As I walk the path deeper into the woods of “E,” I can reflect on the success of electronic order and invoice transactions from a technical standpoint. I’ve seen these saplings grow into large oaks. The evolution of the requirements as versioning is upgraded, and the tools one could use to actually map the transactions has come very far.

But as I think about the business requirements that have been infused into the electronic order and invoice, I feel like I’ve developed a case of poison oak! I know that sounds rather extreme…..but are some of the business requirements that have been infused into “E” extreme? Or are these new requirements the new wave of “E” coming down the pike?

For years the comments and messaging segments within the order transaction have given grief to many an organization due to their ability to throw the transaction out of an electronic state and into a manual one. For an “E” geek like myself, thankfully I have witnessed those segments disappearing or becoming irrelevant as "E” has evolved. But some of the newer business requirements now present in the “E industry seem to be thwarting the ability to create the “E” all over again.

We can look at sales tax, for example – a pretty simple one? When one typically makes a purchase the sales receipt will summarize tax, right? One of the newer requirements I am hearing the buzz about is tax itemized at the line level when an organization is moving to “E.”. Though many companies’ ERP applications are not set up to output tax at the line level, as their customers are moving to “E” it is being required on the electronic invoice. Arguably, while the electronic invoice is in development logic can be added to calculate the summary tax output to the line level, but is this the right solution?

Hmmmmm, I am going to stop walking right now and sit on a tree stump for a bit. I have some more reflections to think about. Are “E” and the new processes organizations driving for with “E” just due to E being on the fast track? Or, another thought as I just finished with the above - are our ERP systems getting old and tired, and not keeping up with the times? Stumped in the forest right now……will be thinking about this one.