SharePoint vs OpenText: The Ultimate Purchase Order Automation Tool in Fremont

Considering today’s competitive landscape, companies of all sizes must discover ways to increase efficiency and productivity, while reducing expenditures wherever possible.

A great place to start is with business process automation (BPA). Via BPA, you could streamline repetitive and time-consuming tasks, reduce the stress on your team members, and upgrade your processes by developing efficiency and raising accuracy.

There are a number of tasks and business units that could benefit from BPA. Some of the most common adopters are Accounts Payable departments who can utilize BPA to automate payroll, invoicing, and purchase order processing.

In this piece, we’re taking a closer look at purchase order automation - how it functions, why automation is a great solution for this area, and evaluate a couple of our favorite PO process automation software: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

To start, let’s discuss what purchase order automation is and how it works.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

Automated purchase order solutions utilize business software integrated with machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA) technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the purchase order procedure.

With automation, purchase requests can be produced in a matter of seconds using pre-formatted templates, and transmitting capability can deliver authorizations directly to the supply chain dealer when the approval workflow is complete.

This removes the need for physical intervention, document filing methods, and makes the process smoother and more manageable.

The Purchase Order Process

While the purchase order process might look slightly different from one company to the next, the following offers a good example of a conventional, by-hand purchase order process.

Step 1: The first step is to create a purchase order.

Step 2: Then another colleague will evaluate and approve/reject the purchase order.

Step 3: After that, the purchase order should be routed to the merchant.

Step 4: Once completed, the organization will then obtain its service or product.

Step 5: The vendor invoice will thereafter be received by the firm.

Step 6: The invoice must be verified and authorized, and payment is delivered to the merchant.

Step 7: The last step of the purchasing procedure is to file or archive the relevant records to provide an audit trail.

This might not seem like many steps, but to make this workflow to run efficiently, all individuals from your AP staff, to sales representatives, merchants, and supervisors, must all provide correct, timely responses. Many firms can attest that this is way harder than it sounds.

There are numerous advantages to automating this procedure, which we’ll explore in the next chapter.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are many advantages to utilizing purchase order automation tools for your company. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from By-Hand Tasks

• Real-Time Operational Visibility

• A Faster, More Efficient Purchasing Procedure

• Decreased Human Error

• Improved Human Resource Utilization

So, now that we’ve established what purchase order automation is, the parts of the process that could be automated, and the advantages of purchase order software, let’s now take a closer look at two of our preferred automation options, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is an enterprise content management software (ECM) that, at its core, is a tool for managing, collaborating on, and publishing content.

Regardless, with the inclusion of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can quickly modify SharePoint’s features to enable automation to many of your AP procedures.

Pros

• Superb user experience and interface

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search aid searchability

Cons

• No native data capture or imaging capability

• Weak at meeting compliance standards in some industries

• SharePoint Online not equipped to fulfill Corporate ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is an ECM tool as well, but provides powerful add-ons that enable businesses to automate tasks, augment organizational operations, and lower the risk connected to management and intellectual property.

Pros

• A better option for business with a high level of compliance

• Strong document management, classification, filtering, and access restrictions

• OpenText Documentum adds case and inventory management capabilities to its feature set.

Cons

• Complex UX/UI

• Often requires professional optimization to ensure it satisfies organizational needs

• Can get costly for corporate features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Comparison

How Wave Can Aid You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in Fremont

The reality is by-hand processes in your accounting framework simply slow your company down, generate logjams and process issues, and consequently hurt your development and scalability.

Prolonged billing cycles can also contribute to increased costs associated with purchase order and invoice processing, reduce your insight and control, and can damage your supplier relationships.

At Wave, we can aid you in optimizing your accounts payable (AP) processes completely, including data entry, purchase orders, procurement, approval process, invoicing, payments, and even file storage platforms.

We collaborate with Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Netsuite, Oracle, in addition to ERP and ECM solutions like the ones we have examined in this post and also MFiles, Oracle, Xerox, and many others.

We can help you deploy your AP automation tool on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid concept based on your business regulations, budget, and compliance guidelines.

To learn more, connect with us right now for a free consultation.