by Sophia Riley | Aug 11, 2023 | Sales Order Processing
A company’s level of customer service may make or break it. Customers who receive excellent service become loyal and will likely recommend a business, while poor customer service often causes customers to leave.
One of the significant reasons why customer service may be compromised is because of inadequate processes. This could be incorrect pricing, missed or late shipments, lost orders, etc. This is where a customer portal can come in handy to eliminate these problems and improve customer service and satisfaction.
But what is a customer portal, and does your business needs it? Well, keep on reading this article to find out.
What is a customer portal?
A customer portal is a solution that provides companies with a platform to interact effectively with their customers. The primary aim is to improve the rate of customer satisfaction.
The system can support customer requests, track key metrics, and share crucial documents. Ultimately, this will provide you with an excellent overview of your company’s customer relationship, making it easy to track your shortcomings and make the necessary improvements.
Another incredible thing about the customer portal is that if it gets integrated with other systems, it can allow customers to view and even make changes to their account data, such as canceling an order or changing their shipping address.
A customer portal is an essential tool businesses should invest in to improve customer service and satisfaction and retain their customers. A significant number of customers expect a company to have a self-service portal.
But does your organization need a customer portal? You are probably asking yourself this question. Well, there are specific questions you need to ask yourself to ascertain whether or not you need a customer portal. These questions include:
- How extensive is your customer base?
One of the most critical questions you must ask yourself to determine if you need a customer portal is how extensive your customer base is. If you have a larger base, you will likely need a larger size distribution. The likelihood that the customer base will follow a bell curve distribution in terms of size increases with the size of the customer base. In other words, a broader clientele base is more likely to consist of a few large clients, numerous medium-sized clients, and a few smaller clients.
It is no secret that meeting all your customers’ needs at all times can be more difficult the more unique your customers are. In addition, the more substantial customer base you have, the more personalized attention you’ll have to offer them.
This is where a customer portal can come in handy. By allowing your customers to self-serve, you free up resources to provide your largest customers with more individualized service. Customer support can help you organize your company’s processes and concentrate your human touch where needed.
- What is the profile of your clients?
According to research, 85% of B2B customers will stop doing business with a supplier after a poor digital experience. Of course, every business is unique, and clients of manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors might be accustomed to placing orders over the phone, over email, or using EDI.
However, just because customers accept traditional ordering procedures doesn’t mean they enjoy them. They might even consider your company “hard to do business with.” If it has been some time since your company last reviewed its customer profile, it is worthwhile to do so again—paying close attention to how they wish to interact with suppliers.
What sort of consumer experience are they seeking? Do they anticipate having a digital option since they favor using it to conduct business? Or do they favor working with someone, be it their salesperson or customer service representative? The responses that your customers give might surprise you. Most likely, they seek seamless self-service. And the foundation of that kind of client experience is a B2B customer portal.
- Is there a better method for my sales team to help customers?
In some sectors, one-on-one sales will always exist. Customers might require the in-depth knowledge that a seasoned representative offers or the product can require such a significant expenditure that it cannot be purchased with just one click.
Whatever the reason, many producers, wholesalers, and distributors still depend on knowledgeable sales representatives to add value for their clients. Knowing how your salespeople place orders and look up consumer data is essential. There is a better way for them to conduct business if they have to call customer support or, worse still, type an order into SAP when they return to the office.
B2B sales portals are the solution. Unbelievably, a customer portal may provide the same functionality by adding features such as customer account selection for searching for information, offering quotations, and completing orders.
- Do you serve customers in other time zones?
Self-service is necessary if your customer support personnel is centralized and you conduct business across time zones. Whether your representatives are at work or not, customers may access the portal at any moment and on any device. You can allow clients to browse catalogs, place orders, monitor orders and bills, and make payments via your portal without picking up the phone or sending an email, depending on the features you add. A customer portal is one of an organization’s most beneficial choices if it sells to customers in several time zones or worldwide.
- How much time is the customer service staff wasting on monotonous, pointless tasks?
Clients must contact customer support with even the most minor queries if you don’t offer self-service. This includes researching available merchandise, comparing prices, placing orders, following up on those orders, following up on those shipments, and so forth.
If we’re sincere, customer service doesn’t offer anything that SAP ERP doesn’t already offer. They merely read it to clients because that is where the data resides.
Your CSRs, who are well-versed in your goods, should not be used this way. It is very tedious. These issues can be resolved using a B2B customer portal. Removing the stress of routine questions frees your salespeople to concentrate on strategic, value-added customer advisory tasks. Because the work is more exciting, it engages workers better and lessens staff churn. This is one of the numerous advantages of a customer portal.
by Sophia Riley | Aug 8, 2023 | Sales Order Processing, AP Automation
Businesses handle many types of documents in their sales and order processing. However, the accounts payable team finds it more challenging to work with purchase orders than invoices and money transfer records.
It is the sequence of activities from the moment a consumer orders up to delivery, including each step of the shopping and shipping process—also order selection, financial transactions, and logistics.
Sales Orders
Purchase and sales orders are similar, but they move in different ways. A seller offers the latter, which shows, there has been a sale, and lists the products, quantity, payment options, shipping details, and other details.
The purchase order is the opposite and originates with the buyer and describes the goods they want to buy. For instance, an enterprise may provide suppliers with a detailed document stating everything they need. After agreeing on the costs, the vendor offers a sales order responding to the customer’s requests.
The last part is the billing process, where a company generates a sales invoice for products and services. Businesses can create them after issuing the sales order or later describing the accepted payment conditions depending on the agreement. Both parties decide when this occurs before or after receiving the products.
On the other hand, the finance departments from each side will evaluate the documents to ensure the information are accurate. The orders mentioned above for sales may be for special one-of-a-kind things and require extensive legal work to set up the terms.
Looking from a distance, this continuum’s processing shows variations in order volume and payment demands. The purchase order involves capturing data for several recurring clients, while the sales order is complex.
The sorts of requests businesses process depend on the industry they operate in and their company’s structure. Sometimes the buyer does not care about a sales agreement’s repercussions as they are just interested in the order processing.
Businesses must comply with the terms in the sales order forms because not adhering to the agreement has legal implications.
The Role of Automation in Sales Order Processing
Previously buyers would expect a human being to handle their requests, but technology minimizes their involvement in order processing. Still, companies are utilizing end-to-end systems that enable them to collect orders electronically and will not need to convert documents into digital formats first.
Throughout computer and internet existence, Excel spreadsheets and emails have been a part of corporate processes. However, both of these tools frequently take up staff time which they could spend on more beneficial tasks.
Digital tools integration is necessary to streamline operations, simplify complex tasks and eliminate laborious work. Still, it is essential for creating the best customer experiences. Sales automation software assists businesses in managing sales operations better, from lead creation to sending automatic notifications by email. It also allows you to set aside time for activities that generate income.
Companies must view financial document processing as a process with the documents having many similarities and little yet significant variances. Executives must strategize how to streamline the procedure to get the best out of sales order management.
Similar to other business operations, manual work offers the biggest roadblocks in productivity and performance. Investing in digital solutions should be at the forefront of every business’s digital transformation.
Although technology has advanced significantly, it can still not mimic the type of human conduct that creates and maintains confidence in a business. Automation offers sales representatives more time and opportunities to tap into their unique abilities, which improves their working conditions. After that, they may engage with clients to form a long-lasting connection.
Importance of Standardized Sales Processing
Since order processing is a series of procedures that the sales staff take, a structured process gives structure. It creates responsibility in sales initiatives while increasing productivity and shortening lead times. Sales representatives will know what to do at each step of the business transaction.
The sales team encounters numerous bottlenecks, and companies might only get the best out of their sales initiatives with well-defined procedures. Key performance indicators will assist the executives in evaluating the company’s achievements and ensure the team is on track with the core objectives.
A systematic sales process helps salespeople close transactions with greater consistency. Knowing the success rate, it becomes easy to predict with greater reliability the probable sales you can achieve from a certain number of leads and aids the leadership team in setting reasonable goals.
Teams will handle sales better and provide the right support by utilizing the same processes and terminologies standardized sales process. It improves communication and decreases confusion across departments.
A deal may fail and the rapport with a customer may suffer if a sales representative pushes a prospect into something they needed to prepare for. A regulated sales procedure guarantees that vendors will only take the deal forward after the buyer is prepared to do so.
Standardization lays the groundwork for an enjoyable client experience by adapting a sales method that matches a potential client for B2B sales. The objective is to establish trust and give value beforehand.
Tips for Navigating through a Complex Sales Order Management
- Make measurable objectives: It entails developing a comprehensive knowledge of your present sales order process utilizing accurate sales metrics, number of orders, data input error rates, and processing time for each stage.
- Specify how you collect data and how you get information: It includes the kind of format, data collection techniques, storage, and retrieval.
- Reporting and analysis: sales order automation is an effective way of monitoring business operations. The team can use software for data analysis and reporting.
- Frequent consumer communications: Spend time validating information, confirming orders, and making sure the correct goods are prepped for shipment. Automation gives businesses an edge over competitors as it will improve the capacity to meet the needs of clients.
- Use metrics: KPIs measure the efficiency of the business processes and technology regularly. By doing so, enterprises can grow and improve profitability through cost reduction and establish fresh ideas for future workflow improvement.
- Consider problems as opportunities to constantly enhance and improve your IT infrastructure. To be successful, you must have a continuous action plan.
by Sophia Riley | Aug 3, 2023 | AP Automation, Sales Order Processing
Companies, entrepreneurs, and managers are venturing into e-commerce for business growth. The strategy opens up opportunities for income generation and offers access to an extensive market.
Sales order automation is critical to achieving success through increased profits and should be at the forefront of an organization’s digital transformation.
An Overview of Sales Order Automation
It is the entire process of taking care of a customer’s order from order placement up to delivery, including taking requests, packaging, shipping, order tracking, and after-sales services like product returns.
We can simply say that it is the procedure of making sales and getting the items into the client’s hands or requested delivery point. Investing in sales order automation software will improve e-commerce by streamlining the processes and it is available for businesses across many industries.
Merchants will manage online orders more effectively and can use them on-premise to streamline sales while ensuring customer satisfaction.
E-commerce Sales Order Management
Automating sales orders for e-commerce is handling and completing online orders. It covers every aspect of the process, from customer ordering, order routing, packaging, labeling, shipping, and refunds.
Sales order automation aims to make the ordering process smooth and provide a product to a client promptly. It aids in tracking a customer’s item when purchasing online, from when shoppers add each item to the cart to when it reaches the customer, as well as any subsequent returns. Previously enterprises would rely on Excel sheets and enterprise resource planning applications, which could have been more effective.
Thanks to technology and innovation, businesses can invest in a flexible, scalable, and adaptive digital solution to be responsive to demand or market changes. Here is how an e-commerce sales order system should work;
- Placing an order
The order management lifecycle starts with the customer placing an order using an eCommerce platform. You will get the order details when someone purchases an item from your online shop. The personnel at the warehouse will need access to the information, which would help integrate the system with your warehouse management software.
- Item Picking
Sending order details to the warehouse should be automatic, particularly if your business processes many online orders as it will streamline and speed up order fulfillment.
Working with an established sales order automation service provider is critical for the project’s success. They can assist in identifying digital tools to integrate into the sales order management system depending on the business needs.
- Ordering
Packaging operations happen at the warehouse. With an integrated sales order automation solution, workers can quickly gather details about items from several orders and move them for packaging, where another team preps the item for shipping.
The stage includes labeling orders for shipping according to customer requests and preferences. An integrated system makes information easily accessible to all involved in prepping orders before delivery.
- Order delivery
Shipping is the final step in order processing which involves sending out the ordered products using a reliable courier service. Depending on the customer’s delivery address, online merchants can partner with shipping companies and identify suitable service providers.
Sales order automation will provide digital tools for order shipping management but you’ll need to work with the courier services to ensure that they arrive on time to pick up.
- Order tracking and Customer Updates
Online merchants must inform clients about their order status: A sales order automation system helps update shipments and the dates the items will likely reach customers. Some businesses have a shipping company communicate to customers about their shipment, passing up a chance to engage and impress the client.
- After-sale Service and Problem Resolution
Businesses seek to make an impression on customers through packaging but must provide after-sales service to guarantee customer satisfaction.
Clients should easily find return information in case of an error or if they don’t like what they bought. An integrated system enables buyers to get assistance from the customer service department with speedy resolutions to problems with their orders.
How automated is your process?
Many businesses find out later that their sales order management systems are not adequate to handle increased demand and changing consumer needs. Enterprises can determine inefficiencies in sales order management if several manually executed steps can be laborious, waste time, and increase expenses.
You probably have automated many business processes, but ensuring that it supports your e-commerce strategies is important.
Here are some things that can help you identify if you have a fully automated system for e-commerce:
Inadequate Functionality
Sales order automation software might not fulfill all requirements in your e-commerce business, requiring additional features if missing a crucial function. The inadequacy makes transitioning to a new system difficult later.
It is advisable to integrate digital tools that improve your business management system. Still, avoiding having numerous features might make the sales order processing platform hard to use. Only select the tools you need and specific to your industry.
Slow or erratic Syncs
Inaccurate inventory and shipping information can arise from human errors or challenges in data synchronization. Also, users may find it challenging to send data from different applications without continuous synchronization, meaning there will be no accurate records at all times.
The existing System does not Support Multiple Packages
If your sales order platform does not support multiple order processing, upgrading is necessary. You do not want to send items clients had in the same cart during order placement in separate packages. The system may occasionally mistake multiple requests as a single order, taking more time to process client requests necessitating upgrading,
Scalability
Firms serving clients from different territories or are likely to expand in the future require a scalable digital solution to suit their needs.
Users cannot View Data in the system
After entering data and configuring digital tools integrations, you cannot view the information, generate reports or access the dashboard, your sales order management system is inadequate.
by Sophia Riley | Aug 1, 2023 | AP Automation
Automating accounts payable processes involves digitizing the workflow and eliminating manual tasks. Businesses integrate business management systems and tools to support employees in performing their duties, enabling businesses to process supplier invoices.
Thanks to an integrated system, enterprises can automate the processing of company payments from beginning to end. Software records billing information digitally, typically using a scanner or other type of technology like optical character recognition (OCR). After classifying, matching, and validating data, it moves to the integrated system for processing.
By reducing human operations, AP automation saves business costs, mitigate fraud risks, eliminate billing duplication, manage vendor portfolio, and get discounts for prompt account settlement.
Traditionally the accounting department would focus on offsetting company bills, but nowadays they have more tasks in their account payables. Businesses can realize several advantages by having key performance indicators.
Besides improving the cash flow, KPIs are essential for efficiency and productivity. Still, it enhances relationships with suppliers. Failure to implement key performance indicators leads to missed chances for profitability and business success. Here are some accounts payable KPIs businesses should be measuring;
- Payment Timelines
Late payments will attract fines and strained supplier relationships. AP automation will help in making early payments and observing the set timelines. Suppliers trust companies that make timely payments as it makes vendors glad to work with them, while a disruption in supply may result due to late payments.
- Days Payable Outstanding
It refers to the time it takes businesses to settle their accounts payable. The key performance indicator assists companies in finding a balance in payments and maintaining healthy cash flow for business operations.
If a company realizes it is paying suppliers late, it might lead to higher fees and bad financial standing, among other consequences. Having DPO among the KPIs aids companies in utilizing their credit terms and enables them to assess if they are handling their cash flow effectively.
- Discount Ratio from Suppliers
Vendors offer discounts to customers paying their invoices earlier, and businesses can take advantage of the conditions. However, a company’s financial position will determine its capability to pay before the agreed date and benefit from supplier discounts.
Utilizing vendor discounts is beneficial as it saves money, which increases profits. The KPI gives insight into how well the organization handles its suppliers’ responsibilities.
- Invoice Cost
Your company’s first indication of AP team effectiveness comes from analyzing the cost of handling each invoice. Manual account payables processing or using outdated technology will increase the cost of handling invoices. Companies must evaluate the cost per invoice through AP automation.
- Electronic Invoices Submission
Receiving electronic invoices expedites processing and simplifies tasks. Besides saving time and money in submitting financial documents, AP automation improves information sharing.
The key performance indicator cuts across a business and its suppliers. Integrating digital tools is not enough as you need to onboard the human resources on the technology to get the best outcome with digital transformation.
Third-party business management software providers assist enterprises with Implementation and provide continuous support to clients depending on their service delivery.
- Invoices the System Processes Independently
When there is no human intervention in processing invoices, it is much more affordable and quick than manual techniques. Monitoring the invoices the system processes independently is necessary to increase profits and efficiency.
Companies benefit from cost reduction, increased security, smooth workflow, and efficiency, and allows employees to handle other essential tasks. In addition, smooth invoice processing through accounts payables automation improves supplier relationships and satisfaction.
- Invoice exceptions
Invoice exceptions can be an AP officer’s worst nightmare. It takes a lot of time to analyze invoices with mismatched information in the company database and resolve them. AP departments must include it in their KPIs to ensure process effectiveness.
Measuring and evaluating invoice exception rates is critical in determining the account payable department’s performance. It helps in reducing the resources it takes to resolve invoice issues.
Businesses can identify the reason for invoice exceptions to find appropriate solutions. AP automation utilizing an integrated system collects information from all departments and provides a centralized data access platform.
- Invoices linking to Purchase Orders
Knowing the invoices linked to a purchase order is essential for AP departments as it affects the processing duration and costs. Businesses can use the KPI to evaluate the process’s flawlessness and identify areas to improve on.
Invoices with conflicting information to the purchase order will cause delays in payments which should be a concern for the accounts payable team. Besides taking longer to process invoices, it increases the department’s operating costs which affect a business’s profits.
- Daily Employee Invoice processing
Assessing worker output in handling account payables will help enhance the billing process, and the information you gain from this metric applies to many different aspects of a business. It estimates how many invoices staff process daily, weekly, and monthly.
Businesses will know the number of workers they need to handle a certain workload and plan accordingly. The human resources department can utilize the information in its planning.
The number of invoices a company handles annually per full-time worker is a measure to determine productivity. It is a measure that provides a thorough perspective of production and enables the company to investigate the causes of gaps. However, the metric changes depending on the sector your business is in.
- Electronic payment options
Although switching suppliers to digital payment systems is advantageous, many companies still use cheques. AP automation can help companies integrate electronic payments to support AP processes. Tracking suppliers according to their preferred payment method helps improve the billing and payment process.
Conclusion
Monitoring key performance indicators in accounts payables might reveal flaws in business operations. The metrics show areas needing improvement by highlighting tasks and tools preventing effective operation. The appropriate KPIs also indicate the remedies that businesses can exploit.
Before adopting new digital solutions, AP teams must figure out the most important, applicable KPIs that will allow them to monitor efficiency, growth, and performance, which result in financial gains.
by Sophia Riley | Jul 27, 2023 | Oracle Forms
Oracle Forms is a client-server-based application built for developing applications in a database. It is best suitable for creating an application that needs to be on a database level and is a cornerstone of any organization’s ability to rapidly develop solutions that meet the ever-changing demands of its business environment. The Oracle Forms replacement process is a major undertaking, and you must estimate the project’s cost. Whether you choose to develop your custom solution or to use one of the many commercial products on the market, you need to know how much it will cost before you proceed.
The following steps will help you estimate the cost of replacing Oracle Forms;
The first step in estimating your Oracle forms replacement is understanding the application running on it. You need to know the application’s features, how many users are accessing it, and what kind of queries are being run against it. This information will help you create a more accurate estimate for your Oracle forms replacement project.
Create a cost analysis spreadsheet
Once you understand your current system and its needs, it’s time to create a cost analysis spreadsheet outlining all your costs associated with running the system. This includes hardware, software licensing fees, support costs, etc., and any additional costs that may come up during the implementation or maintenance of your new system, new hardware required for scaling up or down, and additional training required for new systems.
Define replacement requirements
It is important to know what the new application will be used for and how your users will use it before beginning the project. Ideally, this information should come from a business sponsor or end user using the application regularly. This person should also provide insight into any unique characteristics the current system may have that require special attention during development.
Define business needs
You can do this by interviewing stakeholders and users of your current application. This will help you understand what features are most important to them so that you can make sure they are included in your new application. Then, based on their responses, you should create user stories that describe how they would use those features if they were available in a new system.
Estimate effort for each task
This step identifies all tasks required for the project completion. Then it estimates each task based on its complexity and other factors like resources required, duration and impact on business, etc. After identifying all tasks, you need to estimate each task based on its complexity and other factors like resources required, duration and impact on business, etc. You can use MS Project or any other task management software.
Account for data migration
Data migration is the process of moving data from one system to another. Data migration is often considered part of the project lifecycle and is usually performed before or after deployment. It can also be done in parallel with the development process. There are many reasons why you would want to migrate your data. For example, you may need to upgrade an old software version due to security issues or other bugs, or you may want to move your data into a new database platform with better performance or scalability.
Factor in contingency
Accurately estimating any project is to understand the true complexity of the requirement. The most common mistake inexperienced project managers make is underestimating the complexity and overestimating their capabilities. This leads to poor-quality deliverables and unhappy customers at the end of the day. Thus, you must factor in contingency while estimating your project.
Review and refine the estimate
This involves comparing the project’s cost with similar projects performed by your organization or other organizations. A comparison will help you determine if the cost is reasonable and if additional work should be done on the project. If you have a current estimate, this is a good starting point. However, it may need to be more accurate to provide a solid foundation for future efforts. You should review the estimate and ensure it is up-to-date and reflects the most recent information. If you need an estimate, start with what you know about your project.
Identify key components of the project
Now it’s time to analyze each component of your project in detail and find out whether there are any hidden costs or risks associated with it. For example, if you create an application for tracking employee attendance, it could be hard to accurately estimate how long it will take because you still need to become familiar with this type of software. If so, ask other companies who use similar applications or read their reviews online for more information about this process.
Determine how much time it will take to develop each feature
Another step is to determine how much time it will take to develop each feature of your application. This can be done by looking at similar projects that have already been developed or by interviewing people who have built similar applications. The goal here is not necessarily accurate but rather an estimate within reason so that you only spend a little time and money on the project if it is impossible within budget constraints.
Estimate testing timeframes
Estimating the cost of a software project is to break down the project into smaller tasks, each with a specific deliverable and estimated duration. When estimating Oracle Forms Replacement, it’s important to include all of the steps in your timeline and not skip any steps. This will help ensure you complete all important tasks that might take longer than expected or require more resources than previously thought.
Conclusion
Most Oracle form replacement tools are available in the market, and choosing one will depend on whether you are starting from scratch or have some existing Oracle forms to convert. If you have an existing form, starting with a tool that supports conversion is much easier. With this information, it’s easy for an Oracle developer to confirm or refine the estimate and authorize progress on the project.
