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

In today’s competitive landscape, companies of all sizes must develop ways to boost productivity and efficiency, while reducing costs wherever necessary.

A great place to start is with business process automation (BPA). Through BPA, you could expedite tedious and time-consuming processes, ease the burden for your staff, and upgrade your processes by increasing productivity and raising precision.

There are a number of processes and business units that can benefit from BPA. Some of the most prevalent adopters are Accounts Payable departments who can utilize BPA to automate purchase order processing, payroll, and invoicing.

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

To begin, let’s go over what purchase order automation is and how it works.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Through automation, purchase requests can be generated in a matter of seconds using pre-formatted layouts, and routing functionality can send approvals straight to the supply chain vendor when the approval process is done.

This eliminates the need for manual intervention, document filing processes, and makes the process simpler and more efficient.

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process can differ slightly from one business to the next, the following provides a good example of a standard, by-hand purchase order system.

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

Step 2: Then another staff member will assess and approve/reject the purchase order.

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

Step 4: Once filled, the organization will then receive its product or service.

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

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

Step 7: Then the final step of the purchasing procedure is to archive the associated files to generate an audit trail.

This might not seem like many steps, but to make this process to operate normally, all participants from your AP staff, to sales reps, vendors, and managers, must all provide correct, timely responses. Many firms can testify that this is way harder than it sounds.

There are many benefits to automating this procedure, which we will explore in the next section.

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order System

There are many advantages to adopting purchase order automation solutions for your company. These include:

• Lower Costs

• Time Saved from Hand-Operated Tasks

• Real-Time Visibility Into Operations

• A Faster, More Optimized Procurement Process

• Lessened Human Error

• Improved Human Resource Utilization

Now that we have reviewed what purchase order automation entails, the elements of the operation that can be automated, and the gains of purchase order tools, let us now go over two of our favorite automation tools, Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is an enterprise content management solution (ECM) that in its base form, is a program for handling, collaborating on, and sharing material.

However, with the addition of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can simply adapt SharePoint’s features to include automation to most of your AP operations.

Pros

• Excellent UX/UI

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search adds improved searchability

Cons

• No local information capture or imaging feature

• Struggles at meeting compliance standards in some sectors

• SharePoint Online is not designed to fulfill Corporate ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but includes powerful add-ons that enable firms to automate workflows, enhance business operations, and lower the risk associated with administration and intellectual property.

Pros

• A superior option for compliance-heavy organizations

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

• OpenText Documentum adds case and inventory management capabilities to its feature set.

Cons

• Complex UX/UI

• Typically demands specialist configuration to ensure it satisfies business needs

• Can get costly for enterprise capabilities and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Comparison

How Wave Can Assist You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in Tucson

The fact is that hand-operated workflows in your accounting framework just slow your company down, create logjams and process headaches, and ultimately hurt your growth and scalability.

Prolonged payment cycles can also result in higher costs associated with purchase order management and invoice processing, limit your transparency and control, and can damage your vendor partnerships.

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

We work closely with SAP, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, in addition to ERP and ECM solutions like the ones we’ve discussed in this piece and also Xerox, MFiles, Oracle, and more.

We can help you deploy your accounts payable automation software locally, in the cloud, or in a hybrid framework depending on your organizational rules, budget, and compliance guidelines.

To learn more, reach out right now for a free consultation.