Zen E-Orders, the Cloud platform for managing sales orders received from the PA via NSO and the PEPPOL network

The Order Sorting Node (NSO) is “the system for validating and transmitting electronic documents certifying the ordering and execution of purchases of goods and services by public administration,” as defined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
The Order Sorting Node electronically manages:

• the exchange of all purchase orders for goods and services from National Health Service (SNN) entities

The NSO also verifies that the submitted documents are correctly formatted and contain all the information necessary for their subsequent use in the invoicing and payment phases.
As of February 1, 2020, all National Health Service entities have been required to send purchase orders for goods, such as pharmaceuticals or medical devices, via the Order Sorting Node.
The requirement to place electronic orders via NSO applies to the following entities:

• Public Administration or National Health Service Bodies who purchase goods and/or services;
• Intermediaries, i.e. those who make purchases on behalf of the National Health System
• Suppliersof the entities of the National Health Service

The PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) network was founded in 2008 with the aim of facilitating e-procurement processes.
Joining this network allows you to manage all procurement cycle documents (orders, delivery notes, and invoices) using the same format and transport infrastructure between customer and supplier, both domestically and internationally.

The PEPPOL network offers a safe and standardized environment to facilitate the commercialelectronic document exchanges among organizations in Europe, improving efficiency, transparency and access to the public market.

To register for PEPPOL, you must choose a PEPPOL intermediary, an Access Point that will act as a link between the Access Points of other PEPPOL network members with whom you intend to exchange documents.
Any organization operating on the PEPPOL network through a PEPPOL-certified service provider can operate.
An intermediary with the Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) qualification can enable end users to receive business documents.

The PEPPOL-certified SMP provider registers Participants on the PEPPOL network, assigning them a unique PEPPOL ID and associating each with the document types they can receive.
The PEPPOL network is based on the XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard, enabling the standardization of commercial document formats and facilitating the exchange of information between the parties involved.

According to MEF figures, 8.5 million electronic orders were processed in 2022, a 17% increase over 2021, with an average of 33,000 orders per day. Of the orders received and accepted, 91% fell within the transmission scenario and only 9% within the validation scenario, primarily chosen by the Emilia-Romagna region, which has been using the PEPPOL network for several years to exchange all order cycle documents within the Regional Health Service.