Complexity of compliance is inhibiting almost half of UK businesses from implementing e-invoicing

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) company, today unveiled research revealing that UK businesses are struggling to fully exploit the benefits of electronic invoicing and are held back by a fear of complexity in addressing regulatory compliance requirements and legislation.

At a time when achieving cost efficiencies and effective resource utilisation is crucial to maintaining competitive differentiation, the move from paper-based to electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) comes as a key opportunity for businesses today. In spite of this, the research found that 46 per cent of UK companies, in contrast to 40 percent of European companies, are yet to make a decision to implement an automated e-invoicing solution.

The survey, conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne across 400 IT managers in the UK, France, Germany and Italy, found that the most pressing e-invoicing concern for businesses across Europe is compliance with national e-invoicing legislation. In addition, with 72 per cent of European compared to 77 per cent of UK companies currently conducting business in more than six countries around the world, more than half admitted they were concerned about supporting disparate e-invoicing solutions across multiple geographies. A quarter of responses also negatively highlighted the complexities associated with implementing multiple solutions to handle VAT compliance and audit requirements across the countries in which they operate.

“The results are staggering that more than half of businesses in the UK and across Europe are struggling to effectively conduct business across global barriers” said Chris Hayes, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sterling Commerce. “The benefits of moving from paper-based to e-invoicing are widely known and accepted, yet the reality for many European businesses is that even for e-invoicing projects which do receive budget approval, a dependence on multiple solutions to handle compliance with multiple VAT and tax regulations across different territories, is ultimately undermining project success.”

The research also discovered that 69 per cent of respondents in the UK believed that their finance department could not quantify the amount of VAT at risk if the company was found to be non-compliant, which compared well to 80 per cent of respondents across Europe

“One of the problems with any paper-based process is that it is often hard to track the costs and inefficiencies involved – the inefficient nature of the manual process itself prevents easy quantification of the potential savings”, continued Hayes. “If just from a commercial and competitive perspective, companies must move away from these highly inefficient processes. The costs and issues associated with paper-based invoicing, coupled with the associated lack of visibility into a company’s cash management do impact the bottom line, a risk that should be avoided particularly at a time when cost saving and effective resource utilisation are so important.”

Sterling Commerce recently launched the first solution to market that enables multi-national organisations to automate electronic invoicing processes worldwide, while maintaining conformity with the tax regulations mandated by each of the particular regions. Sterling e-Invoice Gateway eliminates the need to support separate solutions for each geography; reduces risk and exposure by enabling compliance with ever-changing electronic invoicing tax regulations; and improves operational efficiencies and contains costs by automating both buyer and seller electronic invoice processes in accordance with country-specific tax regulations.

Sterling Commerce is exhibiting Sterling e-Invoice Gateway and its broad portfolio of Financial Services solutions at stand C617, hall C at Sibos 2008, from Sept. 15-19, in Vienna. To find out more about Sterling Commerce activities, visit

Vhayu to launch feed handler for Alpha alternative trading system

Alpha feed handler enables Velocity customers to connect with Canada’s new equities trading platform

Vhayu, the leading provider of enterprise tick data solutions, today announced the availability of a data feed handler allowing Vhayu Velocity™ customers to receive direct exchange feeds from Alpha Trading Systems Limited Partnership (Alpha Systems). Alpha Systems is responsible for the distribution of market data on behalf of Alpha ATS L.P. (Alpha ATS), an alternative trading system (ATS) being established by a consortium of Canada’s leading investment dealers.

Vhayu’s Alpha feed handler interoperates with other feed handlers in Vhayu Velocity, normalizes data from the exchanges, and gives trading organizations a faster and broader look at the market to uncover new opportunities. The Vhayu Velocity Orderbook Analyzer can now consolidate the market data from many liquidity providers to give users a complete, consolidated view of the markets.

“The Alpha Group, including Alpha System and Alpha ATS, was established to provide organizations trading Canadian equities with efficient, low latency trading services and market data,” said Jos Schmitt, President of Alpha Systems.

The Vhayu Alpha feed handler will deliver access to the tick data required for deeper visibility into the Canadian stock market and liquidity discovery. It will also support the creation of a blended order book with a single view of multiple sources of liquidity / venues for the same instrument. Vhayu Velocity customers will have the ability to capture and analyze real-time data from Alpha, and use it in conjunction with stored historical data to make better informed trading decisions.

“Vhayu’s Alpha feed handler will let our Velocity customers in Canada take immediate advantage of the opportunities presented by a newly competitive stock-trading market,” stated Jeff Hudson, CEO at Vhayu. “The new Vhayu feed handler for the Alpha Systems demonstrates once again our commitment to adding data sources into Velocity to help our customers better manage all real-time and historical tick data within a single platform. It will provide them with enhanced liquidity discovery capabilities and access to trading opportunities in both new and existing markets.”

Migros Bank selects Stematch from Sterci for Reconciliation

Sterci, the leading international software provider of STP solutions, today announced that Migros Bank has selected Stematch to reduce operational risks. Payment and Securities businesses are exposed to operational risks because of the potential problems in the execution & delivery process management. Migros Bank will use Stematch for Cash, Securities, Forex and Money Market reconciliation. Stematch will be linked to the new IT platform of Migros Bank based on Finnova.


Easy to implement and user-friendly, Stematch offers real time reconciliation for all business lines and market instruments including, cash, general ledger, nostro accounts, securities transactions, custodians holdings, funds, foreign exchange, money market, precious metals. Its flexibility and generic capabilities provide a high automatic matching rate for any internal or
external data source. Benno Erne, Enterprise Architect for Finnova Solution migration adds: “We have selected Stematch because the product is already integrated with Finnova and we can further extend the scope of reconciliation with the Sterci
product.” Werner Klaus, sales account manager for Sterci, said: “We are proud to have Migros Bank as customer of our reconciliation product. Our partnership with Finnova and our continuous investment in the software are key advantages
for Migros Bank. With this new deal, Sterci affirms its leadership in reconciliation and exception management systems

GL TRADE promotes a new Global Head for its Trading Solutions Business Line

GL TRADE, global provider of multi-market and multi-asset solutions for international financial institutions, is pleased to announce that Charles-Henry Choël was promoted Global Head of the Trading Solutions Business Line, based in London.

Charles-Henry Choël, 38, joined GL TRADE in 2002. From 2002 to 2006, he managed the group’s acquisitions. In this capacity he embraced all the Group’s activities and acquired a solid expertise of our offering and clients’ needs. From 2006 until now, Charles-Henry Choël was the Deputy CEO of the Asian region and Managing Director of the Japan office. He managed with success the deployment of all the group solutions including the trading products to the local market.

His earlier career included a sales position, business development and management positions in the asset Management sector. He graduated with both American (New York University) and French (HEC business school, finance/economics) degrees.

The Trading Solutions Business Line is GL TRADE’s core business and accounts for over 50% of the group’s annual turnover. It covers trading and order management solutions including algorithmic trading and smart order routing technology. Charles-Henry Choël’s mission consists in consolidating GL TRADE’s successes on this business line as well as in bringing to full maturity the product strategy and the support quality of the business line. His experience of the market and development matters and his knowledge of the Group’s product strategy will help him to meet his new challenges.

DailyFX Forex Trading Signals - One Month Free

DailyFX.com (www.dailyfx.com) announced today that they have released a new version of their Forex Trading Signals. Exclusively available to FXCM live clients through the DailyFX+ Web site, currency trading signals on DailyFX+ have been expanded to its newest offering - interactive trading alerts that update automatically in real time, 24 hours a day, on a dynamic basis. FXCM Trading Signals track six strategies on fourteen currency pairs. A big improvement from FXCM’s old Trading Signals the strategies consist of two range, two breakout and two momentum strategies. Normally available exclusively to FXCM live clients, the Daily FX’s NEW Trading Signals will be FREE for everyone to try until the end of September 2008. An instructional video is available to watch online by visiting: http://forex.acrobat.com/p76071208/