crossgate continues to extend e-invoicing alliance

Strategic partnership formed with BayernLB

Starnberg on 17 December 2007

crossgate, the expert for B2B integration and cross automation, is taking up the fight against paper transactions: the existing e-invoicing network has now been further expanded by means of a strategic partnership with BayernLB. Customers will benefit from the many years of experience of the two companies and can profit more quickly and conveniently from the advantages of electronic invoicing.

Synergies have to be clustered in order to implement the vision of cross-sectoral and fully electronic finance documents in B2B and B2C. This is why a partnership with a global player in the field is important for a company such as BayernLB, which has already accumulated experience and expertise in e-invoicing with SIACON GmbH. The range of services, expertise and experience of large-scale projects (VW, Audi, Linde AG) as well as the network of 75,000 companies were what clinched the decision in favor of crossgate. “

The future of all finance documents is digital – we are absolutely convinced of this!” says Jörg Baier, Head of E-Banking at BayernLB. “As a bank, we are a key link in the financial supply chain, with a whole range of services relating to electronic monetary transactions. We will be offering crossgate’s services to supplement our own, thus further pursuing our long-standing strategy and ensuring that our customers continue to benefit from the advantages of e-invoicing and are able to optimize their processes.”

The digitalization of incoming and outgoing invoices enables companies to save around 60 per cent in costs as compared to conventional paper-based invoicing – with absolutely simple and legally compliant processing. What is more, since information is transferred across all media, the information is instantly available in digital form and can be further processed in the relevant systems. The co-operation with BayernLB represents a further step towards a comprehensive e-invoicing alliance. crossgate also recently enhanced its network by forming a partnership with the Finnish invoice automation expert BasWare. Customers now have access to a total of over 75,000 business partner connections.

“We aim to establish the largest pan-European e-invoicing network so as to finally achieve a breakthrough for electronic invoicing,” said Oliver van der Linden, Vice President of crossgate. “Selective co-operations in this field enable customers to benefit from the network effect: the more business partners participate, the greater the advantage to every company in the network. The overall benefit increases exponentially in relation to the number of companies participating, thus enhancing synergy effects. In practical terms, virtually every partner connection is already available. This means we can link up customers quickly and simply, so the average return on investment (ROI) is well below six months.

crossgate AG in brief:

crossgate is a specialist for B2B integration and cross automation – the cross-media automation of business processes within and between companies. The heart of the system is Europe’s biggest B2B transaction network (B.I.P.). It is already used by more than 34,000 companies to exchange documents and data regardless of format and across all media. The new B2B 360° Services ‘powered by SAP™‘ gives customers instant access from their SAP® system to all business partners integrated in the platform.

The transaction-based business model has become established in the fields of automotive, logistics, retail, chemicals and industry. crossgate was founded in Starnberg near Munich in 2001. The investors are the family of SAP™ founder Dietmar Hopp, Otto Wolff Industrieberatung und Beteiligungen GmbH and the Al-Jomaih Group. In addition to its headquarters in Starnberg, crossgate is represented at five sites in Germany, including Berlin, Cologne and Walldorf. There are also foreign branches in Atlanta, London, Milan and Paris. The cross automation specialist currently employs a staff of about 200. The founder and Board Chairman is Stefan Tittel. For further information, see www.crossgate.de.