SharePoint vs OpenText: The Ultimate Purchase Order Automation Software in Long Beach

In the current competitive marketplace, firms of all sizes must discover ways to boost productivity and efficiency, while cutting expenses wherever necessary.

An excellent place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). Via BPA, you can expedite tedious and laborious processes, ease the stress on your staff, and upgrade your system by developing efficiency and raising reliability.

There are several operations and business units that can take advantage of BPA. Among of the most common adopters are Accounts Payable teams who can utilize BPA to automate payroll, invoicing, and purchase order processing.

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

To begin, let us talk about what purchase order automation is and how it works.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Through automation, purchase requests can be produced in a matter of seconds using pre-formatted templates, and routing capability can send approvals directly to the supply chain dealer after the approval workflow is finished.

This eliminates the need for manual involvement, record filing methods, and makes the operation faster and more efficient.

The Purchase Order Process

While the purchase order process can look slightly different from business to business, the following provides a great example of a standard, manual purchase order process.

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

Step 2: Then another staff member will evaluate and approve or reject the purchase order.

Step 3: Following that, the purchase order must be forwarded to the merchant.

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

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

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

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

This might not seem like many steps, but for this workflow to run efficiently, all participants from your AP staff, to sales reps, suppliers, and executives, must all provide correct, timely responses. Several organizations can confirm that this is grueling.

There are several advantages to automating these steps, which we will explore in the following section.

The Advantages of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are several benefits to utilizing purchase order automation tools for your organization. These include:

• Reduced Expenses

• Time Saved from By-Hand Processes

• Real-Time Operational Visibility

• A Faster, More Optimized Purchasing Process

• Lessened Physical Error

• Better Use of Human Resources

So, now that we have covered what purchase order automation is, the aspects of the process that could be automated, and the benefits of purchase order solutions, let us now talk about two of our favorite automation tools, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is an enterprise content management solution (ECM) that in its base form, is a program for managing, collaborating on, and publishing data.

Regardless, with the inclusion of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can simply customize SharePoint’s capabilities to incorporate automation to most of your AP operations.

Pros

• Excellent user experience and interface

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search improves searchability

Cons

• No local information imaging or capture functionality

• Struggles at fulfilling compliance standards in some industries

• SharePoint Online is not designed to handle Enterprise ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but provides powerful add-ons that empower organizations to automate workflows, improve business operations, and reduce the risk associated with governance and intellectual property.

Pros

• A superior choice for compliance-heavy organizations

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

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

Cons

• Complicated UX/UI

• Usually demands professional tuning to ensure it meets business requirements

• 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 Long Beach

The reality is hand-operated processes in your accounting framework basically slow your organization down, create logjams and process issues, and sooner or later hurt your growth and flexibility.

Longer than necessary billing cycles can also result in greater costs associated with purchase order management and invoice processing, impede your visibility and control, and can add strain to your merchant connections.

At Wave, we can help you to streamline your AP processes end-to-end, including purchase orders, procurement, data entry, payments, approval process, invoicing, and even file storage solutions.

We work with Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, as well as ERP and ECM solutions like those we have examined in this post and also Xerox, MFiles, Oracle, and many others.

We can aid you in implementing your AP automation software on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid framework based on your business rules, budget, and compliance requirements.

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