Basware Blog

It’s Not Magic; It’s the Largest Open B2B Network in the World

Written by Basware Representative | January 9, 2019

Basware earns accolades for being a pioneer in the open business-to-business (B2B) network approach and offering one of the most extensive, global e-invoicing networks according to the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Procure-to Pay Suites.

Just like how the Earth needs its core to maintain its magnetic field (AKA gravity), keep our protective atmosphere in place, and generally sustain life here as we know it, all modern purchase-to-pay solutions rely on their own type of core—the B2B Network. Here, Basware’s strength with our Basware Network is truly out of this world.

No Telescope Needed to View This Huge Network

Take a look at a network unlike any other. Basware has the largest open commerce network on Earth. (Other planets still pending.) We have a massive scale of 1.2 million organisations connected through the Basware Network. That means over 1.2 million buyers and sellers connect using our open commerce network. Not to mention, our interoperability partnerships also cover purchase orders, a rarity among P2P networks. But that’s not all:

  • We’re many-to-many. Using just one connection point, suppliers can transact and perform business with all their buyers on the network. Better business interactions, simplified. Plus, the Basware Network is the only true any-to-any e-Procurement Network player—other providers build EDI point-to-point connections and only offer portals.

  • It’s an open network. Being an open network means a couple things. First, we have over 220 interoperability partners available right there on our network. In other words, your supplier doesn’t have to be directly connected to The Basware Network, just connected to one of our interoperability partners’ networks.  

  • It’s free for suppliers. The Basware Network is meant for all of your suppliers, regardless of whether you buy from them every day, or just once in a while. Or if they send you paper invoices or if they’re fully integrated into EDI or XML invoicing. So, as a buyer, you can easily get all your suppliers on the network, and as a supplier, it’s free and easy to jump on the network bandwagon and continue with business as usual.

One Large Step for P2P Networks

At Basware, we advocate treating our customers’ suppliers with the same sort of respect that we treat our customers, themselves. And to achieve an award-winning source-to-pay process, backed by a boundless and ever-expanding open commerce network, this sort of universal respect is key.

See, the Basware Network isn’t just about easy transactions, it’s about automating as many of your processes as possible and ultimately deriving as much quality data from those processes as you can. But, if both suppliers and buyers aren’t actively connecting on the network, data isn’t actively flowing through it. Therefore, the data that’s collected is fragmented and shows an incomplete picture providing incomplete insights. Without complete, quality data, artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, and all other great innovative features become useless because everything depends on data being available, accurate, and up to date.

Get Out of the Black Hole of Bad Data

If you remember the first time someone pointed out the Big Dipper or Orion to you, it probably just looked like a bunch of a few bright, some faint, white specs in the sky. Until suddenly, someone helped you connect the dots. Then, the shape made sense and you could see the picture. Think of the stars as your data and Basware as that ”someone” who helps you see the bigger picture of your data.

Other source-to-pay providers are not as passionate about helping customers address the challenge of unstructured data. Instead, they leave this to the customers to figure out on their own. Basware is the only major source-to-pay provider who is taking the unstructured data challenge seriously. The future of open business networks lies in mastering unstructured data and making sense out of data chaos.

A Universe of Integrated Experiences

The value of the Basware Network goes beyond interoperability and provides a rich set of first party value-added services that appeal to both suppliers and buyers. Neither side will need to persuade or pressure the other to join the Basware Network thanks to offerings such as:

  • Supplier information management,

  • DPO extensions through virtual card payments,

  • Invoice data enrichment,

  • Dynamic Discounting,

  • Format conversions,

  • Digital signatures, and more.

To Infinity and Beyond the Network

The Basware team is equipped with the knowledge to help customers realise the wonders of the network. We’ve worked with corporations that have activated almost 2,000 suppliers for electronic or PDF invoicing in just a matter of weeks. Other businesses have continued onboarding suppliers, activating as many as 100 new suppliers per week.

We use the world's largest global business database, Dun & Bradstreet, to enrich your supplier data, and work with one of the world's largest financial organisations, Mastercard, to provide innovative payment solutions on the network.

To help you remain compliant with regulations, we have an experienced, in-house, team of compliance experts who continuously ensure our Network and its offerings are well within regulation. Among other services, we provide cloud archiving for business documents of all types. So, wherever your business needs take you, Basware is more than capable to support you in your journey without requiring unrealistic change management.

Keep Reading

To read how the Basware Network contributed to us being named a Leader, read the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Procuret-to-Pay Suites. To learn more about B2B Networks, read Forrester’s recent report Vendor Landscape: B2B Business Networks, 2017 to 2018. And remember, we’re here if you have any questions!