Data is the fuel of the AI paradigm sweeping across society and the business world. Without a wealth of data, even the most advanced algorithms are just empty shells.
The business data you generate has always been highly valuable, but in recent years, it has become increasingly accessible and even more useful. Historical and recent data to train powerful algorithms to add tremendous value to your organization.
Furthermore, your data is not only valuable for your use cases; it can be crucial to other businesses and governments. We’re already seeing the emergence of a new ecosystem focused on sharing and utilizing data between companies and governments — a data chain, the new digital supply chain.
Training AI models requires data, and everyone is looking for new sources. Reaping the internal and external rewards of your business data requires effective data management practices.
Let’s explain why data has become increasingly important for modern businesses to demonstrate the need for mature data management.
While your business data is valuable internally, it’s also valuable externally. The data exchanged between business partners is crucial for maintaining structured, high-quality data streams.
We’ll explore how you can prepare for external requests, which may be compliance-related or represent an entirely new revenue stream.
Access to business networks for exchanging transactional messages between partners is a fundamental requirement.
Traditionally, businesses have used so-called VAN services to send and receive business messages such as e-invoices and e-orders. However, new technologies, built to ensure standardization and connectivity, have significantly simplified access and usage for companies.
The Peppol network — an infrastructure for AI enablement
Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) is an initiative aimed at standardizing digital communication between companies and governments, presenting a significant opportunity for businesses to gather structured data for AI initiatives.
Peppol is an example of a business network, an infrastructure for structured data and transaction-related processes. Other types of business networks, such as point-to-point Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Value-Added Network (VAN), employ a similar approach to securely sharing data between businesses and governments.
Adopting Peppol for invoicing and other document sharing grants access to a rich, structured data source. Data generated from your Peppol-related processes will also have the same formatting and structure as other businesses and governments, facilitating the creation of a robust data chain that will help drive AI algorithms, both now and in the future.
- Peppol is an open business network transforming business communications
- Standardized data formats across all different business messages
- Certified Access Points form a secure global network
- Peppol Authorities ensure Access Points meet official requirements
- Many of EDI’s and VAN’s challenges are solved by Peppol’s accessibility and usability use
External demands for data from governments, suppliers, or customers are already a driving force behind data management.
We’ve already seen that government requests for data are increasing and are unlikely to slow down. Similarly, regions and enterprises are starting to demand data classification, such as Continuous Transaction Controls.
Complying with these requests requires streamlined and effective data capture, classification, and storage processes. Handing off data that follows established standards, such as Peppol, will make your company a valuable link in the emerging data chain.
Data can also be extracted from other sources, commonly PDF invoices from suppliers. Although there are risks associated with OCR (Optical Character Recognition, the technology that captures characters from image files), we strongly recommend transitioning to 100% digital formats for business document exchange.
However, the capabilities for data extraction have advanced significantly in recent years. Visit our PDF invoice capture showcase tool to see how efficient PDF data extraction can work for your process.
Governments, partners, vendors, and customers contribute to the growing value of data in various ways, and addressing each of them effectively requires efficient data management.
Peppol enables seamless capturing of structured data that is ready for internal use cases or contributes to your role in the data chain. At the same time, a growing focus on data protection and privacy requires data management to avoid non-compliance penalties.
The need to train, evolve, and fine-tune AI algorithms has created a new gold rush for sanitized, relevant data. But you don’t need to pan for gold; you’re already sitting on a significant deposit.
Without the right platforms and processes, you may fall behind in realizing the full value of every byte of data generated by your transactions. Qvalia isn’t just focused on providing you tools for seamless transactions; we prioritize capturing valuable data for current and future use. Contact us today or learn more in our whitepaper AI for finance teams.
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