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What is an access point?
To connect to Peppol, a so-called access point is required. It is the connection that enables the exchange of electronic business documents within Peppol's infrastructure. The flow of documents between access points can be compared to calls in a regular mobile network. Regardless of the phone brand or service provider, you can call whomever you want.
What is an access point?
Access points are operators or service providers that, like InExchange, transmit documents to another access point.
If it is an operator, we often talk about a so-called VAN service. If it is a service provider that offers various forms of ERP solutions, the access point is often built into their system.
To become an access point in Peppol, a chain of approvals is required. First of all, a membership in OpenPeppol is needed. Then a certification process takes place. Being a member of OpenPeppol also comes at a cost. The organization charges an annual membership fee.
Obligations as an access point
- As a receiving access point, you must receive documents that comply with the Peppol BIS standard.
- The sending access point has an obligation to validate all documents sent to another access point. As a receiving access point and recipient, there is no need to test the invoices from each supplier. Everyone sends in the same way.
- To be approved as an access point, an availability rate of 99.5% is required.
- It is mandatory for all access points to monitor Peppol's continuous release window and perform the system updates that occur at least twice a year.
- As an access point, you are not allowed to charge any other access point for traffic.
One agreement instead of several
No interconnection agreements are required between the service providers, or operators, who have access points in Peppol's network, known formally as bilateral interconnection agreements. Instead, the operator signs a single agreement with a PEPPOL authority. In Sweden's case, this is DIGG (the Swedish Agency for Digital Government).
The variant with multiple routing rules, which we mentioned at the beginning, is otherwise common. We have it in Sweden, for example. Previously, interconnection agreements were required with each separate VAN operator to route traffic between them. Of course, this meant a huge job for everyone. If there were 200 VAN operators, interconnection agreements had to be drawn up with each of these 200.
Thus, in the case of Peppol, no interconnection agreement is needed. Once an operator has been approved as an access point, it is free to communicate with the other approved access points in the Peppol network.
