Is e-invoicing currently in the trough of disillusionment?

Electronic invoicing and e-billing can easily be plotted on the ‘hype cycle of emerging technology’, when taking a look at posts, discussions and tweets over the past few years. Also the items that make part of e-invoicing and e-billing can be plotted on this cycle, once developed by Gartner.

Currently it seems that electronic invoicing and e-billing have touched the ‘trough of disillusionment’ looking at the ‘slope of enlightenment’ and gleaming at the ‘plateau of productivity’

How Do Hype Cycles Work?

Each Hype Cycle drills down into the five key phases of a technology’s life cycle.

Technology Trigger:
A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

Peak of Inflated Expectations:
Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.

Trough of Disillusionment:
Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

Slope of Enlightenment:
More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

Plateau of Productivity:
Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

Two questions:
- where can we plot e-invoicing?
- what will it take to get to the ‘slope of enlightenment’