E-business can be exploited by any company no matter how small. E-business is the art of ordering and invoicing electronically. Yes, the common perception is that it only applies to web ordering. In reality, any modern accounting software should be capable of sending and receiving electronic transactions to or from your suppliers and customers’ accounting software and directly to yours.
Save time and money
Why shouldn’t you be able to save time and costs by having your customers send their orders directly into your accounts software with NO re-keying? Why not e-mail them an invoice that can be directly imported into their own software?
Historically, many industries have had their own DOS, CSV, or EDI formats that tended to be proprietary and sometimes expensive to adopt. This limited their general acceptance and appeal.
In the last few years, a new universal e-business standard (eBis XML) has been developed and it has been adopted by business software companies. The net result is that with a myriad of supplier specific formats a thing of the past, a new era of reduced costs and increased productivity is available.
Increased efficiency
Having a web presence and the latest financial software will allow you to upload customer specific prices, historical sales, credit histories and facilitate web ordering which in turn can be sent directly to your Sales Order Daybook.
By making your e-business systems more open to suppliers and customers, you too can take advantage of this universal innovation and improve your business efficiencies and competitiveness.
Should you have customers or suppliers without suitable accounting software, Microsoft Office will also interpret the new XML standard. Microsoft is committed to include this capability in forthcoming versions of Microsoft Office as part of the Microsoft Biztalk standard. Just as you may be familiar with the simple Fax template in Word, you will soon be able to take advantage of a new Microsoft Office template for Order and Invoices which will create an electronic (XML) version that can now be sent electronically. What’s more, if you are sent such an XML file you can open it in Internet Explorer and see a visual “stylesheet” design of that xml file which you can then review and print.
The days of expensive, multiple versions of proprietary EDI or software-specific formats are a thing of the past. You can deliver enhanced customer service, reduce costs, improve the accuracy of your systems, and increase margins through simple yet future-proofed innovations.
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