Co- authored by Amit Saini and Prasad Kona

Peppol
Peppol is a global electronic trade and e-invoicing network that allows you to safely exchange electronic e-invoices to companies and governments worldwide. The use of Peppol is governed by a multi-lateral agreement structure which is owned and maintained between OpenPeppol, and IBM as a member of OpenPeppol. Organizations that are now connected to Peppol can exchange business documents, such as various electronic formats, through the highly secured and safe international network.

If you need more information on IBM’s Peppol offering, please see here:

https://www.ibm.com/products/peppol-services

If your business strategy does not see you handling the integration of Peppol data to / from your backend systems, then you should consider IBM Sterling Managed Services because we can manage this complexity on your behalf.

Tools used:

1. Communication = IBM Sterling VAN

The IBM B2B Integration SaaS Platform is already connected to the Peppol Network, however bridging from the B2BI SaaS platform to the IBM VAN does require some billable effort.
The effort is equivalent to the setup of a Direct Connection, and will cover the configuration of a "BEDI" and also provides for the Peppol IDs to be provisioned, and routing set up.
If you already are an IBM VAN user, please contact the Mailbox team, or it if you need to connect for the first time, please visit this page. 

(Note that the best practice for Peppol is to use per document metric for billing instead of KiloCharacter (KC), as some Peppol documents can be
much larger than EDI documents).



2. Transformation = IBM Sterling B2B Integrator or IBM Transformation Extender

This guide imagines that you use one of the 2 IBM transformation tools named above, and will provide some code samples to help you adapt the data. If your transformation software is unable to read or write Peppol XML, then please contact IBM Sterling sales for your region via the link above 

3. Peppol Directory (aka Yellow Pages)

https://directory.Peppol.eu

While this Directory does not yet capture every Peppol participant, you can search for and find the majority of Peppol IDs here, as well as the document types a given user is able to receive






4. Peppol Participant Lookup

https://Peppol.helger.com/public/locale-en_US/menuitem-tools-participant

This looks up the Peppol registry to verify the technical details of an ALREADY KNOWN Peppol ID, so before using this you must either get the Peppol ID from your trading partner or Peppol Directory. This is a more technical view on the data, but helps you verify having the correct specs.

Performing Data Translation via SI or ITX Translation Engine

Data Translation from Customer ERP file format to Peppol and vice versa can be done either with Sterling Integrator or ITX mapping.

Use the flow chart pictured below, and attached to understand various steps involved in this process.

Sterling Integrator Code snippet
SI_Peppol_X12_BIS3_INVOICE.zip

ITX Code snippet
ITX_XML_Peppol_INVOICE_MAP.zip

Here is an ITX demo of a Peppol map being configured as part of the ITX SAP healthcare pack:

Peppol ID Registration (done by IBM Services team)

This ID will act as your Peppol “Phone Number” and identifies both your business, and also records what types of business documents you are able to receive. Sender details do not need to be registered, but it is good practice to do so, even if the sender does not immediately plan to receive documents.

For Receiver ID Registration on Peppol network,

You need to share the below details:

1. The Business entity must share the Peppol ID (Unique identification number on Peppol network). Based on country the Business Entity belongs to, this ID can be VAT ID, DUNS#, SIRET ID, GS1 GLN etc.
2. Business entity must share list of document types they are expecting to receive from their partners along with flow direction (Inbound)
3. Valid company name, address and contact information
   
   

IBM Netherlands - Peppol Directory example

Testing – Exchanging of documents

Documents from Partner (Inbound):

1. IBM B2Bi SaaS will receive the Peppol file via Peppol network from the Partner's Access Point provider.
2. The file will be routed as-is to you via the selected protocol (FTP, SFTP or AS2)

Documents from you to the Partner (Outbound):

1. You will send the Peppol file to IBM B2BI SaaS via selected protocol.
2. IBM B2Bi SaaS routes the Peppol file as-is to Partner via Peppol network. Status/log will provide confirmation of file receipt on the receiver’s access point to IBM B2Bi SaaS.
3. Once IBM B2Bi SaaS Team receives the confirmation, you will be informed.

The onus of testing all Business scenarios rests with you.

The Document Tracking event will be triggered in complete flow and all data going in and out from you will be visible in Inflight Document Tracking tool.

Validation

As per OpenPeppol rules, sender Access Points may only send a validated BIS documents.
IBM makes available the Tickstar Peppol Valdation tool linked inside B2BiSaaS Hub as shown below. 

Please contact IBM for login credentials

https://tui.test.galaxygw.com/validator/upload

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