The 500 million figure is impressive. Just look at the picture. The width of the number is huge. The five is followed by eight zeros in a neat row.
But what is 500 million, you ask? Well, that's roughly how many invoices Inexchange has digitized since its inception in 2008. Invoices that would otherwise have gone as paper.
This is of course a great positive deed for the environment. Inexchange therefore served as a good example when Science Park Skövde held a meeting on sustainability and innovations.
This is Jenny Brian, HR Manager at Inexchange, who flanks the environmental effort that our impact company, based in Skövde and Östersund, has managed to achieve. Jenny, CEO Ola Widegren and commercial director Simon Strandell presented Inexchange during the meeting and both the business and social focus on sustainability aroused interest and curiosity.
Not least this with 500 million. By sending 500 million e-invoices instead of physical letters, carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by approximately 14,500 tons. A calculation based on the fact that each physical letter causes 29 grams of CO2 emissions (1).
- Inexchange combines sustainability and innovation. The company has revolutionized an entire industry through its concept of digitalization. The effects are very clear. Socially, for one. The handling and behavior around invoices has become completely different. On the other hand, a lot of transportation has been cut. Something that has greatly reduced the impact on the environment. So I see Inexchange as an excellent example, says Ingi Jonasson who is the CEO of the community and the local development center that Science Park Skövde has formed for 25 years.
In other words, e-invoicing is synonymous with reduced emissions, more trees saved and lower water consumption, but sustainability includes much more than preserving natural resources.
- The work that is being done, and that is demonstrably contributing to a green transition, relies on human resources. That is, our people. They are our most important asset, and we protect them by working with employee engagement," says Jenny Brian and explains in more detail:
- What is unique to us is not our benefits and arrangements. Many other companies are also doing that. What is unique, however, is that we measure the situation of our employees every month. We do this through an eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) survey that includes a number of different indices. What's also different is that we don't just look at this at management team level. We also have volunteer ambassadors from each department who discuss the results of the survey and then raise with colleagues what has been good and less good. We learn from each other.
The survey is conducted with high integrity. Responses and comments are left anonymously. Joint group results are also only reported if the teams and departments are five employees or more. But above all, it serves as an up-to-date barometer of satisfaction, perceptions and well-being.
The eNPS scale is special and really requires an explanation, but for the sake of simplicity: the response rate is a fine 92 percent and the index figure is so high that it places Inexchange in the top five in the tech industry among the companies that use the corresponding measurement method.
- We obviously want everyone to be happy at Inexchange, that our employees have a sustainable working life. Then it will be easier to achieve other effects when it comes to sustainability, says Jenny Brian.
General business model
The innovative side, which also promotes a green transition, is another hallmark of Inexchange. When the idea of creating a seamless digital invoicing solution was born, Inexchange was a pioneer in many ways.
- Today you can buy almost anything via subscription, streaming services, cars, glasses and so on, but in 2008 this wasn't the biggest thing. We were early with the subscription form, selling this as a service. While we were doing this, our competitors were calling e-invoicing an "incredibly big IT project" requiring expensive business systems and months of consulting. We, on the other hand, said: "It's 99 bucks a month and you're good to go", says Simon Strandell.
The adoption of this business model was a key factor. A clever idea has paved the way for sustainability and environmentally friendly business document management.
Willing to innovate
Ingi Jonasson is pleased and confident that companies such as Inexchange and Tycka Reviews - which also appeared at the same meeting - operate at Science Park Skövde and are spearheading the necessary work to reduce the climate footprint.
- The essence of what Inexchange is presenting and which has had such a positive impact is of course linked to technology and digitization, but above all it is about daring to do things differently, to turn the concepts around and think in new ways," says Ingi Jonasson. If the forecast comes true, we will have digitized over a billion invoices (1,000,000,000) by 2030. Doing a billion-dollar sustainability job is not bad for a rural player with headquarters in Skövde and Östersund.
1) According to a study by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, the emissions from a standard letter (an envelope with two A4 sheets of paper) are estimated at about 29 grams of CO2. These emissions include paper manufacturing, envelope production, printing and transportation.
Captions:
Top: Jenny Brian flanking a figure that Inexchange is proud of. Middle: Science Park Skövde CEO Ingi Jonasson. Bottom: Ingi, Jenny, Simon Strandell and Ola Widegren.
Photo: PER GUSTAFSSON