eBook: Order Processing

THE GREAT SAP

ORDER PROCESSING
PREDICAMENT
How Fax and Email Orders Hold Your
Business Back and Why Automation
Is the Best Way Forward
 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE GREAT SAP Purpose of this eBook...............................................................3

ORDER PROCESSING About the Author.........................................................................3
PREDICAMENT
Fax & Email Orders: Where it All Goes Wrong...................4
How Fax and Email Orders Hold Your
Turning to Automation for Help.............................................5
Business Back and Why Automation
Is the Best Way Forward How an Automated Order Processing Platform Works......6
Benefits of Paperless Order Processing...............................8
Customer Success Story: BASF...............................................9
Conclusion...........................................................................10
About Esker................................................................................10
Learn More.................................................................................10

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 3

Purpose of this eBook

Sales orders coming in via fax or email represent a roadblock for companies who want to
modernize order processing. Rather than deal with paper or force customers to EDI, this
eBook highlights the benefits of using one platform to automate order processing in SAP, while
allowing customers to send orders as they please. For more and more companies, its the
perfect solution to the great order processing predicament.

About the Author

Steve Smith U.S. Chief Operating Officer Esker
As U.S. Chief Operating Officer at Esker, Steve Smith is
responsible for all operations in North and Central America.

Steve joined Esker in 2003 after 17 years at Equitrac

Corporation as the Senior Vice President of Worldwide
Sales and two years in sales at Pitney Bowes. Steve earned
his bachelors degree in Marketing and Finance from the
University of Wisconsin Whitewater.

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 4

FAX & EMAIL ORDERS:

WHERE IT ALL GOES WRONG
Regardless of an organizations size, there are always customers who are unable or unwilling to
adopt electronic processing. As a result, sales orders typically arrive in one of three ways:

Fax Email EDI

Usually, fax orders require a Many companies send POs to Incorrect item details in the EDI
separate processing environ- suppliers by email. While this file can lead to an array of complex
ment to capture and distribute eliminates paper on the customer steps before the order is entered
them among Customer Service side, CSRs have to print the email, into SAP. Its not uncommon for
Reps (CSRs) who then have to walk back to their desks and key touchless EDI orders to be as
enter the information into SAP. it in just as with a fax order. low as 65 percent.

OUCH! How fax and email orders hit

your company where it hurts: Fax Fax Customer
Machines Service
Lengthened order-to-cash cycle
Increased order processing cost SAP
Added IT complexity Email
CUSTOMERS YOUR COMPANY
Difficulty prioritizing orders
Reduced visibility & control
Poor responsiveness to customers CSRs ? POs

EDI Manager

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 5

TURNING TO AUTOMATION
FOR HELP
The ideal automation solution is one that turns every order electronic and still allows customers
to send orders in any format, providing your company the best of both worlds:

Improved User Experience Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Esker captures all the necessary data, automatically Esker lets you treat every order as an electronic
routes it to the appropriate CSR, and gives full transaction, allowing customers to continue sending
visibility into the process before orders are entered orders via fax, email, EDI or XML. Companies also
into SAP. Information such as value of orders waiting have the option to send out auto-confirmations to
to be processed and products/customers the orders customers when an order is received improving
are for is instantly accessible. communication and customer confidence.

Customer
Service Electronic
archive

Fax

SAP
Email
CUSTOMERS YOUR COMPANY

EDI Manager CSRs

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 6

HOW AN AUTOMATED
ORDER PROCESSING PLATFORM WORKS
Esker provides all of the necessary functions and technologies for completely electronic
order processing all via one universal and source-independent automation platform.

Efficiency at Every Step

Received orders are automatically captured by Esker (regardless of format) and
instantly dispatched to the right CSR. They are then validated and archived, In the Cloud
either with Esker or in an existing archive, and linked into SAP. The entire process or
is completed without any manual data entry and offers full visibility throughout. On-Premises
Easily deploy automation
Unique Functionalities any way you choose
Built on patented rule-based technology, the Esker Dynamic Data Capture
on-premises via Esker
module uses OCR and ICR functionalities to read information in image files
and extract it from anywhere on a document. Users can teach the system to DeliveryWare or in the cloud
recognize different formats to continually improve its intelligence over time. via Esker on Demand with
minimal interfacing and
support.
Levels of Automation
Esker offers three levels of automated fax and email order processing, ranging
from a basic quit paper solution to full-blown data extraction to intelligent
OCR that determines if the captured information is correct inside SAP.

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 7

Esker minimizes the number of manual touch points without disrupting your current business
operations, simplifying IT infrastructure and streamlining communication.

Capture Read Route Format Transport

2 DELIVERYWARE RULES ENGINE

1 DOCUMENT CAPTURE 3 DOCUMENT TRANSPORT

Fax & Mail Email

Sales Orders On Demand
Invoices
Scan Email Confirmations Purchase Orders
Proposals Confirmations
Contracts Letters
Accounts Receivable Print Fax
Quotes
Purchase Requisitions
Reports
Print Faxes Invoices

XML Archive

E-documents
(XML,IDoc, ...)
SMS Web
Publishing
SAP
ABC
Sales Order 253,9 % Extrated Universal Application Electronic Customer
Data Archive Service
Image 19,6 %
Smith Connectors

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 8

BENEFITS OF PAPERLESS
ORDER PROCESSING

cy
ren ency
pa nsist
ice

ns
ss
Co No Pain, All Gain:
rv

99.5% Accuracy
a

e
Se

Tr

oc
r P
 rocess increasing order volumes
ss
er

ce

P
tom

Proces without increasing your headcount

Pro

sE
c
Cus

ie
R
 educe fax order processing time up

nc
y
to 90%

E
 liminate manual data entry, allowing
your staff to devote more time to
Customer Service activities

B
 ring visibility, control and instant
accessibility to every order processed

Handle multiple orders within a single fax

P
 rioritize orders to get them to the right
people automatically

R
 eplace multiple point-to-point systems
with a single platform
]

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 9

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY: BASF

Key Requirements
A  utomated recognition of incoming faxes and email attachments
Integration into existing middleware infrastructure
V  alidation based on master data
Interface based on XML-to-EDI data structures
Integrated creation of customer orders in back-office ERP system

BASF is the worlds What Esker Does

leading chemical A utomatically captures incoming order information and verifies it
company, with Item numbers, quantities and price are reconciled with information
more than 110,000 stored in SAP
A pproval workflow is performed before orders enter the SAP system
employees, six
O rders meeting specific conditions can pass through without manual
Verbund sites and intervention
approximately
380 additional The Results
production sites Integrated automation of customer orders into three regions of global
enterprise
around the world. L  everaged existing infrastructure to reach all
- Using IDoc EDI already in place
- Hooking fax and email with backbone
E  nhanced e-commerce system (every customer is an e-customer)

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 The Great SAP Order Processing Predicament | 10

Conclusion
Fax and email orders play a common and, ultimately, confounding role in order processing. Instead of
accepting this reality, Esker recommends an automation solution that treats every order as electronic
and combines the necessary automation functions in one platform. Its a proven and cost-effective way
to modernize order management, improve customer service and gain a clear competitive advantage.

World Headquarters:
Lyon, France

About Esker
Esker is an industry leader in document process
automation solutions, helping organizations
U.S. Headquarters:
Madison, Wisconsin

around the world Quit Paper and improve how

their business information is processed and
exchanged within Order Processing, Accounts
Receivable, Accounts Payable, E-Purchasing
and more.

Learn More
Follow Esker on Twitter at twitter.com/eskerinc and join the conversation on the Esker blog at
www.quitpaper.com. You can also check us out at www.esker.com.

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 2013 Esker S.A. All rights reserved. Esker and the Esker logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Esker S.A. in the U.S. and other
countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.