Ceská sporitelna, the largest commercial bank in the Czech Republic, is introducing a business-to-business electronic invoicing service based on technology supplied by Nordic vendor TietoEnator.
The bank will direct companies to TietoEnator's consolidation platform TIX to accept and send invoices electronically through their accounting systems or through a secure Internet portal.
"Businesses will be able to use a web portal for accepting and depositing invoices, or alternatively transmit invoicing data automatically through their company systems," says David Marek, director of the corporate client division, Ceská sporitelna.
Marek says the first client to sign up is the CEZ utility group.
The service, which is set to be launched during the second half of 2007, will be extended to consumers in the future.
The system will provide cost reductions for all participating parties and result in fewer invoicing errors, says the vendor. Recipients will see direct savings in administration costs due, while senders will save on invoice printing and postage.
Electronic invoicing is one of the requirements of the single euro payments area (Sepa) which will be introduced in 2008.