Customer Sales orders are critical to the sustainability and growth of any business. However, manual Sales Order Processing can be time-consuming and error-prone. It can also lead to fulfillment delays, potentially hindering delivery lead times and ultimately leading to poor customer satisfaction and stunting growth.
Sales order automation minimizes headaches and streamlines order processing. It eliminates the need for manual entry of orders, improves accuracy, and accelerates order cycle times. And most importantly, it reduces the cost of processing each order.
Why should you consider Sales Order Automation for your business? Aside from constant pressures to optimize business practices, lower costs, and generally do more with less, one of the most common reasons to consider changing business practices is to alleviate unnecessary frustrations.
Here are the top sales order challenges according to our research.
- Fluctuating order volumes
- Backlogs of orders awaiting manual processing
- Delays in order cycle times
- High cost of processing each order
- Costly errors and disgruntled customers
- Lost or misplaced orders
- Delayed response times to customer inquiries
- Failing to connect with your customers
If you identify with two or more of these issues, it’s time to consider automation. But it goes beyond just reducing inefficiencies. It’s about improving your business processes and creating a solid foundation for growth. The ability to process, fill, and ship orders are the core of your business, making it the perfect place to start looking for innovation. After all, finding ways to serve your customers better can arm you with a competitive advantage and boost customer loyalty simultaneously.
For the most part, automating your sales order entry and processing is typically a net-positive. It’s still important to understand what is true and what is not about the process, so you know what to expect.
Here are five myths about sales order automation and the truth behind them:
Myth #1: Sales order automation is costly
Many automation solutions follow a software as a service (SaaS) or iPaaS model, which is an affordable alternative to high upfront costs for expensive hardware or software licenses. Since this type of solution is already configured and hosted in the cloud, there’s no need for large initial capital expenditures or upgrades to your existing infrastructure. With HubBroker, you select the solution that fits your needs based on the number of customers you’re ready to automate. A great way to get started is to select a group of customers based on high volumes or recurring orders. Once you’ve seen just how easy automation can be, it’s easy to add more customers at any time.
Myth #2: Implementing Sales order automation requires a lot of time
Sales automation solutions that follow a SaaS or iPaaS model are incredibly easy and quick to implement. The application is configured and installed through the cloud. It offers all the benefits of an on-site software solution without waiting for your IT resources to become available. In a matter of hours, you can have your first customer up and running with HubBroker. You can leave the work to us and let the experts guide you through the process. Our proven onboarding process accurately maps your current customer purchase orders into your existing ERP system. Getting started is easy, and the setup tasks can usually be scheduled into a regular work week. Then the rewards are just around the corner as you immediately start seeing the benefits of sales order automation.
Myth #3: It interrupts the way your customers do business with you
When choosing a solution, it’s essential to consider the cost of change – in this case, the cost of asking your customers to change – to both you and your customers. Let’s face it. Improving your business shouldn’t impact your customers. A good sales order automation solution works with your existing business practices rather than requiring new ones. At HubBroker, we respect the fact that customers have their unique way of doing business. We can easily handle as many purchase order variations as you do. And as an added bonus, your customers don’t even have to know that you’ve switched to automation. Here’s how it works. You select a specific customer and grab a collection of their unique purchase orders. Then we work with you to carefully map the customer’s data ensuring it’s accurately captured and automatically transformed into sales orders in your existing ERP system. Then you can sit back and enjoy the benefits of automation.
Myth #4: It is not possible to achieve 100% data accuracy
The goal of automation is to help you become more efficient, which can’t happen if you find yourself double and triple-checking orders. A quality sales order automation solution offers accurate data capture technology to ensure your order data is recognized and extracted correctly. When choosing a solution, it must provide total data accuracy to ensure your orders are captured accurately regardless of the purchase order format. At HubBroker, we’re proud to offer 100% data accuracy achieved through our proprietary technology solution. We work with you to define each customer’s purchase order format and then understand, define, and apply business logic that determines how that data should be mapped into a sales order. This ensures orders are processed accurately every time.
Myth #5: Orders can be lost or fall through during automation
A robust sales order automation solution is designed to handle a few bumps in the road. Whether it’s an incomplete or incorrect part number or a new shipping address, ideally, there should be built-in business logic that can notify you right away. When evaluating a solution, consider features like exception handling, validation, and confirmation to ensure smooth order processing, as well as fill availability. HubBroker works closely with customers to establish an alert system that ties into the ERP system’s standard exception-handling tools to allow you to stay ahead of the game. Email notifications can be set up and issued in real time to the department of your choice. This allows users to resolve their own exceptions before they become problems. In case of a substantial change to a customer’s purchase order format, the system can be quickly and easily adjusted to ensure that all future purchase orders continue to be processed seamlessly.
How to Get Started with HubBroker
Now that you know all the massive advantages sales order automation can provide to your organization, are you ready to eliminate the hassles associated with order processing, reducing the time and costs of order processing by up to 90%. HubBroker allows manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and distributors to focus on serving customers and managing supplier relationships instead of entering data.
HubBroker revolutionizes critical sales and accounting business practices by automating manual entry with 100% accuracy. HubBroker’s automation solution effortlessly converts emailed and other received customer purchase orders and supplier invoices into automated sales orders and invoices, enabling companies to focus on driving growth. HubBroker helps organizations across the globe maintain a competitive edge.
Getting started on the path to automation is easy with HubBroker. We’ve honed our wealth of experience into a proven methodology that’s successfully enrolled thousands of customers. To accelerate the process, we assign an Onboarding Specialist to simplify implementation and ensure you see results sooner. Typically, new customers can roll out HubBroker in a few weeks or less. Once the initial group of customers is successfully enrolled, and the mapping process is mastered, it’s easy to expand the deployment to include additional customers and to realize the full potential of sales order automation.
Ready to experience the many benefits of sales order automation? Contact us today to learn how you can get started today.
