Customers today place orders 24/7 via email, phone, or web shop. However, only one in ten (trade) companies has standardized these critical customer interfaces and connected them to all process-relevant internal departments, such as procurement. In all other cases, order processing consumes a significant amount of working time—up to 30 percent in inside sales, for example. Companies that create standards with digital tools work faster and more transparently.

Incorrect Priorities Waste Time

How can businesses determine if operations are truly "booming"? A good indicator is the number and quality of offers sent daily from inside sales to field sales or directly to customers. Yet, it is often challenging to elevate this to a new performance level.

In many companies, this issue arises because order processing has not been digitalized. As a result, there is often insufficient time for core tasks in inside sales. Two main problems frequently occur: the number of customers is increasing while the order quantities per customer are decreasing. At the same time, standardized interfaces in the ordering process are lacking—our experience shows that more than 90% of customers are not reached via uniform order forms, and orders arrive in a variety of formats. This significantly contributes to the increasing workload in order processing: employees in inside sales spend around 25 to 30 percent of their total time on order processing. But this time could be better utilized.

Smart Systems Reduce Workload

With the help of digital tools, incoming orders in all common formats can be automatically captured. Relevant order information is immediately read and recorded in the existing ERP system. This enables direct integration with all business processes. Orders are processed and directly archived.

The administrative effort is minimized through the automated, intelligent extraction of various order forms. After automated order capture, the system classifies orders directly. All relevant data, such as customer details, order content, and other information, are extracted, transferred to the system, and processed further. Only post-processing of the automatically extracted data needs to be performed by employees. As the intelligent system autonomously learns during this post-processing phase, this workload will be significantly reduced over time.

Improved Data Quality

This approach can reduce the effort required for order entry and processing by up to 80 percent. Shortly after implementing the new system during the learning phase, the savings potential already rises to about 40 percent. Once all employees are trained, the system is well adjusted, and fully integrated into daily business operations, the full potential is realized.

The resulting free working time allows the sales team to focus on core tasks, often leading to a noticeable improvement in quality within a short period. Additionally, the error rate for data entry decreases: typos, number transpositions, and similar mistakes become a thing of the past. Alongside reducing employee workload, the total throughput time for the order-to-invoice process also decreases.

Activating Potentials in Three Phases

The implementation of such a system ideally occurs in three phases:

Phase 1: Analysis

• Document order-to-invoice processes with the involved employees
• Calculate process times and costs
• Determine system costs for customized deployment
• Develop the business case for implementing the system solution

By the end of this phase, a complete overview of process times, costs, and the business case for implementing the solution is available.

Phase 2: Implementation Planning

• Define the target order-to-invoice process
• Clarify system adjustments to the customer’s ERP system
• Develop a roadmap for implementing the system solution

By this stage, the target process is established, and the roadmap for system implementation is ready.

Phase 3: Implementation

• Develop a detailed concept with the customer
• Implement the system solution into the customer’s IT landscape
• Conduct installation and integration tests
• Perform system testing and approval
• Train employees

At the end of this phase, the system is successfully implemented and tested. With employees properly trained, the company benefits from optimized workflows over the long term.