By simplifying and enhancing companies´ IT-structures UNI2 has successfully managed to make a name for itself. The IT-outsourcing company, which first saw daylight in 1997 in Denmark and is a subsidiary to Tele2 holds an important support function for all IT-related areas within the Kinnevik group. Today the company is represented in greater parts of Europe and continues to win more and more ground within its market segment. Especially within the area Output Management, which business mainly involves handling invoices and business documents, the revenue has increased impressively during the last months. The customers are appealed to the heavily reduces prices in combination with the advanced but yet "easy to come by" functionality that is offered. UNI2 was recently appointed as CTD (Certified Technical Distributor) and is today one of only a few e-invoice providers on the Swedish market. In order to handle the new expected message flow, UNI2 has chosen to employ the Xware integration platform xTrade Business Hub, currently used in most of UNI2´s IT-processing.

Provides simplicity to companies´ every day life
UNI2´s business was right from the very beginning influenced by high ideals. The goal was basically to take on the position as Scandinavia's most innovative supplier of outsourcing services and to simplify the every day life of people who use IT within their work.

Through the electronically based services: e-invoicing, e-archiving and pre-processing UNI2 now provides a brand new approach to how to make business more efficient. The services are especially ideal for companies with extensive message exchange, for example invoices and other business documents. The services remove the need for companies to constantly be on the lookout for ways to improve their IT-processes, it's all taken care of, Håkan Klingensjö CIO at UNI2 explains, "We work with IT-processing no matter which distribution method the customer wants. When an invoice is sent, it can either be printed, sent by mail, or as an e-invoice. Some companies choose to send an SMS or an e-mail notification to the customer when the invoice has been sent. We want to support all these distribution methods and to the lowest possible cost. That is what our business is all about".

Certified CTD
The need for a messaging platform first became obvious during UNI2´s certification to become a CTD. As a brand new provider of e-invoicing UNI2 took on a service area with very specific demands, an area that also required highest possible security level. In order to meet all of these requirements UNI2 needed a solution that could handle messages optimally. Since the company's business included a variety of communication forms and parties, it was especially important that the future platform could exchange data between different types of information system no matter which protocol and data format was used. The solution should also contain all the necessary functionality to act as a portal for in- and out going messages and provide advanced EDI-functionality for the company's other business areas.

After a successful Proof of Concept UNI2 found at last what they were looking for, xTrade Business Hub offered exactly what was needed, Håkan Klingensjö explains, "xTrade added automation and security to our processes which was the most essential thing for us. Because it is a stable platform, customers consequently get a more secure service that also easily can be monitored." The fact that as many as three out of Sweden's six e-invoice providers currently use xTrade as messaging platform also made the decision easier.

E-invoicing - a prolongation of previous services
E-invoicing, which more or less can be seen as a natural continuation of UNI2´s previous services, makes it possible for UNI2 to send e-invoices to private customers. The customer value is significant, instead of sending out a paper invoice by mail an electronic invoice is sent leading both to financial savings as well as smoother flow. Companies no longer need to develop technical solutions against respective bank; instead UNI2 works as a unifying hub for all the electronic transactions that are carried out. In order to be accepted and registered as an e-invoice provider, the only procedure required is that the CTD and bank must activate the respective company and carry out controls to ensure the invoices´ accuracy.

Invoicing is currently the business area that requires most time and effort on this company's behalf. As a subsidiary to Tele2, UNI2 handles an extensive part of Tele2´s invoices and the plan is to gradually lift over even more traffic, "We process approximately 20 million invoices per month and plan to increase the volume to xTrade. In the future we intend to handle Tele2´s entire production for Europe. Today, Tele2 has approximately 30 million customers and handles about 100 million invoices per year. We are talking about immensively large volumes", tells Håkan Klingensjö.

E-archiving- electronic access to business documents
Within the EDI-area UNI2 also offers services for electronic archiving of business documents. Even now we can see how many companies continue to use paper documents, traditionally sent via regular mail. However this procedure has often proven to be more expensive and risky as documents easily can disappear; papers are placed in binders that years later can't be found because of bad organisation. With the service e-archiving companies are able to get to grips with their document structure and improve both document security and efficiency, add to this all the great financial savings that can be achieved.

The service is suitable for all companies who wish to access business information electronically, without having to store it physically. "What makes the e-archive so brilliant is how fast the user is able to find a stored document. Our new message platform, xTrade, allows for archiving of all electronic file types and increases customer value immensively. The customer logs in, searches after respective document using suitable keywords and finds it immediately. If you are used to working with paper archives and tired of finding the right binder, you will find that the difference between the two methods is considerable," Håkan Klingensjö points out.

Preprocessing - streamlining business information
During preprocessing the business documents are processed in UNI2´s intelligent server solution. Raw data (business documents, invoices, tenders, etc.) is collected from the customer for processing, then safely forwarded to the printshops. "All intelligence is found in the preprocessing, we anticipate what will happen in the following steps and are able to minimize emerging costs as they appear", explains Håkan Klingensjö. However, many companies still, in self-service fashion, choose to handle the invoice deliveries to the printshops by themselves. This can actually give rise to a couple of problems later on if they find themselves in a situation where they want to change printshop. By taking care of their own invoicing companies miss out on the preprocessing effects, the reason why UNI2 is able to keep their low prices. "At UNI2 we have chosen to outsource our printing services. We purchase them from the outside and take advantage of the great volumes we have through Tele2. This gives us incredibly good prices and deals with the printshops, which of course our customers can benefit from. We just let them do what they are best at doing, printing documents and nothing else", tells Håkan Klingensjö.

Even if UNI2´s beneficial agreements enable lowest possible price at the printshops, it doesn't necessarily imply that the company in question is bound to use the suggested printshop, instead it is given the choice to direct the preprocessed documents to a printshop of own choice if it wants to.

The technical solution
In order to streamline the handling of the three IT-areas discussed above UNI2 has chosen to use an xTrade Business Hub with frontend and backend structure. The solution is ideal for larger companies where communication often is expected to be fully automated. Since xTrade is scalable in several dimensions UNI2 can easily increase its business as message traffic gradually is growing.

In this particular xTrade solution, all communication from the outside passes through a frontend that is exposed against the Internet. Message security is secured through a safe tunnel leading in to two backends where all important information lies tightly secured. The following structure provides UNI2 with all the safety functions needed for this type of business and considerably reduces the risk for outside attacks. All sent files can easily be monitored through xTrade´s strong logging functionality and event control, and IF something, contrary to expectation, would happen along the way UNI2 always has the chance to correct the eventual malfunction. In order to get format conversion under control UNI2 has chosen to use Symphonia Message Mapper. Through this utility UNI2 can easily map, convert and transport the information between new and existing systems. The software is designed and developed to provide top of the line user-friendliness and functions as tool where the user himself sets the guidelines.

Future prospects
The transition from paper based message handling to the newer electronic handling has proven to be highly beneficial. Besides the obvious cost savings the customers are also able to benefit from the administrative advantages and manage to get a better structure over documents. UNI2´s highly popular services show that there is a constant need amongst companies to streamline business processes.