Results of the CEN BII Seminar in Stockholm
On December 2nd, 2014, the Swedish initiative for promoting eProcurement, SFTI (Single Face to Industry) hosted the seminar of the CEN Workshop on Business Interoperability Interfaces for Public Procurement in Europe (BII). With 99 participants from 17 countries, the event has become a reference point for eProcurement in the EU.
Following a brief introduction on the objectives and current work within the BII Workshop, government representatives from the UK, France, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden shared their eProcurement plans, focusing on the benefits of using common European standards.
Kerstin Wiss Holmdahl, Legal Advisor at the SKL (Swedish Associations of Local Authorities and Regions), announced the recent recommendation of SFTI Board of Directors to use the PEPPOL network for eProcurement in Sweden. The recommendation complements the previous decision of using PEPPOL as the messaging standard for post-award documents such as eCatalogues, eOrders and eInvoices.
Kornelis Drijfhout, from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs presented the implementation of the CEN BII profiles in TenderNed, the Dutch government eProcurement platform; and provided an overview about the use of the CEN BII specifications in the eSENS pilot project.
Thierry Amadieu, AIFE representative, described the current status of eInvoicing in France and the challenges ahead to ensure the enablement of all contracting authorities and suppliers by 2020, encouraging the choice of standards and infrastructure such as PEPPOL to increase interoperability.
Andy Bishop, eProcurement & supply chain specialist at the UK Department of Health, illustrated the NHS England eProcurement strategy, which does not mandate the use of specific IT systems but makes two sets of standards mandatory: GS1 and PEPPOL (for eOrders, eInvoices and eDespatch Advices).
André Hoddevik, OpenPEPPOL Secretary General, presented the PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) developments; while Pieter Breyne, from the EC Directorate-General for Informatics (DIGIT), explained the reasons for implementing the CEN BII specifications in ePRIOR, the eProcurement solution of the European Commission, covering the complete eProcurement cycle.
Chiara Lombardo, representing the Italian Ministry of Finance and Economy, shed light on the national Accounting System of the Public Administration (Sicoge) and the growing number of eInvoices received by the system since June 2014.
During the CEN BII plenary meeting, Antonia Caressa, Sogei, presented the Italian legal framework for eInvoicing, while Elisa Bertocchi, Region of Emilia Romagna, revealed how eProcurement based on European standards can be successfully implemented not only for cross-border, but also for local transactions, at a regional level.
Click here to download the seminar presentations.
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About SFTI
The aim of SFTI is to recommend standards for eProcurement in the public sector. SFTI participates in international standardisation initiatives and in particular the standardisation workshop CEN/BII3. SFTI is led and coordinated by The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL), the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV) and the Swedish Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket).