Planning onboarding activities
Large buyers can benefit from planning and resourcing their onboarding activities. This can include:
- communicating with and encouraging suppliers to start sending their invoices via Peppol
- preparing for internal process changes, including staff training and communication
- providing clarity, confidence and certainty to staff around how their roles will change for the better.
Appoint a change manager
In some cases, supporting supplier onboarding may fall on existing accounts payable, contract and procurement teams. This can be challenging, as they already have a full workload and onboarding suppliers to eInvoicing often requires additional time and resources.
Change managers can partner with internal stakeholders and team leaders to:
- oversee the expected time, effort and resources needed to manage this task
- allocate resources as needed.
Change managers can develop internal and external change strategies and plans. They also ensure staff are informed of any impacts to the procure-to-pay process, from tender and contract documentation through to invoice approval, payment, and reconciliation.
This can be done by updating work procedures and providing clear communication to staff about when, why and how changes will happen. They will also give staff the opportunity to ask questions and contact someone for support and guidance.
Have change management support
It is important to:
- ensure staff are given the necessary time and information to understand and implement required changes
- identify team members who can take responsibility for supporting internal staff and external suppliers, such as a change management support team.
Having a dedicated person to engage and support staff through the eInvoicing changes allows the rest of the organisation to focus on their regular jobs while adapting to the new processes.
Maximise your eInvoicing investment
Embedding eInvoicing as a natural part of daily business operations will help maximise the return on your investment.
It is important to communicate to staff that eInvoicing will help to reduce manual and repetitive aspects of processing, allowing them to do more interesting and valuable work.
Identify an eInvoicing champion
While change can be met with resistance, when managed well it can also be an opportunity for innovation and improvements.
An eInvoicing champion, especially one with seniority in the organisation, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the process by maintaining focus and visibility of the change and the reasons for it.