We are currently looking for a number of excellent candidates for these positions:

• Java developers

Shortly, we will also advertise for the following positions:

• Cloud technology infrastructure specialists
• Customer support specialists
• Pan-European financial business development experts

If you would like further information on any of these positions, please contact us.

To hear Lighthouse director Padraic Moran discuss Lighthouse hiring plans, listen in to this New Job Radio podcast:

http://go.worldbank.org/ZBPISIJC40

Trade finance is already expensive and complicated, so where does this leave trading companies?

It seems to make an even stronger case for alternative funding methods.

Brian Hayes TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) recently launched a pilot project on e-Invoicing across a number of Government Departments and other public sector bodies.  The project will be overseen by the National Procurement Service (NPS) of the OPW. The Institute of Technology in Sligo is providing research and technical co-ordination.

Speaking in Dublin at the launch of the pilot, Minister Hayes said: “The pilot projects will take two months to complete.  The objective after the pilot is to have a paperless billing system that operates across the public sector.  That’s good for business because it cuts down on red tape and cuts down on costs.  The seven public sector bodies taking part in the pilot are: The Office of Public Works, the Department of Defence, the Department of Justice, HSE East, HSE North West, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Government Computer Services Board.  Once the findings of the pilot projects have been compiled and reviewed we will take a report to Government on the suitability of rolling out e-Invoicing across the entire public sector.  The cost-saving benefits of this project could genuinely help SMEs to compete and win additional Government business”.

The Minister concluded: “The full rollout of e-Invoicng could lead to multi-million euro savings for the exchequer in terms of reduced administrative and transactional costs, as well as providing savings to suppliers to the public sector. In addition Irish service providers in this area could become leaders in this technology across the EU Member States “.

If you are a regular buyer of materials, supplies and services, you may have considered how best to optimise your payment strategy. On the one hand, deferring payment to your suppliers gives you extra working capital to run your business, but on the other hand it can create havok in your supply chain.

It is likely that your suppliers would be prepared to give you a discount if you offer to pay them early. Rather than paying them 30 days or 60 days after invoicing, if you pay them immediately on approval you can stand to gain an additional 2-5% discount.

It’s very simple. Just raise an invoice as you normally do – using any accounts package, an MS Word document or even a text file, we don’t mind – and then print your invoice to your new Lighthouse eInvoice printer driver. That’s it! You will get an acknowledgement message back, and then you can log onto the Lighthouse Supplier Portal and view the invoice.

A growing number of our clients are finding that an Early Payment Discount Programme provides a fantastic return on investment, with no significant implementation hurdles, no risks, and valuable side benefits too.

A client who spends on average €100,000 monthly with suppliers, allocates a pool of €80,000 to fund early payment of 30-day invoices. Given the issues faced by businesses at present in accessing credit of any form, that client can be pretty confident of a high rate of capital utilisation in their early payment pool. Market intelligence shows that suppliers will offer discounts of up to 2.5% of invoice value to be paid 30 days early. On an €80,000 pool, that’s €2,000 per month, twelve times a year – or a return of €24,000 annually on an investment of €80,000.

That’s good money. But in addition, the client rests easy, knowing that they have provided a valuable, optional line of working capital to their suppliers that wouldn’t otherwise have been available, at a better-than-market rate. This creates stability and predictability in the supply chain, and reduces the market’s dependency on bank-based sources of working capital.

There is an opportunity to arbitrate for a middle ground. Buyers can be convinced to pay early in return for a discount. If suppliers feel that the discount rates are reasonable; if they are offered early payment as an option; and if they have the opportunity to lock in their receivable immediately, then they will view early payment as a good deal.

Traditional trade finance doesn’t tick all these boxes – discount rates can be between large and extortionate. Suppliers may be forced to commit their entire order book to a finance house. The may still have to wait for 10-15 days for payment. All of these issues make traditional trade finance a last resort.New, integrated financial supply chain models make early payment a viable alternative, even for business as usual receivables. A new report shows that 35% of all companies would always use early payment, if the terms were right. Of the rest, 65% would use it sometimes.Some buyers have lots of cash. Some have lots of debt. Some have lots of both. How can early payment be achieved for everyone? In some cases, external funding can be used to support a supply chain (the Supply Chain Finance model). Internal cash reserves can also be used – even in parallel with external funding. This can all be done to maintain and even improve Days Payables Outstanding (DPO) – and with no impact on the buyer’s Balance Sheet cash position.

Magic? No, but certainly clever.So. Buy now, Pay early? Yes, it does make sense.