Save big money with order automation
Every manual order you process costs your business money—not just in staff time, but also in missed opportunities and inventory waste, creating vendor relationship friction. When you automate these processes, those costs become savings that flow directly to your bottom line.
But what are the actual cost savings we’re talking about?
In our experience, automated order processing cost savings are a multi-million-dollar opportunity for many organizations. While your competitors may still be burning resources on manual processes, automation gives you the operational edge to reinvest those savings into growth, better pricing or enhanced customer service.
Improve visibility with speedier data flow
Replacing manual order processes with an automated EDI solution enables quicker data flow, so you’re aware of any order issues sooner.
By automating orders with your suppliers, you’ll know:
- If your order was received
- If the vendor can fulfill it (completely, partially or not at all)
- If there are any issues with the order details
- When the shipment is on its way to your dock or customer
Visibility into each of these order touchpoints is key. Timely, accurate information is crucial to get your supply chain working like it should.
Reduce inventory with order automation
One of the quickest ways to remove waste from the order management process is with better inventory management. When you know which items are coming in and how they’re selling, you don’t need to carry so much inventory.
Your savings result from:
- Reducing order lead times.
- Increasing fill rates.
- Reducing excess store and warehouse safety stock.
- Providing consistent in-stock levels.
Empower staff by cutting manual processes
Eliminating manual tasks and replacing them with an automated solution frees your staff to focus on more important priorities.
The impact of automation is felt across receiving, planning, expediting, customer service, sales and accounts payable teams, giving them more time back in their day to work on driving business growth.
Your savings:
- Speed up the receiving process by knowing exactly when to expect a shipment and what is being delivered
- Reduce staff time in managing orders by up to 20% through order exception management
- Minimize customer service requests on order status (for drop-ship orders)
- Reduce the number of touch point contacts with suppliers
Optimize open-to-buy budgets
Every time open-to-buy funds are held up in orders that will never (or only partially) be fulfilled, it’s a missed opportunity. Because the money is tied up, buyers can’t use it to grow their category or order from new suppliers, and subsequently sales are lost. And when fill rates drop, you risk having empty shelves and unhappy customers.
With optimized open-to-buy budgets, you can:
- Recover money each year in unused open-to-buy dollars
- Increase customer satisfaction by reducing out-of-stocks
Increase invoice accuracy
Automated data exchange enables retailers and distributors to confirm order details such as pricing, item number accuracy, delivery date and even some insights like potential fill rate—before the order is received.
This saves the accounting team time and eliminates errant payments. As a supplier invoice electronically moves through the payables process, you can automatically validate that the invoice information is accurate and approved.
The result: time savings for staff with efficient scheduling and timely payment of invoices.
Hold vendors accountable
You don’t want to be left wondering if your vendors are doing their part. To keep products moving and customers happy, fill rates must stay high, and ship dates cannot vary.
Solutions like the SPS Commerce Supply Chain Performance Suite are designed to help you be proactive and work more productively with your suppliers.
When you capture and pay attention to performance metrics, retailers can gain a good understanding of which suppliers are solid, collaborative partners, and which are less reliable and need attention. Key metrics to track include:
- On-time and in-full (OTIF) – The percentage of complete orders delivered on time
- Fill rates – How often suppliers fulfill your entire order in one shipment
- Lead times – Consistency in delivery timeframes from order to receipt
Often, just knowing that a buying organization is carefully watching these numbers will improve fill rates and shipping, both of which save a retailer time, money and headaches.
The savings? Mid-market retailers taking advantage of automation through our Supply Chain Performance Suite have seen up to:
- 5% sales lift
- 10% reduction in operating expenses
- 3% margin improvement
Boost supply chain performance, get higher profits
When you invest in the automation of trading partner data, the payoff is not only in dollars and cents, but also the building of more transparent, proactive relationships with trading partners. With the right technology, you can transform your supply chain, scale your growth and reap the rewards every day.
Is there room for improvement in your processes? Take our five-question Supply Chain Health Vitals Checkup and get instant results, resources and more, or reach out to our team for a one-on-one conversation today.
- Save big money with order automation - January 17, 2025
- A collaborative approach to supplier performance management - November 7, 2024
- How to nail your next buyer meeting: A supplier’s guide - August 29, 2024
RELATED POSTS
Three takeaways from SuiteWorld 2024
Acumatica Summit 2024: A recap
How to get purchase order to invoice ...