Managing change
In a recent e-invoicing adoption benchmarking report, the biggest barrier to successful implementation was internal change management. Over two thirds of the companies surveyed believed that handling change was the major impediment – above both gaining supplier adoption (51 per cent) and systems integration challenges (45 per cent).
The report showed that one reason that e-invoicing projects fail was that senior management often believed that their current processes were working. They were willing to accept that the paper-based invoicing processes may not be the most efficient but believed that they operated sufficiently well that there needn’t be any new investment.
More than a technology project
With these barriers, it is clear that introducing e-invoicing into your organisation is as much about changing people’s attitudes as it is a technology challenge. Like almost any IT project, your e-invoicing programme will have a greater potential for successful implementation if you:
- Gain senior management sponsorship and commitment
- Establish a multi-disciplinary executive steering board
- Introduce internal business managers and external trading partners early in the project
- Ensure that all parties fully participate throughout the project
- Introduce a comprehensive marketing and communications plan
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