Sorry if my reply was a bit snarky.

I know that invoicing and integrations with AP systems are a major challenge in B2B. It doesn't stop being a challenge just because the company is large. Most of my integration career has been spend integrating with big vendors. And we got much more traction integrating the catalog and supply chain aspects of the relationship.

Invoicing and Remittance work seems to always be more touchy both technically and politically.

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And thanks, its nice to hear you find value in my blog too.

You're absolutely right. If the need is for a full b2b suite, you'll need more than e-invoicing.

Where we've chosen to focus is on the invoicing component because SMBs need that resolved first and most businesses are small. If they receive paper invoices it costs time and money as well as slowing payment cycles for their (big) suppliers.

Ian
P.S. theintegrationengineer.com is also one of my regular reads! keep it up!

Wow, looks like I will be out of a job soon. The career of B2B integrations has just been replaced with billFLO!!!

Seriously, if the only B2B integration challenge someone has is electronic infvoicing, then they should use a product like billFLO, but this product is not a comprehensive B2B integration solution.

A real B2B solution needs to cover multiple transactions like Orders, Acknowledgments, Ship Notices, Invoicing and Remitance. (And this is just for a good and service transaction flow.) And if you are in healthcare or telecom, we have an addtional set of transactions regarding claims and or service.

There is a reason that there are almost 1,000 diferent transaction types in current EDI standards. (I know, you could count more if you look at variations)

I'm sure your product is a good one for business that only have this need. But also know that my job is safe because B2B is more than invoicing. (Much much more.)

looks like I am out of a job. All my customers need is billFLO!

Seriously, if all b2b was about invoicing, it would be as easy as this. But we have many levels of data to exchange. Invoicing and remitance is the last step in the B2B integration.

Invoicing is really important, but to get there catalog data, purchse orders, ship noticies and more have to be exchanged. And that is only dealing with a goods and service purchase. Telecommunications and insurance processes have their own set of data exchange needs.

I'm sure that billFLO is a great product. And for simple solutions where only invoicing exchange is needed. This scale of solution is suffecient.

But for comprehensive B2B integration you have to go through the process.

We've taken a different approach with billFLO. We've designed a service that can be deployed in minutes, works equally well for buyer and seller and is priced at a point everyone can afford – free.

Ian Sweeney
CEO billFLO.com

P.S. Nice blog, I've already added it to my morning reading list!