SharePoint vs OpenText: The Best Purchase Order Automation Platform in New Orleans

In the current competitive marketplace, businesses of all sizes must develop ways to enhance efficiency and productivity, while reducing expenses wherever necessary.

A great place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). With BPA, you can expedite tedious and laborious tasks, reduce the stress on your team members, and improve your workflows by developing efficiency and raising accuracy.

There are several operations and business sectors that can make use of BPA. One of the most prevalent adopters are Accounts Payable units who can use 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 perfect option for this area, and evaluate two of our preferred PO process automation software: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

To start, let’s go over what purchase order automation is and how it performs.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Through automation, purchase requests can be produced in a matter of seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and transmitting capability can deliver approvals directly to the supply chain contractor when the approval workflow is complete.

This removes the need for manual interference, paper filing methods, and makes the process faster and more controllable.

The Purchase Order Process

While the purchase order process can differ from one company to the next, the following provides an excellent example of a conventional, by-hand 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 sent to the contractor.

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

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

Step 6: The invoice should be reviewed and confirmed, and payment is released to the vendor.

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

This might not seem like a great deal of steps, but to make this workflow to run efficiently, all individuals from your AP staff, to sales reps, merchants, and executives, must all provide accurate, prompt responses. Most organizations can attest that this is grueling.

There are numerous benefits to automating these steps, which we’ll review in the next section.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are numerous advantages to utilizing purchase order automation software for your business. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from Physical Processes

• Real-Time Insight Into Activities

• A Quicker, More Efficient Procurement Method

• Lessened Physical Error

• Improved Utilization of Human Resources

So, now that we have established what purchase order automation entails, the elements of the process that could be automated, and the gains of purchase order solutions, let us now take a closer look at two of our favorite automation options, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is an enterprise content management software (ECM) that in its base form, is a program for monitoring, collaborating on, and distributing content.

However, with the inclusion of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can easily adapt SharePoint’s functionality to incorporate automation to several of your AP processes.

Pros

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

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search enhances searchability

Cons

• No local data imaging or capture feature

• Weak at meeting compliance guidelines in some sectors

• SharePoint Online not equipped to fulfill Enterprise ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is an ECM tool as well, but offers advanced add-ons that enable organizations to automate tasks, improve business operations, and reduce the risk connected to governance and intellectual property.

Pros

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

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

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

Cons

• Complex UX/UI

• Typically necessitates professional tuning to guarantee that it fulfills organizational requirements

• Can be expensive for corporate features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Table

How Wave Can Help You Implement Purchase Order Automation in New Orleans

The fact is that by-hand processes in your accounting framework simply slow your firm down, generate logjams and process inefficiencies, and ultimately hurt your development and scalability.

Longer than necessary billing cycles can also result in higher costs associated with purchase order and invoice processing, impede your insight and control, and can damage your supplier relationships.

At Wave, we can assist you in streamlining your accounts payable processes end-to-end, including purchase orders, procurement, data entry, payments, approval process, invoicing, and even document storage platforms.

We work closely with SAP, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, as well as ECM and ERP tools like the ones we have mentioned in this post and also MFiles, Oracle, Xerox, and more.

We can assist you in implementing your AP automation tool locally, in the cloud, or in a hybrid concept based on your organizational rules, budget, and compliance guidelines.

To learn more, reach out right now for a free consultation.