Service providers

TietoEnator is among the leading architects in building a more efficient information society. With about 16,000 experts, TE is one of the largest IT service providers in Europe. As an example, TietoEnator runs a leading European message exchange service, with over 500 million B2B transactions yearly for more than 3,000 customers. The connected organizations are able to optimize the information supply of their core business processes via a reliable and secure interface supporting multiple different opportunities to connect and exchange information. 

In addition to the principal focus on the telecom R&D, forest and oil&gas industries, TietoEnator has established Business Integration Services strongly supporting the Real-Time Economy initiative. TietoEnator's Financial  Value Chain services provide customers with the effective solutions for sending and receiving invoices electronically. E-Invoice exchange services and EBPP (electronic bill presentment and payment) are becoming companies' focus areas in development due to its savings potential and improved customer service. In addition, in November 2007, TietoEnator Finland entered the era of e-Invoices only policy for inbound invoices.

Supporters

The Helsinki School of Economics (HSE) was founded in 1911 and is the largest and leading business school in Finland. Each year, HSE produces about 20 doctoral degrees, 350 MSc degrees and 400 MBA degrees. HSE is actively promoting research; the researchers at HSE are encouraged to publish their research and are rewarded for top journal publications. In 2006, 94 articles were published by HSE researchers in refereed scientific journals.

HSE has established a virtual competence center, which is committed to advancing real-time processes in Finland through research and education. Currently, interviews are being conducted at Finnish companies and public organizations to study the implementation of electronic invoicing; aiming to answer questions such as “what are the steps toward and the impacts of the full-scale implementation of electronic invoicing?” and “what kinds of effects does the implementation of electronic invoicing have on buyer-seller relationships?” Another research project focuses on the effects of electronic processes on the productivity rate of Finnish industries and the society. In addition to these research projects, HSE will incorporate real-time issues to its courses. A totally new course combining Real-Time Economy issues and the emerging service science is projected to start in autumn 2008.

The Federation of Finnish Financial Services is a trade body that represents its member companies who engage in the financial services industry in Finland. The Federation was formed at the start of 2007 when The Finnish Bankers’ Association, the Federation of Finnish Insurance Companies, the Finnish Finance Houses Association and the Employers’ Association of Finnish Financial Institutions joined forces.
Finvoice is an electronic invoice standard developed in the Federation of Finnish Financial Services by the banks. Finvoice is a solution suitable for invoicing between businesses of any size, also for invoicing consumers. Finvoice descriptions and help files with sample Finvoice invoice can be downloaded at www.finvoice.info.