e-invoicing, digitalisation is easy with Enel

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Compulsory e-invoicing between private businesses, which comes into force in Italy from 1 January 2019, has provided Enel with the perfect opportunity to digitalise its commercial relationships. The web portal we use to contact our Italian suppliers, Web EDI, has been upgraded and from today can also be used as a reference point for e-invoicing operations.

This very practical initiative is another step forward in the digitalisation process, which involves a transition from a “paperless company” ethic to one that “frees information from paper.” In fact, we can now help our Italian suppliers by offering them new ways to save money and improve their efficiency thanks to an innovative vision that enables the creation of value from data, the flows of which are shared and managed, thus speeding up timescales and simplifying relations between the different stakeholders and company departments involved such as Procurement, Administration, Accounting and Financial Control (AFC) and Sales.
This new direction is the product of genuine passion for digitalisation. Simply investing in it is not enough, a holistic approach is required as is the ability to give space to ideas and innovation in order to take full advantage of the available skills and technologies. 

Enel is the first national company to offer this intermediation and consultancy service. The EDI Web Portal guides suppliers step-by-step through the process of issuing invoices to our Group and also sends all information (contract code, payment authorisation code, purchaser details) to the tax authorities. Under current legislation, this procedure can be handled not just by providers and accountants but also by buyers wishing to use e-invoicing to develop digitalised commercial relations with their partners.

“Our vision is to create a digital culture that allows us to build an integrated virtuous network with our commercial partners that will foster competitiveness and generate value for all,” explains Andrea Angelino, Enel’s Chief Financial Officer, Country Italy.

All the invoices submitted through the web portal will be managed by our Group in the name of and on behalf of the supplier in question. The suppliers will be notified that the information has been sent to the tax authorities by a receipt confirming that the operation has been carried out successfully. 

To introduce these new opportunities, we have organised a series of initiatives with the support of our Global Procurement and Digital Hub AFC Italy divisions. Between 21 November and 7 December, training sessions for the Italy Business Units are running at the Enel headquarters on Viale Regina Margherita in Rome. In the wake of a communications campaign aimed at around 15,000 supplier companies, we also hosted the “E-invoicing Day – A Solution That’s Just a Click Away” webinar on 28 November. The work was introduced by two sector experts, Benedetto Santacroce, a tax lawyer and professor as well as contributor to Il Sole 24 Ore, and Rosario Farina, a member of the Advisory Board of the B2B e-Invoicing & e-Commerce Monitoring Centre at the Milan Polytechnic’s School of Management and a member of the Italian Tax Authority’s e-Invoicing Forum.