SharePoint vs OpenText: The Best Purchase Order Automation Tool in Albuquerque

In today’s competitive landscape, firms of varying sizes must find ways to increase efficiency and productivity, while lowering costs wherever possible.

A great place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). Through BPA, you can simplify monotonous and laborious tasks, ease the load on your team members, and enhance your workflows by increasing productivity and raising reliability.

There are several processes and business fields that can benefit from BPA. Some of the most common adopters are Accounts Payable teams who can use BPA to automate purchase order processing, payroll, and invoicing.

In this post, we’re going to hone in on purchase order automation - how it operates, why automation is a great fit for this area, and assess two of our preferred PO process automation platforms: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

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

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Through automation, purchase requests can be produced in a matter of seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and forwarding capability can send approvals straight to the supply chain contractor when the approval process is complete.

This removes the need for physical intervention, record filing systems, and makes the operation faster and more controllable.

The Purchase Order Process

While the purchase order process may look slightly different from one organization to the next, the following provides an excellent example of a standard, hand-operated purchase order system.

Step 1: The first step is creating 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 forwarded to the contractor.

Step 4: Once filled, the business will then obtain its product or service.

Step 5: The organization will then get the vendor invoice.

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

Step 7: The final step of the purchasing procedure is to archive or file the associated files to generate an audit trail.

This may not seem like a lot of steps, but for this workflow to operate normally, all participants from your AP personnel, to sales representatives, merchants, and executives, must all deliver accurate, timely responses. Most companies can attest that this is easier said than done.

There are many benefits to automating this procedure, which we will explore in the next chapter.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order System

There are several benefits to utilizing purchase order automation software for your company. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from Hand-Operated Tasks

• Real-Time Insight Into Activities

• A Quicker, More Efficient Procurement Process

• Lessened Human Error

• Better Use of Human Resources

So, now that we have reviewed what purchase order automation entails, the aspects of the operation that could be automated, and the gains of purchase order solutions, let us now go over two of our preferred automation solutions, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is an enterprise content management solution (ECM) that, at its core, is a program for managing, collaborating on, and distributing data.

Having said that, with the addition of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can easily adapt SharePoint’s features to include automation to most of your AP operations.

Pros

• Excellent user experience and user interface (UX/UI)

• Minimal learning curve for new users

• Metadata search adds improved searchability

Cons

• No integrated data capture or imaging capability

• Weak at following compliance standards in a few sectors

• SharePoint Online is not made to meet Corporate ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but includes advanced add-ons that enable organizations to automate tasks, enhance organizational operations, and decrease the risk related to governance and intellectual property.

Pros

• An excellent alternative for compliance-heavy organizations

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

• OpenText Documentum expands its features with case and inventory management functionality.

Cons

• Intricate UX/UI

• Typically demands specialist tuning to guarantee that it satisfies business needs

• Can be expensive for enterprise capabilities and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Analysis

How Wave Can Assist You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in Albuquerque

The fact is that manual processes in your accounting framework just slow your organization down, cause hindrances and process inefficiencies, and ultimately hurt your growth and scalability.

Extended billing cycles can also result in higher expenses associated with purchase order management and invoice processing, limit your visibility and control, and can add strain to your supplier partnerships.

At Wave, we can aid you in optimizing your AP processes completely, including purchase orders, procurement, data entry, payments, approval process, invoicing, and even document storage solutions.

We work closely with Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, and ERP and ECM tools like those we’ve examined in this post and also Oracle, Xerox, MFiles, and more.

We can aid you in implementing your accounts payable automation solution on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid framework contingent on your organizational rules, budget, and compliance requirements.

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