SharePoint vs OpenText: The Ultimate Purchase Order Automation Tool in Baton Rouge

Considering the current competitive marketplace, businesses of all sizes must develop ways to increase efficiency and productivity, while lowering costs wherever necessary.

An excellent place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). With BPA, you can streamline monotonous and laborious processes, ease the stress on your staff, and upgrade your system by developing productivity and amplifying reliability.

There are several tasks and business sectors that could make use of BPA. One of the most common adopters are Accounts Payable units who can use BPA to automate invoicing, purchase order processing, and payroll.

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

To start, let us go over 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 requisitions can be created in a few clicks from pre-formatted templates, and transmitting functionality can deliver approvals straight to the supply chain dealer after the approval process is complete.

This eliminates any need for physical interference, paper filing systems, and makes the process smoother and more manageable.

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process might differ from company to company, the following provides an excellent example of a standard, hand-operated purchase order process.

Step 1: The first step is creating a purchase order.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This might not seem like many steps, but for this procedure to run efficiently, all individuals from your AP personnel, to sales agents, suppliers, and executives, must all deliver correct, prompt responses. Several organizations can attest that this is grueling.

There are numerous advantages to automating this process, which we will review in the following section.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order Process

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

• Lower Costs

• Time Saved from Physical Processes

• Real-Time Insight Into Activities

• A Quicker, More Streamlined Purchasing Method

• Decreased Physical Error

• Better Utilization of Human Resources

So, now that we’ve reviewed what purchase order automation entails, the elements of the process that can be automated, and the gains of purchase order tools, let’s now take a closer look at two of our preferred automation solutions, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

Regardless, with the integration of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can easily modify SharePoint’s features to enable automation to many of your AP operations.

Pros

• Superb UX/UI

• Minimal learning curve for new users

• Metadata search enhances searchability

Cons

• No local data capture or imaging feature

• Struggles at meeting compliance requirements in some sectors

• SharePoint Online is not designed to meet Corporate ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is similarly an ECM platform but provides advanced add-ons that enable firms to automate tasks, improve organizational functions, and reduce the risk connected to administration and intellectual property.

Pros

• A superior choice for business with a high level of compliance

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

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

Cons

• Complex UX/UI

• Typically necessitates specialist optimization to ensure it meets organizational requirements

• Can be pricey for enterprise features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Table

How Wave Can Assist You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in Baton Rouge

The reality is hand-operated processes in your accounting framework simply slow your organization down, generate logjams and process inefficiencies, and ultimately hurt your growth and flexibility.

Prolonged payment cycles can also lead to increased expenses associated with purchase order and invoice processing, limit your transparency and control, and can disrupt your supplier partnerships.

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

We collaborate with Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, in addition to ERP and ECM tools like those we’ve mentioned in this article and also Xerox, MFiles, Oracle, and many others.

We can help you deploy your AP automation software locally, in the cloud, or in a hybrid concept based on your business rules, budget, and compliance requirements.

To learn more, reach out immediately for a free consultation.