The future of compliance

Technology now touches every facet of our personal lives and the economy, and is relied on by companies in fundamental ways. As Gartner proclaimed in 2013, every business is a tech business.

While the digital revolution continues embedding itself into more business processes, the importance of trust only becomes clearer. Whether it’s a website with our personal information or phones paying our grocery bills – or our fridges in the Internet of Things era – digital expansion relies on confidence. Unfortunately, cybercrime is also growing apace and constitutes a daily threat to which all businesses will need to respond. It affects every area of business, from e-commerce to e-invoicing.

Trust, therefore, is vital. All businesses need to reassure their customers that their digital processes, and the valuable information that passes through them, are properly administered. When a business chooses to outsource, the highest of standards should apply. For us, the importance of secure, trusted invoicing systems is becoming clearer every day. As the digital business revolution continues apace, new frontiers open to allow for a more agile, sustainable and flexible way of working, but this can only happen when compliant invoicing is achieved.

Compliance today is already a minefield to navigate, from individual businesses through to a global scale. In response to global threats from online fraud and increased awareness of the potential digital businesses offer, compliance is only going to get more complex – especially when non-compliance is regarded as tax evasion. With this complexity will come a desire for smoother operations between stakeholders in a business’ tax responsibilities. As PwC acknowledges in its report Reshaping the Tax Function of the Future, “well-integrated tax data and analytics environment can help improve tax accounting, indirect tax, transfer pricing, general tax compliance and tax dispute resolution”.

This is why Tungsten Network’s mission to be the most trusted business network in the world relies on a market-leading approach to compliance. Our vision is of a secure, reliable, efficient financial supply chain, and we believe supporting our customers to achieve compliance is crucial. It is a challenge willingly embarked on and one we rise to every day. Technology is rising to the challenge of cyber security, nowhere less so than in the e-invoicing arena. As regulations change and threats arise, we adapt.

Secure, reliable relationships and the transactions that they are part of will enable businesses to grow and thrive. Key to navigating the future of business, as digital values become entrenched in the fibre of growth and acceleration, will, again, be trust. After all, it is at the heart of all business relationships.

For more information on navigating the minefield of invoicing regulations, check out our e-zine: Compliance in Focus