NHS adopts PEPPOL standards to enable eProcurement with Suppliers.

The NHS (National Health Service) in England recently announced the NHS eProcurement strategy, establishing actions to improve NHS data and information, requiring the use of PEPPOL specifications throughout the healthcare sector for eOrdering, eInvoicing and Advanced Shipping Notifications (ASNs).

PEPPOL stands for “Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line”. PEPPOL is a large scale pilot project that was initiated by the European Commission and is designed to facilitate electronic procurement (including e-invoicing) in Europe. PEPPOL makes e-Procurement easy as it provides a solid infrastructure for exchanging e-business information based on standards for electronic messaging.

One of the four publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom, the NHS in England provides healthcare to every legal resident in England, with most services free at the point of use. For 2014/15, the NHS England revenue budget is set at around £110 billion (US $188 bn).

The NHS eProcurement strategy is part of the Procurement Efficiency Programme. This programme sets out the actions to help the NHS save £1.5 billion by the end of the financial year 2015-2016. The new NHS eProcurement strategy will adopt PEPPOL data standards as well as GS1 barcoding standards.

GS1 is an international not-for-profit association with Member Organisations in over 100 countries. GS1 is dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors. The GS1 system of standards is the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world.

If you would like to know more about the PEPPOL standards or if you trade with the NHS, please contact B2BGateway (an approved OpenPEPPOL provider) on +353 61 708533 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net for further details.