Connected business: a guide to integrated digital trade and e-procurement on Peppol

How integrated digital trade — e-orders, punchout, and structured business messages on the Peppol network — transforms procurement and sales. The trends, the technology, and how to get started.

Last updated June 2026.

To connect with suppliers, customers, and partners seamlessly and digitally — what we call integrated digital trade — is rapidly moving from advantage to necessity. Let’s explore how to transform sales and purchase processes, e-procurement, and B2B e-commerce with technology.

Electronic invoicing has become a natural business medium. This development has been fast-tracked by obvious user values in process efficiencies, lower costs, and security. Another strong driver is improved accessibility following the expanding Peppol network. The role of national legislative mandates can’t be underestimated either.

However, the most transformative outcome from the growing use of e-invoices might be digital maturity. Companies are changing their mindset of how new technology can manage sales and purchase transactions — a development which has only begun.

The adoption of electronic business messages, and the digital exchange of transactional information, have prompted a shift in perspective among finance teams, procurement, and IT.

Today, companies increasingly assess their needs and capabilities from a digital-first point of view, independent of centuries-old accounting processes. They have realized that business value, at its core, is not held within the medium per se, but in the data it carries.

In this guide, we provide an overview of the opportunities of integrated digital trade — connecting businesses digitally, end to end. Which are the next steps beyond e-invoice management to advance business processes? How can sales and purchase transactions become more streamlined, more automated, and provide deeper insights? How do you effectively use e-orders, punchout, and response messages? Read on to learn the trends driving the development, its emerging technologies, and how to get started.

E-procurement is the digital management of purchasing — sending and receiving orders, catalogs, and responses as structured electronic messages rather than paper or PDF. On the Peppol network, it lets buyers and sellers automate the full order-to-invoice process with lossless, machine-readable data, reducing manual work and errors.

What is shaping the development in business messaging, making companies take the next step from e-invoicing, deeper into the digitization of sales and purchase processes? Digital transformation is a massive trend, so let’s break it down into the most relevant parts.

Multiple trends and tendencies are at play driving companies to expand the use of digital business messages. Here are the prolific trends:

A significant factor in recent years’ adoption of electronic business messages has been the increasing number of national e-invoicing mandates. A notable example is the EU Directive 2014/55/EU, but there are numerous national mandates and roadmaps worldwide.

E-invoicing in B2G transactions marked the first step adopted in many European countries and notable first-movers in e.g. Asia and America. The future holds further policy shifts. E-orders are already here — Finland was among the first in Europe, going live with Peppol Advanced Ordering on April 1, 2024, and extending it across public procurement through 2026. The EU’s ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) reform package was adopted on March 11, 2025, introducing digital reporting and e-invoicing requirements that roll out progressively, with cross-border B2B digital reporting from July 2030. CTC (Continuous Transaction Controls) requirements continue to spread internationally.

These initiatives are clear indications of a broader commitment to standardizing financial and trade operations with greater transparency.

Interoperability, formats, testing, distribution, complex pricing — the list of hurdles has been long for companies implementing and using business messages. For the first time, these challenges have been significantly reduced, if not eliminated.

Peppol, an open business network initiated by an EU project and now managed by the non-profit OpenPeppol, is growing to become the global infrastructure. The network has significant momentum compared to legacy VAN solutions, with participants in 100+ connected countries and multiple national Peppol mandates for e.g. B2G invoicing working in its favour. The key benefits are the combination of standardized data formats for a complete set of messages and the distribution infrastructure for communication, including an open directory for participants which simplifies connectivity between business partners, for companies of all sizes.

Innovative services are democratizing access to even the most advanced business messaging capabilities — a levelling of the playing field for small and medium-sized companies.

With the accessibility of the business network Peppol, cloud services, and simplified connectivity using APIs and ready-made connector apps, new services offer cost-effective solutions that were once reserved for larger enterprises with equally large resources. Legacy service providers in business messaging are pressured to adapt and compete. The emergence of accessible, budget-friendly options is empowering SMEs to leverage the benefits of business messaging, enhancing their operational efficiency and competitiveness in the market.

Consumer buying experiences in the digital realm have set new expectations for B2B e-commerce, which, compared to B2C, is a significantly larger market. As individuals enjoy the convenience of online shopping, businesses are increasingly demanding similar ease and efficiency in their procurement processes. Corporate credit cards, with costly merchant fees and paperwork, aren’t optimal for B2B buyers.

This evolving B2B buying behavior underscores the importance of smart business messaging, secure authentication, user-friendly interfaces, streamlined workflows, and personalized experiences. The trend is continuing, and companies embracing technologies for B2B e-commerce — for example, punchout and the smart use of e-ordering and e-procurement — are better positioned to attract and retain customers and build long-term business partnerships.

Enhancing the quality of financial data is an integral aspect of digital processes and getting the benefits of speed, automation, and analytics.

The quality is dependent on the content and degree of structure. The content in transaction processes is all the information related to a purchase or sales event — for example, line items (purchased products and services), units, quantities, and VAT. The degree of structure is how the data is stored and made searchable and accessible for machine-reading.

Orders, invoices, and other business messages using analog formats — PDF, print — might very well contain the information you need, but the medium is not directly interpretable by your software solutions. The sender might have it properly stored in its ERP, but not the receiver, who needs to interpret and convert the format — for example, manually or using OCR solutions, with significant data loss, workarounds, and wasted time as a consequence.

Procurement systems have mainly been developed for analog processes, requiring manual work and input. Most do not support dynamic processes, such as punchout and Peppol, and the structured transmission of data.

When adopting fully digital business messages in a standardized format, companies use a common data language with their business partners. The exchange is immediate, and all content of each transaction is lossless and machine-readable by the ERP, accounting system, or supporting business systems. This type of data is ideal for process automation, since software generally has no problem parsing, searching, and editing the information.

Implementing electronic business messages into daily processes has previously been a bit of a challenge. Not anymore.

A deeper integration into various business processes has been — and in many cases still is — technically complex. It affects accounts payable and receivable, sales and purchases, workflows, and accounting, with integrations into various business systems. Furthermore, it has required financial resources: investments for implementation and operating costs. Thanks to the Peppol network, this is about to change.

In part, challenges have been due to accessibility. Besides one-to-one EDI connections, hardcoded between companies, users have relied on the Value-Added Network (VAN) and service providers to exchange information with partners, customers, and suppliers. Heavily relying on FTP file transfer, the availability of swift API integrations has been rare.

The Peppol network differs significantly in key aspects. Peppol is an open business network, initiated by an EU project and managed as a non-profit. One of its standout advantages lies in merging standardized data formats with a robust network and distribution infrastructure for exchange. It includes an open directory for participants, which simplifies connectivity between business partners. This has contributed to making Peppol accessible to companies of all sizes, easier to operate and integrate, and highly cost-efficient.

Peppol covers a complete set of structured business messages across the transaction lifecycle:

An e-order is a structured electronic purchase order exchanged over a business network such as Peppol. Delivered instantly in a standardized format, it can be processed automatically in an order management system or ERP — and, with response messages, the seller can accept, adjust, or reject it, sending stock and delivery details back the same way.

For procurement processes, utilizing a wider range of standardized business messages is transformative. By implementing e-ordering and dynamic response messages, companies can deepen the automation of processes, their control and responsiveness, and the automation of workflows, accounting, and sourcing. In other words, it’s the next step in financial digital transformation after e-invoicing.

The Peppol network provides a structured and standardized order process for buyers and sellers, using the message types BIS Ordering and Order Only, with secure and instant information exchange. Peppol’s setup defines field requirements, including mandatory elements, enhancing consistency and usability for all parties in a transaction.

Punchout is a combination of a business message and process that connects a buyer’s procurement system directly to a seller’s online catalog. The buyer “punches out” to the supplier’s store, builds a cart with buyer-specific pricing, and returns it to their own system as an order — combining the familiar e-commerce experience with structured, automated ordering.

Peppol’s punchout message, named Peppol BIS Punch Out, offers an advanced and dynamic ordering process, surpassing Peppol BIS Ordering in flexibility and ease of use for both buyers and sellers. This process combines order and catalog functionalities, providing innovative possibilities and adaptable design options, making it ideal for e-commerce scenarios for B2B transactions.

The implementation of e-orders varies depending on the complexity of each specific company. However, these steps provide common ground for each organization, large or small, whether e-orders are to be used in procurement, in sales, or both.

Connect your business and get dynamic e-order management on the Peppol network. Gain full control, automate processes, and integrate via API. Combine e-orders with punchout for seamless B2B e-commerce, and turn orders into invoices with a few clicks.

Read more at qvalia.com or get in touch for a demo.