28.05.14
NHS SBS targets supply chain transformation with e-invoicing
NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a leading business support services provider to the NHS, has entered a new partnership to help transform the health sector’s supply chain by encouraging the use of electronic invoicing (e-invoicing).
By using the Tradeshift platform, NHS SBS is hoping to make the invoicing side of its operations – it processes around seven million invoices each year for 175,000 different suppliers – more efficient.
Simon Murphy, NHS SBS director of finance and accounting, told NHE: “We have around 300 NHS organisations as our customers, so the size and scale of the opportunity to improve invoicing is huge. The way Tradeshift works, we think is absolutely the key to e-invoicing.
“With Tradeshift from both a technology standpoint, and the fact it is free to the supplier, we think we have a real opportunity to convert millions and millions of paper invoices into much more robust, faster and efficient e-invoices.”
Using the Tradeshift platform, NHS SBS is encouraging suppliers to its NHS clients to submit and track their invoices electronically through Tradeshift, making payments more efficient, reducing the burden on NHS resources and helping suppliers receive payments more quickly.
NHS SBS has invested significantly in the new platform, and Murphy is confident that the technology is perfect for the NHS, especially as it is PEPPOL (Pan European Public Procurement On Line) standard compliant – a key mandate in the Department of Health’s new eProcurement strategy.
The eProcurement document says: “This strategy recommends adoption of PEPPOL as the messaging standard to be adopted by the NHS and its suppliers. PEPPOL is the culmination of a multi-year project funded by the European Commission, providing a set of messaging standards that enable key documents (purchase orders, advance shipping notes, invoices) to be electronically exchanged between buying and selling organisations without manual intervention through PEPPOL access points.”
Also, as the Tradeshift platform processes invoices electronically, the need to manually manage paper documents is completely eradicated, freeing up resources and reducing rework. Murphy stated that currently, on average, there are “at least two pieces of paper that come with each invoice, and that is excluding the envelope. Combine this with the seven million invoices we send out, we believe there are 14 million pieces of paper that we can eradicate from the NHS eco-system if we get this fully adopted”.
The platform has been tested since the end of 2013, and there has been positive feedback from most of the suppliers, added Murphy. The platform also enables invoices to be scanned, verified and tallied against 15 checks, significantly reducing the margin for error. It enables suppliers to connect and interact with clients of NHS SBS throughout the payments process, making it transparent to all parties.
NHS SBS added that with late payments along the supply chain increasingly damaging the solvency of businesses in the UK, the ability to accurately and swiftly process and pay invoices is a vital and ethical driver for the partnership.
Murphy said: “We are looking forward to seeing the benefits throughout the supply chain. Tradeshift also gives us a brilliant platform for better collaboration, and will allow us to scale up and evolve with suppliers, as well as introduce innovative solutions.”
Christian Lanng, CEO of Tradeshift stated that the platform – which is free and always will be to suppliers – will enable NHS SBS to optimise processes, increase control and add value right across the supply chain.
“Other public sector organisations should look to NHS SBS as a great example of what can be done to improve processes when you embrace innovation and modern approaches to business,” he concluded.
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