crossgate enlarges e-invoicing alliance

Roaming Agreement with Finnish Invoice Automation Specialist BasWare

Starnberg on 26 November 2007

Clients of crossgate, experts in B2B integration and cross automation, now have access to even more business partners in Europe. The Roaming Agreement with the Finnish specialist BasWare makes the vision of unlimited electronic invoice handling (e-invoicing) a reality. The agreement also provides clients with a 100% reduction in legal complexity. This strategic partnership builds up a network of close to 74,000 connected businesses.

The demand for international data exchange is steadily climbing. Today, the overall percentage is already close to 50% and continues to increase. The European Commission has initiated the CEN Workshop on Electronic Invoicing to develop EU standards for e-invoicing and a uniform legal interpretation in order to reduce the required amount of transmitted documents. Both crossgate and BasWare are heavily involved in this expert committee. With the cooperation of both companies, all the existing business partner connections on both sides can be used to benefit the client. The advantage for the client is simple e-invoicing with no technical or legal hurdles and an accessible network of close to 74,000 connected businesses in Northern and Central Europe. As the service provider, crossgate reduces the technical complexity of EDI and e-invoicing and handles the in- and outgoing data transfers for its clients.

“We are pleased that the CEN committee work in Brussels has also paid off in concrete agreements“, explains Oliver van der Linden, Vice President at crossgate. “The agreement isn’t just restricted to e-invoicing. Instead, it allows for complete electronic data exchange, from orders to dispatch notifications to credit notes and more.” Juha Häkämies, Senior VP at BasWare, adds: ”The clients will be the ones who really benefit from the collaboration of two international specialists. They can rely on the competent handling of their electronic data transfers far beyond any borders without ever having to worry about anything.“ This combined effort gives the network a strong position in Central (from crossgate) and Northern Europe (from BasWare). This is only the first step towards a comprehensive e-invoicing alliance. Soon other agreements will be reached with partners in France, UK and Italy to create the largest Pan- European network.

crossgate AG in brief:

crossgate is a specialist in B2B integration and cross automation, the automation of business processes between companies and across all media types. At the heart of the company is the largest B2B transaction platform (B.I.P). More than 34,000 companies exchange documents and data over this platform which is both format and media type independent. With the new B2B 360° Services powered by SAP®, clients have immediate access to all integrated business partners on the platform directly from their SAP®-System.

crossgate’s transaction based business model has already proven its success in the automobile, logistic, trade, chemical and manufacturing industries. crossgate was founded in 2001 in Starnberg, Germany. The principal investors are the family of the SAP founder Dietmar Hopp, the Otto Wolff Industrieberatung und Beteiligungen GmbH and the Al-Jomaih Group. In addition to the headquarters in Starnberg, crossgate has five offices in Germany, among these, Berlin, Köln and Walldorf, and overseas branches in Atlanta, London, Milan and Paris. Altogether, the cross automation specialist has 200 employees. Founder and CEO is Stefan Tittel. For more information, go to www.crossgate.de.

BasWare in brief:

BasWare Einvoices, a subsidiary of BasWare, is responsible for e-invoicing. It became an independent subsidiary in 2006. The e-invoicing service was developed in 2001 and, today, delivers almost one million electronic business documents per month.

BasWare was founded in 1985. With more than 500,000 end users and more than 20 years of experience in financial software, BasWare is the leader in its field. Over 1,000 organizations in the private and public sectors have chosen BasWare to automate their financial processes.