SharePoint vs OpenText: The Ultimate Purchase Order Automation Tool in New York

Given today’s competitive landscape, firms of all shapes and sizes must develop ways to increase productivity and efficiency, while lowering costs wherever possible.

A great place to start is with business process automation (BPA). With BPA, you can simplify monotonous and laborious tasks, reduce the burden for your team members, and improve your system by increasing productivity and raising reliability.

There are a variety of operations and business fields that could make use of BPA. One of the most frequent adopters are Accounts Payable departments who can use BPA to automate payroll, invoicing, and purchase order processing.

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

To begin, let us go over what purchase order automation is and how it functions.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Via automation, purchase requisitions can be created in a few seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and routing capability can send approvals directly to the supply chain dealer when the approval workflow is complete.

This eliminates the need for human involvement, record filing methods, and makes the process simpler and more controllable.

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process might differ from one organization to the next, the following provides a good example of a standard, by-hand purchase order process.

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

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

Step 3: After that, the purchase order must be routed to the merchant.

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

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

Step 6: The invoice will need to be verified and authorized, and payment is delivered to the merchant.

Step 7: The final step of the purchasing procedure is to file the relevant documents to provide an audit trail.

This may not seem like a great deal of steps, but to make this process to go smoothly, all parties from your AP staff, to sales agents, suppliers, and managers, must all deliver correct, timely responses. Many organizations can testify that this is easier said than done.

There are several advantages to automating this procedure, which we will discuss in the next chapter.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are many advantages to utilizing purchase order automation solutions for your business. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from By-Hand Processes

• Real-Time Visibility Into Operations

• A Faster, More Optimized Purchasing Procedure

• Decreased Human Error

• Improved Human Resource Utilization

So, now that we have covered what purchase order automation entails, the aspects of the operation that could be automated, and the gains of purchase order solutions, let us now go over two of our preferred automation options, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

Regardless, with the integration of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can easily customize SharePoint’s functionality to enable automation to most of your AP procedures.

Pros

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

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search aid searchability

Cons

• No local data capture or imaging capability

• Weak at meeting compliance standards in a few sectors

• SharePoint Online is not designed to meet Enterprise ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is similarly an ECM platform but provides powerful add-ons that empower companies to automate processes, enhance organizational activities, and reduce the risk connected to governance and intellectual property.

Pros

• A better option for companies that must adhere to strict regulations

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

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

Cons

• Complicated UX/UI

• Typically requires specialist tuning to ensure it satisfies business needs

• Can be expensive for enterprise capabilities and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Comparison

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

The truth is manual workflows in your accounting framework simply slow your company down, cause bottlenecks and process issues, and sooner or later hurt your growth and flexibility.

Prolonged payment cycles can also contribute to increased costs associated with purchase order and invoice processing, reduce your visibility and control, and can disrupt your vendor partnerships.

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

We work closely with SAP, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, and ECM and ERP systems like those we have examined in this article and also MFiles, Oracle, Xerox, and more.

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

To find out more, contact us right now for a free consultation.