# High-level considerations

# Introduction

As a partner, you can tailor integrations to fit your business model and customer needs.

There are both technical and commercial aspects to consider before determining an integration approach.

This section details high-level decisions to consider prior to deciding on an integration approach and commercial model.

# Pagero's role

It is important to understand that partnering with Pagero is most advantageous as a co-branding opportunity.

There are both technical and legal factors in the e-document exchange industry that prevent us from offering Pagero Online as a third-party white label solution.

A co-branding approach enables our partners to start with the most vital capabilities, such as file transfers, then scale integration of new services as needed.

A white label approach requires partners to heavily invest in resources for technical and commercial support resources.

Although the end user will be aware of the Pagero brand, we offer partners full integration with and access to Pagero Network capabilities from external platforms and applications via our widely capable set of APIs.

From a UI perspective, our partners can virtually replicate the entire Pagero Network interface in external systems.

The question is then how many Pagero Network capabilities should you integrate into your own solution, and to what degree should you make the end user aware of Pagero’s existence (e.g. commercially, technical support, etc.)?

A co-branding approach enables our partners to only integrate the most vital capabilities (e.g. file transfer) initially and scale the integration over time.

On the other hand, a “white label” approach would force the partner to invest heavily in product integration and operations (e.g. first-line support) from the get-go, but this would naturally result in a more streamlined customer experience.

# Customer's role

Pagero Online is designed and optimised as a self-service platform to be managed by the end user rather than as partner-managed services.

When designing the customer experience, we recommend that our partners direct the end user to Pagero Online self-service functions that are not included in the external partner solution via Pagero APIs.

Specifically, each end user legal entity has its own account in Pagero Online where users can view and edit company details, account settings and document flows; handle errors; establish supplier/buyer connections, etc.

Packaged as managed services, you the partner are responsible for allocating resources to carrying out tasks in Pagero Online that would be more easily managed on site by the end user.

As a self-service solution, the end user tends to their own tasks so the partner doesn’t have to.

Depending on end user industries, trading party volumes, markets, etc., the amount of extra work needed for partner-managed services will vary.

Consider your resources and which option would ultimately lead you and your end users to more efficient operations.

# Support approach

Given the specific nature of e-document exchange, regulatory compliance and the wide array of processing and delivery errors that can arise, we recommend that our partners leverage Pagero’s industry leading in-house customer support operations.

Pagero’s first-line support is even more recommended if you have decided to co-brand the solution and allow the end user to work with some or all self-service tools provided on the Pagero Online platform. In essence, this means that the end user reaches out to you for support cases related to your platform and to Pagero for support with Pagero Online.

If you prefer to minimise end user exposure to Pagero or want to have first-hand control of the end-to-end customer experience, it is possible to set up first-line support via the partner and escalate tickets to Pagero Support.

Note that as first-line support, you will tend to end user inquiries with the same self-service error management tools offered to end users in Pagero Online; i.e. there are no partner support tools in Pagero Online.

Requests unresolvable there must be escalated to Pagero Support.

# Integration approach

Pagero offers partners a variety of integration options to access and leverage the capabilities of the Pagero Network. In short, there are two approaches to consider:

customer-by-customer integrations using standard file communication protocols such as SFTP/AS2/HTTPS.
solution/platform integration using Pagero's REST APIs.

The pros and cons of each follow below.

# Customer-specific integrations

Customer-by-customer integrations using e.g. SFTP/AS2/HTTPS for file transfer are good when the partner has few (often large) and/or low price sensitive customers with larger scopes of service and reach.

Furthermore, the partner does not need to allocate development/integration resources to build a generic Pagero REST API-based integration – all internal costs can be passed to the end user on a project basis.

It is important to state that these types of file transfer integrations are limited to exactly that – file transfer. The end user will not have a particularly seamless end-to-end solution and will always need to (in one way or another) pay for activities that can be reused via the APIs.

# Reusable Pagero API integration

Integrating with the Pagero Network using the Pagero REST APIs will always require an initial development/integration investment from the partner.

Once completed, you’ll gain significant advantages over traditional SFTP/AS2/HTTPS file transfer protocols, including:

Significantly lower internal and external onboarding/setup and configuration costs, meaning a more price-competitive TCO for the end user.
Ability to onboard (scale up) a large number of customers with little to no need for human intervention.
A more seamless end-to-end customer experience via preauthenticated access to the Pagero Online platform and/ or integration of Pagero Network capabilities into external platforms.

Integrating with Pagero REST APIs means that the partner needs to decide on and commit to investing in the initial build. One approach is to begin by first integrating the essential functions, then adding additional functions over time.

# Format approach

Choosing which structured e-document format(s) to build support for and exchange within the Pagero Network is an important step in ensuring longevity and scalability in our partnership as well as in your overall e-document solution.

There are two main approaches to taking on the hundreds of e-document formats, content standards, legislation and best practices used internationally:

support multiple local formats and standards directly from your solution.
leverage the Pagero Universal Format for AR invoices or PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 for AP invoices.

Below are pros and cons of both.

# Supporting multiple local formats and standards

Building support for local standards and formats is often fairly straightforward since specifications and requirements are publicly available.

It is, however, important to understand that standards and requirements change continuously and frequently.

Supporting multiple formats and standards will not only require you to invest in the initial build; it will also require you to maintain the solution over time. Moreover, this approach is favourable and manageable mainly when end user scopes are relatively certain to remain local.

To support multiple country standards, you will have to build and maintain format standards as quickly and as often as localisation demands change. This approach requires that partners dedicate significant time and resources to building and updating ever-changing format standards.

# The Pagero Universal Format

The Pagero Universal Format (PUF) Billing 2.0 was developed so that the responsibility for formats, standards and content compliance lie in Pagero’s hands and not the partner’s.

PUF gathers multiple country content requirements into a single format which Pagero updates and maintains as content requirements change.

PUF was developed so that Pagero can easily scale for new countries and standards while partners gradually add and map support for countries of relevance. It enables you to leverage Pagero’s proactivity and expertise in the marketplace and allocate your resources elsewhere.

We recommend all our partners and large end users build support for and exchange e-documents in the Pagero Network using PUF.

Please note that it is ultimately Pagero who decides which standards and countries to support in PUF.