Consumers and businesses place thousands of orders daily. While consumers are generally happy to accept delivery times of 5 to 7 days, when it comes to businesses, waiting periods this long can critically impact operations. With automated order confirmations from Doxis, you have a brand-new solution that flags delivery deviations for prompt action and prevents unwanted delays.

A smooth-running purchase-to-pay process depends on the precise interplay of multiple activities — like successful order placement, the receipt of complete deliveries, and the release/payment of invoices, to name just a few. For the last step in the process, a product for automating invoice processing is already available: Doxis Intelligent Invoice Automation for SAP. Now there’s a new, complementary SAP-integrated solution on the market: It automatically reconciles order confirmations with the original order, so users benefit from even more support with their daily work.

When you place an order with a supplier, they send you an order confirmation. It then has to be carefully checked and accepted. In the best-case scenario, the supplier confirms all items and delivery dates of your order. This already generates a significant amount of work for you: Information on the document has to be verified and the confirmed delivery dates entered individually into the ordering system before being accepted. Automated order confirmation processing with Doxis offers you considerable optimization potential by fully automating these manual steps. Read on to find out how it works.

The solution covers all standard inbound channels (scans, EDI, email, etc.). Most companies choose to use a dedicated email inbox for order confirmations. Once set up (e.g. orderconfirmations@samplecompany.com), your suppliers can send order confirmations to this address. Doxis routes inbound confirmations via a standardized process and Doxis Cognitive Services automatically handle the processing.

Reconciliation is done using the data in the order confirmation. Doxis Cognitive Services recognize and read the necessary data (e.g. the order number and order items). Doxis then accesses the corresponding order and checks for any inconsistencies in quantities, delivery dates and prices at the general and item levels. If it flags up any deviations, you can make prompt adjustments to your planning or source other suppliers in good time. The use of intelligent processes minimizes the need for manual input and creates the basis for optimizing your supplier management — in other words: deadline fulfillment!

In the best-case scenario described above, automated processing removes the need for manual intervention. If the system confirms zero inconsistencies, the order confirmation can be accepted entirely automatically leaving users to focus on cases that require their attention.

SER customers, particularly those in the production sector, already benefit from transparent order and confirmation statuses. With active monitoring of inbound order confirmations, companies minimize the risk of production grinding to a halt. The more closely oriented the companies are on just-in-time manufacturing, the more important it is to oversee confirmed delivery dates, quantities and more. The system compares the order confirmation with the original order to pick up on deviations in, e.g., delivery dates at both the general and item level. Doxis Cognitive Services recognize a wide variety of delivery date formats and keywords in order to reconcile the data with the order. But the benefits of automating the order confirmation process are not limited only to manufacturing companies. The retail and service sectors are two further examples of industries that use large quantities of materials and are reliant on punctual deliveries to keep business running smoothly. Automated order confirmation processing makes this possible. Doxis generically extracts the different variants and removes the need for users to manually input data.

SAP displays order confirmations in a dedicated cockpit. Deviations are highlighted in a different color in the UI.

Where deviations are unacceptable due, e.g. to critical delivery delays, the order confirmation can be rejected and the search started for an alternative vendor. Alternatively, tolerable deviations can be accepted and transferred to the “Schedule lines” section by clicking on “Post” in the SAP order.

Transferring information from the order confirmation to the SAP order marks the completion of all necessary process steps.

This automated solution for digitalized order confirmation processing ensures you keep full control over orders and inbound order confirmations. Integrated data recognition verifies and reconciles order confirmations with the order in the ERP system, reducing the need for manual intervention. In combination with Doxis Intelligent Invoice Automation for invoice processing, you can significantly optimize planning and improve transparency throughout the entire purchase-to-pay process.