The electronic Peppol network is full of opportunities, says Jaana Koskinen from Ajantieto Oy. The first step in deploying Peppol is understanding its true nature.
“I see nothing but opportunities in Peppol,” says Jaana Koskinen, CEO of Ajantieto Oy, which produces training courses on financial administration for experts in the field.
According to Koskinen, Peppol has invigorated and energised the field of financial administration in a way that has not been seen since the start of the 2000s, when the world was introduced to e-invoicing and cloud-based systems.
“We’re living in very interesting times!”
Peppol is an international network that allows buyers and sellers to transmit standardised electronic business documents.
According to Koskinen, the use of structured data is great for reducing costs, as it saves ERP and financial administration systems from being bogged down with erroneous data. This allows companies and organisations to allocate their resources to more productive efforts.
“Relevant and structured data is what we should be focusing on before we can look at AI or machine learning.”
According to Koskinen, Peppol messages play a key role in the procurement-to-payment process and data management.
“Peppol messages are the data that we can use to feed our AIs,” Koskinen explains.
Peppol is a global language
Despite its benefits, Peppol is not yet widely utilised in Finland. According to Koskinen, the greatest barrier has been the lack of information and know-how between end users, senders, and recipients.
Koskinen believes that professionals in corporate financial administration should learn more about Peppol.
“You need to understand the basics, i.e. that Peppol is an international, electronic network for doing business. It’s a standard, a language that you can speak anywhere, from Finland to Japan. By joining Peppol, your business can reach international heights.”
Koskinen also feels that organisations should increase their understanding of Peppol as, in the future, it will be a key requirement for actors of all sizes. Many European countries have already become established users of the network and, in just a few years, they stand to benefit from using Peppol to power their trade across the European Economic Area (EEA).
“It’s important to understand that, at some point, this will apply to actors big and small, both in Finland and abroad.”
Your accounting firm can help or hinder you
Koskinen believes that accounting firms will play a crucial role in the development of SME processes and the use of automation, and they can either help or hinder your business.
“Many SMEs typically limit their software choices to those that their accountants use, and most accounting firms would rather spend their time chasing new clients than investing in new approaches,” Koskinen laments.
Koskinen believes that Peppol could provide significant opportunities and interesting assignments in the field of financial administration..
”The actors in the field should demonstrate their responsibility by paying closer attention to their clients’ data and operations. When your clients can grow, it’s an opportunity to develop your own firm as well.”
Learning to understand Peppol
For those companies that are having difficulties getting to grips with Peppol, Koskinen encourages them to survey their current data situation – in other words, what kind of data they have and in what formats, or whether they even have the data they need.
After this, the company should increase its understanding of Peppol by finding more information and participating in training courses.
In particular, financial administrators at SMEs typically benefit the most from learning the ins and outs of Peppol messaging, as they are often the ones who will promote the matter at their companies.
“By learning more, you will also know how you can talk about Peppol within your organisation. If you don’t understand what Peppol can bring to the table, you’ll never be able to boost the automation of your company’s financial administration,” emphasises Koskinen
If you would like to learn more about Peppol, you can visit the website of Finland’s Peppol authority – the State Treasury – and participate in various training events. Ajantieto Oy, which is led by Koskinen, has arranged training courses on Peppol for financial administration experts and SMEs since spring 2024.
“We’ve received a lot of great feedback, especially on how we’ve been able to make the subject understandable to everyone, which means that we’ve been able to get our message across,” Koskinen says with a smile.
Once you understand Peppol, getting started with it can be a relatively quick process.
“My recommendation is to just contact your system vendor or operator and join the Peppol network. That way, your business can join the wave of messages that are being sent across the global marketplace,” Koskinen concludes.
