This blog was last updated on June 6, 2024

In less a  weeks’ time, on 1 October, all purchase orders associated with the Italian National Health System (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) will be exchanged through the public administrations’ Purchase Orders Routing Node platform (Nodo di Smistamento degli Ordini), commonly referred to as NSO.

Although the new e-order mandate won’t affect the collection of VAT, it does impact the issuance of invoices to entities in the public sector.  This is because the invoices exchanged between the parties to the affected transactions must indicate specific data extracted from the e-order. Moreover, documents and messages validated by the NSO platform are conditions for the public administration to proceed with the liquidation and payment for the supply.

The début of NSO regime comes with challenges. The NSO platform has been built upon the existing SDI (Sistema de Interscambio) infrastructure, and as a result, the market expectation was that of a straightforward and smooth adoption of the new functionalities. However, recent bumps in the road, such as delays in publishing requirements regarding accreditation for some of the transmission methods, coupled with the continuous update of technical specifications, as well as technical teething problems have caused uncertainty as to whether or not the relevant authorities will indeed proceed with the go-live on the anticipated launch date of 1 October 2019.  The coming days leading up to the launch will show if the authorities are inclined to introduce the NSO regime in a more cushioned fashion than the e-invoicing reform in January this year, or if once more tax and e-invoicing compliance becomes a tight deadline for Italian suppliers to meet.