Republic of Finland - exemplary action

The State Treasury sent out letters to 16 000 suppliers to the public sector last week to remind them of the fact that only electronic invoices will be accepted as of 1.1.2010. The deadline for paper and unstructured PDF was announced already in the beginning of 2009 - and hinted to much earlier - so there has been time to take widely available low-cost-no-IT-skill solutions in use.

Judging from a few reactions to the letter and at least one headline in the press - this action was much needed. In these days there is so much going on that the mere setting of targets, hints, persuasion, communication etc do not lead to the intended results - even if all - in this case especially the tax payers and the information society - stand to gain massively from them. We clear deadlines and bold steps to enforce (Denmark outlawed paper invoices already in 2005).

Hopefully we will see equally determined action all over EU in 2010. Who could be against it? But one precondition is that the national banking communities come together and do their part by joining networks - making it work just like payments.