Also propelling growth is that e-document suppliers are making it easier, says Sush Koka, a research director at consulting firm PayStream Advisors, Inc. in Charlotte, N.C. These days, many e-document vendors are delivering value-added services around supplier recruitment, says Koka, in Houston. For example, suppliers like Xign, acquired by J.P. Morgan, can go through a company's lists of suppliers and buyers and identify which are good e-document candidates. Then the suppliers contact these other firms on the company's behalf to educate them on the benefits and enroll them for e-document delivery, Koka says.

Implementing or increasing electronic invoicing was identified as the highest priority for 2009 for 48% of more than 300 financial professionals, according to PayStream Advisors' Imaging & Workflow Automation Adoption Survey, conducted during the last two quarters of 2008. Not surprisingly, more than half of those respondents reported that they presently receive over 80% of their invoices in paper format.

From an earlier PayStream report: "Our research shows that by 2010, the number of B2B invoices delivered within the United States in electronic format will exceed the number of paper invoices."

A 'one-man show'

While electronic invoicing is among the more popular applications for electronic delivery, many products and services also provide the ability to blast out financial statements, reports and payment histories as well.