WO2011157901A1

WO2011157901A1 - Method and system in a communication network for contacting suppliers

Info

Publication number: WO2011157901A1
Application number: PCT/FI2011/050579
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lauri HOLLÄNDER
Original assignee: Itella Oyj
Priority date: 2010-06-17
Filing date: 2011-06-16
Publication date: 2011-12-22
Also published as: FI20105701A; FI20105701A0; EP2583226A1

Abstract

The invention is concerned with a method and a system in a communication network for contacting suppliers on the basis of automated data collection from invoices sent by the suppliers. The method comprises the steps of collecting in a database (11), a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier, reading transaction data from invoices received from the suppliers, including read transaction data in the database (11) in connection with each supplier, and creating differentiated rules for contacting each supplier on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and connected transaction data. The system is mainly characterized by a database (11) with a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier and differentiated rules for contacting each suppliers on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and connected transaction data, means for reading transaction data from invoices received from the supplier, and means for including read transaction data in the database (11) in connection with each supplier.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK FOR CONTACTING

SUPPLIERS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is concerned with a method and system of operating in a communication network for contacting suppliers.

BACKGROUND

An invoice or bill is a commercial document issued by a supplier/seller to the buyer, indicating what the buyer must pay to the supplier/seller, according to the payment terms.

Invoices are typically sent to recipients electronically and on paper. An electronic invoice can be transmitted as an XML message. A view reminding of a paper invoice can be viewed on the screen of a computer, extensible Markup Language (XML) is a mark-up language used to create self-descriptive data. It is a metalanguage independent of any application or platform and both humans and machines can read its syntax. The electronic invoices are usually sent from a company's financial management system or by using www-based invoicing systems.

A system for processing electronic purchase invoices is needed for receipt of electronic invoices. Companies typically receive these invoices to an electronic circulation and archiving system, whereas the consumers receive them to their internet bank.

Many companies offer their customers an opportunity to receive invoices electronically. E- invoices are invoices that can be transmitted electronically over, the Internet, for example. The standards for electronic invoicing, however, vary widely from country to country. Examples of e-invoice standards are the Finnish Finvoice standard, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards, such as the United Nation's EDIFACT standard. Besides the Finvoice standard, Finland has for the time being also other such standards as the einvoiceXML and the TEAPPS standards

EDI can be formally defined as the transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention. Most other definitions used are variations on this theme. Even in this era of technologies such as XML web services, the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI is still the data format used by the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions in the world.

Different channels are used for receiving the invoices. Different techniques are used in different countries. Generally, in the Northern Europe, it is quite common to receive electronic invoices. Scanning of paper invoices is also widely performed, while in some countries, only handling of paper invoices take place.

Other ways by which invoices might be sent and received are by some image format, such as the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) the Portable Document Format (PDF), e.g., as e- mail attachments or by some output print format. Big companies typically have tens of thousands of suppliers that send invoices to their customers and the yearly amounts of invoices received might come up to a level of hundred of thousands of purchase invoices. The invoices received are not always properly constructed and a lot of time is consumed to advise the senders of the invoices how to correct the invoices with respect to content and invoicing address. The receiving of the invoices can be performed by the companies themselves or the processes can be outsourced to e.g. operators that mediate invoices. Operators, who offer scanning services can digitize paper invoices and electronically send images of the invoices and the data connected to the invoices to the recipients. In turn, operators that handle electronic invoices can receive and send such invoices further to the recipients. A third kind of operators are those that route invoices and offer letter, e-mail and telephone campaigns in order to inform invoice senders about the content of the invoices and invoicing addresses. Electronic invoicing is a very practical and time saving, yet fairly new phenomenon that is facing a surge in popularity. The majority of companies believe that using electronic invoicing would be beneficial. The attitudes towards electronic invoicing are in general positive but still companies often need to be somewhat pushed in order to adopt this new technology.

As Finland is one of the forerunners in electronic banking, there is considerable expertise in the electronic business area and the internet banking and payment infrastructure is well developed. In addition, there has been a great deal of collaboration between banks and other such institutions and this has resulted in a development of functional and cost- efficient procedures, standards, models and instructions for electronic invoicing.

Many factors have been verified as having an effect on attitudes towards adoption of new technology. These include personal, economical, technological, organizational, and environmental factors.

Therefore, campaigns are commonly made in order to convince customer to start using electronic invoicing is commonly made.

This is for the time being mostly done by creating lists of such suppliers, i.e. invoice senders that still are sending paper invoices or other invoices not being electronic invoices. These suppliers are then contacted and recommended to start using electronic invoicing. This is generally called supplier activation. The result of the supplier activation campaign is then followed up to see which suppliers are no longer sending paper invoices. Also the recipients of the invoices might quit using other than electronic invoicing and it is a part of the supplier activation campaigns to inform which recipients are no longer handling other than electronic invoices. Paper invoices sent by the suppliers might even be returned to the sending supplier as a part of the activation campaign. As the technology of today would allow for a technical way of performing activation campaigns, this manual old-fashioned way of contacting suppliers could be avoided if solutions to such automated campaigns would exist. The object of this invention is to develop a technical method for performing activation campaigns working in a highly automated way.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is concerned with a method and a system in a communication network for contacting suppliers on the basis of automated data collection from invoices sent by the suppliers. The method comprises the steps of collecting in a database, a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier, reading transaction data from invoices received from the suppliers, including read transaction data in the database in connection with each supplier, and creating differentiated rules for contacting each supplier on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and connected transaction data.

The system is mainly characterized by a database with a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier and differentiated rules for contacting each suppliers on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and connected transaction data, means for reading transaction data from invoices received from the supplier, and means for including read transaction data in the database in connection with each supplier. The preferable embodiments of the invention are presented in the subclaims.

In this text, all kinds of communication networks, like telecommunication networks, computer networks and data networks are included in the term. A telecommunication(s) network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections can be routed to the correct recipients. A computer network, that is an example of a telecommunication network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers and devices connected by communications channels that facilitates communications among users and allows users to share resources with other users. Computer networks can be classified according to the hardware and software technology that is used to interconnect the individual devices in the network. The most simplistic definition for a data network is an electronic communications process that allows for transmission and receptive of data, such as letters, spreadsheets, and other types of documents. What sets the data network apart from other forms of communication, such as an audio network, is that the data network is configured to transmit data only. This is in contrast to the audio or voice network, which is often employed for both voice communications and the transmission of data such as a facsimile transmission

An example of individual data is an external suppler identification (ID). Data from external sources can be collected and included in the database as individual data. Transaction data can for example consists of the receiving channel informing the format of the invoice received or information of supplier resources with respect to electronic invoicing capabilities. Transaction data can further consist of one or more of the supplier ID, the data content of the invoice, defects found, and the date of receipt. Furthermore, changes in supplier behaviour and invoices received can be connected to said individual data for each supplier in the database.

The supplier (sender) information in the database is constantly updated and supplemented with contact information, electronic invoicing abilities, and transaction data of the incoming purchase invoices. The contact information of each supplier is kept up-to-date to ensure the maximum effect and outcome of the sender activation campaigns. The service provider can receive information about the electronic invoicing capabilities of corporations from several sources, e.g. registers and other invoice operators. This information is attached to the senders in the database. The step of receiving the purchase invoice produces transaction data of the incoming purchase invoices. This data is collected from the means for interpretation and reading of transaction data of the invoices, which means will be described in more detail in the detailed description part. The invoice sender's VAT IDs can be used for linking the transaction data to the senders in the database. If a recipient receives purchase invoices from a sender that is not listed in the sender register, these senders can be marked as unknown in the invoice transaction reporting and they can be listed later.

The rules consist of ways of contacting the suppliers by one of automatic letter outprints, automatic e-mails, and telephone calls. Lists of suppliers for each contact way are created. Said rules also include the content for said letters, outprints, automatic e-mails or telephone calls. The letters are preferably based on fixed templates, which are automatically and individually filled for each sender or all senders in a certain segment. E- mail campaigns can be used whenever e-mail addresses are available. E-mail templates can also be fixed. Said letters, outprints, automatic e-mails or telephone calls present for the supplier the desired way of behaviour in the future. The desired supplier behaviour is in accordance with goals defined for the behaviour of each supplier on the basis of said individual data and connected transaction data. Thus, the goals defined consist of the desired format of the invoice used by the supplier.

In some embodiments, the goals defined for the format of the invoice used by the supplier consist of alternative formats ranked in an order of priority. Consequently, the goal selected to be presented for the supplier as a desired supplier bevaviour way is higher in priority than the actual customer behaviour and is selected by taking the supplier capabilties into consideration.

The format of the received invoice is one of an image, an outprint format, an e-mail attachment, a web invoice or an electronic invoice. In practice, the desired format of the received invoice defined as the goal being having the highest priority is the electronic invoice. Suppliers fulfilling the goal of the highest priority with respect to supplier behvaiour can be deleted from said list.

The invention is advantageously used in connection with a service implemented as a service for clients that wish to receive their invoices electronically from their suppliers. These clients are here generally called "recipients", whereas the suppliers are called "senders".

Said service allows a broad selection of invoice receiving channels ranging from purchase invoice scanning to e-mail invoices and electronic invoices. All of these invoice receiving channels transmit transaction data into the sender database, in connection with that the invoices are interpreted, which creates a perfect basis for advanced reporting.

The customers can be segmented on the basis of the individual data of each sender (supplier) into groups and creating common rules for the suppliers in the same group. Segmentation tools are used to split the sender mass into manageable segments. A segment might include, for example, the key senders with the largest invoice volumes or such senders who already have the ability to send electronic invoices but are still sending paper invoices.

The sender activation has two main message intentions: it pressures the senders to use electronic invoicing and it reminds the senders to include obligatory information (for instance the purchase order number and the receiver's reference) in the invoices. By activating the senders, the result is an increased use of electronic invoices and a better quality of purchase invoices. The most common approach is to send letters or e-mails to all senders in the beginning of a six-month campaign. Then, after two months, there is another letter or e-mail round for those senders that are still sending paper invoices. Still, after another two months, there is a final letter or email round for the paper invoice senders left. The target groups for these second and third rounds are created based on a transaction data reporting. The invention provides a new and dynamic way of constructing the e-mails for subsequent sending of contact letters, e-mails etc. after feed back information from previous sendings of these. The invention provides means for iterative supplier activation that is based on automated analysis of the incoming purchase invoices and dynamic target group and message content selection based on the incoming invoice transactions. Information, such as the total amount of invoices received during the preceding month, the electronic invoicing ratio of these invoices, the receiving channel distribution of the invoices, the total amount of active senders, and the senders in each invoice receiving channel can be retrieved from the system to be taken into consideration for the planning of the contacting letters, e-mails or telephone calls.

The invention realizes an iterative way of sender contacting in an automated way on the basis of the results of the inventive way of data collection and follow-up functions of the method of the invention. With the invention, a lot of manual work is avoided compared to the old way of performing sender contacting.

The activation campaigns enforce the senders to send their invoices through the most cost-efficient channels and remind them to include all the necessary information in the invoices. As a result, the senders are able to increase process automation and gain substantial cost and time savings in receiving and processing the purchase invoices.

The invention is built on a comprehensive sender database and campaign management functions. Sender data is transmitted to a database to be supplemented and combined with an extensive amount of additional information. Once the sender data has been completed, segmentation tools can be used to split the supplier mass into manageable segments. The most suitable approach is chosen for each of the supplier segments and the actions of the method are executed by letter, email, and telephone. The results of this sender management can be seen in an improved use of electronic invoicing and quality of the incoming purchase invoices. Targeted and triggered multichannel campaigns can be performed on the basis of the updated information provided by the actions of the method of the invention. The invention also enables a way to manage updated information of customer behaviour as the old way of managing the suppliers was often based on insufficient contact information. In the following a detailed description of an embodiment of the invention is presented by means of figures. The intention is not to restrict the invention to the details presented.

FIGURES

Figure 1 is an architecture view of the system of the invention

Figure 2 is a general signal diagram of the method of the invention

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 presents an implementation of the system used in the method of the invention for contacting customers by following the quality and art of incoming purchase invoices. The system is realized by means of functions provided by a service provider.

Reference numbers 1 - 7 are channels and gateways for the functions of receiving invoices in different formats from different senders. Examples of different invoice formats that senders use for their invoicing are illustrated. In this embodiment of figure 1 , it is assumed that clients, here called recipients, use the service provider to receive electronic invoices to their own systems.

Incoming invoices can e.g. be paper invoices. They are scanned by the service provider to be converted to electronic invoices or then the senders scan the paper invoices themselves and send them in scanned form. The figure does not illustrate the manual actions, in which the paper invoices are received at a certain physical address of the service provider, where they are pre-processed, sorted and then scanned to form images of the invoices. Reference number 1 illustrates such incoming invoices scanned into a visualized form of an image format, e.g., the TIFF format or PDF image format, as a result of the scanning of a paper invoice. Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is a flexible, adaptable file format for handling images and data within a single file. Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format for document exchange.

Received invoices can also be invoices of any output print format illustrated by reference number 2. A document output print format is represented by a data stream that can be sent directly to a printer so that it can be interpreted by the output device without any previous conversion process. The handling of such invoices means, in practice, that images are further processed into a TIFF format.

A third visualized format is the PDF format sent as an e-mail attachment by the sender. Also TIFF formats can be sent as e-mail attachments. The sender himself might have scanned the invoice into a PDF format, TIFF format or the like and sent it to the service provider as an e-mail attachment. Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format for document exchange. A channel for handling and receiving such a format is illustrated by reference number 3 in figure 1. Visualized formats sent as e-mail attachments can, however, be in whatever file format, and even files like Word files or Page Maker files.

A fourth possible visualized format illustrated by reference number 4 might be a simple e- mail message, in which the customer sends the invoice as a direct e-mail message.

A still further alternative for incoming invoices is the web invoice meaning that a fill-in form is requested via the internet and the invoice data details entered by the sender within the fields of the form. An invoice is then automatically generated for sending further to the service provider. The function for receiving invoices in this form is illustrated by the channel with reference number 5 in figure 1. When received by the channel function 5, the invoice message is loaded into the system of the service provider automatically, since no preprocessing like scanning, digitizing or optical reading need to be done. An electronic invoice (e-invoice) viewed on the screen of a computer can be transmitted as an XML message, being a view reminding of a paper invoice. Reference number 6 represents the means for receipt of standardized electronic invoices. Electronic invoices can be received in the format of the EDI standard. An example of an electronic invoice standard is the Finvoice standard. The sender of the invoice sends an e-invoice electronically from his bank and the gateway for handling and receiving of such invoices is in figure 1 illustrated by reference number 7. The service provider's online banking site is a site from which the service platform of the service provider receives the invoices. The incoming invoices need to be processed before forwarding them within the system. The way of processing depends on the format of the invoice. Reference number 8 illustrates the means for handling the incoming invoices received by the functions of reference numbers 1 - 4. The handling actions involve e.g., Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for optical reading of basic data from the incoming invoices that are in some kind of a visualized form but is not an electronic standard invoice. Data retrieved from the invoices is e.g. a Customer ID, the Invoice number, the Invoice date, the sum of the invoice, the due date for payment, currency, a payment reference, the bank account, sender's VAT ID, and Invoice type. Depending on agreement, other data can also be retrieved.

The OCR software carries out various check-up procedures in a validation step in order to ensure the correctness of the data. The correctness of some data is computationally checked. Missing or erraneous data can be added or corrected, respectively. These check-ups include e.g. a logic check of account numbers and payment reference numbers. Values that are computationally incorrect can be submitted to manual checking. The validation program gives an alarm if relevant data has not been found or is in the wrong form. Data read by the OCR is stored and possibly manually corrected.

The electronic invoices received by means of functions 5 - 7 need to be visualized in the means of function 9 in some way before forwarding if they are not already in a visualized form. With visualization is here meant some technique to read data from the messages and create an image of the data read. After visualization by function 9, the order message is loaded into to system automatically, since no preprocessing like scanning or digitizing or optical reading need to be done. An EDI Invoice message is not in a visualized form originally but contains all the financial information which would be presented on a paper invoice - that is ISBN, quantity, location, price, VAT, discounts, servicing charges etc.

It is pointed out that figure 1 is only presented as an example. There might be incoming invoices that neither need to be optically read nor visualized and for example the different versions of the PDF formats and EDI formats might require different processing. Reference number 10 generally illustrates the key functions of the invention with respect to the means for interpreting the invoices, collecting a data base with a list of senders with individual data of each sender, reading transaction data from invoices received from the sender, connecting it to the individual data in the database and storing that data in the database, and creating rules for contacting each sender on the basis of the individual and connected data of each sender.

The database, in which individual data of each sender is registered, is illustrated with reference number 11. Data for each sender can include several external corporate ID codes (such as VAT ID, Business ID, EDI ID, DUNS ID, and EAN ID), supplier's resources and capabilities to deliver electronic invoicing capabilities, information of the formats and delivery channels used by the sender, the frequency by which invoices are sent, the dates for recent invoices sent, contacting information, information of previous contacting letters and e-mails sent and the content of those, the dates of the previous contacting letters and e-mails sent, goals defined for the behaviour of each sender with respect to invoice format used, i.e. the desired format of the invoice used by the sender, defects found in the invoices sent by the sender, data from external sources, and changes in the sender behaviour with respect to invoices sent. The service provider can receive information about the electronic invoicing capabilities of corporations from several external sources, e.g. registers and other invoice operators. The ordinary invoice handling functions were described in connection with reference numbers 8 and 9. In connection with the functions of 8 and 9, data is transferred directly to the sender database 1 The database 1 1 might also be updated with information by means of the function illustrated by the means of reference number 12, which here illustrates information collected from externals sources (this information collecting not illustrated) and possibly even some special transaction data read and retrieved from the invoices received from the senders by some other means than those of functions 8 and 9.

Data read and registered in database 1 1 is e.g., the invoice formats and invoice delivery channels used by the supplier, the date by which the invoice was sent, and defects found in the invoice. The ultimate intention with the invention is to make suppliers use electronic invoicing instead of paper invoices, scanned invoices, e-mails and other such formats mentioned in connection with discussing reference numbers 1 - 4 for their invoices. Thus, the format for invoices received by the function of channel 5 would be the most preferred. In the invention, there are programmed rules in the form of a priority order for how to prioritize different formats received by the channels and gateways 1 - 7 with respect to what format would be the most preferable for the invoice receiver and to be presented in the contacting letter, e-mail, etc. for the sender. Another intention of the invention n is to improve the quality of incoming invoices overall, which might be desirable also for incoming electronic invoices. A sender might for instance have changed operator or the format of electronic invoice, in which connection problems might have arisen. There might be missing information, or information in the wrong place and so on.

By taking the priority list into consideration, rules are created for contacting each sender on the basis of the individual data of each sender, the individual data being fetched from the sender database 1 1. The rules to be constructed include the desired behaviour of the given sender in question and the way of contacting the sender. This function is illustrated by the means of reference number 13 in figure 1. Even if the ultimate goal is to make each sender use electronic invoicing, the goals defined for the desired format of the invoice used by each sender might vary depending on said individual data of each sender with respect to e.g. the sender's software and equipment capabilities. Thus, the goal selected to be presented for the sender as a desired sender bevaviour way is not necessarily electronic invoicing in the first hand but is higher in priority than the actual sender behaviour and is selected by taking the sender capabilities into consideration. Therefore, when creating the rules for contacting each sender, the individual sender behaviour is one of those rules consisting of ways of contacting the sender. The rules comprise description of the ways of contacting the senders by one or more of automatic letter outprints, automatic e-mails, or a telephone call but also with respect to the content of said letter outprints, automatic e-mails, or telephone call. The content primarily consists of the individual and desired customer behaviour presented for the sender.

There might be similar senders with respect to said goals and rules why the senders can be segmented into groups to facilitate the work of contacting by preparing broadcast letters for the senders in the same group. This function illustrated by the means of reference number 14 in figure 1.

When said letters, e-mails, and telephone calls for contacting have been planned in accordance with the goals and rules defined above and on the basis of the individual customer data, they are realized and that function is illustrated by the means of reference number 15. The telephone calls are naturally manually performed but the e-mails and letters are done automatically by the system.

The recipients of the letters, e-mails, and telephone calls for contacting are those of the senders referred to by reference numbers 1 - 7, for which a changed behaviour is desired. The invoices processed by functions 8 and 9 are further processed for sending to recipients but those actions are not illustrated in figure 1 since they are outside the scope of this invention. Figure 2 is a general signal diagram of an overview of the method of the invention.

Different senders send invoices of different formats, but these differences are not illustrated here as they were described in connection with figure 1. Signal 1 presents the sending of some kind of an invoice by a sender.

Incoming invoices can be paper invoices sent by ordinary mail. In that case they are scanned by the service provider to be converted to electronic invoices, which is not illustrated either. It is assumed that invoices of different invoice formats that senders use for their invoicing and described in figure 1 in connection with reference numbers 1 - 7 are received by the service provider in signal 2.

The incoming invoices anyway need to be processed before forwarding them within the system for sending them to recipients. The way of processing depends on the format of the invoice and the actions may involve Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for optical reading of data from the incoming invoices that are in some kind of a visualized form but is not an electronic standard invoice. Electronic invoices not in a visualized form need to be visualized i.e. read data from the messages and create an image of the data read, before forwarding. This processing is presented by step 3 in figure 2. Transaction data read and retrieved from the invoices in step 2 is registered by the system in a database, which is updated in signal 4. The database might also received data from other means than the means for interpreting the invoices in the receiving channels.

The system also retrieves and fetches some earlier registered data from the database in signal 5, which data is needed to create rules for how to contact suppliers. A period might be set for the actions done by signals 3 and 4 in that data is updated and retrieved with information that has taken place during , e.g., two months.

In step 6, rules (consisting of contacting plans) are created for contacting each sender on the basis of the individual data of each sender, the individual data having been read from incoming invoices and from the database. The rules to be constructed include the desired behaviour of the given sender in question and the way of contacting the sender.

The rules (or plans) for contacting consist of description of the ways of contacting the sender by one or more of automatic letter outprints, automatic e-mails, or a telephone call but also with respect to the content of said letter outprints, automatic e-mails, or telephone call. The content primarily consists of the individual and desired customer behaviour presented for the sender.

There might be similar senders with respect to said goals and rules how the senders can be segmented into groups to facilitate the work of contacting by preparing broadcast letters for the senders in the same group. This function illustrated by step 7, in figure 2.

The planned automatic letter outprints and automatic e-mails are constructed in step 8 of figure 2 and sent in signal 9. The telephone calls are manually performed and not illustrated by figure 2.

EXAMPLES

The ultimate intention with the invention is to make suppliers use electronic invoicing instead of paper invoices, scanned invoices, e-mails and other such formats mentioned in connection with discussing reference numbers 1 - 4 for their invoices. Thus, the format for invoices received by the function of channel 5 would be the most preferred. In the invention, the different formats received by the channels and gateways 1 - 7 might be listed up in a priority order with respect to what format would be the most preferable for the service provider. Another intention of the invention is to improve the quality of incoming invoices overall, which might be desirable also for incoming electronic invoices. A sender might for instance have changed operator or the format of electronic invoice, in which connection problems might have arisen. There might be missing information, or information in the wrong place and so on.

By taking the priority list into consideration, rules are created for contacting each sender on the basis of the individual data of each sender. The rules to be constructed include the desired behaviour of the given sender in question and the way of contacting the sender.

In the following table some examples of contacting rules are listed up and information that are taken into consideration for creating the rules..

Example of information read from invoices or taken from other sources to take into consideration for making said rules:

- Sender capabilities

- Sender ID

- Invoice number

- Invoice date

- The sum of the invoice

- The due date for payment - Currency

- Payment reference

- Bank account

- Sender VAT

- Invoice type

- Invoice format

- Electronic invoicing ratio of the invoices

- Receiving channel distribution of the invoices

- Receiving channel of each sender

- Total amount of active senders

- Amount of invoices received during the preceding period

Claims

1. Method in a communication network for contacting suppliers on the basis of automated data collection from invoices in different formats sent by the suppliers via channels and gateways in said network, the format of the received invoice is one of an image, an outprint format, an e-mail attachment, a web invoice or an electronic invoice, Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Portable Document Format (PDF), or EDI c h a r a c t e r i z e d by the steps of a) collecting in a database (1 1 ), a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier, b) using a technique to read transaction data from invoices received from the suppliers, including read transaction data in the database (1 1 ) in connection with individual data of each supplier, the transaction data read consisting of the format of the invoice received, c) programming rules in the form of a priority list for how to prioritize different formats received by the channels and gateways and to be presented for contacting suppliers in accordance with goals defined for the behaviour of each supplier on the basis of said individual data in step a), the goals defined for the format of the invoice used by the supplier consist of alternative formats ranked in an order of priority,

d) creating rules by taking the priority list into consideration for contacting each supplier on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and the connected transaction data, the individual data being fetched from the database, the rules consist of ways of contacting the supplier by one of automatic letter outprints, automatic e-mails, and telephone calls, and of ways of contacting the supplier with respect to the content of said letter outprints or automatic e-mails,

e) creating lists that contain suppliers for said different ways in accordance with said priority list and said rules, and

f) manually realizing the contacting by a telephone call or automatically by letter outprints or e-mails.

2. Method of claim 1 , c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that each supplier is identified by an external ID.

3. Method of claim 1 or 2, further characterized by including in said data in step a), information of supplier resources with respect to electronic invoicing capabilities.

4. Method of claim 1,2, or 3, characterized by segmenting the customers, on the basis of the individual data of each customer, into groups and creating common rules for the customers in the same group.

5. Method of claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the goal selected to be presented for the supplier as a desired supplier bevaviour way is higher in priority than the actual customer behaviour and is selected by taking the supplier capabilties into consideration.

6. Method of claim 1 , 2, 3, 4, or 5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the desired format of the received invoice defined as the goal being having the highest priority is the electronic invoice.

7. Method of claim 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the transaction data read consists of one or more of the supplier ID, the data content of the invoice, defects found, the date of receipt.

8. Method of claim 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, further characterized by collecting data from external sources and included data from external sources to said database in step a).

9. Method of claim 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8, further characterized by recording changes in supplier behaviour and invoices received in said individual data for each supplier.

10. Method of claim 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, further characterized by deleting suppliers from said list upon fulfilling the goal of the highest priority.

11. System in a communication network for managing supplier contacting by automated data collection from invoices sent by the suppliers, characterized by

a) a database (11 ) with a list of suppliers with individual data of each supplier and with rules for contacting each supplier on the basis of the individual data of each supplier and connected transaction data, the rules consisting of ways of contacting the supplier by one of automatic letter outprints, automatic e-mails, and a list for calling suppliers by telephone of and of ways of contacting the supplier with respect to the content of said letter, outprints or automatic e-mails.

b) means (8) for reading transaction data from invoices received from the supplier, c) means for including read transaction data in the database (11) in connection with each supplier.

20. System of claim 19, characterized in that each supplier is identified by an external ID in the data base (11 ). 21. System of claim 19, or 20, further characterized in that said data base (11) contains information of supplier resources with respect to electronic invoicing capabilities.

22. System of claim 19, 20, 21 , 22, or 23, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the transaction data read consists of one or more of the supplier ID, the data content of the invoice, defects found, the date of receipt.