It is not dematerialization

At the early stage of e-invoicing it was referred to as “dematerialization”. The benefits were seen as coming from not sending paper mail – but electronic mail.

Now it has become clear that the real benefits are in keeping the information in structural form (not de-electronizing it by printing or making it into a PDF-picture) and sending it as such all the way to the receiver (no need for expensive manual entering or scanning). This enables a long list of automation both in enterprises (“cutting administrative costs in half”..) and for their counterparts – especially in the public sector.

Adding the cutting of VAT fraud makes it easy to understand why this is getting so much attention now.