E-procurement standards in the Swedish public sector Kerstin Wiss Holmdahl Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions Peter Norén Swedish National Financial Management Authority Single Face To Industry (SFTI)

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.)

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

An example: SFTI/ESAP Sc 6 An example: SFTI/ESAP Sc 6.1 Sub-ordering from frame work agreements, based on UN/EDIFACT and EANCOM Price list Purchaser Supplier Sub-orders Order confirmation Delivery Invoice Bank Payment To pay

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 Basic invoice (UBL 1.0; since 2004) Basic order only (UBL 2.0/NES; since 2008) But we continue to use also UN/EDIFACT messages

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

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

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.

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 9

Thank you! Kerstin Wiss Holmdahl Peter Norén SFTI Legal advisor/project leader Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions /SFTI (Single Face To Industry) kerstin.wiss.holmdahl@skl.se +46 8 452 79 87 Peter Norén Project leader Swedish National Financial Management Authority / SFTI Peter.noren@esv.se, +46 8 690 45 96 SFTI Technical staff: tekniskt.kansli@skl.se Web page: www.sfti.se