Peppol/OpenPeppol with webMethods AS4 Module: Your Gateway to World of Seamless eProcurement and eInvoicing

Peppol/OpenPeppol with webMethods AS4 Module: Your Gateway to the World of Seamless eProcurement and eInvoicing

PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) project began in 2008 financed as a pilot project by the European Commission as well as by members of the PEPPOL Consortium with the aim of simplifying electronic procurement across borders by developing technology standards that could be implemented across all governments within Europe. The overall objective was to enable businesses to communicate electronically with any European government institution in the procurement process, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.

The PEPPOL consortium was comprised of seventeen partners (mostly leading public eProcurement agencies) within 11 countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

At the end of August 2012, the PEPPOL project was finalized and its services and responsibilities were taken over by the non-profit association OpenPeppol.

The Peppol Vision

Source: © Peppol website @ About Peppol Presentation

What is Peppol?

Peppol is a set of artifacts and specifications enabling cross-border eProcurement. The use of Peppol is governed by a multi-lateral agreement structure which is owned and maintained by OpenPeppol.

Peppol is not an e-Procurement platform but instead provides a set of technical specifications that can be implemented in existing eProcurement solutions and eBusiness exchange services to make them interoperable between disparate systems across Europe.

Peppol enables trading partners to exchange standards-based electronic documents over the Peppol network (based on a 4-corner model). These documents include e-Orders, e-Advance Shipping Notes, eInvoices, eCatalogues, Message Level Responses, etc.

Peppol Access Points connect users to the Peppol network and exchange electronic documents based on the Peppol specifications. Buyers and suppliers are free to choose their preferred single Access Point provider to connect to all Peppol participants already on the network. (‘Connect once, connect to all’).

The Value of Peppol

  • Market enabler for interoperable e-procurement solutions
  • Standards based business process interoperability through PEPPOL BIS
  • Peppol eDelivery Network and Peppol Transport Infrastructure Agreements which form the technical and legal basis for interoperability
  • Significant simplification and improvement of the on-boarding process for buyers and suppliers that want to trade electronically

Peppol Interoperability Framework

Source: © Peppol website @ About Peppol Presentation

Peppol Components

Peppol is based on three major pillars:

  • The network (Peppol eDelivery Network).
  • The document specifications (Peppol Business Interoperability Specifications ‘BIS’)
  • The legal framework that defines the network governance (Peppol Transport Infrastructure Agreements – TIA)

Peppol eDelivery Network Features

Source: © Peppol website @ About Peppol Presentation

  • How we do Message Exchanges

    • PEPPOL Network – 4 corner model
    • Dynamic Discovery/lookup of Participants
    • The Peppol ID / Participant Identifier
  • What Messages Exchanges

    • Peppol BIS
    • Validation of Peppol BIS
  • SML & SMP

    • Peppol SMPs (publishing the capabilities of Peppol participants)

      All Peppol participating organizations (such as contracting authorities or suppliers) publish their receiving capabilities (delivery addresses, business processes and document types supported, etc.) using a separate service called a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP).

      The purpose of the SMP is similar to an address book or business registry containing details of participants within a specific eProcurement community.

      Typically, an SMP is provided to complement an Access Point, because they publish details for customers of the Access Point. But an SMP can also be provided as an independent service by a third party organization.

    • The Peppol SML (central registration system for addressing)

      In order to deliver electronic documents from a sender to the correct recipient, all Peppol Access Points need to know about each other and the participants they support.

      To do this Peppol maintains one centralized service, called the Service Metadata Locator (SML). The Peppol SML defines which Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) to use for finding out the delivery details of any Peppol participant. This is a similar approach to how the World Wide Web is able to find websites based on their domain names. The Peppol SML is a core service that identifies all Peppol trusted Access Points and SMPs.

Peppol Adoption

  • Peppol has been adopted in more than 40+ countries for B2G, G2B and 78+ countries are using the same for B2G, G2B and in B2B space

  • 32 countries in Europe plus Outside Europe we have Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and USA are Open Peppol Members.

  • ** There are 18 Peppol Authorities across multiple countries and OpenPeppol AISBL as an interim choice where no national Authority exists.**

  • Australia, Saudi Arabia and Japan working on mandating Peppol in 2023

  • In The Unites States the Business Payments Coalition along with the Federal Reserve is piloting a standardized B2B electronic document exchange system in the United States. The initiative seeks to establish a standardized e-invoice model and create an electronic document exchange network, very similar to the PEPPOL system developed in Europe. The US network will facilitate electronic commerce by enabling the efficient exchange of documents and straight-through processing for all sectors. More than 80 organizations are already participating in the pilot.

  • 617k + companies are registered participants in the Peppol Network with more than 500 Million + Transactions in the last 4 years

webMethods AS4 Module?

webMethods AS4 module with the Industry Leading webMethods B2B platform provides the ability to facilitate the secure exchange of messages, independent of payload type, across your trading network.

Peppol/OpenPeppol with webMethods AS4 Module - How?

  • webMethods AS4 Module enables you to be a Peppol Access Provider within the Peppol network using the built-in/out-of-the-box assets and services like the Trading Partner Agreement, the services to send and receive messages between Public sector entities and agencies, private sector entities.For more information refer to: webMethods AS4 Module Documentation.

  • webMethods AS4 Module is offered with webMethods.io B2B Cloud the B2B AS A SERVICE edition and also with webMethods B2B ON PREM edition.

Why webMethods AS4 Module?

  • webMethods B2B platform is the industry leading B2B platform for more than 20+ years, thousands of customers, powering 15+ Billion B2B exchanges.

  • webMethods AS4 Module over the years is being used in various industry sectors like Government, Energy, Utilities, Manufacturing, Transport, Logistics, IT, Food & Beverages etc… by many Fortune 500 customers across the world.

  • webMethods AS4 Module support the wide variety of AS4 profiles like ebHandler, ENTSOG(European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas), eDelivery, Peppol.

  • webMethods AS4 Module** is a certified eDelivery provider** and is certified by eDelivery European Union technical arm Connecting Europe Facility Programme (CEF).

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