SharePoint vs OpenText: The Best Purchase Order Automation Platform in Stockton

Given today’s competitive marketplace, businesses of all shapes and sizes must develop ways to boost efficiency and productivity, while cutting expenses wherever possible.

A great place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). Via BPA, you can streamline repetitive and taxing workflows, reduce the burden for your staff, and enhance your workflows by developing productivity and raising accuracy.

There are a number of operations and business fields that can make use of BPA. Some of the most frequent adopters are Accounts Payable teams who can utilize BPA to automate invoicing, purchase order processing, and payroll.

In this article, we’ll focus on purchase order automation - how it functions, why automation is a perfect option for this area, and assess a couple of our preferred PO process automation platforms: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

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

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

With automation, purchase requests can be produced in a few seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and forwarding functionality can deliver authorizations directly to the supply chain dealer when the approval workflow is complete.

This eliminates the need for manual involvement, paper filing systems, and makes the operation faster and more manageable.

The Purchase Order Process

Though the purchase order process may look slightly different from one organization to the next, the following provides a good example of a conventional, hand-operated purchase order system.

Step 1: The first step is purchase order creation.

Step 2: Then another colleague will assess and approve or reject the purchase order.

Step 3: Following that, the purchase order should be sent to the vendor.

Step 4: Once completed, the company will then receive its service or product.

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

Step 6: The invoice will need to be reviewed and confirmed, and payment is issued to the supplier.

Step 7: The last step of the purchasing process is to archive the related records to generate an audit trail.

This may not seem like a lot of steps, but for this workflow to operate normally, all individuals from your AP team members, to sales reps, merchants, and supervisors, must all provide precise, prompt responses. Most businesses can testify that this is grueling.

There are several advantages to automating this procedure, which we’ll discuss in the next section.

The Advantages of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are many advantages to utilizing purchase order automation software for your organization. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from Manual Processes

• Real-Time Operational Visibility

• A Faster, More Streamlined Purchasing Process

• Reduced Manual Error

• Greater Human Resource Utilization

Now that we’ve reviewed what purchase order automation entails, the parts of the process that could be automated, and the advantages of purchase order software, let’s now talk about a couple of our favorite automation tools, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

Regardless, with the addition of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can quickly modify SharePoint’s capabilities to enable automation to many of your AP processes.

Pros

• Superb UX/UI

• Minimal learning curve for new users

• Metadata search optimizes searchability

Cons

• No local information imaging or capture functionality

• Struggles at following compliance standards in a few industries

• SharePoint Online is not made to fulfill Corporate ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is similarly an ECM platform but includes advanced add-ons that enable organizations to automate tasks, improve business functions, and lower the risk connected to administration and intellectual property.

Pros

• A better alternative for compliance-heavy organizations

• Robust document classification, filtering, management, and access authorizations

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

Cons

• Complicated UX/UI

• Usually demands professional optimization to ensure it fulfills business needs

• Can be expensive for enterprise features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Analysis

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

The truth is hand-operated workflows in your accounting system basically slow your organization down, cause logjams and process inefficiencies, and ultimately hurt your progress and adaptability.

Extended payment cycles can also result in greater costs associated with purchase order management and invoice processing, limit your insight and control, and can disrupt your merchant relationships.

At Wave, we can help you to streamline your accounts payable processes thoroughly, including purchase orders, procurement, data entry, invoicing, payments, approval process, and even document storage solutions.

We work closely with Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, and ERP and ECM systems like the ones we have mentioned in this article and also Oracle, Xerox, MFiles, and many others.

We can help you deploy your AP automation software on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model contingent on your organizational rules, budget, and compliance guidelines.

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