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E-procurement standards in the Swedish public sector

Kerstin Wiss HolmdahlSwedish Association of Local Authorities and RegionsPeter NorénSwedish National Financial Management Authority

Single Face To Industry (SFTI)

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Single Face To Industry (SFTI)

• Was initiated as an e-commerce project, in 1995

• Now a public sector program, lead jointly by the Government, through The Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV), and The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL)

• Our objectives for e-procurement are:

– Simpler and more efficient procurement in public sector

– Better compliance with frame work agreements (i.e. buy from right suppliers)

– Free resources for the core business (i.e. for schools, hospitals, elderly care etc.)

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SFTI – our role

• Establish standardised business processes for public buyers and their suppliers

– Sub-ordering (call off) from framework agreements is the most used business scenario

– Periodic invoicing is also used in a large scale

• Provide for complementary use of stand-alone electronic messages (invoice, order)

• Provide user support through implementation guidelines, awareness, training, technical advice, etc

• Encourage the development of e-procurement/e-business solutions

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An example:SFTI/ESAP Sc 6.1 Sub-ordering from frame work agreements, based on UN/EDIFACT and EANCOM

Sub-orders

SupplierPrice list

Order confirmation

Invoice

Bank PaymentTo pay

Purchaser

Delivery

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Message standards

• From start our EDI messages were based on UN/EDIFACT, in accordance with the EANCOM implementation guidelines:

– Initially we chose directory D93A

– Since 1999 we use directory D96A

– No later directories adopted

• In recent years XML-based messages have been increasingly asked for

– Because of the new technology itself, and

– Because of new target groups, notably the SMEs, requiring simpler procedures

• This has lead to the introduction of

o Basic invoice (UBL 1.0; since 2004)

o Basic order only (UBL 2.0/NES; since 2008)

• But we continue to use also UN/EDIFACT messages

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Other related standards

•Third party operators (VAN, banks, etc) are common in Sweden

–To bridge various addressing standards we introduced an UN/CEFACT-based envelope, SBDH (Standard Business Document Header)

•We recommend the use of an ebMS-based transport profile

•We have defined an object envelope for attachments to electronic messages

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International collaborations

• Although our task is to serve organisations in Sweden we recognise the need for international collaboration, for example

• We have participated in UN/CEFACT, since 1998, both

– at UN/CEFACT Forum every year, and

– in TBG 1(Martin Forsberg from SFTI is responsible for the work regarding order-message)

• We also participate in CEN workshops, notably CEN/BII. Martin Forsberg chairs the working group focusing on convergence between UN/CEFACT and UBL

• Sweden, through SFTI, will participate in the Pan-European PEPPOL project to test cross-border e-invoicing

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Our involvement in UN/CEFACT

• We see UN/CEFACT as the only platform that can bring together a wide range of heterogeneous user groups from all over the world

• We appreciate the collaborative atmosphere in the convergence work between UN/CEFACT/TBG1 and UBL, and regret that limited resources have not made possible to extend it wider

• We are pleased with the recent progress in UN/CEFACT regarding

– The second generation of the cross-industry invoice, representing a successful merger of various user groups’ requirements

– The new base standards CCTS3 and NDR3, which will bring significant improvement for users of UN/CEFACT implementations.

• We look forward to an up-take in the implementation of UN/CECFACT specifications as richer libraries based on these specs become available.

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Our involvement in UN/CEFACT

• The work is however far from over

• There are challenges that need to be addressed regarding the XML-syntax, versioning and code lists

• We see the Standards Advisory Board and CCLF (Core Component Library Framework) as important plattforms to find solutions to the challenges

• We hope that our experience from having used CCTS-based XML-standards in many years will be useful in this environment

• We will continue to support the work within UN/Cefact

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Thank you!

Kerstin Wiss HolmdahlLegal advisor/project leaderSwedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions /SFTI (Single Face To Industry)kerstin.wiss.holmdahl@skl.se+46 8 452 79 87

Peter NorénProject leaderSwedish National Financial Management Authority / SFTIPeter.noren@esv.se, +46 8 690 45 96

SFTITechnical staff: tekniskt.kansli@skl.seWeb page: www.sfti.se