One of the biggest challenges facing the healthcare industry today is the sheer volume of data and patient information that needs to be processed to ensure the right outcomes for every patient. According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “unstructured data can account for up to 80 percent of a patient’s medical record. That is a lot of data that isn’t readily accessible. Moreover, many health systems or companies have this unstructured data siloed in multiple repositories”.
Healthcare organizations are developing gigabytes of data per patient, zettabytes of data per year as an industry, and still, most of that content is unstructured:
Communications about a patient
A letter of medical necessity
A referral
A note
An image
The healthcare industry is still struggling to digitize patient information processes. Patients present themselves to a provider and they have identifications, insurance cards, and paper medical histories; and fax is still the dominant form of communication between many of providers and payers.
In this environment, it is imperative to be able to understand and utilize the value of unstructured patient information. But that’s just the start. The prevalence of legacy and archived content and program and grant data has resulted in valuable information isolated or lost in siloes.
OpenText™ Documentum™ for Healthcare empowers health systems, hospitals, and large group practices to turn unstructured content into actionable data through an integrated patient record that allows healthcare organizations to transform the way they manage, access, and share patient information. This creates efficiencies and can help optimize care delivery across the continuum of care. By uniting fragmented patient data locked away in disparate systems and information silos, Documentum for Healthcare can create a complete patient-centric view of all essential information beyond the EMR—regardless of source, location or format.
Unite fragmented patient data to bridge the gaps in EMR
By uniting fragmented patient data locked away in disparate systems and information silos, Documentum for Healthcare can create a fully integrated, patient-centric view of all essential information beyond the EMR—regardless of source, location or format—necessary for improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. Data from legacy EMR systems can be archived, paper records can be captured, and all of this data can then be made available in context to the patient within the current EMR. This can also help in addressing specific needs around social determinants of health, and gaps in care which both require data beyond the typical medical record.
Digitize patient documents
Digitize patient documents and manage all medical images, including clinical media integrated into your clinical applications, for seamless sharing. Capture all structured and unstructured content types—documents, audio, email, digital photos, videos, and other electronically produced information—to complete the transition from paper to fully indexed electronic patient records while linking them to their EMR.
Improve care team collaboration and care coordination
Improve care team collaboration and care coordination, and promote clinician satisfaction by providing easy, secure access to all patient information at the point of care. Improve sharing of patient information—within your organization and externally across the continuum of care—to enable the processes that deliver the right information, in the right context, to the right person, at the right time. Utilize healthcare standards for interoperability and document sharing to improve care delivery, collaboration, and compliance.
Ensure compliance and Share information
Securely share information, supporting Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) standards for sharing, cross-community access, and basic patient consent. Become better adept at sharing patient information—within your organization and externally across the continuum of care—to enable the processes that deliver the right information, in the right context, to the right person, at the right time.
Learn more about how Documentum for Healthcare can help you manage the growing volume of patient information.
The latest licensed version of OpenTextTM AxcelerateTM is out! This version includes some great additions, including support for Opus 2TM cloud, document translation for licensed customers of Amazon TranslateTM, decryption during ingestion, undo for bulk tagging, and so much more! Let’s take a closer look.
New Features for Axcelerate Review & Analysis
Document Production & Bulk Printing. Both of these features now allow users to select various landscape options.
Visualizer. Now includes ability to export any of the charts within Visualizer to an image format and its corresponding data to a CSV format.
Global Redaction. Now includes an option to exclude terms. Checking the box for Exclude Terms will reveal a new section where exclusionary terms can then be entered.
Redactions. Redaction Reasons and/or redaction associated colors can now be changed across subsets of records. This option can be found under Manage Redactions on the Actions menu within the Analysis page.
Once Change Redactions option is opened, a pop-up window will appear with the available options for the select records.
Opus 2. Axcelerate now supports production records being directly ported over to Opus 2 cloud. Once Opus 2 has been configured to connect with Axcelerate, Case Managers can then port production records over within Axcelerate via the Actions menu within the Analysis page.
A pop-up window will then appear with options for this job where the Case Manager can select production output and metadata.
Documents sent to Opus 2 can be identified via the Sent to Opus 2 Smart filter under Work Product.
Magellan Business Intelligence. Now includes a Data Progress Report that provides a filterable report on all data sets by custodian with details as to document counts and size.
Business Intelligence also now allows for sharing custom dashboards.
Machine Translation. Axcelerate now has the ability to generate machine translations for customers with Amazon Translate licenses (translations via Veritone is also still available). Once Amazon Translate has been set up, case managers are able to enable it for their projects and select a target langue for translation. Please see your OpenText Program Manager for further details.
RegEx Pattern Search. This feature has now allow users to define pattern searches across the addressee fields as well as the Title field.
New Features for Axcelerate Ingestion/ECA
Decryption. 7-zip, office, and PDF files can now be decrypted during ingestion when a list of potential passwords is provided within the Data Source configuration node.
Parsers
Encase Parser. Now supports chat data from MS Teams and Slack.
MS Teams Parser. Now supports the export of Channel names, redactions, edit dates of messages, message deletions, and Urgent and Important flags.
Connectors
MS Teams Connector. Now supports:
the inclusion/exclusion of all channels of a Team by leaving the channel value empty. A row with a channel name supersedes a row without a channel name; and
extracting meeting details (start time, end time, duration, initiator).
Outlook for Mac Connector. Now supports 2016 and 2019 Outlook versions.
MS Sharepoint Connector. Now supports indexing metadata of Recycle Bin items.
New Admin Features
OCR. OpenText MindServer AdminTM now allows for changing the language group that will be used by OpenText CaptureTM. This allows for changing character sets used for OCR to accommodate multi-language data sets.
PostgreSQL. Previous version has been upgraded to version 14 with backport available to 22.4.
Undo Tagging Operations. Administrators can now use a command-line (undo.bat) to undo bulk or single tag operations. This operation is tracked within both the Jobs Processing Smart Filter and Document History detail.
Performance
Did you know… Axcelerate has made substantial improvements to performance over the last few years? See below for more details:
Version
Performance Update
Axcelerate 20.2
Index engines improved to handle 50 million records per engine – x5 increase from original limit! Efficiencies to WordMap for improved indexing, record capacity and search retrieval
Axcelerate 20.4
PST Archival handling improved for quicker handling with less exceptions Index Engine Partitions updated to process simultaneously for faster processing and eliminating need for extra Java heap size
Axcelerate 21.2
New memory manager created to protect against OOM query processing Duplicate hash computation moved to index engine Both searches and Search Query Editor reports in Ingestion are run as Jobs and can be sent to generate in the background
Axcelerate 22.2
Distributed worker hosts can be configured on a single engine for improved handling of larger ingestion jobs Further efficiencies to WordMap for improved indexing, record capacity and search retrieval
Axcelerate 22.4
Memory handling improved to prevent OOM issues during near-duplicate detection
Axcelerate 23.2
Near duplicate detection now computes with multi-threading Ingestion performance improved by increasing index threads from 12 to 32 using distributed indexing, enabling redistribution of index across partition via command-line (reindexdocuments.bat)
More to Come
Our next release will come out later this year and planned new features include sampling in Axcelerate InvestigationTM, stand-alone Investigation and Review & Analysis applications, document comparison, and audio/video support with transcriptions.
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
— Proverb
From a business perspective, innovation is good. It makes new things possible, pushes the limits of our abilities, and fuels our imaginations so we can do more — faster, cheaper and better than before. And technology is, of course, a major driver of innovation.
But from a climate perspective, innovation – and the technology behind it – can be seen as both helpful and detrimental. There’s an entire set of climate technologies, such as drought-resistant crops, early warning systems and sea walls, that help us adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. But our quest for innovation has also led us to embrace other technologies, practices and priorities that may be doing the environment more harm than good.
In 2019, digital technologies made up 3.5% of global emissions, and projections put that growth at more than 6 percent per year. As our pursuit of innovation grows, so does the amount of damage we’re doing.
How can we better align innovation with sustainability?
So far, in our modern information management blog series, we’ve discussed information overload and how to overcome it; using AI to uncover insight and drive automation; and the benefits of simplifying cybersecurity while enhancing our ability to detect and protect from threats and recover from incidents. In this blog we’ll examine how the technology choices we make can foster innovation while reducing negative environmental impacts.
Innovate sustainably
If we make the right technology choices, sustainability can become an integral part of our innovation goals. In other words, we can be innovative and sustainable at the same time.
From connecting with our suppliers and partners to managing our cloud and IT infrastructures to the way we code applications, advanced technologies in information management can help us reduce our carbon footprint and take us from pledge to program to results. Here are just a few examples:
Build sustainable supply chains – Gain an end-to-end view of the supply chain network to identify areas of friction, monitor transportation costs and analyze trading partner performance. Digitize and automate processes to make supply chains more efficient and competitive while significantly reducing reliance on paper.
Evolve FinOps to GreenOps – Optimize the efficiency of cloud deployments while minimizing the environmental impact. FinOps solutions track cloud, software and asset spend and usage, and are well-positioned to track and manage environmental impacts as well. This means being able to measure the carbon footprint of your operations, identify areas where sustainability can be improved and make informed tradeoffs between cost and carbon.
Develop code responsibly – All code development creates a carbon footprint, but creating efficient code that consumes less energy, optimizes data usage and reduces electronic waste helps minimize the impact.
Transition from paper to digital processes — Decrease business requirements for paper by making electronic documents readily available to people from anywhere on any device; create a paperless environment through the active management of enterprise content assets; and access and collaborate on digital documents or online media help improve operations while minimizing your environmental impact.
Compete sustainably
When it comes to sustainability, it’s not just what we’re doing that’s changing, it’s also why we’re doing it. Corporate sustainability has moved from a feel-good initiative to a must-have mandate for organizations to stay ahead in business: When IDC’s recent Sustainability Technology Survey asked what business outcomes respondents have achieved by implementing sustainability into existing business operations, 60% cited improved operational efficiency, 58% cited improved customer loyalty, and 57% cited improved employee engagement.
According to IDC’s survey data, sustainability factors have become critical selection criteria for IT buyers’ vendor selection process, in the context of purchasing technology that is more sustainable (e.g., for more-energy-efficient IT infrastructure) or enabling their sustainability indirectly (e.g., through the ESG-related functionality that software can provide).
Sustainability is a competitive differentiator that can improve operational and financial performance, which helps give it greater weight amid corporate priorities.
Modern information management
Sustainability is a key outcome of modern information management, which combines advanced technologies and innovative cloud strategies to connect data, secure knowledge and apply intelligence for any user, any data type, anywhere, at any speed, for any rules. Organizations that take advantage of modern information management don’t have to sacrifice sustainability to innovate, solve their business challenges and achieve digital success.
OpenText solutions protect information at the scale that today’s businesses need, helping them to work smarter and gain the information advantage. Learn more about how your organization can benefit.
Read the other blog posts in this series on modern information management:
The demand for digital self-service coupled with immersive, interactive experiences is growing. It led OpenTextTM to embark on a modernization program to transform its approach to digital experience.
“Our objective is to deliver a total experience: one that offers everyone—whether they are a prospect, customer, business partner or even an OpenText employee—the same easy access to digital content from our entire ecosystem,” said Hans-Gerd Schaal, vice president of digital engagement at OpenText. “We want to make it fast and simple for our stakeholders to find anything they are looking for: business trends, solution and product information, technical demos, training resources, commercial services and more.”
OpenText realized its vision could not be achieved by bolting on new capabilities to its existing website and systems. Instead, the company embraced a platform approach – beginning with a re-platformed, a new website design and data-driven journeys. By harnessing a composable architecture built on OpenText Experience Cloud and powered by Google Cloud Platform, the company laid the foundation for richer, more relevant and more compelling data-intelligent experiences.
The new digital platform is powering fresh content for more than 1,100 web pages, offering greater clarity and accessibility, and more personalization.
Since going live with the new OpenText.com experience, digital engagement rose 10%. The digital publishing team also reports a 50% reduction in time to market for new digital content. Learn more about how OpenText is enabling integrated digital experiences.
Where are you on a path to future-ready experiences?
With growing economic headwinds, organizations know they need to provide timely, relevant and personal experiences to attract and retain customers. Companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than their peers, according to a report by McKinsey. Combined with the fact that companies consistently providing relevant omnichannel experiences grow revenue 41% faster and you have ample reason to build a modernization strategy.
If experiences of the past were built for everyone resulting in lifeless, generic and impersonal mass offers with lower engagement and satisfaction, experiences of the future are unique, relevant and hyper-personal – cultivating loyalty and repeat business. Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that are not. Discover these 8 paths to future-ready experiences to get started on your modernization journey.
“Employees suffering from information overload tune out and check out.”[1]
The realities of modern work have forced organizations to rapidly adapt to new ways of working, as well as new risks. To master modern work, organizations must do more than simply manage the high volumes of information generated day to day, they must also assess how their information management strategy impacts both employees and customers. When properly harnessed, information can help organizations to anticipate trends and outmaneuver the competition. The organizations that achieve the greatest success will be those able to leverage their information to drive business transformation. Information management is essential to mastering modern work in several ways:
Reduce risk: Information Management means knowing where all content, particularly risky content, can be found. By controlling content sprawl and ensuring all information and devices are securely managed, both on and off-cloud, organizations not only support productivity but also safeguard their data. This ensures compliance and helps to avoid risks of reputational damage, or worse.
Support seamless collaboration: Ensuring employees can access necessary data anytime and anywhere makes remote and hybrid teamwork friction-free. Ensuring a seamless connection between content and process, with business-critical data integrated directly into key workflows, breaks down information silos to speed and smooth both the employee and the customer experience.
Facilitate frictionless employee experiences: To master modern work, organizations must provide a modern user experience and streamlined business processes that simplify decision-making. In the wake of the great resignation, productivity is not the only critical metric. Attracting and retaining top talent is also vital to an organization’s success. To succeed, organizations must value employees’ experience of work, not only the customer experience. Eliminating time wasted searching for content across disparate repositories, automating repetitive, mundane processes, and eliminating duplicate tasks through integration will improve the employee experience and will in turn positively impact the customer experience.
Improve operational experience: Operational experience is the bridge spanning the employee’s experience as a worker and the customer’s experience interacting with the business. Effective information management makes the connection seamless, putting critical information at employees’ fingertips to facilitate great customer experiences.
Gartner found that “50% of employees reported struggling to find the right information or people to do the job, or an ever-increasing volume of tasks. They are so overwhelmed, they can no longer see the bigger picture; they cannot spot changes in customer needs[2].” Certainly, effective information management improves employees’ day-to-day experience by reducing time wasted searching for critical information. However, by helping track and manage both business and customer needs, information management also benefits customers and drives business results.
What do you need for successful information management?
Integration to drive performance: The number of applications organizations rely on for day-to-day operations is on the rise and showing no sign of slowing down. Because business processes must span multiple applications and data sources, integration is vital. Weaving information into business processes delivers information when and where it’s needed to increase productivity and create connections that spark insight, facilitating innovation.
Automation to boost efficiency: Effective information management enables business process automation, allowing organizations to optimize workflows for faster ROI, making decision-making faster and simpler by enriching content with actionable insights and providing real-time analysis of operational efficiency. Eliminating manual and duplicate effort results in fewer errors and more engaging user experiences.
Information governance to mitigate risk: While cybersecurity is crucial, information governance is equally important. Managing where and how sensitive content is stored creates a foundation of information security to minimize risk.
Support from a trusted partner: Mastering modern work requires more than just choosing the right technology. Working with a strategic partner can be crucial to maximizing the business value of your information and streamlining business processes.
How can you get started on the path to smarter information?
Start by defining the information management vision for your business, then develop a strategy to achieve it. This will ensure that technology investments are chosen to align with long-term business priorities. For most organizations, this will mean streamlining business processes through integration and shifting toward cloud infrastructure.
There are lots of different terms used to describe B2B process automation. These terms can be confusing, partly because they are so inter-related. This article will go into detail on these terms to dispel some of the confusion and explain common terms used within B2B process automation, including the differences between Ecommerce and EDI.
First, electronic commerce (e-Commerce) is a very common term that refers to the exchange of information via electronic media such as the Internet and private communication networks.
What are the two types of Ecommerce?
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Ecommerce – this is the term that most people are thinking of when Ecommerce is mentioned. Every day, we experience B2C Ecommerce, whether it is booking airline tickets and hotel reservations or buying books, shoes and clothes online.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Ecommerce – as its name implies, B2B Ecommerce is the electronic exchange of information between two businesses, rather than between a consumer and a business.
What is EDI?
Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the most commonly used B2B Ecommerce technology today. It is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents, such as purchase orders and invoices, in a standard electronic format between business partners. You can use standards such as ANSI X12, EDIFACT, or an XML-based standard such as RosettaNet in the high tech industry. There are many different types of EDI that utilize different standards.
EDI has been in use across many industries, including retail, banking, manufacturing, high-tech and services, since the 1980s and it remains a game-changer. In order to achieve the benefits of EDI, the businesses involved must aim to be as tightly integrated as possible with each other.
Twenty-first century corporations expect a network of business partners – their suppliers, their customers, their logistics providers, their banks – to function in a way that enables digital integration.
What are the two types of B2B Integration?
Integration at the data level –automation of the exchange of business documents between business applications, such as automating the exchange of all the documents in the procure-to-pay process.
Integration at the people level – enabling B2Bcollaboration between the people in different companies during business processes such as dispute resolution and new vendor registration.
For two businesses to tightly integrate at the data level, they need to automate the following tasks:
Connect electronically – usually via the internet using a secure communications protocol, such as AS2, SFTP, or FTPS
Exchange data electronically in a format that can be understood by the computer systems at each company – usually via an EDI standard format, which can be immediately understood
Translate the EDI data to the format of each company’s in-house system – typically accomplished by using special EDI translator software
B2B integration at the people level
For two businesses to tightly integrate at the people level, and truly collaborate to resolve issues or plan new initiatives, they need a central repository of critical information about business partners, such as details related to Ecommerce readiness, regulatory compliance, consumer product safety, supplier diversity programs and environmental responsibility surveys.
Furthermore, they need the information management tools to simply and easily:
Enable business partners to maintain their own company and contact profiles, thus keeping partner information fresh and up-to-date
Perform mass communications to appropriate segments of the trading partner base without relying on out-of-date spreadsheets on various employees’ computers
Roll out compliance initiatives (e.g., send a 20-question survey to suppliers regarding the greenhouse gas initiative) to all or a subset of your partner community
Audit business partners’ compliance with various initiatives
Capture, share, and collaborate on performance-related data that helps to rapidly resolve multi-party disputes and discrepancies with full traceability and audit control. For example, this can result in improvements like a reduction of over-payments resulting from unprocessed or poorly negotiated shipping, pricing or claims disputes
What are 3 different approaches to data-level and people-level B2B integration tasks?
A “Do-It-Yourself” approach, in which you are responsible for purchasing and maintaining all of the connections and software systems that address both types of integration.
A “Managed Services” approach, in which you outsource the responsibility for all the B2B integration tasks.
A combination of both 1 and 2.
If you’d like to learn more about why B2B integration is such a hot topic and its many benefits for businesses of all sizes, read our latest integration blog.
Are your telephone lines plain and old? The era of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) analog lines is coming to an end. Many organizations need to embrace a scalable and efficient document delivery solution designed for the modern age. With the elimination of copper wire phone services, now is the perfect time to transition. A digital fax solution offers enhanced security, compliance with regulations and a host of other benefits.
In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a memorandum allowing companies to decommission copper wire phone services as early as August 2022. The FCC recognized the public interest is no longer served by maintaining legacy regulatory obligations and the associated costs of copper wire phone lines. As a result, the phase-out of copper wire telephone systems is inevitable. If your organization relies on copper wire POTS lines for faxing, it’s crucial to consider switching before you face unexpected cancellations or unregulated price increases.
Overcoming business challenges
Busy signals and capacity constraints are common with analog fax lines. Besides telephone failures and line quality, analog fax lines can only do one thing at a time: send or receive. This leads to headaches with scale as businesses grow or accommodate peak hours of activity.
Document security is another problem. Analog faxing often leaves pages exposed or missing. With remote work, the recipient might not even be in the office to collect the pages. This makes compliance and security an issue. And online fax service providers often use email as the only method for submission and delivery, placing the burden of security on the client.
Layer in the amount of handling and rework required for any application handoff and analog faxing becomes a difficult workflow practice. Any automation or integration with legacy systems adds to the challenge, making digital transformation of fax processes difficult if not impossible. And pulling all this together, correcting the inefficiency, managing the organization, hardware/ MFPs, software servers, and priorities is costly.
Rise to the occasion with digital fax
A digital fax solution offers a path to modernization tailored to your organization’s specific needs. By transitioning to a cloud or hybrid solution, you can eliminate the reliance on copper and analog lines – opening up a world of benefits. Security is enhanced, ensuring the safe exchange of information. User experience is improved, thanks to mobile capabilities and enriched administrative tools. Built-in workflows can be developed to streamline business processes and boost efficiency.
OpenTextTM offers a portfolio of digital fax solutions designed for organizations of all sizes. With OpenText, users can securely exchange faxes from email or desktop applications, as well as integrate faxing seamlessly with enterprise platforms like SAP®, Oracle® and Epic. The need for standalone fax machines and fax cards becomes obsolete, eliminating issues such as busy signals and analog adapters. Advanced traceability, single sign-on, and rich tooling features simplify administrative tasks, while compliance with regulations and data encryption ensures strict security requirements are met. Mobile-ready features and critical integrations with essential fax-dependent tools and workflows enable employees to perform tasks easily, improving overall productivity.
The phase-out of copper wire POTS lines is inevitable, and organizations need to adapt to the changing landscape. By implementing a digital fax solution powered by OpenText, organizations can modernize their document delivery processes, enhance security, improve user experience, and increase productivity. Don’t wait until it’s too late – make the switch today and unlock the full potential of a modern fax solution. Speak to an expert.
Welcome to the July 2023 edition of our e-Invoicing newsletter.
In our Hot Topics section read about the exciting new changes coming to our blog for 2023.
In “Compliance news and updates” read the latest world news on mandates. In the EU, the European Parliament has provided significant updates to the proposed amendments to the VAT Directive arising from the ViDA report (VAT In the Digital Age).
Germany, Spain and Romania progress with their intent to introduce mandatory e-Invoicing. We have included an update relating to the 2024 reform in France.
Over the past few months we’ve been making some changes to our blogs in response to popular requests from subscribers. We have been introducing country-specific update pages so we can capture what is happening more rapidly, and also to enable you to quickly review the status of a particular country at-a-glance, without having to cross-reference multiple newsletters.
The newsletter will remain, but each iteration will now be simply a collection of the country-specific updates that have been published since the previous newsletter.
As you can see below, from the OpenText Blogs page, if you navigate to “News & Events”, you will now see e-Invoicing as a discrete link on the left. Hover over the link and the latest country updates will pop out for you to click on.
Or click on the e-Invoicing link to view the list of all available country specific blogs.
Compliance news and updates
European Union – Proposed amendments to the VAT Directive
In response to the ViDA report (VAT In the Digital Age) discussed here previously, the European Parliament has reviewed the proposed changes to the VAT Directive.
The EU has offered several amendments that undermine certain aspects of the ViDA proposal, thus impacting the potential for harmonization in favor of accommodating national preferences.
While most of the amendments are minor, some are not, and there are over 250 in total. Of course, ViDA covers broader topics of taxation, not simply e-Invoicing, so not all of these amendments are relevant. Here we will focus on the key amendments from an e-Invoicing perspective.
Timelines
In the first instance, and not terribly surprising, the timelines proposed had been considered very aggressive and so most of the key deadlines / milestones have been pushed back at least one year and, in some cases, longer.
Definition of an electronic invoice relaxed
One of the key changes from an electronic invoicing perspective has been the watering down of the proposal to redefine the term “electronic invoice” to only mean a document transmitted “in a structured electronic format”. The new text reads “in any electronic format”.
A later amendment clarifies that for transactions below €1,000, companies can still use paper or other formats.
This allows PDFs to remain a valid format for electronic invoicing, which could be problematic. While PDFs are “easy” in some regards, companies still process them manually and they provide almost none of the key benefits that can be seen from switching to fully automated e-Invoicing. The EU provided no specific justification for the change but it is likely this is intended to reduce the burden on smaller businesses.
Clearance or prior authorization by tax authorities
Authorities have removed the text proposed, which could have eliminated or at least minimized the use of clearance models for e-Invoicing. With clearance model e-invoicing, widely used in Latin America and introduced in Italy. The tax authority reviews and approves each invoice by validating the content prior to it being issued to the taxpayer with clearance model e-Invoicing which is used in Latin America and Italy. This represents a significant additional burden to businesses in terms of potential delays in invoice issuance.
The original text removed by the EU included, “The issuance of electronic invoices by taxable persons and their transmission shall not be subject to a prior mandatory authorisation or verification by the tax authorities”. The justification for this change is that “pre-acceptance of an invoice after verification of certain formal elements can be an important instrument for combating tax fraud at national level.”
Use of the European Norm optional not mandatory
The new text also removes a stipulation to make European Standard (EN-16931) mandatory when countries impose e-Invoicing. This paves the way for countries to introduce their own invoice standards. As we have seen, this is what has been happening to date, with Italy, France, Poland already introducing their own invoice formats.
Businesses face a new challenge with these regulations and the additional obligation to support different invoice standards in different regions and maintain them with regular updates as they evolve. Keeping up to date with these national changes is already a significant challenge for businesses. Consider how often you have needed to update your paper invoices in the last 10 years. Perhaps once per country to accommodate the addition / amendment of one or more mandatory fields? Often companies handle these changes through amendments to the templates they use to print out your paper / PDF invoices. Changes to the content of structured e-Invoices may require modifications to your ERP or finance/accounting package. In the future you can expect one or two changes per year based on our experience in other countries.
The proposals are still in draft stage and these amendments must still be ratified before the VAT directive can be amended.
You can review the proposed amendments in detail via the links provided. There were two documents, the first document dated 5 May 2023 containing the first 87 suggestions, and the second dated 20 June 2023 covering the remaining 164.
Germany propose B2B e-Invoicing mandate for January 2025
Germany recently announced it’s proposed timeline for implementation of a B2B e-Invoicing mandate covering all domestic transactions. The German Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium der Finanzen or BMF) issued a discussion document on April 17, 2023, with details of the proposed changes to the current legislation. This timeline would see implementation of the proposed mandatory e-Invoicing regime commencing on 1st January 2025.
The proposal takes into account the framework proposed by the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) proposal put forth by the European Commission in December 2022.
This proposal offers some indications as to what key changes would be made to the existing German tax legislation.
Germany will update the legal definition of invoices to include electronically issued invoices. The definition of an e-Invoice would be based on the ViDA proposal and the European Norm (EN16931) standard introduced by the EU Public Procurement Directive (2014/24/EU).
E-Invoices would then become the default and mandatory system of invoicing for all B2B transactions, replacing paper.
Any other types of invoices, such as paper, and electronic formats including PDF and EDI would be grouped together as “Other invoices”, and are out of scope of the mandate. There remains some confusion as to what place there might be for such invoices, if any.
The proposal also includes amendments to the existing German laws which cover the requirements for authenticity, integrity, and legibility of invoices.
The Ministry of Finance is seeking input from businesses, software/solution providers and other stakeholders prior to issuing a draft law. This consultation process is due to run from April through to 8th May 2023.
The BMF is seeking comments around whether the government should seek a phased deployment as per France or should take more of the “big bang” approach of Poland. They are also seeking input regarding whether a phased approach should be based on size of company, invoice amounts or other alternatives.
Also open for comment is whether exceptions to the mandate should be made for certain invoice types such as micro invoices, tickets etc.
The proposal also presents two different implementation models.
One of the proposed approaches would be to leverage the PEPPOL network in a “5-corner model” leveraging the established PEPPOL network. PEPPOL Access Points would send a copy of the invoices to the proposed government e-Invoice portal for validation prior to issuance between PEPPOL end points.
The second approach would be to follow a model more like that proposed in France using certified private platforms to validate invoices prior to submission to the central government platform.
This is an important next step in Germany’s journey to mandatory e-Invoicing and it’s gratifying to see the German tax ministry seek input from key stakeholders. Once the German government collates these comments, we expect to see a more concrete formulation of legislation, although at this point no clear time line has been established for next steps.
Romania – receives approval from EU to proceed with e-Invoicing mandate
Romania has moved a step forward in its plan to mandate e-Invoicing, with a proposal from the European Commission to grant derogation from the EU VAT Directive.
The Romanian Senate first made the application on 14 January 2022, but subsequently modified it on 30 September 2022. This has pushed back the date of the derogation to 1st January 2024, and it would apply until 31st December 2026.
The main objectives discussed in Romania’s request are to combat tax fraud and increase the efficiency of tax collection, while also reducing administrative costs for both the tax administration and taxpayers. Romania has historically maintained one of the highest VAT Gaps within the EU, 35.7% in 2020, which they admit is a fundamental problem and requires urgent and sustained action, of which e-Invoicing will likely be just one component.
The requirement for this derogation process remains in place since the current VAT directive effectively prohibits member states from imposing a mandate due to the following two elements. First, article 232 of the VAT Directive states that the use of an electronic invoice remains subject to acceptance by the buyer – effectively allowing the buyer to refuse an electronic invoice if they do not have the technical means to accept it. Second, article 218 states either paper or electronic invoices must be accepted as long as they meet the other conditions of the directive.
While the ViDA proposal discussed here would remove the need for governments to request such derogation, this proposal remains to be ratified. Once ratified, the derogation granted to Romania would become redundant, but it is required for them to proceed in the meantime.
The existing “RO eInvoicing” system, which came into effect in November 2021, targeted business-to-government (B2G) e-Invoicing and is expected to become the basis for the new mandatory e-Invoicing system. The existing platform is already designed to support B2B transactions and will remain available for use on an optional basis for non-established economic operators.
The proposed system already uses an invoice format compatible with the European Norm e-Invoicing standard (EN16931), which is in line with the ViDA proposal. However, the way the system currently performs semantic checks as well as structural and syntax checks on invoices before certifying the invoice with a Ministry of Finance electronic seal, does not align with one of the key intentions of ViDA. Romania has stated its intent to adapt the system as of 1 January 2026 in order to comply.
While the derogation is not simply a formality, given that all EU members thus far have succeeded in their application, and given the tone of the proposal, it seems highly likely they will be allowed to proceed.
France – Pilot phase of French mandate announced for January 2024
As we have discussed in previous newsletters, the French e-Invoicing reform introduces a new CTC (Continuous Transactions Control) model which will be implemented in stages starting from July 2024 and establishes new requirements for all businesses operating in the country.
Under the new mandate, taxpayers will be obligated to issue their B2B domestic invoices electronically replacing traditional paper-based invoices. Additionally, the mandate introduces electronic reporting obligations for transaction data and payments, facilitating a more streamlined and efficient invoicing process. In order for the French tax authorities to access the data, taxpayers, or their authorised providers (PDP) will have to integrate with the Public Billing Portal (PPF).
In a significant next step towards the implementation of their e-Invoicing mandate, the French Ministry of Economy has announced the launch of a pilot phase for electronic invoicing.
The proposed pilot, which will run between January and June 2024, aims to test the viability and effectiveness of the new electronic invoicing model in real-world conditions. The pilot phase will involve all stakeholders, including the Public Billing Portal (PPF), partner platforms (PDPs), and taxpayers.
Enterprises interested in participating in the pilot phase are required to submit their applications by the deadline of 26 June 2023. Following the evaluation process participants will be notified of the results. This will provide businesses with an opportunity to assess their eligibility and prepare for compliance with the upcoming e-invoicing regulations.
Get help with the French pilot program
OpenText invites customers and prospects to partner with us if they wish to participate in this pilot program, or to check their readiness for the e-Invoicing mandate using our e-Invoicing mandate readiness check service. Reach out to your OpenText account representative or contact us here.
Spain – Draft regulation moves a step closer to B2B e-Invoicing mandate
Spain has moved a step closer to implementing mandatory B2B e-Invoicing with the publication of a draft Royal Decree, which forms part of the “Crea y Crece”, or Law for Creation and Growth of companies published initially in September 2022. The proposed legislation aims to promote digitization, reduce late payments and cut administrative costs for businesses, particularly smaller companies.
While the regulation is still in the draft stage, it offers crucial insights into the scope, requirements, and timelines of the upcoming e-invoicing system in Spain.
Key Points:
Scope of the Spanish B2B E-Invoicing Mandate: All companies and professionals required to issue invoices under Spanish law will be obliged to do so electronically. Some excluded transactions include simplified invoices and cases where there is no legal obligation to issue an invoice under Spanish rules. The mandate is for domestic e-Invoices only and does not apply if one of the parties is not established within Spanish territory.
Main Requirements of the Spanish E-Invoicing System: The system will consist of privately owned electronic invoicing platforms and a public electronic invoicing solution managed by the State Tax Administration Agency. E-invoices can be issued in different accepted formats, and an advanced electronic signature is mandatory for integrity and authenticity. All e-invoices must be identified with a unique code, and the recipient must communicate the acceptance or rejection of the invoice and the payment date.
Accepted E-Invoice Formats: E-invoices will be structured documents and will no longer include PDF formats. Taxpayers must issue e-invoices using accepted formats such as XML CEFACT/ONU, UBL, EDIFACT, or Facturae. Private e-invoicing platforms must be capable of converting e-invoices into all supported formats while preserving integrity and authenticity.
Communication of E-Invoice Status: The recipient of an e-invoice must communicate its status within four calendar days. Mandatory statuses include commercial acceptance or rejection and full effective payment. Optional statuses include partial commercial acceptance or rejection, partial payment, and assignment of the invoice to a third party.
Implementation Timelines: The draft regulation will come into effect 12 months after its official publication in the Spanish Official Gazette (BOE). The deadline for compliance is 12 months for entrepreneurs and professionals with an annual turnover over €8 million, and 24 months for others. Reporting of e-invoice statuses will become mandatory 36 months after the publication for entrepreneurs below €6 million and 48 months for professionals below the same threshold.
While the draft regulation for mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Spain is subject to changes before its final publication, it provides businesses with crucial information regarding the upcoming e-invoicing system.
Businesses and professionals were invited to provide feedback on the draft until July 10, 2023, as the government finalizes the details and seeks a derogation from the EU VAT Directive.
More details as well as a the full text of the decree (in local language) can be found on the Spanish Directorate of Economic Policy website.
Poland – key technical updates relating to the mandatory e-Invoice format
The Ministry of Finance in Poland has recently published the final version of the FA(2) logical structure for e-invoices. This marks an important milestone in the process towards reforming electronic invoicing.
During a press conference on June 30, 2023, the Ministry of Finance officially confirmed that the published FA(2) structure is the final version. No further modifications are planned before the mandatory implementation of the new structure, scheduled for July 1, 2024. The Ministry believes that any potential changes in regulations will not affect the shape of the published FA(2) structure.
The FA(2) structure is set to replace the current FA(1) structure in use on the production environment from September 1, 2023. However, it will be available for testing purposes in the KSeF test environment starting from July 1, 2023, and will run concurrently with the existing FA(1) structure until the end of August 2023.
A preliminary examination indicates that the final version doesn’t differ significantly from the earlier draft version published in late spring, but companies are advised to discuss this with their e-Invoicing team to ensure any changes that may be required can be accommodated and tested before the mandate deadline in July 2024.
With the new structure set to replace the existing FA(1) system, businesses and stakeholders can anticipate a smoother transition to the updated electronic invoicing system.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is intended to reflect the direction the industry is moving and does not a reflect a commitment for the OpenText Active Invoices with Compliance (AIC) product development roadmap to meet any particular stated regulations.
LEGAL Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is for general guidance on matters of interest only. The authors are not herein rendering legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice and the content should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional accounting, tax, legal or other competent advisers. While we make every attempt to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within is from reliable sources, OpenText is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for any results obtained from the use of this information. All information is provided “as is” with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness, or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance and fitness for purpose. In no event will OpenText or its agents or employees be liable to you or anyone else for any decision.
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The energy sector, and closely related industries such as chemicals and metals and mining, are asset-intensive industries. This means that revenue is generated from assets and a significant amount of costs come from these assets.
Being asset intensive also means that these industries are machine intensive. Rotating machinery, industrial instrumentation and meters, automated control valves, and other critical machinery and the data they generate help produce energy and other critical commodities the world relies on.
These machines produce a significant amount of data. According to OpenText CEO & CTO Mark Barrenechea, machines now generate one million times more information in one day than all humans on the planet do in an entire year. Not only are these machines more critical than ever but so are the people that install, operate, maintain, inspect, repair, and service them to deploy more of them and to keep them running safely. Operational checklists and safety forms are key content formats that can be better automated and governed to help those that execute this work do it safely and more efficiently.
Data produced by inspection checklist activity is often shared through email, file shares, or paper, which leads to data siloes and content duplication. This critical information is needed throughout the asset lifecycle—operations, maintenance, supply and purchasing. It is also critical to ensure the productivity and safety of the people that execute this work such as field and plant engineers, technicians, equipment operators, inspectors, and field service personnel.
Intelligent asset information management
Integrate AI content management for safe, trusted, efficient energy operations
The importance of operational checklists and HSE Forms
There are several different types of checklists and forms used to safely keep critical equipment running. Some checklists are used to ensure work on machinery and equipment is done correctly and safely. When I worked as a field engineer, some of the checklists I used included pre-job, pre-trip, operation, and post-job checklists. Other examples include operator rounds and mechanical integrity checklists.
There are also many health, safety and environmental (HSE) forms that I used in my former role, including job safety analysis, risk identification reports, HAZMAT, hot work permits, cold work permits and more. These forms are used to identify risk and communicate that risk to others. They are important documents for any robust HSE, risk and/or compliance program.
Unintentionally skipping a simple step on a checklist can result in significant damage to equipment, the facility, and even put lives in danger. I’ve personally experienced this. Luckily in my case, no significant damage was done and no injuries occurred. ‘Near misses’ like this happen every single day across utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, and metals and mining, resulting in operational risk that can be prevented.
The importance of automation
However, most checklists and forms today are in either hard copy or are in a static electronic format like .pdf, .doc, or .xls and are manual in nature. Also, many are not able to be completed on a mobile device.
The manual nature of these documents is an obstacle to any company’s journey toward zero HSE incidents. First, these documents are often located in different siloed systems and it takes employees significant time to access and consolidate documents for the specific job at hand. In fact, it is estimated that employees spend up to 80% of their time searching through unstructured information to complete their work.
Second, the completion of these documents represents key milestones in any work order. In manual form, there are no notifications of those milestones to internal and external stakeholders.
Third, upon completion, these documents often go ungoverned and are not centrally managed, making HSE, risk, and compliance management departments inefficient and less effective. In addition, the information contained in these manual documents doesn’t automatically feed into other key applications, such as Asset Performance Management (APM) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), and don’t contribute to predictive maintenance strategies.
Working smarter with Smart Checklists and Safety Forms for Energy
Business workspace capabilities enable the appropriate checklists and forms to be delivered for the right operation and for the right role, thereby improving productivity. Business workspaces also automatically enable notifications to managers and other stakeholders when these documents have been started and completed, representing key milestones in any operation. Business workspaces also allow these documents to be easily accessible to ensure robust HSE and compliance programs.
Smart Checklists and Safety Forms for Energy can automatically send information to APM and EAM systems to protect and predict machine reliability, improving predictive maintenance strategies. Additionally, Smart Checklists and Safety Forms for Energy can be completed on any mobile device with iOS or Android operating systems in an online or offline environment.
Combining information and automation with checklists and forms will help energy and other companies in the industrial process sector make significant steps in their journey toward zero HSE incidents and keep critical equipment running.
