In today´s global market place it is more than evident that most European countries need to take a really hard look at the competitiveness of their enterprises. This is naturally a multidimensional issue - education, innovation climate, workforce mobility, risk capital, bank lending, lower tax on work etc.

One of the most critical issues is the high cost level - in production, services, agriculture and the public sector. The quick win medicine here is digitalization - so much can be done fast with small or even no investments - and the side effects are both workforce mobility, innovation incubation, new businesses, lower CO2, lower tax pressure etc. And naturally a more competitive service level - once it becomes digital it is not only cheaper - but also better.

Our focus - in the Real Time Economy program - has focused on cutting enterprise administrative costs in half - with a wide range of actions. The first phase was called Full SEPA  (payments and e-invoicing - 2006-7), followed by Full Value Chain (adding purchase to pay aspects in 2007-8) then Fully Integrated Accounting 1 (2009-10) and FIA2 2010-11. E-invoicing is the platform of most of the automation programs - but there are an increasing number of public sector reporting automation initiatives that can be achieved in the same spirit in parallel.

The next phase 2011-13 will build on these (add enterprise risk mitigation), add  and be named CUT 50. Stay tuned!

Will post 5 "easy" steps for national e-invoicing migration separately.