Digital document exchange between wholesalers and craftsmen in the HVAC sector

Open Document Exchange (ODX) is a new standard that simplifies the digital exchange of documents between wholesalers and tradespeople. Instead of paper documents, business documents such as order confirmations or delivery notes are transmitted electronically in a so-called hybrid format. Hybrid means that a PDF is transmitted in which a data structure in XML format is embedded. This XML data structure can be processed automatically by the tradesman software or wholesale systems. This saves time and reduces manual work, as documents can now be directly processed digitally - e.g. for fully automated project billing or invoice verification.

As a first use case in practice, the ‘counter process’ was digitised with ODX. When collecting goods from wholesalers, the tradesperson can enter the associated construction project directly using a standardised QR code. This means that the documents issued - such as order confirmations and delivery notes - are automatically labelled with the correct project or transaction number. This means that this data is available directly in the trade software after collection and can be used immediately, e.g. for invoicing.