Andrea Ferrino, Head of Applications at Distrelec Group, says, “Offering responsive experiences is crucial to foster customer loyalty, especially in the age of e-commerce. Meeting these expectations starts with getting data from our vendors’ purchase order [PO] confirmations—for example, product quantities and dispatch dates—into SAP ERP. As well as supporting our planning and purchasing activities, this information allows us to display accurate delivery estimates to customers on our e-commerce sites.”
Centralized processes, repetitive tasks
Vendor PO confirmations are a vital data source for Distrelec Group’s planning process. As part of an ongoing business transformation initiative, the group moved processing of PO confirmations to a central team—but extracting the data manually presented challenges.
“It’s crucial to input data from PO confirmations into SAP ERP accurately, because errors can lead to warehouse stockouts and delivery delays,” explains Ferrino. “In the past, we relied on manual work to bring this information into SAP ERP. As well as increasing the risk of human error, this approach consumed a significant number of person-hours, driving up our operational costs.”
As part of its transformation strategy, Distrelec Group has also centralized customer order processing to a dedicated team. Here too, employees manually keyed data from emails, phone calls and faxes into the SAP system. Ferrino adds: “We knew that automating repetitive data-entry processes had huge potential to reduce costs and cut the risk of errors in multiple business areas.”
Deploying an automated platform
To build reliable, automated workflows to capture mission-critical data, Distrelec Group engaged its trusted partner Avelon to deploy OpenText™ Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) for SAP® Solutions. The solution enables Distrelec Group to optimize information processing for a wide range of document types, including quotations, delivery notes, PO confirmations and sales orders.
“We had already been using Vendor Invoice Management for invoice processing for a number of years, so we knew that the OpenText platform was robust and reliable,” recalls Ferrino. “When Avelon informed us that the solution also offers cost-effective support for many other types of documents, we quickly realized its potential.”