Current economic conditions require European enterprises to increase focus on operational efficiencies, process automation and co-operation with value chain market participants, whilst leveraging on core business competences. Many small and medium sized enterprises are not sufficiently aware of the decision making process relating to e-business policies, initiatives and legislation that will influence their organisations directly. Information on e-business practices, products and services is often difficult to find or provided only by interested parties and yet solving inefficiencies and fostering innovation in the SME e-business domain is in the best interest of the entire supply chain.

The European e-Business Lab is a cross-industry initiative that represents the bridge between EU decision makers, market stakeholders and the user community. The Lab voices its members’ needs and recommends solutions to improve the e-Business ecosystem, by iteratively engaging all the key actors across the innovation process and putting the users in the driver’s seat.

Our mission is to empower enterprises to foster eBusiness adoption and innovation for the development of an open and interoperable European eBusiness ecosystem. The Lab provides its members with insight, and practical knowledge, promotes research and user-driven innovation, while encouraging the development of common methodologies for value chain automation and standardisation. EBL supports its members with the implementation of their e-business development programmes, promoting cooperation and facilitating the participation of SMEs.

Policy Context

The Lab started by focusing on e-Invoicing developments and can be seen as an implementation of the Recommendations included in the Final Report of the EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing. E-Invoicing is part of several EU governments’ initiatives and can be included in the wider e-Procurement context. The Commission is also setting up a large-scale e-Invoicing pilot in collaboration with the Member States under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.

The Lab is currently implementing Recommendation n. 1 of the Final Report of the EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing, which relates to meeting the SMEs needs, as a priority.

To accomplish this goal the Lab’s team is also operating at local level in the Region of Puglia (Italy), an area with high SME density, by directly involving enterprises, regional public administrations, IT providers and financial institutions.

Ongoing key actions:

• Assessing and monitoring SMEs needs by directly interviewing onsite micro-enterprises and SMEs operating in strategic sectors of the regional economy.
• Aligning the regional public administration technology developments with the EU best practices, so that technology and competences can be transferred from the public to the private sector, creating synergies for the economic system overall and increasing competitiveness.
• Identifying needed initiatives and sharing them with public administrations, IT vendors and financial institutions. Using the Lab as the reference point for convergence of information, moderator and generator of coherent programs and efficient initiatives based on the local needs of enterprises and in line with EU policy developments.

Leveraging on its network of excellence, the Lab provides the highest expertise to the local community, always involving the users and putting their needs in the driving seat, acting as a Living Lab.

The Lab published the ‘European e-Invoicing Guide for SMEs’ in English, German and Italian, and is available to be translated in other languages by interested organisations in other EU countries. The Guide forms part of our action plan to foster the development of the future European e-business ecosystem.

The Lab promotes an environment where users can integrate standardised e-business tools into their internal information systems without significant investment and disruption and where all market stakeholders will benefit from a pan-European innovative and competitive level playing field.

Description of target users and groups

Target users are all players in the European Supply Chain, including the public sector, regulators, tax authorities, corporate associations, IT service providers, press and media, eBusiness experts, academics and SMEs.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

EBL operates as a Living Lab, creating a user-driven open innovation ecosystem based on a business, citizens and government partnership which enables users to take an active part in the research, development and innovation process:

1. bringing the users early into the creative process in order to better discover new and emerging behaviours and user patterns;
2. bridging the innovation gap between technology development and the uptake of new products and services involving all relevant players of the value network via partnerships between business, citizens, and government;
3. allowing for early assessment of the socio-economic implications of new technological solutions by demonstrating the validity of innovative services and business models.

Through the Living Lab concept, EBL:

1. Represents the member community with EU institutions and market stakeholders, validating policies, new technologies and initiatives to drive e-business market developments
2. Builds bridges between the members community, EU institutions and market stakeholders linking research, practice and policies
3. Provides knowledge and information relating to e-Business developments to identify, formulate and share best practices
4. Promotes co-operation between our members, facilitating the participation of SMEs and establishing peer-to-peer platforms
5. Encourages the development and adoption of common methodologies for value chain automation and standardisation
6. Supports members with the implementation of their e-business development programmes
7. Promotes research and user-driven innovation for new technologies and pilots
8. Co-operates with other organisations, also outside Europe, to ensure alignment and co-ordination with global developments

Technology solution

EBL is technology neutral. We fully support and promote open technologies that are accessible to SMEs, including open source technologies. We actively promote the use of standards and believe standards convergence is the key to achieving true interoperability.

Technology choice: Standards-based technology, Mainly (or only) open standards, Accessibility-compliant (minimum WAI AA), Open source software

Main results, benefits and impacts

1- Awareness

Regional Assessment for the Region of Puglia

The Lab completed an extensive study that shed light on the potential benefits of  invoicing and payment automation, presenting a roadmap for the Region of Puglia which identified the advantages of such developments starting from a single company, to its supply chain and, finally, to the whole regional economy. The results were discussed at the premises of the key enterprise association with its members, public administrations, financial institutions and national tax agency. A video interview and records of the meeting are available at the following link:

http://www.pugliaeccellente.com/dettaglio-notizia.php?id=235

2- Inclusion

Feedback to the Expert Group on e-Invoicing, including the direct interview process with SMEs and feedback from other associations, large corporate and service providers.

To ensure the inclusion of SMEs in the open consultation process, the Lab’s team translated in Italian the main content of the Final Report and discussed directly the key issues with enterprises and corporate associations, including feedback in the document sent to the Commission, publicly is available at:

http://www.slideshare.net/EuropeanBusinessLab/ec-e-invconsultationfinalreport

3- SMEs test

In order to truly deliver useful material to SMEs, the Lab submitted the content of the E-Invoicing Guide to the SMEs test through UEAPME, the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Three tests were successfully passed and suggestions received by SMEs contributed to the final version of the Guide, a freely available publication.

http://www.epractice.eu/en/library/299411

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The Lab is already receiving interest by other regions in the EU to set up similar structures and programs, always maintaining the EU co-ordination of the initiative.

As a Living Lab the mechanisms for exchange are open and publicly available.

The Lab is sharing the first results of the effort with other organisations belonging to the public and private sector. The initiative is already known by e-Invoicing peers of the Lab community at EU level.

EBL is planning to organise a European conference, on October 2010, to share results with a wider public and continue work on awareness, training & education and pilots.

Lessons learnt

1- Commitment of the Public sector at top level is crucial for the success of any e-Business initiative in order to gain critical mass adoption of new technologies. It enormously facilitates the work needed on awareness and stakeholders' effort ('top down' approach)

2- The management of the initiative has to be private to ensure financial sustainability in the long term. The people in charge must have a "technology neutral" vision and be real business experts. Universities have a role to play but practical knowledge is of paramount importance to drive the right changes and transfer knowledge to users.

3- Involve local people in the community to ensure commitment of SMEs which typically cannot be reached with an institutional approach ('bottom up' approach).

The best information comes from direct interviews across sectors and different sizes of companies. We think we know what SMEs want and need but they know best.

Scope: Cross-border, Local (city or municipality), National, Pan-European, Regional (sub-national)