PEPPOL QUICK GUIDE Peppol is quickly becoming a standard of choice for many governments and businesses within Europe and abroad. However, many companies still have questions about the basics of what it is, what are the benefits of using it, and how to implement it. If this sounds like you, then continue reading to find the answers to your questions. If you don’t find the answer, then feel free to reach out to us and we can answer any specific questions you may have. WHAT IS THE PEPPOL NETWORK? In simple terms, PEPPOL offers a The Peppol network is an open, many- standardised messaging connection to-many platform, with standardiza- PEPPOL, which stands for Pan-Eu- for e-ordering, e-invoicing, electronic tion on all three necessary levels: ropean Public Procurement On-Line, credit notes and advanced shipping 1. addressing and routing is basically an interoperability infra- notifications (ASNs). These techno- of the messages structure, co-funded by the European logies automate the information Commission and 18 government agen- exchange across the supply chain, 2. document specifications and cies, to simplify the purchase-to-pay reducing the cost and potential risk of 3. network infrastructure process between government bodies, errors from manual intervention. and B2B Companies (buyers and sup- pliers). Award Tendering Purchasing Payment eProcurement Components eAwarding & eSourcing eNoticing eCatalogue eOrdering eInvoicing ePayment eTendering eContract PEPPOL Enablers eAttestation (VCD) eCatalogue eSignature PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure PEPPOL Components PEPPOL QUICK GUIDE WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF OpusCapita customers typically get ISO6523 identifiers (what type of USING PEPPOL TO EXCHANGE the service as part of our existing Ser- identifier is used) and the correspond- MESSAGES? vices (E-invoice sending, E-invoice re- ing identifier value. ceiving, B2B integration) and use the There are many benefits to using Pep- OpusCapita Access Point to exchange If your company receives docu- pol. You will save time and money by documents with business partners ments, e.g. Invoices through Peppol, enabling your business messaging to using other Access Point providers. you have to inform your Supplier the be exchanged digitally, rather than So the PEPPOL Transport Infrastruc- correct identifier. If you are sending on paper. You can easily connect to ture can be considered to provide a documents through Peppol you have other trading partners who are also ‘gateway’ or ‘bridge’ between specific to know your business partner Pep- using Peppol. You will also reduce the eProcurement communities or service pol identification and add your own amount of errors. platforms. Peppol calls this federated identifier to your business document network of Access Points connected One important note is that within to each other, the PEPPOL community. CAN I EXCHANGE PEPPOL Europe, many governments are now DOCUMENTS INTERNATIONALLY? requiring e-invoicing when sending in- WHAT BUSINESS DOCUMENTS voices to governments. Peppol allows DOES OPUSCAPITA SUPPORT Yes. you can exchange business docu- your business to be compliant with VIA THE PEPPOL NETWORK? ments internationally using a Peppol these new regulations. Access Point provider. The only con- PEPPOL divides its business process dition would be that your business HOW DOES PEPPOL WORK? into the pre-award and post-award partner is connected to a Peppol AP as sets. Access Points need to support the receiving company and you know Connecting to the PEPPOL Transport one or more of the PEPPOL post- their Peppol identification number. Infrastructure takes place using Ac- award business processes (pre-award Peppol identification numbers in cess Points (operated by Access Point processes are optional). different countries are different – providers, e.g. OpusCapita is one Ac- organisation IDs, VAT IDs, Public sec- cess Point Service Provider) in a simi- These processes are specified in docu- tor IDs etc. lar way to how sending and receiving ments called Business Interoperability email requires access to an Internet Specifications (BISs). OpusCapita sup- HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH mail server (provided by Internet Mail ports the following documents: PEPPOL? Service Providers). • PEPPOL BIS 1A Catalogue Only In order to use Peppol capabilities, you HOW DOES A PEPPOL ACCESS • PEPPOL BIS 3A Order Only need to contact your Access point, for POINT WORK? example OpusCapita. If you already • PEPPOL BIS 4A Invoice have an e-Invoice sending or receiv- The basic operations of an Access • PEPPOL BIS 5A Billing ing service activated with OpusCapita, Point are: • PEPPOL BIS 28A Ordering then activating Peppol capability on top of that is very easy. 1. The sender of an electronic docu- • PEPPOL BIS 30A Despatch Advice ment (for example an eInvoice, an WHAT DO MY CUSTOMERS AND eOrder or an eCatalogue) sends • PEPPOL BIS 36A Message Level SUPPLIERS NEED TO KNOW the document to a PEPPOL Access Response ABOUT PEPPOL SERVICES? Point using mechanisms agreed with their Access Point provider. IS OPUSCAPITA ACCESS POINT CERTIFIED? Your customers and suppliers should 2. The Access Point identifies the ser- be aware that your PEPPOL Access vice required (and may validate the Yes, OpusCapita has a certified Access Point exists and supports their busi- type of document being sent) and Point regarding both Outbound and ness processes and that this allows also identifies the Access Point for Inbound document flows. them access to eProcurement across the recipient. Europe. You should also ask if those business partners have a certified ac- 3. The Access Point delivers the docu- HOW ARE COMPANIES IDENTI- cess point –service available and what ment to the recipient’s Access Point. FIED IN PEPPOL? business document types they are 4. The receiving Access Point delivers PEPPOL receivers and senders are supporting. the document to the recipient. identified using a combination of an PEPPOL QUICK GUIDE WILL MY CUSTOMERS NEED NEW IN WHICH COUNTRIES IS PEPPOL These are the current countries in SOFTWARE TO USE PEPPOL? CURRENTLY APPLICABLE? which the Public sector has kicked off Peppol: Your suppliers and customers will have Currently the coverage in European • Norway to adapt their internal business pro- countries is increasing heavily and just cesses and related systems to support recently Poland announced that they • Sweden the data flows of the PEPPOL busi- will start using Peppol in Public sector • Denmark – DIGST ness processes. Typically your Access eProcurement. Also, several Access Point provider can help your business Points are operating globally and they • Netherlands – SimplerInvoicing partners to do the integration with the can channel the business documents • UK/Healthcare – NHS Peppol Network. regardless of where the Supplier or Buyer has operations. • Belgium – Fedict • Finland • Austria PEPPOL QUICK GUIDE AUTHOR ADAM TAMBURELLO Product Marketing Manager [email protected] Adam has over 10 years of interna- tional business development experi- ence in the financial services industry and is currently Product Marketing Manager for Cash Management and Business Network Learn more about how OpusCapita can help you gain the benefits of the Peppol Network. https://www.opuscapita.com/solutions/business-network/peppol OpusCapita enables organizations to sell, buy and pay quickly and securely, with a real-time view of their business. Over 3000 customers in over 100 countries use our source-to-pay, cash management and product information management solutions to connect, transact and grow. OpusCapita processes over 220 million electronic transactions annually on its Business Network, which includes almost 1 million organizations and over 11,000 financial institutions worldwide. OpusCapita is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Visit us at www.opuscapita.com.