SharePoint vs OpenText: The Ultimate Purchase Order Automation Tool in Cleveland

Considering today’s competitive marketplace, organizations of all sizes must develop ways to enhance efficiency and productivity, while lowering costs wherever possible.

A great place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). Via BPA, you could streamline tedious and taxing processes, ease the burden for your staff, and enhance your system by developing efficiency and raising precision.

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

In this post, we’re taking a closer look at purchase order automation - how it functions, why automation is a great option for this area, and evaluate a couple of our favorite PO process automation software: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

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

What is Purchase Order Automation?

Automated purchase order tools utilize 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 requisitions can be created in a few clicks from pre-formatted templates, and transmitting capability can deliver authorizations directly to the supply chain vendor once the approval workflow is finished.

This removes any need for human intervention, paper filing processes, and makes the process smoother and more controllable.

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process might differ slightly from business to business, the following provides a good example of a typical, hand-operated purchase order process.

Step 1: The first step is to create 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 should be sent to the merchant.

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

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

Step 6: The invoice must be reviewed and authorized, and payment is issued to the vendor.

Step 7: Then the final step of the purchasing process is to archive the relevant documents to provide an audit trail.

This might not seem like a lot of steps, but to make this workflow to go smoothly, all parties from your AP team members, to sales representatives, vendors, and managers, must all deliver precise, timely responses. Most companies can attest that this is way harder than it sounds.

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

The Benefits of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are a number of benefits to implementing purchase order automation software for your business. These include:

• Reduced Expenses

• Time Saved from By-Hand Tasks

• Real-Time Operational Visibility

• A Quicker, More Efficient Purchasing Process

• Decreased Manual Error

• Improved Human Resource Utilization

So, now that we have covered what purchase order automation entails, the elements of the process that could be automated, and the advantages of purchase order solutions, let us now talk about a couple of our favorite automation solutions, OpenText and Microsoft SharePoint.

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 sharing material.

Regardless, with the inclusion of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can quickly adapt SharePoint’s features to incorporate automation to many of your AP operations.

Pros

• Superb user experience and interface

• Short learning curve for new users

• Metadata search enhances searchability

Cons

• No local information capture or imaging feature

• Struggles at fulfilling compliance standards in a few sectors

• SharePoint Online not equipped to meet Enterprise ECM requirements

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but offers advanced add-ons that enable businesses to automate tasks, augment organizational operations, and lower the risk associated with management and intellectual property.

Pros

• A superior alternative for compliance-heavy organizations

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

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

Cons

• Intricate UX/UI

• Typically requires professional optimization to ensure it meets business needs

• Can get costly for corporate features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Diagram

How Wave Can Aid You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in Cleveland

The fact is that hand-operated processes in your accounting system just slow your company down, cause logjams and process inefficiencies, and sooner or later hurt your progress and adaptability.

Extended payment cycles can also lead to greater costs associated with purchase order and invoice processing, impede your visibility and control, and can damage your vendor relationships.

At Wave, we can aid you in optimizing your AP processes completely, including procurement, data entry, purchase orders, approval process, invoicing, payments, and even file storage tools.

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

We can help you deploy your accounts payable automation software on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid concept depending on your organizational regulations, budget, and compliance requirements.

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