No blog or any sign of web 2.0 technology unlike accountis.
6. I very much like the home page. Very well laid out.
7. No real statistics – missed opportunity
8. Gives the impression that they only have few clients – no recent wins

Accountis launched their new website in Oct 2006 incorporating some of the features of web 2.0. I cannot find anything negative to say about the site except perhaps it should be centered. What I like about accountis is:

1. Live chat
2. Blog – disappointed that Directors are not blogging here. I did complained to them about this.
3. I like the layout of the home page.
4. Statistics are missing
5. Finally, all senior staff has been recognised (what took you so long Rhys). Missing pictures is a disappointment. At least now I know what Rhys Jones looks like.

OB10 also launched their new website few months ago. Again there are more positives than negatives. Only negative I can think of is no pictures of senior management team. On the positive side, there are now webinars.

Causeway infact had an expensive consultancy firm brought in to create the logo, colour selection and the website. I am not a great lover of orange. Much better site compared to the previous, though. Well done Philip.

As you can see, I am getting bit tired (its 23:40hrs now). Hence less details on OB10 and Causeway. Accountis used to have hell of a lot of information on their site prior to revamp. Causeway has lot more information now than their previous website. Others have trim down and have made them more concise and easy to find/read.

In summary, except for the colour of Causeway, all websites have significantly improved. Its a pity to miss out on web 2.0 technology. Accountis should consider adding podcasts and webinars and lead the pack. OB10 got the biggest geographical penetration – perhaps introduction of a blog would help. It is a missed opportunity for most of them for not linking to old stories. That’s it folks for the day…

Tags: IEE, Document+Exchange, OB10, Open+Business+Exchange, Causeway, Burns+e-Commerce, Accountis

Another pioneer in the EIPP space is Burns e-Commerce from the North West of England, in fact not too far from where I live. Founded in 1989, now in 3rd incarnation, the beX (Burns Business Exchange) handles documents worth well over Euro23bn pa for global brands such as Philips, Eli Lilly, Office Depot, Intel and Citibank.

Above shows the document flow within beX. Their offering seems to be limited to 3 document types (purchase order, invoice and remittance), which keeps the solution simple, but also put a significant limitation. Modern systems should at least handle 9 document types (request for quotes, quotation, purchase order, delivery note, proof of delivery, invoice, credit note, debit note and remittance advice). See my article on UBL 2 which offers 31 document types. Payment is through ACH (I thought this was through Mastercard eP3).

beX supports a wide variety of structured message formats including:

• EDI (EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, ANSI X12)
• XML (internally on beXML format; plus ebXML, cXML, opXML, etc.)
• flat-file formats (beX’s own CSV format – beXSV)

beX seems to have offered limited number of formats, which keeps the solution simple, yet reduces its competitiveness when compared with solutions offered by others. Some will map any customer format. For payments, beX supports SWIFT, ACH, BAI, EDI and other proprietary banking payment formats.

Burns has also stretched the model to include "financial supply management" capability. Their method of implementation is to align with a invoice discounter (Finance Provider). Once the supplier select "pay now", the Finance Provider takes care of the appropriate payment. The issue here is that suppliers may already have invoice discounting or factoring arrangements in place. In this case, once the suppliers have joined beX for document exchange, they would also need to either ditch their existing Finance Provider in order to benefit from Burns arrangement, or not use Burns payment facility at all. However, in theory, Burns Finance Provider will be able to offer much higher % of the invoice amount due to visibility of the invoice transaction (that negative practices of invoicing and crediting the next day ironed out), which is of course good news to suppliers.

Above shows outgoing document management from purchasers to suppliers. Notice that this solution is implemented as a purchaser-centric exchange solution, and not delivering equal benefits to both purchaser and supplier (i.e. the solution specifically recognises a company as a supplier or a purchaser instead of recognising a company as both a supplier and a purchaser – there is a significant difference when you start to segregate companies).

It seems Burns also handles documents in paper, fax and e-mail formats in addition to electronically. This is a plus but makes the solution complicated, as you need to provide expensive means of data correction, etc.

I will revisit Burns in the near future including discussing how they were funded, etc.

Tags: EIPP, Burns+e-Commerce, Burns, Accountis, Document+Exchange, eBXML, cXML, EDI

I picked this from Stuart Bruce’s blog.

Are you looking for news aggregators on EIPP? If so, it might well be worth visiting ebillingnews.com. Other than Accountis, not many companies are listed on this site. Looks like more work is required by the operators of this site.

Tags: EIPP, eBillingnews.com

The term "billing" is usually associated with consumers, whilst the term "invoice" is used in the context of one business buying services or goods from another business. In the case of LSE listed Microgen, I believe, the term "billing" is used for B2B.

Microgen’s services include:

• Managed services – rapid deployment and minimal up-front payment
• Change management
• Customer adaptation programme
• Powerful credit management application to improve cash flow
• Available on line for 90 days from date of despatch – can be stored longer

Most of the solutions you see in the market place are driven by A/P functions, but here is a solution that is driven by A/R. Refer to my old notes on market segmentation. Some of the key features include:

• Delivery notification through e-mails – customer needs to visit the managed service to view the invoice
• Invoices presented in PDF format for viewing
• Invoices can be downloaded in CSV and eBis-XML formats into the accounting and financial systems
• Other documents covered include statements, credit notes, delivery notes, etc.
• There is also a BACSTEL-IP payment solution
• Reporting and analysis

Microgen was one of the pioneers of EIPP, having established a foot hold in the market in early 2000s. However, the functionality provided seem to be limited when compared with rich models such as those offered by Accountis. The CSV and eBis-XML formats add significant limitation to integration with thousands of finance and accounting systems out there, but on the other hand it makes their model much simpler. The technology may need an overhaul to give more flexibility to customer requirements, such as use of web services and SOA, which makes connectivity simpler, and gives the opportunity to add further functionality.

Microgen does not seem to publish customer details on their website unlike other players in the market. What a shame?

Tags: Microgen, EIPP, EBPP, ExPP, e-invoicing, BACSTEL-IP, eBis-XML, CSV, Accountis

American Express has signed an agreement to acquire Atlanta-based Harbor Payments, a privately-held provider of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) systems. Harbor Payments was formed in 2000 and head quartered in Atlanta with 200 employees. Its technology centre is based in Bangalore and has offices throughout the USA. Its sales channels include Bank of New York among number of large corporates.

Harbor has four platforms, these being:

• invoices – 55 clients including UPS, Kodak, P&G and American Express
• billing – 100+ clients including Chevron
• payments – 100+ clients including Liz Claiborne
• claims -

Invoice Harbour is a web based EIPP solution.

Harbor Payments (name changed from Cyberstarts to Harbor Payments in 2003) has a history of strategic acquisitions:

• 2003 – Acquires Billserv
• 2004 – Acquired Velosant
• 2005 – Acquired assets of Emergis Technologies Inc 

As per the press release…..

American Express says the Harbor technology will become the basis of its new suite of ‘source-to-settle’ electronic purchasing systems, named S2S. It will begin marketing the package to corporations in the US in January 2007 and has plans to expand on a global basis later.

"Our clients have been asking American Express to play a broader role in helping them manage expenses and reduce costs across a broad array of purchasing categories. Simply put, we can help clients do more with less," says Gordon Smith, president of American Express Global Commercial Card. "The goal is to help companies automate and seamlessly integrate the multiple steps in the source-to-settle process."

Tags: American+Express, EIPP, Harbor+Payments