NemHandel: an open and shared infrastructure for exchange of e-business documents

1. An open and shared infrastructure for
exchange of e-business documents
Bergtor Skulason
Danish National IT and Telecom Agency
EasyTrade (NemHandel)

2. E-Invoicing in Denmark - the facts
• Since 2005: 70 million e-Invoices
– exchanged with the public sector
– UBL 0.7 and 2.0 (OIOUBL)
• 30,000 public sector endpoints
• 175,000 private companies
– have sent an e-Invoice
• 500 million Euros saved
• And we are very happy with UBL 2.0 – it works ;-)

3. Electronic Invoicing
• Electronic invoicing in the public sector is a key driver for
the initiative
• Suppliers are required by law to send all invoices to the
public sector electronically (approx. 1.3 mill. invoices per
month)
• Report from KPMG demonstrates total economic potential
of 630 million Euro through digitalisation of business
processes in small and medium-sized companies

4. Background
• 2005 Decree on electronic invoicing
– OIOXML electronc invoice was mandated by law in
Denmark in February 2005
– OIOXML invoice was based on UBL 0.7
– Public sector able to receive einvoices via VANS
– SME’s could use scanning bureaus
• Subsidised by government for SME
• Problems:
– Error prone mapping and high use of scanning

5. Requirements for NemHandel
• Primary focus in development process was
company needs – not public sector needs
• “It has to be easy, very easy.
As easy as sending email!”
• But it must also be secure, flexible, compatible
with international standards and free from it-
vendor lock-in.

6. Result
• The result was NemHandel - literally, ‘EasyTrade’
• As easy to use as sending email
• Secure – electronically signed and encrypted documents
• Flexible – can be integrated in other IT systems
• Compatible with international standards
• Open standards and open source – no IT vendor lock-in
• NemHandel is a method of business document exchange
based on open standards.

7. Key elements
NemHandel is built around 7 key elements:
• A web service registry of identifiers – NemHandel Registry
• A web service profile of standards – RASP
• Open standards for e-business documents (UBL 2.0)
• An open Source software toolkit
• An open source reference implementation of mail client
• An e-invoicing portal: web based invoice form
• A legal framework: allowing many to many transactions

8. NemHandel registry
• An address book – for looking up your trading
partner
• You can find their:
- Endpoint ID (EAN, CVR etc)
- Server name or e-mail
- Possible profiles/collaboration
- orders, invoice, catalogue
- Only required for those wishing to receive
eBusiness documents

9. RASP
• Reliable Asyncrone Secure Profile
• A stack of international standards ensuring that
you can send secure and trusted documents via
the internet
• In Denmark it is based on DanId – the National
Digital Signature

10. Standard for e-procurement
documents
• Danish customization of UBL 2.0, called OIOUBL
• Covering the whole procurement chain from
request for catalogue, to order, to invoice and
reminder.
• Setting up collaboration scenarios/profiles
• Guidelines, codelist, validation tools and
stylesheets to ease implementation

11. NemHandel – how it works
Who? (CVR or EAN/GLN)
What: e-Invoice
Where to: small@business.dk
How: NemHandel, Digital Signature
Invoice, encrypted and signed
(’recorded delivery’)
Signed receipt
UDDI registry
Company A
Company B

12. Message handler - a simple client

13. Message handler with stylesheet

14. eInvoicing portal - Web based invoice form

15. Receipt by email

16. 0
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Year-
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onth
2009
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-12
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Invoices
NemHandel e-invoicing portal usage

17. Many ways of using NemHandel
• Fully integrated in ERP system
• Partly integrated in ERP system
– message handler can be used to send invoices.
• Not integrated in ERP system
– invoices can be generated using spreadsheet solution
and sent using message handler
OR
– invoices can be generated and sent using the web-
based invoice form.

18. Uses of NemHandel
• Send electronic invoices to any public authority
or institution.
• Send electronic invoices to any private company
which also uses NemHandel.
• Receive electronic invoices from any private
company which also uses NemHandel.

19. A success with strong growth
Number of companies using NemHandel
0
2000
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12000
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16000
2007-
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2009-
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2009-
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50132 pr
1/9-2009

20. Update of legislation
• As of May 2011 all public sector institutions must be:
– registered in the NemHandels registry
– be able to receive OIOUBL invoice, creditnote,
reminder and send respons
– Via the RASP based infrastructure
Until May 2011:
• Gateway between VANS and NemHandel
• Conversion between OIOUBL and older format

21. The future of NemHandel
• Make more “off the shelf” solutions available.
Work with IT vendors to support and integrate
NemHandel into their solutions.
• Companies may also exchange electronic
orders, catalogues and other business
documents using NemHandel.
• The Danish National IT and Telecom Agency
continues to support NemHandel and integrate
to EU initiatives - like PEPPOL and CEN/BII in
order to make possible cross border trade

22. • Currently, we are setting up a Danish PEPPOL
connection to Nemhandel
– An Access Point to PEPPOL
– Link NemHandel registry with PEPPOL registries
– Map content of order and invoices
–
• This will give all Danish Nemhandel users access to
PEPPOL, for doing ebusiness across Europe.
– receive orders and send invoices
– As well as send orders and receive invoices
Nemhandel & PEPPOL

23. Danish learning
• A standards framework should cover the whole
supply chain
• Business processes should be well defined
– Content should be well defined
– Support for extensions needed
• Placeholder for “Any content”
• Standards should be governed with a business focus
– Changes made to a standard has costs for those involved
– Stability is more important than having the perfect standard

24. Relevant information
Case description of EasyTrade:http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/easytrade
Localisation of UBL 2.0: http://www.oioubl.info/classes/en/index.html
Invoice portal: https://www.virk.dk/myndigheder/ITST/NemHandel_Fakturablanket
Message handler:
http://www.softwareborsen.dk/projekter/softwarecenter/nemhandel/reference-client
PEPPOL:
http://www.peppol.eu/
Contact:
HSS@itst.dk