Your business needs materials to keep your production lines moving and your customers happy. Procurement processes are at the heart of this. You negotiate with the supplier, place your order, and receive your material ready for your next production run.
This procurement process needs to be efficient, effective, and streamlined. In other words, you need purchase order (PO) automation, removing points of friction, reducing errors, and saving you money.
At PEC, we provide custom-designed purchase order management solutions based on powerful automation. These automated PO processing systems are changing how businesses place orders and procure materials from suppliers. To find out what this means, contact our team, and let’s discuss your project — or read on to learn more.
What are the advantages of automated purchase order software? Take a look at how these solutions can transform the purchase order processing and approval process.
1
Handling purchase orders via manual processes is a time-consuming affair. Each purchase order needs to be checked and double-checked. However, manual analysis takes time and effort in each and every instance. Whenever you process a purchase order manually, you experience delays, which add up over time to create a wholly inefficient situation.
This is not the case with automation. When you automate the process, the digital solution handles all the checking and assessment, significantly saving time spent on each order. Once implemented, this will dramatically accelerate the purchase order approval process and handling and save your business massive amounts of time.
2
Human personnel are great at lots of tasks — mainly those that are creative and cognitive in nature. Other jobs are less suitable for manual processes, such as repetitive operations and swift analysis. Traditional methods of handling purchase orders are error-prone. This is because human team members are simply not equipped to guarantee accuracy and precision on each order.
Automation does away with this. The automated tools can immediately identify and flag any erroneous values or other problems with the purchase order. This results in a far more reliable and precise way of handling orders, with a substantial positive impact on your business.
3
Purchase requisition forms must be approved before orders are placed, which can mean a preliminary round of checking and examination. This is another potential weak point in the system, resulting in delays and errors.
With automation, purchase orders are processed and executed within carefully defined parameters. This eliminates many of the issues that can result in delayed or rejected forms. The entire process is simplified and sped up from start to finish while actively improving accuracy.
4
All of the above translates to significant cost reductions for your business. Any process that slows your operations down also increases your costs, while errors and mistakes also tend to be expensive.
A streamlined, automated system eliminates these cost drains. The tools can also help your business remain compliant. They help to avoid any fines and penalties that can come from violating a rule or regulation.
5
Automated purchase order solutions work with data. The data from the purchase order as well as programmed and experience-based system data that help solutions identify order errors. But these automated tools also provide data, storing information regarding your business’s performance and operations.
This is valuable for accurate record-keeping and audit trails, but it can become more than this. It can be an invaluable resource as you plan your future strategies and make important decisions for your business. All strategic moves need to be backed by data and forecasting. Automated purchase order solutions have a significant role to play as you gather this vital information.
6
Digital transformation prepares your business for future operations. This gives you the flexibility and agility you need to get ahead in an evolving market. With automated purchase order solutions, you are witnessing the digital transformation in action. This future proofs how you handle your orders and process transactions.
But there’s more. Because these solutions integrate with your existing software and hardware ecosystem, they become an essential component of your broader digital strategy. Process order automation may only be one aspect of digital transformation, but it is an important one. It works by communicating and integrating with other solutions as you ready your business for success in the digital age.
Moving from an error-prone manual system to a highly accurate process is a key advantage of automation. But how does this work? What makes automated processing of purchase orders so effective in removing human error?
These are all processes that would be difficult for human teams to execute. Scanning data in real-time, assigning orders to the right vendors, inputting information, and assessing and analyzing on a repeated basis. Automated solutions are designed for this kind of work and can guarantee total accuracy and precise results.
Moving from manual purchase orders to an automated system can be difficult. You and your teams want to benefit from an automated purchase order system, but you don’t want the disruption that comes with overhauling your existing protocols.
Here at PEC, we can help. We work with you to understand your needs and then deliver a custom solution designed with your specific requirements in mind. This system integrates with your existing solutions, easing the transition and minimizing downtime. Get started today — reach out, and let’s discuss what we can do for you.