SharePoint vs OpenText: The Best Purchase Order Automation Platform in San Francisco

In the current competitive landscape, businesses of all sizes must find ways to increase efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs wherever possible.

A great place to begin is with business process automation (BPA). Through BPA, you can expedite monotonous and taxing tasks, lessen the burden for your team members, and upgrade your workflows by increasing productivity and boosting precision.

There are a variety of processes and business sectors that can make use of BPA. One of the most frequent adopters are Accounts Payable units 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 operates, why automation is a great fit for this area, and evaluate two of our preferred PO process automation tools: Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

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

What is Purchase Order Automation?

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

Through automation, purchase requisitions can be generated in a few clicks from pre-formatted templates, and forwarding functionality can send authorizations directly to the supply chain contractor when the approval workflow is complete.

This eliminates the need for human intervention, paper filing processes, and makes the operation smoother and more manageable.

The Purchase Order Process

Although the purchase order process might look slightly different from one company to the next, the following offers a great example of a typical, hand-operated purchase order system.

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

Step 2: Then another colleague will evaluate and approve/reject the purchase order.

Step 3: Then, the purchase order must be routed to the vendor.

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

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

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

Step 7: The final step of the purchasing process is to file the relevant files to create an audit trail.

This may not seem like a great deal of steps, but for this process to run efficiently, all individuals from your AP team members, to sales reps, merchants, and supervisors, must all provide accurate, timely responses. Several firms can testify that this is easier said than done.

There are several benefits to automating this process, which we’ll review in the next section.

The Advantages of an Automated Purchase Order Process

There are many benefits to adopting purchase order automation solutions for your organization. These include:

• Cost Savings

• Time Saved from Hand-Operated Tasks

• Real-Time Visibility Into Operations

• A Quicker, More Efficient Purchasing Method

• Lessened Physical Error

• Better Use of Human Resources

So, now that we have established what purchase order automation is, the elements of the procedure that can be automated, and the gains of purchase order software, let’s now talk about a couple of our preferred automation solutions, Microsoft SharePoint and OpenText.

SharePoint vs OpenText

SharePoint Overview

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

However, with the integration of Microsoft PowerApps Power Automate, you can simply modify SharePoint’s features to enable automation to most of your AP procedures.

Pros

• Excellent UX/UI

• Minimal learning curve for new users

• Metadata search optimizes searchability

Cons

• No integrated information imaging or capture feature

• Struggles at meeting compliance standards in some industries

• SharePoint Online is not designed to handle Corporate ECM needs

OpenText Overview

OpenText is also an ECM solution but provides advanced add-ons that empower companies to automate processes, augment business functions, and decrease the risk related to governance and intellectual property.

Pros

• An excellent choice for companies that must adhere to strict regulations

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

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

Cons

• Complicated UX/UI

• Usually requires professional tuning to ensure it meets organizational needs

• Can be pricey for enterprise features and add-ons

SharePoint & OpenText Pricing & Features Table

How Wave Can Assist You in Implementing Purchase Order Automation in San Francisco

The truth is by-hand processes in your accounting system just slow your business down, generate logjams and process headaches, and consequently hurt your growth and flexibility.

Extended payment cycles can also contribute to greater expenses associated with purchase order and invoice processing, limit your visibility and control, and can damage your vendor partnerships.

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

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

We can aid you in implementing your AP automation solution on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid framework contingent on your organizational regulations, budget, and compliance guidelines.

To discover more, reach out today for a free consultation.