Ken Halpin discusses the significance of the electronic invoicing pilot project [PEPPOL] and the company's future plans.

1. IT
Celtrino’s successes
In 2011, Celtrino routed more than 7.5 million e-Invoices worth more than €4 billion in Ireland alone. Managing
director Ken Halpin discusses the significance of the electronic invoicing pilot project and the company’s future plans.
Established in 1989 to address an acute
shortage of electronic trading and supply
chain management services in the Irish
marketplace, Celtrino has evolved since
its inception to meet a wider demand
for innovative supply chain services,
and today the company develops and
delivers a comprehensive suite of supply
chain solutions that cover the complete
purchase-to-pay cycle.
Last year, Celtrino routed more than
7.5 million e-Invoices worth more than
€4 billion in Ireland alone. Celtrino
continues to innovate and bring new
services to the market via the Celtrino
platform. In 2011, Celtrino announced
its plans to invest €850,000 to develop
innovative supply chain management
services on Microsoft’s Azure platform.
This investment signified Celtrino’s
intention to build on its market
leadership position in Ireland and also
drive into new business verticals both in
Ireland and overseas.
Ken Halpin, managing director,
Celtrino, says the company, which has
been working with the HSE on e-Invoicing
pilot for the past two years, differentiates
itself from rivals in three areas.
“The combined 100 years of supply
chain domain expertise that resides
with the Celtrino professional services
team is unrivalled in Ireland. Our
Celtrino platform that is comprised of a
suite of industry leading supply chain
management services. Our connected
network is the most extensive network of
its kind in Ireland offering both new and
existing customers the ability to cost-
effectively and securely manage a wide
range of supply chain relationships,”
Halpin comments.
Private industry has long
championed the benefits of e-invoicing
and it is a well-established business
methodology in larger organisations,
Halpin says, yet, “now we are witnessing
smaller companies looking to e-Invoicing
and other supply chain improvements as
a way of reducing costs and increasing
138 the Public Sector Magazine

2. IT
competitiveness.”
“The Irish Breaking down the benefits
public sector is with Celtrino
now an active n Reduce costs in key business processes: e-Invoicing delivers
participant in significant cost reductions by eliminating manual inputting of
e-invoicing but data, print and postage, dispute resolution, hardware and IT, and a
is somewhat variety of other business costs.
behind the market, n Better cash flow management: As key processes are automated
as a number of you will collect money faster.
our European n Eliminate manual administrative processes: A major benefit is that
neighbours are all documents are automatically routed, and staff only intervene
well down the on an exception basis.
road to public- n Huge reduction in dispute resolution in all departments: All
private sector issues pertaining to the supply chain are immediately flagged and
paperless billing. relevant departments can act accordingly.
The decline in the n Improve decision making process and improve competitiveness.
use of scanning n Real time visibility of trading cycle metrics: With up-to-the-
technology for minute business performance metrics you can take corrective
the conversion Managing Director Ken Halpin action to address cash flow or supply chain bottlenecks.
of paper invoices n Eliminate paper: By automating the exchange and processing of
to an electronic format for subsequent processing is gathering business transactions you eliminate the need to track, trace and
momentum. This is mainly due to market changes and the much store printed documents.
better options elsewhere,” he adds.
According to Halpin, “when you automate business
processes and remove all paper-based B2B documentation ERP systems were never designed to deal with the complexities
you increase the speed with which you communicate with of buyer and supplier relationships and Celtrino is increasingly
your business partners and this is a key driver for operational engaged in working with companies to ring fence their ERP
efficiency. Issues are identified and resolved quicker and the spend and concentrate instead on deploying lower cost supply
cash-to-conversion cycle is shortened.” chain solutions on Celtrino’s Web-based Platform.
All the documents are securely transmitted using the most Commenting on the impact of the recession on the business,
up-to-date encryption technology. he responds that “like every other business sector in the Irish
Celtrino’s customers in both the private and public sectors economy we too have been affected by the recession in that
accrue benefits including a substantial reduction in the direct there has been a fall in the number of new buyers and suppliers
costs associated with the issuing and processing of a wide entering the Irish market. This has been offset though by our
variety of business documents. This means big savings to the customer base that has taken the opportunity to deploy our next
public sector and in turn, to the exchequer, Halpin says. generation of services that are designed to enable our customers
Asked about the importance of the public sector to to build and manage supply chains that flexibly meet the
Celtrino’s business, Halpin says “it has been reported that rigours and demands of domestic and international business.”
over 60% of the Irish SME base deals with the public sector so The main challenges Celtrino faces, Halpin admits are
any move to introduce paperless billing will be an important “in ensuring that the market is fully aware of how achievable
consideration for Celtrino. The effects on our business will be paperless trading actually is. The Irish PEPPOL project is
positive as a number of our customers are significant suppliers another important step in spreading awareness of the tangible
to the public sector in Ireland.” benefits available to Irish organisations in both the public and
Looking at trends he has witnessed in recent years, Halpin private sectors.”
says there is an increased focus on the operational efficiency As part of the National Procurement Service’s electronic
of supply chains across companies of all sizes; partly brought invoicing pilot project, seven Government organisations and
on by the recession and a drive for cost efficiencies, but also seven IT service providers, including Celtrino, are providing the
recognition that an efficient supply chain delivers competitive proof of concept for other State bodies and businesses all over
advantage via increase sales and profits. the country.
Another key trend is the switch from building in-house “Celtrino has partnered with the HSE with whom we
capital intensive supply chain solutions to outsourcing to have a long standing e-Invoicing relationship and we are very
trusted and proven third party specialists such as Celtrino. confident that the electronic invoicing pilot project will be a
Companies now recognise the strategic and cost advantages to resounding success. The success of the PEPPOL project will
be gained from removing legacy in-house systems to a lower deliver approximately €240 million per year in savings to the
cost and high performance environment that is staffed by expert Irish taxpayer,” Halpin says.
supply chain engineers. “Also, Irish suppliers will have a huge export growth
There is also a major trend in the ERP space as companies opportunity opening up to them as the Irish PEPPOL
are reviewing their investment versus their return on building infrastructure will enable them to leverage their ability to win
bespoke modules to handle complex supply chain activities. export business,” he adds.
the Public Sector Magazine 139