At the end of last year, online foodservice wholesaler Bidfood switched to 4CEE’s services for e-invoicing. “Until then, we had been handling e-invoicing in various ways. We wanted to bring more consistency to that process. Now, a few months later, everything is running smoothly. The great thing is that more and more of our customers now want to switch to e-invoicing as well, and that’s yielding enormous efficiency gains,” says Jan Kruijdenberg, senior business consultant at Bidfood.
“Bidfood is an online foodservice wholesaler with seventeen locations in the Netherlands and a total of over two thousand employees. With about 600 to 700 trucks, we supply both large and small hospitality businesses, as well as bulk consumers such as hospitals and caterers. I myself have been with this company for forty years, as well as with the predecessor companies from which Bidfood emerged through collaborations. We are, by the way, an international organization operating in 35 countries."
"In the Netherlands, there are four major foodservice wholesalers, and we are one of them. In addition to our product range and our personalized approach, our competitive edge lies in our digital strategy, which includes a web store that displays our available inventory in real time. What you see is what you get—in other words, whatever you order from us is immediately available for delivery. In our business, the logistical availability of products—especially fresh products—is truly key. That’s where we excel. We always deliver. We make this happen every day because our systems are fully integrated with many customers’ ordering systems.”
"Integration between the systems is possible if, for example, a restaurant’s kitchen is fully automated. At the end of the day, it’s clear down to the finest detail exactly how many ingredients and products they’ve used. Suppose they’ve sold 100 satay meals, each consisting of three satay skewers, with the garnish including, among other things, five slices of cucumber. The ordering system then automatically calculates how many crates of cucumbers need to be ordered from Bidfood for the next day. And that’s how it works for every product."
"The sophistication of the ordering process also applies to invoicing. In fact, it’s based as much as possible on e-invoicing, which has further facilitated integration with the customer’s administrative process. With an electronic invoice, we exchange as much data as possible with the customer’s accounting system. The customer can then automatically post our invoice correctly. This makes the customer’s administrative process many times more efficient. We recently optimized this entire process in collaboration with 4CEE."
"We had already gained a lot of experience with e-invoicing for larger clients. For example, we also serve government agencies that require this of their suppliers. Our problem, however, was that we had made specific agreements with many clients regarding how to format thesee-invoices. We wanted to establish more consistency in this area. Additionally, we faced a technical issue in our system where we couldn’t directly link a PDF invoice to the e-invoice. At the same time, we had an increasing number of clients who also wanted to switch to e-invoicing, but each had their own specific concerns; they were all small-scale business cases. Flexibility was therefore crucial for us to standardize the e-invoicing process as much as possible. In short, we faced quite a few challenges. I then started shopping around and evaluated a few providers. Ultimately, I settled on 4CEE as the partner that could solve all my problems.”
"In a word: UBL, which stands for Universal Business Language—a sort of Esperanto in the world of invoicing. These days, if you can provide a UBL invoice, your customers are very happy, because most software can easily read such an invoice automatically. Whether you use software from Exact, Afas, or another accounting system, they usually have a connector for UBL. And it doesn’t matter whether your revenue is 100,000 euros or 10 million euros.”
"Until a few years ago, we sent PDF invoices to 66 percent of our customers, and 30 percent were sent via e-invoicing. Since we partnered with 4CEE at the end of last year, e-invoicing has increased dramatically. I expect that before too long, 50 percent of all invoices will be sent via e-invoicing.”
"We provide 4CEE with the invoice information. They receive the XML, the PDF, and information regarding the billing process. That information consists of ‘raw’ data, which 4CEE then transforms into ‘smart’ data in accordance with our agreements. We also provide as much data as possible, such as customer identification, cost center, a fixed reference for an annual contract, the name of the person placing the order—you name it. Each customer can then use this data in their own way. One customer might use one element, another three, and yet another five—it’s all very flexible. All of that is included in the UBL invoice. This ensures there’s always a strong connection between the customer and us, allowing the invoicing integration to run perfectly."
"From all the components we provide, 4CEE generates the UBL invoice and sends it directly to the customer or to the Peppol network—that’s the large electronic mailbox system that automatically delivers the e-invoice to the customer’s accounting system. Another option is for us to first receive the invoice back on our server and then send it directly to the customer via our connection. Which route the invoice takes depends on the customer’s specific circumstances—for example, if the customer prefers to receive invoices via their own network rather than through Peppol. We configure the best route for a specific customer in advance. That’s the flexibility I was looking for and found at 4CEE."
"Absolutely, but it would have taken us quite a while. We would have had to delve into how everything works, not to mention the laws and regulations underlying this method of invoicing. So I’m very happy to have a specialist like 4CEE. They’re also constantly working on developing new, even more advanced versions, so it’s always up to date. We pay a monthly fee for this service and really don’t have to worry about a thing. In the beginning, we did have to fine-tune a few things, but with the help of 4CEE’s dashboard tools, all the teething problems were quickly identified and resolved.”
"It’s a tool developed by 4CEE. It lets us see which invoices have been submitted to our customers—which ones went through successfully and which ones didn’t. In the latter case, we retrieve them, investigate the cause, and then make the necessary adjustments. It’s a learning process—at first together with 4CEE, and these days we actually resolve everything ourselves with just a few minor adjustments.”
"Very well, even given the circumstances. There was significant time pressure because we’d been let down by another provider and needed a solution quickly. 4CEE handled that well and immediately came to our rescue. What really helped was that we knew exactly how we wanted things to be, since we’ve been working on this project for years. 4CEE responded well to this and helped us streamline and perfect the entire process.”
"We’ve already implemented a great many supply chain integrations in recent years, thereby establishing strong administrative alignment with our customers. This will continue to be further structured in the coming years. In addition, invoice-matching systems will continue to improve and, as a result, become more efficient. I therefore expect that more and more organizations will embrace e-invoicing in the coming years, because it increasingly provides both customers and suppliers with the management information needed to stay ahead of the competition. If your organization is too slow to adapt to these developments, you might just miss the boat."