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

Given the current competitive landscape, firms of varying sizes must find ways to increase efficiency and productivity, while lowering expenses wherever necessary.

One of the best places to start is with business process automation (BPA). Through BPA, you could streamline tedious and taxing workflows, lessen the load on your team members, and improve your workflows by adding productivity and boosting accuracy.

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

In this piece, we’re going to hone in on purchase order automation - how it works, why automation is a perfect fit for this area, and assess two of our favorite PO process automation software: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

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

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

With automation, purchase requests can be generated in a few seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and transmitting functionality can send approvals straight to the supply chain dealer when the approval workflow is complete.

This eliminates any need for physical intervention, paper filing processes, and makes the operation simpler and more controllable.

The Purchase Order Process

Though the purchase order process might differ slightly from one business to the next, the following provides a great example of a conventional, hand-operated purchase order process.

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

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

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

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

Step 5: Then the company will receive the vendor invoice.

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

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

This may not seem like many steps, but for this workflow to run efficiently, all parties from your AP team members, to sales reps, vendors, and executives, must all deliver precise, timely responses. Most organizations can attest that this is way harder than it sounds.

There are many advantages to automating these steps, which we’ll discuss in the following section.

The Advantages of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are several advantages to implementing purchase order automation solutions for your company. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from Hand-Operated Tasks

• Real-Time Operational Visibility

• A Quicker, More Optimized Purchasing Process

• Lessened Physical Error

• Better Utilization of Human Resources

So, now that we have covered what purchase order automation entails, the elements of the operation that could be automated, and the advantages of purchase order tools, let’s now go over a couple of our favorite automation solutions, Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

However, with the addition of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can simply customize SharePoint’s capabilities to include automation to many of your AP operations.

Pros

• Fantastic user experience and interface

• Minimal learning curve for new users

• Metadata search adds improved searchability

Cons

• No native information imaging or capture feature

• Struggles at following compliance guidelines in some sectors

• SharePoint Online is not designed to meet Corporate ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is an ECM tool as well, but provides advanced add-ons that allow firms to automate tasks, enhance business functions, and decrease the risk connected to administration and intellectual property.

Pros

• A superior 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 requires professional tuning to guarantee that it satisfies organizational requirements

• Can get costly for corporate functionality and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Comparison

How Wave Can Help You Implement Purchase Order Automation in Hialeah

The reality is manual processes in your accounting system simply slow your company down, create bottlenecks and process headaches, and consequently hurt your growth and scalability.

Longer than necessary billing cycles can also contribute to greater expenses associated with purchase order and invoice processing, reduce your visibility and control, and can disrupt your merchant partnerships.

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

We collaborate with SAP, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, as well as ERP and ECM systems like those we’ve discussed in this piece and also Oracle, Xerox, MFiles, and much more.

We can aid you in implementing your accounts payable automation solution locally, in the cloud, or in a hybrid framework based on your organizational regulations, budget, and compliance requirements.

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