Business booming at Estonian Post’s electronic billing service

Estonian Post said yesterday that the use of its eInvoicing Centre (eArvekeskus) grew eightfold last year. The company’s electronic billing subsidiary has been operating for three years, and now has more than 1,200 corporate and local government mailers signed up to use it.

Margus Tammeraja, the head of the eInvoicing unit, said the success of the service has been driven by its compatibility with commonly used Internet-based business software, which has made it easy for mailers to switch over, particularly for public sector agencies.

“The Estonian Post eInvoicing Centre is used by more than 80 public service agencies and a number of local authorities. This means that the e-billing solution for receiving and digitising invoices is now used in a third of all Estonnian government agencies,” said Tammeraja.

The e-billing service allows sending of electronic invoices under the standards of the Estonian Banking Association to nearly 1,000 private businesses and more than 500 public sector agencies.

Citing an independent study by Swiss electronic billing consultancy Billentis, Estonian Post said Estonia is on a par with Denmark as one of the top European countries for electronic billing.

“This year the growth is expected to come more from the private sector. Our mission is to multiply the number of e-billing customers and to take Estonia to the leading position,” said Tammeraja.

Estonian Post said it believed the development of electronic communication services would move “very fast” in Europe within the coming years, cutting costs of billing by as much as 80%.

Board member Mait Sooaru said: “The traditional transmission of the invoice by mail has reduced significantly in recent years. One of the recent independent studies conducted in Europe shows that in 2011 5m businesses sent electronic invoices to 75m recipients in Europe.”

The Billentis study suggests this year in Europe, electronic billing is set to have around a 12% share of the business-to-consumer market, and an 18% share of the business-to-business and business-to-government market, increasing to respectively 15% and 23% next year.

The research predicted that electronic billing companies generally would reach financial break-even point in 2012, although price pressures on electronic billing services are being driven by increased competition by new providers, particularly in the low-priced end of the market.