Order Automation: The Easy (and Effective) Way

by | Jan 27, 2021 | Automation, Order Management, Suppliers

When your business is experiencing high volumes of retail orders and purchase orders with hundreds of line items, order automation isn’t just a requirement. It’s a lifeline. This was the situation that OZtrail found themselves in. Recently acquired by Adventure Operations, the supplier was adding new retail customers including Anaconda, Bunnings and Super Retail Group. Adding staff wasn’t desired, so automating the purchase order process with EDI became a top priority.

The results of the project were just what the supplier needed:

  • No time spent keying purchase orders
  • No errors
  • A scalable solution for growing order volumes
  • Order visibility between retailers and OZtrail
  • Accessible, local support

But they’d gone down the EDI route before, without results. This time around they chose a different solution, SPS Commerce Fulfillment, and it made all the difference.

No More Manual Data Entry

OZtrail wasn’t new to EDI. They’d tried it in the past. The company had wasted many hours correcting data instead of processing orders. So, they halted the project. But order automation requires EDI. Their teams were spending most of their days downloading orders from vendor portals and keying them into internal systems. This had to change.

“Our customer service team was spending most of their days logging into various portals, printing or downloading orders and keying them into our system,” explains Whittaker. “There are plenty of other things we needed them doing. With EDI from SPS, orders arrive automatically and there is no data entry.”

Complex Orders from New Retailers

OZtrail, and its new sister company Primus Australia, expanded the supplier’s operations. They were now fulfilling orders for retailers and B2B wholesalers.

“The new industrial arm of our business was migrated onto our EDI system with SPS at once,” said Whittaker. “Our order volumes alone were 300-400 transactions every few days for one of their B2B customers. Coupled with our existing business, bringing them onto our EDI-enabled purchase order process was needed.”

With their new order automation process, OZtrail can easily manage its order volumes and complex purchase orders. No keying needed. The order is fed into their ERP with no human intervention without delay.

Order automation speeds up the purchase order process, but also reduces errors.

Order Automation Improves Accuracy

The purchase orders coming into OZtrail were often lengthy. It wasn’t uncommon for a purchase order from Big W to have more than 400 lines. “OZtrail was manually entering purchase orders. They were becoming longer and more detailed,” states Whittaker. “Our purchase order process made room for massive errors to occur. We couldn’t afford mistakes. With automation the errors have been brought under control and minimized.”

Looking for a better way to manage your purchase order process? Without adding staff? Contact our local experts at SPS for a demo today.

SPS Commerce Blog Team
Latest posts by SPS Commerce Blog Team (see all)
Order Automation: The Easy (and Effective) Way

RELATED POSTS