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

In the current competitive landscape, organizations of all shapes and sizes must find ways to boost efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs wherever necessary.

One of the best places to begin is with business process automation (BPA). With BPA, you could expedite monotonous and time-consuming tasks, ease the stress on your colleagues, and enhance your processes by adding productivity and raising reliability.

There are a number of tasks and business sectors that can make use of BPA. Some of the most frequent adopters are Accounts Payable units who can use BPA to automate purchase order processing, payroll, and invoicing.

In this article, we’re taking a closer look at purchase order automation - how it works, why automation is an excellent solution for this area, and assess two of our favorite PO process automation software: 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 solutions employ business software equipped with robotic process automation (RPA) technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to automate the purchase order procedure.

With automation, purchase requests can be generated in a few seconds using pre-formatted templates, and transmitting capability can deliver approvals straight to the supply chain contractor after the approval workflow is complete.

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

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process might differ slightly from company to company, the following offers an excellent example of a typical, hand-operated purchase order system.

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

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

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

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

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

Step 6: The invoice should be examined and approved, and payment is delivered to the supplier.

Step 7: The last step of the purchasing procedure is to archive or file the related documents to generate an audit trail.

This might not seem like a great deal of steps, but in order for this procedure to run efficiently, all parties from your AP staff, to sales representatives, vendors, and executives, must all deliver correct, prompt responses. Many companies can attest that this is way harder than it sounds.

There are many benefits to automating this process, which we’ll explore in the next chapter.

The Advantages of an Automated Purchase Order Process

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

• Lower Costs

• Time Saved from Manual Tasks

• Real-Time Visibility Into Operations

• A Faster, More Streamlined Procurement Method

• Reduced Manual Error

• Greater Human Resource Utilization

Now that we’ve covered what purchase order automation is, the elements of the operation that could be automated, and the advantages of purchase order solutions, let’s now talk about a couple of our favorite automation tools, Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

However, with the inclusion of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can easily customize SharePoint’s functionality to incorporate automation to many of your AP processes.

Pros

• Excellent user experience and interface

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search improves searchability

Cons

• No integrated data imaging or capture feature

• Weak at fulfilling compliance standards in some sectors

• SharePoint Online not equipped to meet Corporate ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but provides advanced add-ons that allow organizations to automate workflows, augment organizational operations, and reduce the risk related to management and intellectual property.

Pros

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

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

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

Cons

• Intricate UX/UI

• Often requires expert optimization to ensure it fulfills organizational needs

• Can be expensive for enterprise functionality and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Diagram

How Wave Can Help You Implement Purchase Order Automation in Dallas

The reality is physical workflows in your accounting framework just slow your organization down, generate bottlenecks and process inefficiencies, and consequently hurt your progress and scalability.

Longer than necessary payment cycles can also lead to increased costs associated with purchase order and invoice processing, limit your transparency and control, and can add strain to your merchant relationships.

At Wave, we can assist you in streamlining your accounts payable (AP) processes thoroughly, including purchase orders, procurement, data entry, approval process, invoicing, payments, and even file storage tools.

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

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

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