The issue of handbook gross sales order processing
The gross sales order processing workflow is integral to the general order to money course of. In most medium to giant B2B companies gross sales orders are nonetheless entered/created manually by inner gross sales reps. That is the case even for big organisations that use SAP as their system of report (ERP) and course of giant volumes of orders.
Gross sales reps in these organisations obtain buy orders with unstructured knowledge despatched in by patrons through electronic mail, fax or telephone. They then parse this knowledge to create gross sales order requests or gross sales orders in SAP for each manually. This handbook methodology of gross sales order processing is extraordinarily inefficient, error-prone and time consuming.
On this article we are going to discover a perfect workflow for SAP gross sales order automation, focus on some key challenges, and suggest an alternate answer to automate gross sales orders in SAP utilizing Nanonets.
Key takeaways
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1. Create bigger quantity of Gross sales orders in much less time decreasing human errors.
2. Inbuilt communication workflow with gross sales order course of to replace stakeholders.
3. Assist gross sales reps scale up & scale back repetitive effort of getting into the S/4HANA system to take care of gross sales order request and gross sales order entries.
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Talk about the key challenges in organising this workflow on SAP.
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Take into account an alternate answer to robotically create gross sales orders in SAP utilizing Nanonets.
Trying to automate your handbook gross sales order processing workflows in SAP? Learn the way Nanonets will help your gross sales groups keep away from handbook knowledge entry and deal with delivering worth to clients.
Automating gross sales order processing in SAP
SAP presents an answer combining RPA (5LT bot) and ML-based knowledge extraction (app ID F4920) to automate the gross sales order creation workflow finish to finish:
1. Automate PO import into SAP with the 5LT bot
- Incoming order particulars and/or buy orders are primarily shared through electronic mail. The 5LT bot continously scans unread electronic mail topic strains for particular or related key phrases that will point out an incoming order.
- The bot then downloads the hooked up order file or PO from the actual electronic mail and uploads it into SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
2. Parse POs with the Create Gross sales Orders – Computerized Extraction app (F4920) and create a Gross sales Order Request
- For every new PO the Create Gross sales Orders – Computerized Extraction app on SAP S/4HANA Cloud then creates a brand new Gross sales Order Request, triggers the info extraction and attaches the PO (PDF or picture) within the SOR (Gross sales Order Request).
- The system flags lacking particulars that forestall an computerized SOR creation which may then be added or validated manually.
- The 5LT bot enters the main points pertaining to the created SORs into an Excel file and saves it regionally.
A fast demo of the Create Gross sales Order – Computerized Extraction app (Supply: SAP)
3. Automate Gross sales Order creation from validated SORs with the 5LT bot
- The 5LT bot fetches gross sales order request quantity(s) and carry out knowledge validations to confirm knowledge completeness.If required, it performs a Grasp Knowledge Matching to to replace the SOR.
- The bot then makes use of the Excel file created within the step above to transform all validated SORs into recent gross sales orders in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
- Lastly, the bot emails all stakeholders with a standing report and associated attachments.
Create Gross sales Orders from unstructured knowledge in SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Construct Course of Automation (Supply: SAP)
Challenges within the native SAP gross sales order automation answer
Whereas the answer lined above will get the job carried out, it has its fair proportion of challenges. After chatting with a bunch of companies utilizing the SAP ecosystem and getting insights from SAP energy customers on Reddit, listed below are a few of they considerations that customers face whereas organising SAP gross sales order automation workflows as proven earlier.
Incomplete import of order knowledge from emails
Order knowledge despatched in as emails or POs is commonly unstructured and even complicated in some instances. And the RPA bot won’t all the time seize these particulars precisely.
- Along with the hooked up POs, important order particulars are sometimes shared within the electronic mail physique and even within the electronic mail topic line.
Inconsistent buyer knowledge that does not match the vendor’s knowledge
Getting clients to share constant and correct info in POs or emails is a problem. And this usually journeys up the info extraction course of and the gross sales order creation workflow.
- Matching buyer IDs to the suitable materials/merchandise IDs is a frequent problem – e.g. clients will ship you an order for merchandise XYZ however in your system the merchandise is recorded as merchandise ABC.
- The identical is the case with pricing particulars, supply dates, and different important order particulars that do not match within the vendor’s and the customer’s ERPs.
- Neither the automated knowledge extraction nor the SAP bot will help 100% on this situation and handbook intervention is unavoidable.
Pricing & lack of information
The pricing internet of this SAP tech could be prohibitive for some companies and fairly difficult to setup and keep.
- Value is a big issue right here and pricing particulars are sometimes opaque, complicated or simply not accessible until you converse to a advisor or gross sales exec. If it is cheaper to rent N folks to do it manually than to pay for a license, automation would positively be out of the image.
- Companies usually lack inner assets to often keep the SAP tech stack. Whereas there are numerous SAP consultants out there, value and lack of direct visibility and management could be of concern.
SAP gross sales order automation utilizing Nanonets
Whereas the SAP tech stack for automating gross sales order processing is powerful, excellent and extensively utilized by companies within the SAP ecosystem, it has some clear drawbacks that we lined within the earlier part. We’ll now have a look at how a workflow involving Nanonets can streamline the challenges talked about beforehand within the SAP gross sales order automation course of.
Nanonets is an clever automation AI for all enterprise processes that may automate complicated enterprise processes and draw actionable insights from unstructured knowledge throughout a number of sources. This is a case research on how SaltPay makes use of Nanonets to combine with SAP to handle vendor invoices.
Nanonets can match seamlessly into your present SAP setup to automate gross sales order processing finish to finish. Most significantly pricing for Nanonets is fairly easy and clear. And it’s a lot simpler to arrange and keep workflows on Nanonets.
This is how a perfect SAP gross sales order automation workflow powered by Nanonets would appear like:
1. Precisely import and seize ALL order knowledge from buyer emails
Accumulate/ahead all incoming emails to a devoted Nanonets inbox. The AI can then extract all related order knowledge from electronic mail our bodies, topics, sender data, attachments, or signatures.
Establishing electronic mail imports is fairly simple with Nanonets. Simply choose the suitable knowledge extractor mannequin (PO extractor) and arrange the import workflow utilizing the workflow builder.
electronic mail parsing and import with Nanonets
2. Validate and approve the extracted/captured order knowledge
Nanonets AI can evaluate order knowledge corresponding to buyer id, merchandise codes, amount, handle, supply particulars and many others. in opposition to grasp knowledge to flag inconsistencies that have to be reviewed.
Nanonets can fetch grasp knowledge from SAP through API connectors, match the info and flag inconsistencies for overview. The AI can alternately do a fuzzy match to choose the very best match from the grasp knowledge instantly. If the grasp knowledge resides in an exterior database or Excel sheet this course of is much more simple with Nanonets.
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Nanonets has clients that retailer grasp knowledge in SAP instantly and likewise those who retailer grasp knowledge in an exterior DB or Excel/csv that’s stored updated.
You too can arrange rule-based approval workflows based mostly on order worth, clients or every other logic.
3. Push gross sales order into SAP
The validated knowledge within the earlier step can then be posted or pushed by Nanonets into SAP S/4HANA Cloud through API. Nanonets can moreover connect supporting paperwork to the SO in SAP to function a reference.
Nanonets can both create gross sales order requests or instantly create gross sales orders.