Major changes for key stakeholders

To become Nordic Smart Businesses, SMEs should ...

• Use digital business systems and services
• Use e-documents*
• Share data with trusted parties to get better services

* = e-documents, as currently defined by the OpenPeppol organisation, are e-invoices, e-catalogues, e-orders, e-despatch advice, e-credit notes, e-reminders and e-receipts. The choice of OpenPeppol as the default for e-documents does not imply that other document types or EDI-solutions are considered irrelevant.

Business system vendors should ...

• Adopt EU-wide common standards (PEPPOL), connect to the European eDelivery network, and thereby push for the use of e-documents * (such as e-orders, e-invoice, e-receipts, and e-catalogues)
• Implement common tools (APIs), so service providers can access SME’s data with given consent
• Integrate with Nordic-wide systems for eIdentity, powers and mandates
• Offer standard contract terms, empowering SMEs to use whatever business systems and combine services according to their needs
• Promote national standard chart of accounts where one exists, and connect the core elements of the national chart of accounts to each other in a common minimal Nordic chart of accounts

Financial service providers should ...

• Create new systems/services once data are standardised and made available
• Accountants and auditors will have to digitise and automate key areas of their core business
• Banks and credit institutions must provide new services based on available real-time data from both business systems and from public registries

As representatives for their members business associations should influence the SME:s to:

• Use digital business systems and services
• Use e-documents*
• Share data with trusted parties to get better services

* = e-documents, as currently defined by the OpenPeppol organisation, are e-invoices, e-catalogues, e-orders, e-despatch advice, e-credit notes, e-reminders and e-receipts. The choice of OpenPeppol as the default for e-documents does not imply that other document types or EDI-solutions are considered irrelevant.

Government authorities should ...

• Support innovation and the creation of new services by providing data related to businesses via open APIs
• Make business registry data freely available in a secure manner
• Support and implement common identity and e-address mechanisms
• Make public procurement digital by using e-documents*
• Work towards enabling standardised digital reporting to authorities directly via business systems and ensure compatibility in reporting demands
• Standardise national chart of accounts with Nordic harmonisation and push for increased adoption of chart of accounts
• Clarify different parties’ rights and obligations with regards to business data through terms and conditions in standard contracts (based on dialogue with different actors on the market)
• Define a guideline for data ethics in this field, and define the terms for making data available for analytics and artificial intelligence. These terms and the ethic guidelines provide the frame for developing smarter public and private services with respect for the SMEs

Many of the changes described in the five groups of key stakeholders also apply to other stakeholders, such as politicians and government, academy and research, media and networks as well as other related projects, programmes or assignments in the Nordic countries and/or in EU.