e-Orders can Establish Customer Relationships 80% Faster

by Roger Hatfield, VP North America for CloudTrade

Shining a light on e-orders and O2C automation 

Since its inception in the 70’s we have heard a lot about e-invoicing and the benefits that ‘going electronic’ can bring to a business. Somehow though e-orders and O2C automation (order to cash) haven’t been given the same attention, and I, for one, think it’s time that changed. So, let’s turn the spotlight on to e-orders.

Moving to an e-ordering system can bring significant benefits to an organization, the financial savings alone can be incentive enough but the benefits are much wider than that. 
Even with the obvious benefits, let’s take a step back and look at what traditional ordering looks like and how e-orders and O2C automation work.

For suppliers, receiving orders via multiple channels and working across different systems with manual data entry from one to another not only takes time, but also results in human processing errors, which cost the business time and money to fix, and negatively impact customer satisfaction levels. 

Streamlining processes speeds up processing times and reduces errors, which means cost savings and better customer satisfaction to boot.

On the flip-side, the traditional way of placing orders varies company by company, but largely it will look something like:

• Decide what you need to buy – looking at online catalogues or even paper catalogues (Yes, really. Even in today’s “modern” society paper still hangs around to an alarming extent)
• Place an order – this could be via a website, email, fax, or phone. For large customers, it is typical to place the order within their own system and the order is then sent out via email, fax, or paper to the supplier. 
• The order is processed by the supplier – and this is perhaps the most surprising bit. Even where orders have been made online, this part of the process can still involve manual data entry from the web form to the order system. And of course, orders via email, fax and phone all need to be manually entered. 
• The order is sent and invoiced – again these steps often require manual data entry in to different systems to complete the sale.

But e-order systems are really complicated, aren’t they? 

To be fair, some e-order and O2C automation systems are complicated. But they needn’t be. For example, email is used extensively by most companies. An e-order system based on email, where buyers send PDF orders via email is already commonplace. However, many suppliers must then manually key the data from the PDF in to their own order system. With the right technology though the data within the PDF can be automatically processed without any human intervention, and this brings significant benefits without the need for any big technology infrastructure overhaul.  

In fact, using this simple approach to e-orders, Hilti (a leading construction products and equipment manufacturer and supplier) reduced the time taken to establish e-business arrangements by over 80%, at no cost to customers, and made overhead savings on its administration of purchase orders and other processes. For others, a more complex system such as a portal that enables a company to work electronically with all its business partners can be appropriate to extend the benefits and ensure cohesion across the business.

It’s time that companies started taking e-orders seriously. Whether a simple solution or more complex; slicker processes, fewer errors, substantial cost savings - e-orders can bring companies just as many benefits across the business as e-invoicing. No longer should e-ordering be lurking in the shadows; now is its time to shine. 

For further information go to https://www.sharespace.digital/supplier/cloudtrade