Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Best-Practice
Order Management
Automation with
SAP Solutions
®
www.esker.com
Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Table of contents
Introduction § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What is order-to-cash? § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Conventional order-to-cash process with SAP solutions § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Esker DeliveryWare and your SAP application § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Automating order management § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Workflow and process tracking § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Benefits of order-to-cash automation §. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Creating a successful implementations § . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Conclusion §. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
About Esker §. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Introduction
Today companies must tighten their belts to compete in a constantly evolving business world. As businesses evaluate the best way to
trim budgets, several areas come to mind that can be streamlined to produce significant cost savings. One area that can offer significant
economical gains is the order-to-cash cycle. If there’s a single characteristic that distinguishes high-performing companies, it's the effi-
ciency of their customer order management processes. Reducing the time it takes to transform a customer order into money in the bank
offers strategic benefits to the company and creates more rewarding customer relationships.
Many companies have implemented leading SAP business applications to help run their daily order-to-cash activities. The addition of SAP
solutions empowers companies to automate many of the business processes that were done by hand less than a decade ago. However,
there is still plenty of opportunity to improve accuracy and efficiency in the order-to-cash cycle through automation of the document man-
agement process.
Recently, the activity of order-to-cash has been gaining the interest of companies desperately seeking measures to speed up their rev-
enue cycle, improve customer satisfaction, and increase profitability. Beyond significant cost savings, companies converting to an auto-
mated order-to-cash system can realize efficiencies throughout the order management process.
This paper describes these benefits and presents a unique order-to-cash solution, exploring automation of the order-to-cash process
within SAP SD. It analyzes the challenges faced by companies today who are still using manual processes, as well as the benefits of
automating processes — including time, labor and cost savings. In doing so, this paper highlights innovative technology for comprehen-
sively automated order management to optimize the order-to-cash cycle.
Above all, this paper is designed to help CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, Order Processing managers and SAP system administrators to learn, plan
and evaluate automation of the order-to-cash cycle to gain added efficiency in today’s competitive business environment.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
What is order-to-cash?
Order-to-cash is a generic term used to encompass the process involved between reception of a sales order and collection of accounts
receivable generated in the sale of the final product. There are several sub-processes within the order-to-cash process, including:
receiving orders, entering sales orders, approving sales orders, fulfilling orders, billing for the orders and receiving payment.
Order-to-cash model
Conventional order-to-cash process with SAP solutions
Using a manual process to orchestrate your order-to-cash operations creates the potential for costly errors. Manual processes are labor-
intensive and time-consuming, requiring valuable resources to manage each part of the process.
For example, manually entering sales orders into SAP SD can take hours. One wrong keystroke, such as inputting 100 units instead of
10 units, could become a nightmare for you and your customer. All activities down the line, including invoicing, will be affected — result-
ing in difficulties collecting cash. The end result is unnecessary errors costing companies both extra time and money.
In a conventional order-to-cash process, two steps need a specific attention, as they represent potential bottlenecks.
Sales Order
Approval Invoicing Payment
Order Entry Fulfillment
Sales order bottlenecks
The sales order is the principal basis for all transactions. The integrity of the sales order is crucial to achieving and maintaining high-level
service throughout the process. If the process begins with inaccurate or ambiguous information, the performance will be hindered. All
activities are affected by the information that is pulled from the sales order.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
There are several bottlenecks that are typical in conventional systems of order processing. Most of these have the potential to cause
huge inefficiencies and significant costs within company finances.
`çåîÉåíáçå~ä=çêÇÉê=éêçÅÉëëáåÖ — affecting your company's operating efficiency:
§ Delayed cash collection
§ Expensive execution (costing between $30–$60)
§ Slow to process
§ Vulnerable to errors
§ Low customer satisfaction
Invoicing bottlenecks
On the back end, your SAP application creates an invoice for each sales order. If your company is using a manual process, each of these
invoices must be sorted, reviewed, routed, processed and eventually archived — leading to the reason so many companies spend hours
per day working through the invoicing process. Mistakes are made and time is wasted identifying and resolving problems. There are sev-
eral bottlenecks created by the conventional system of invoice processing.
`çåîÉåíáçå~ä=áåîçáÅÉ=éêçÅÉëëáåÖ=— affecting your company's operating efficiency:
§ Limited ability to collect cash quickly
§ Low staff efficiency rates
§ High costs to maintain machines for printing, faxing, folding, inserting, and postal metering
§ High costs to produce, store, archive and retrieve physical invoices
As with order processing, these also have the potential to cause huge inefficiencies such as invoice disputes, extended Days Sales
Outstanding (DSO), and customer satisfaction issues, adding significant costs within company finances. Conservative estimates place
costs of manual invoicing between $30 and $60 per invoice.
Labyrinth of touch points
In many companies, order-to-cash processes travel through a maze of departments and manual touch points. From the arrival of the
sales order all the way to cash collection and document archiving, sales representatives and administrators are holding their breath hop-
ing none of the manual touch points cause errors creating incorrect shipments that end up in the customer’s hands, or misplaced orders
resulting in business loss and customer dissatisfaction.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Conventional paper-based sales order processing
Time and cost associated with a single sales order
For 1 Sales Order Time Taken
9 Documents manually printed
17'
4 Documents manually archived
1 Document manually faxed
1 Document manually mailed
How much are you spending?
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Esker DeliveryWare and your SAP application
If your company is suffering with high invoice error and dispute rates, long cash cycles, poor auditing and large administrative costs relat-
ed to manual processes, wrong or duplicate shipments — not to mention poor customer satisfaction — there are several solutions on
the market that can automate the order-to-cash process into and out of SAP SD. Only one offers patented DeliveryWare Rules Engine
technology and a full range of document delivery format capabilities to maximize the value of your SAP applications and effectively reduce
the time between receiving a customer order and collecting payment for the order.
Esker DeliveryWare
Esker DeliveryWare offers a comprehensive solution that streamlines current business processes by eliminating inefficient and untimely
steps making communication more personalized and cost effective — regardless of the information’s source or delivery type. Esker
DeliveryWare minimizes the touch points in order-to-cash process while causing no disruption of current business operations.
Designed to optimize internal and external information flow into and out of SAP applications, Esker DeliveryWare is an end-to-end doc-
ument process automation platform with patented technology. Managing all inbound and outbound document processes through this
central platform simplifies the IT infrastructure, reduces the time and costs associated with document communication and streamlines
critical business processes such as order-to-cash.
1 Document Capture
2 1 3 2 DeliveryWare
4 1 3 Rules
5 Engine
2 4 3 5Document Transport
4 5
Esker DeliveryWare automatically At the heart of Esker DeliveryWare is Esker DeliveryWare distributes
captures sales orders and other patented technology that automatically documents automatically, based on
documents in any format — recognizes and extracts data from organizations’ specific requirements.
independent of layout and application electronic documents to determine They can be delivered to multiple
or source, without the need for formatting, conversion, and routing recipients in the most complete range
custom programming. conditions and actions that need to of formats (text, XML, PDF, IDoc,
take place, as defined by processing PCL, PS, TIFF, etc.) and media (postal
rules. The optional Order Management mail, fax, print, email, web, file
Module provides comprehensive work- transfer, archive, wireless message,
flow and process tracking capabilities. etc.)
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Automating order management
Automating the order-to-cash process can yield millions of dollars in savings by lowering the number of touch points involved at each
step of the process. The result is shortened processing cycles, on-time deliveries, reduced printing and mailing costs — as well as
invoices with all required supporting information presented in clear and concise formats that help reduce errors and confusion, and results
in fewer invoice-related disputes, faster identification and resolution of issues, and faster payment.
Time associated with a single sales order
For 1 Sales Order Time Taken
9 Documents manually printed
01'
4 Documents manually archived
1 Document manually faxed
1 Document manually mailed
Automation savings
The bottom line is substantial savings. Esker has helped many customers realize these benefits and will
continue to help identify further areas of improvement.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Tight integration with SAP applications
Esker is committed to simplifying document process tasks for SAP customers. SAP-certified Esker DeliveryWare integration is seamless
and does not require any reprogramming or business processes modifications.
Sales orders arriving in various formats (paper, fax, email, electronic file, etc.) are automatically captured, approved and transferred to the
SAP content server or Esker DeliveryWare repository. On top of this, order data such as customer name, part number, quantity and
prices, are automatically made available in the SAP system, replacing manual data entry.
The order object in SD is linked to the stored document allowing the user to retrieve the original document easily when necessary
directly within the SAP user interface.
The process flows through the following steps:
Step 1: Capture
§ When a sales order arrives, it is automatically handled by Esker DeliveryWare: The document is recognized and converted using
document capture technology, and sales order data is extracted.
Step 2: Notification
§ If desired, the user can receive a notification that a new sales order has arrived and that it needs to be validated.
§ By clicking on the link contained in the email notification, the user opens the Esker Document Manager web interface to access the
sales order validation web form.
Step 3: Validation
§ Using standard BAPIs, the software checks that the customer and part numbers already exist in SAP customer and material
master databases. The solution also checks for order duplicates and allow partner function communication details to be pulled out
from the SAP system.
§ In the event of a mismatch between the document and SAP database entries, the user is able to browse SAP master databases
to match data extracted directly in the web form.
Step 4: Posting data to SAP system
§ Data is then passed to the PTS (Process Tracking System)* invoice data capture module within the SAP system. This module
creates a process tracking record and attempts to automatically post the sales order if desired. In case of an exception, or for those
cases where auto-posting is not possible or desired, an SAP workflow engine-based best-practice PTS workflow is started for that
tracking record. The workflow goes to the customer order management representative’s workflow inbox, awaiting action. Upon
execution, the SAP Workflow calls up the appropriate transaction code (VA01 by default) for the posting of an order, and the
document image appears alongside the pre-populated data.* SEE FOOTNOTE
§ If the document is sent to the workflow, the order can be saved — at which point the work item disappears from the user’s
workflow inbox.
* All references in this document that pertain to PTS, “process tracking” and SAP workflow refer to a solution developed by Dolphin IT-Project and Consulting Corporation. Process Tracking System
(PTS) is a trademark of Dolphin IT-Project and Consulting Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
§ If a business or technical condition exists that prohibits posting of the sales order, the sales representative simply cancels instead
of saving and posting. A set of decisions relating to exception handling are presented to the sales representative. Selecting a par-
ticular option triggers the corresponding workflow behind the business process. The work item disappears from the sales represen-
tative’s inbox and is placed in the inbox of the appropriate person to perform necessary actions (for example, updating Customer
Master data). Then the work item is sent back to the sales representative, who can then post the order.
Workflow and process tracking
Incoming sales order documents launch the order-to-cash cycle. Fast response to orders helps businesses increase customer
satisfaction and ensure on-time delivery as well as timely customer payment. Incoming customer orders need to be entered and
confirmed quickly to allow for efficient delivery scheduling. Reliable up-to-date information on the status of new customer orders is cru-
cial for effective sales management and forecasting.
Along with receiving and entering orders, SAP customers seeking to optimize the order-to-cash process face challenges with:
§ Tracking and managing exceptions
§ Transparency of the order process and the related status of orders
§ Ability to measure process performance and identify areas for improvement
Esker DeliveryWare offers workflow and process tracking* for best-practice order management, providing capabilities such as dynamic
work item task descriptions, automated routing for exception handling, and detailed reporting — in addition to automated order entry.
Users benefit from integration of data on transactions, documents, and process status for sales reporting and process analysis.
Workflow and process tracking with Esker
DeliveryWare is tightly integrated with SAP
Business Workflow™ technology and uses
SAP ArchiveLink™ to facilitate capture of
process information immediately after a
customer order document has been entered.
The process information and the business
document are instantly available for reporting
and display. SAP Business Workflow
automatically routes the business document to
the responsible customer service representative
for subsequent processing.
Esker DeliveryWare order management allows
for automated exception handling, such as
master data maintenance, rescanning, and
rerouting of customer order documents. All
steps and data in the process from order
receipt to order entry are recorded and
continuously updated, creating a detailed audit
trail for each customer order transaction.
* (PTS) “process tracking“ and SAP workflow refer to a solution developed by Dolphin IT-Project and Consulting Corporation. PTS Process tracking System is a trademark of Dolphin IT-Project and
Consulting Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Benefits of order-to-cash automation
Effectively eliminating manual processes, Esker DeliveryWare reduces the time from receipt of sales order to invoice payment. SAP
customers are able to:
§ Lower order-to-cash processing costs by up to 70%
§ Improve cash flow and speed up the collection of cash
§ Reduce stored data costs by electronic archiving
§ Receive and enter customer orders up to 65% faster
§ Increase data entry accuracy by up to 99%
§ Free-up staff time by as much as 65%
Workflow and process tracking with Esker DeliveryWare results in significant benefits both for business management and system
administration, including:
§ Quick order processing and efficient delivery scheduling
§ Comprehensive customer order tracking and prioritization
§ Enhanced quality and effectiveness of customer order management
§ Structured data for customer profitability and employee performance analysis
§ Reduced Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
§ Less redundant processing of duplicate orders
§ Electronic capture of approvals
§ Tracking of delivery or billing block processing
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Sales order case studies
Leading manufacturer of respiratory monitoring devices
The company had customer service representatives (CSRs) manually organizing sales orders, delivering them and keying them into the
SAP system. CSRs walked to a fax machine and picked up as many as 700 incoming faxed sales orders a day, then entered data man-
ually. Labor to perform this task was costing them approximately $100,000 per year. Paper, toner and leases on fax machines were cost-
ing them $38,000 per year. This time-consuming process was slow and cumbersome. Orders were piling up, waiting to be gathered,
collated and handed off to available CSRs. The company implemented Esker DeliveryWare to automate inbound orders into the SAP sys-
tem by using image recognition to process the TIFF image from the fax, putting it through an approval process, and then converting it to
an IDoc for processing into the SAP system. CSRs are eliminated from the process, resulting in total savings of $134,000 per year and
ROI in less than six months.
Leading manufacturer of home appliances
Before Esker DeliveryWare:
Company receives orders Company rep checks “sold to”
mainly through fax and mail and “key account number” info
These paper documents are in the SAP system to see if a
routed to the appropriate rep duplicate order has been
via manual processes. received. Order is then entered
into the SAP system, including
all line items, via VA01.
The order date may be left out until a firm Orders are then kept in a file folder
delivery date is established. In this case, the or notebook for later retrieval and
order date will be entered into the SAP billing as needed.
system when released via a phone call or a
faxed release sheet.
After Esker DeliveryWare:
Orders received by company via Esker DeliveryWare OCR capabilities Information from document and
fax are automatically captured, reduce or eliminates data entry. Pertinent document itself are uploaded
recognized and routed to the data is extracted and rep would validate into the SAP system. Sales
order rep — eliminating manual that all information is captured correctly. order is created if there are no
fax distribution. Orders received duplicates.
by mail can be scanned and
routed to the order rep.
Release sheet is faxed in or Esker DeliveryWare All correspondence kept
checks web site with the update of delivery in the Common Store/SAP
dates. Esker DeliveryWare can automate the Archive for easy retrieval
delivery date sheet to the SAP sales order. If
there are issues that can’t be resolved
automatically, the system can notify the order
rep of problems.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Creating a successful implementation
To ensure a successful conversion from a conventional order-to-cash process to an automated order management:
1. Search for a solution that offers the highest value.
To get the highest return on your investment, find a solution that will fully integrate your order-to-cash process. It is highly likely that you
have different process requirements from different customers. Make sure that the solution you choose can meet all your own
requirements as well as those of your customers, such as diverse document formats, validation, approval, routing and archiving.
2. Search for a solution that can be integrated quickly.
Measuring the cost of deployment, integration and scalability to meet your needs and your vendor needs is crucial in choosing the
correct solution. Look for a solution that can be implemented quickly and integrate seamlessly within your existing SAP applications.
3. Expertise and knowledge are key to success.
A successful automation of an order-to-cash solution must include both technology and expertise. How long has the company been
implementing these solutions and how many successful installations have they completed? Make sure they have a strong
understanding of the essential tasks involved in enterprise technology implementation and integration.
4. Find solutions that create added value.
The solution must automate every piece of the order-to-cash process. It should leverage your existing infrastructure, thereby increasing
the value of your current enterprise applications such as ERP, CRM, and other systems.
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Conclusion
For companies looking to trim budgets, automating the order-to-cash process can yield significant savings to the bottom line of more
than 70% of costs accumulating from labor, supplies, errors and extended DSO. The order-to-cash process requires orchestrating trans-
actions that span multiple steps, processed at different times by different systems. Improvements in these performance variables such
as a single day's reduction in DSO can yield millions in cash flow.
To achieve these results, it is necessary to carefully assess the available market solutions and find one that meets all the needs in your
specific process. Inefficient business processes cause companies to miss tremendous opportunities for profitability, and can keep them
from emerging as market leaders. Now is the time to automate, and the leading solution is Esker DeliveryWare for:
§ Integrated data/document capture
§ Flexible, automated task routing
§ Consistent exception handling procedures for canceled transactions and blocked orders
§ Duplicate order checking
§ Minimized number of key strokes to complete the order entry process
§ Continuous tracking of process data and status for customer service
§ Dynamic work item descriptions and titles
§ Reports on process time and volume, queued orders, exceptions and blocks, delivery dates ... even before the order is entered
in the SAP system
§ Comprehensive business solution with view of all customer order processes in the SAP system
§ Quick, turnkey implementation without custom programming
About Esker
Esker is a recognized leader in helping organizations streamline manual, paper-intensive processes and reduce the use of paper by
automating the flow of documents into, within and outside the organization. With patented document delivery automation software (Esker
DeliveryWare) and hosted document delivery services (FlyDoc), Esker offers a total solution to automate every phase and every type of
business information exchange. Customers gain significant and immediate operational efficiencies, cost savings and measurable ROI in
as little as three to six months.
Founded in 1985, Esker operates globally and has over 80,000 customers and millions of licensed users worldwide. Esker has global
headquarters in Lyon, France and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www .com
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Esker DeliveryWare White Paper
Contact Information
Advantage Technologies
U.S. Headquarters Toll free: 866.730.1700
30 Miller Cirlce Phone: 914.730.1700
Armonk, NY 10504 Fax: 914.765.0805
Web: http://www.atny.biz/products-esker.html
© 2006 Esker S.A. All rights reserved. Esker, the Esker logo, and Extending the Reach of Information are trademarks or registered trademarks of Esker S.A. in the U.S.
and other countries. SAP is a registered trademark of SAP AG. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owner.
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