Communities and Work Groups

There are three stakeholder communities
  • End User Community (EUC)
  • Service Provider Community (SPC)
  • Peppol Authority Community (PAC)
OpenPeppol members self-allocate to one of the three stakeholder communities on first registration as a member of OpenPeppol. The members of each stakeholder community formally elect:
  • a community leader
  • representatives to cross-community bodies
The leader of each stakeholder community participates in the OpenPeppol Coordinating Committee. Each community provides a forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing and hosts face-to-face meetings in March and October each year. Stakeholder community initiatives are approved each year by the General Assembly. Current initiatives are listed below.

Current stakeholder community initiatives

Key initiatives for 2024 – End User Community (EUC)
  • Continue work on user survey for current and potential EUC members to seek more engagement and increase participation 
  • Propose a vision “EUC is to drive efficiency and growth among business and public sector entities around the world” 
  • Encourage End User interest in specific subjects, such as Billing 
    • Billing
    • Ordering 
    • Logistics 
    • Potential other business documents 
  • Have “deep dives” into topics of special interest for the End Users 
  • Invite End Users to share their success stories 
  • Invite End Users to share their day-to-day practical issues.
Key initiatives for 2024 – Service Provider Community (SPC)
  • Key objective – Provide value to the members by creating the base to acquire important information and keep high quality discussions
  • Support the GENA incubation project as it is very important counterpart for the Service Provider Community
  • Other targets
    • Keep regularity (a meeting every 5 weeks) in meetings except summer period. 
    • Agenda 2-3 days beforehand. 
    • Maintain the good quality meeting content. 
    • Regular MC updates of membership and PA development.
    • Regular updates from eDEC and PoAC communities.
    • Regular updates from OO
  • Actions:
    • Ensure better onboarding of new service providers. 
    • Consider the opportunity for an off-meeting discussion area for Service providers. 
    • Keep contact to local SP communities also emphasize the importance of SP cooperation.
Key initiatives for 2024 – Peppol Authority Community (PAC)
  • Sharing knowledge with domains and communities within Peppol and trying to interact with the different stakeholders within Peppol. Bringing Peppol forward. 
  • Actively taking part strategically through the MC++ meetings and other consultative bodies. One of the focus points is to assess the current business model and enhance/optimize revenue of the organization. 
  • From PA perspective provide Peppol & OO with (re)sources when needed. Our aim is to see if and how the PA’s can help with finding a more structural way to increase capacity within the Operations of Peppol. 
  • 1 on 1 sessions with PAs to asses local success, challenges and stimulate overall engagement with the community. 
  • Synchronize communication: raising the bar of how all communicate on the same level about Peppol. 
  • Create a “blue print” PA paper. The idea is to write down a guide to set up a PA. This was not achieved last year but we aim to do it this year. 

There are five domain communities
  • Peppol Network Community (eDeC)
  • Post Award Community (PoAC)
  • Pre Award Community (PrAC)
  • CTC Community (CTCC)
  • Logistics (LoC)

Service Provider members of OpenPeppol must join eDeC. Additionally, Post Award Service Providers must also join PoAC and Pre Award Service Provider members must also join PrAC.

Peppol Authority members of OpenPeppol must join eDeC and may optionally join PrAC and/or PoAC.

End User members of OpenPeppol may optionally join any domain community.

Community participation End Users Service Providers Peppol Authorities
Peppol Network optional required required
Post Award optional required as relevant optional
Pre Award optional required as relevant optional
CTC optional optional optional
Logistics optional optional optional

Except for the CTCC, each domain community has a Change Management Board (CMB), which is chaired by the domain community leader. The CMBs determine the annual workplan for their community and prioritise change requests.

The members of each domain community formally elect:

  • a community leader
  • representatives to their Change Management Board
  • representatives to cross-community bodies

The leader of each domain community participates in the OpenPeppol Coordinating Committee.

Each community provides a forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing and hosts face-to-face meetings in March and October each year.

Domain community initiatives are approved each year by the General Assembly and the current initiatives are listed below.

Current domain community initiatives

Key initiatives for 2024 – Peppol Network Community (eDeC)
  • Continue to refine change and release management based on new agreement change processes 
  • Continue Peppol specification upgrade, with necessary updates for SML, Directory and Policy for use Identifiers to follow 
  • Documentation of the Peppol Network Architecture
    • Recommend to be done post SMP and SML work 
    • Revisit when ready 
  • Ensure and maintain safe & secure operation over the Peppol Network 
  • Incubate MLA workgroup result 
  • Increase collaboration with PoAC 
  • We anticipate the Critical Infrastructure Working Group will lead the following, and eDEC will be keen to participate
    • Future of SML 
    • New trust model 
    Key initiatives for 2024 – Post Award Community (PoAC)
  • Deliver new releases May and November
    • BIS and PINT releases
    • Collaboration with PAs to align releases
  • Continue to improve the Peppol BIS messages
    • Strengthening stability and improve the functionality
  • Continue to review the use of business and message responses in the network
    • Mandatory or optional use and migration to new message response type(s)
  • Review the use of country specific rules
    • Formal review and roll out
  • Implement the new agreements
    • Survey the communities via webinars to drive CMB decisions 
    • Improve release process 
    • Align the versioning of the specifications 
    Key initiatives for 2024 – Pre-Award Community (PrAC)
  • Guideline for Notification and two-stage procedures
    • Illustrate choreography of Peppol BIS in pre-award for two-stage procedures
    • Includes variants like restricted procedure, competitive procedures with negotiation, competitive dialogues and innovation partnerships, Dynamic Purchasing System
  • New Peppol BIS for Contracting (tbc) 
  • Preparation of next Peppol PrAC release that contains new BIS profiles, updates and new guideline
    • Pre-Award Peppol BIS P012 – Qualification Response 
    • Pre-Award Peppol BIS P013 – Invitation to Tender 
    • Pre-Award Peppol BIS P035 – Pre-Award Catalogue 
    • Pre-Award guide: Notification & Two-Stage Procedures 
    • ESPD BIS 3.0 (?)
  • Alignment with work in CEN TC 440: No major new works planned yet in Peppol PrAC in 2024 apart from the next release. Mostly all required profiles are established by now. Alignment may be required based on CEN TC440 results but this is to be expected earliest in 2025. 
Key initiatives for 2024 – CTC Community (CTCC)
    1. Contribute to market development activities and supporting the recruitment of new Peppol Authorities and, more generally, the expansion of Peppol into new countries and territories where CTC/Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) is a relevant priority for the government
      1. Continue working on marketing materials and messaging surrounding Peppol CTC (D-CTCE and potentially highlighting C-CTCE) 
      2. Get at least 1 TA or PA to test the approach either in the Peppol CTC Playground or other form preferred by such TA or PA 
      3. Get at least 1 TA or PA to commit to deployment of Peppol CTC or CTC based on Peppol specifications / network (D-CTCE or C-CTCE) 
      4. Collaboration with DG TAXUD and DG GROW (European impact), and OECD (global impact)
    2. Subject to engagement of relevant stakeholders and resources availability in the Association, elaborate on how Centralised Clearance scenarios could be adopted as a variation of Peppol CTC (C-CTCE).
      1. The market is sending us strong signals that OpenPeppol should consider presenting a C-CTCE approach as alternative to D-CTCE to support jurisdictions that desire TA to perform central message validation (as opposed to this performed by network of service providers)
    3. Conduct a Peppol CTC ViDA pilot in 2024 involving at least 2 jurisdictions
      1. Align with NSGB aiming to make the pilot more European vs. Nordic 
    4. Following a successful ViDA pilot, begin preparations for the creation of CTC Domain with Peppol BIS established. 
Key initiatives for 2024 – Logistics Community (LoC)
  • Key objective – Deliver value to members by establishing a foundation for acquiring vital information, fostering high-quality discussions, ensuring a secure change management board, and cultivating common understanding and goals.
  • Our goal is to standardize logistic data across industries globally. This will facilitate data sharing between all involved both clients, suppliers and forwarders, giving visibility throughout the supply and logistic chain.
    • Enabling:
      • Enhanced planning of deliveries and backload, data driven decisions
      • Improved logistics visibility and planning results in reduced traffic and consequently, a smaller environmental footprint
    • Reduce operational risk
      • Real time operational insight for all participants in the supply/logistic chain
      • Increase stakeholder knowledge, Perception of what is moving through the supply chain is key to common understanding
    • Reduce risk-probability due to:
      • Early identification of a risk by continuous monitoring of the supply chain, reducing reaction time
      • Common understanding of the risk in the
        • Planning team 
        • Operational team 
        • Decision making team
    • Other targets
      • Keep regularity in meetings except summer period. 
      • Agenda 2-3 days beforehand. 
      • Maintain the good quality meeting content. 
      • Regular MC updates of membership and development. 
      • Regular updates from stakeholders 
      • Stimulate end user engagement
    • Actions:
      • Secure testing of several messages with stakeholders ie BEAst and Norwegian O&E operators
      • Set plan for implementation and align on next steps for the LoC community. 
  • Work Groups

    OpenPeppol establishes formal work groups to manage specific initiatives to ensure the development and sustainability of the Peppol specifications and network.

    Work groups are run by a work group leader and populated by volunteer representatives of OpenPeppol members. Work group members commit to actively participate in the discussions and activities of the group, supporting the work group leader in completing the agreed deliverables.

    Work groups may be established at an organisational level or within stakeholder and domain communities. Each work group has a documented mandate, setting out the areas of responsibility and the expected deliverables.

    Organisational-level work groups

    • Critical Infrastructure

    Community-level work groups

    Post Award work groups
    • Response Messages
    Pre Award work groups
    • Complete eTendering Procedure III

    Join a Community or Work Group

    Contact the Community Leader or Work Group Leader – details can be found under “who-is-who”.

     

    Communities and participation

    All OpenPeppol members actively participate in the Peppol communities, which are:

    • Domain Communities
      • eDelivery (eDeC)
      • Post Award (PoAC)
      • Pre Award (PrAC)
      • Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC)
      • Logistics (LoC)
    • Stakeholder Communities
      • Peppol Authority Community (PAC)
      • Service Provider Community (SPC)
      • End User Community (EUC)

    Each Peppol community provides a forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing, as well as the delivery of community-specific initiatives and workplan.

    The members of each Domain and Stakeholder community elect a community leader, who also participates in the OpenPeppol Coordinating Committee.

    Except for the CTCC, each Domain community has an associated, Change Management Board (CMB), which is chaired by the domain community leader with members elected by the community members. As well as prioritising change requests from members, the CMBs determine the annual workplan and initiatives  for their community. These workplans are approved by the Association at the annual General Assembly.

    On joining the Association, all members indicate the Domain communities in which they wish to participate, whereas OpenPeppol allocates new members (except Observers) to the stakeholder community that is relevant to their membership type.

    Domain communities

    eDelivery Community (eDeC)

    eDeC is concerned with the development and maintenance of Peppol specifications related to the use of the Peppol Network, which includes Packaging and Security; Messaging, and Addressing and Capability Lookup.

    Links to all eDeC specifications and related documentation can be found on the Peppol website here: https://peppol.org/documentation/technical-documentation/edelivery-documentation/

    All Peppol Authorities and Service Providers join eDeC, while other members can join eDeC if they wish.

    Post Award Community (PoAC)

    PoAC is concerned with the development and maintenance of Peppol specifications related to business documents used in the Purchasing process and can be exchanged over the Peppol Network, such as Purchase Orders; Invoices and Credit Notes; and Despatch Advice Notes.

    Links to all PoAC specifications and related documentation can be found on the Peppol website here: https://peppol.org/documentation/technical-documentation/post-award-documentation/

    All Service Providers that offer Post Award business document exchange services join PoAC, while other members can join PoAC if they wish.

    Pre Award Community (PrAC)

    PrAC is concerned with the development and maintenance of Peppol specifications related to business documents used in the tendering process and can be exchanged over the Peppol Network, such as Tender Submission; Search Notices; and Qualification.

    Links to all PrAC specifications and related documentation can be found on the Peppol website here: https://peppol.org/documentation/technical-documentation/pre-award-documentation/

    All Service Providers that offer Pre Award business document exchange services join PrAC, while other members can join PrAC if they wish.

    Continuous Transaction Controls Community (CTCC)

    CTCC is concerned with the introduction of Peppol services and specifications in support of eReporting of Consumption Tax data by businesses to Tax Administrations.

    Peppol has published a CTC Reference Document, together with a related Addendum, that provides a deep dive into CTC models. These documents can be found on the Peppol website here: https://peppol.org/documentation/technical-documentation/ctc-documentation/

    Any member can join CTCC if they wish.

    Logistics Community (LoC)

    LoC is concerned with the introduction of Peppol services and specifications in support of logistics-specific business document exchange.

    The Logistics Community has been recently formed to develop new Peppol message types that will enhance planning, preparation and visibility of deliveries and supply chain activities.

    Any OpenPeppol member can join LoC if they wish.

    Stakeholder communities

    Peppol Authority Community (PAC)

    Peppol Authorities (PAs) are government agencies that drive adoption of Peppol in their jurisdiction.

    The PAC is made up of all the PAs and provides a forum for discussion on the latest developments in Peppol.

    Service Provider Community (SPC)

    Service Providers (SPs) are those organisations that provide or intend to provide Peppol services to End Users.

    The SPC is made up of all SP members and provides a forum for discussion on the latest developments in Peppol.

    End User Community (EUC)

    End Users (EUs) are buyers and sellers that exchange business documents across the Peppol Network through their Peppol-certified Service Provider.

    The EUC is made up of all End User members and provides a forum for discussion on the latest developments in Peppol.

    More information

    Current key initiatives for each of the Domain and Stakeholder communities can be found on the Peppol website here: https://peppol.org/learn-more/communities-and-work-groups/

    Latest updated – July 2024