The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) announced today that its European E-Business Council is lending its expertise to help address an issue critical to the future of electronic commerce in the European Union.
CompTIA is sponsoring a European E-Business Council conference this week in Brussels to address issues related to electronic invoicing among trading partners, an issue that will shape the
future of electronic commerce in Europe.
The electronic invoicing issue is an important element within the European Commission's "Broad Based Innovation Strategy" to respond to the challenges of economic globalization. That
strategy identifies two aspects - value chain efficiency and certainty - as the foundation for improving European competitiveness in the global economy.
"Making the value chain more efficient reduces costs; and improving the certainty of the environment in which value chains operate makes them more competitive," explained David Sommer,
chief operating officer, CompTIA. "One of the ways to achieve these goals is to establish a common framework for electronic invoicing, enabling business partners to send invoices and
receive payments electronically throughout the EU."
The European Associations of Corporate Treasurers has estimated that by using e-invoicing, costs savings of up to 80 percent, or 243 billion EUR across Europe, are possible in the
business-to-business market alone. At present, however, the use of electronic invoicing in Europe is limited due to factors such as fragmented standardization of e-invoices; legal
uncertainties related to cross-border transactions; and security, integrity and other operational constraints.
Carmen Ciciriello, chief executive officer of SEPA International Ltd. Member, is representing the CompTIA European E-Business Council (EEC) on the European Commission Expert Group on
e-invoicing.
The CompTIA European E-Business Council includes representatives from Textron Financial, HP, Computacenter, Ingram Micro and Apple. Representatives of the European Commission are
scheduled to participate in this week's meeting.
About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the voice of the world's $3 trillion information technology industry. CompTIA membership extends into more than 100 countries
and includes companies at the forefront of innovation; the channel partners and solution providers they rely on to bring their products to market; and the professionals responsible for
maximizing the benefits organizations receive from their technology investments. For more information, please visit www.comptia.org.
Contact
Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
630-678-8468