Do you have a good understanding of your inventory on-hand? Do you know the status of each part’s inventory level? Do you have enough safety stock (or too much)? If you do, then congratulations: you’ve got good inventory visibility. If not, then you run the risk of costly delays and bottlenecks that could easily affect your on time delivery.

Your inventory management strategy is critical, and you’ll want one that starts with full visibility of every purchase order your buyers cut and the real-time status of each one as it moves through its lifecycle. We know from our research that over half of all POs will change at some point, and if buyer are waiting for emails to let them know, they’re wasting valuable time and resources.

With a PO collaboration solution, every line is visible in real time so buyers and suppliers are always working with information that is recent and relevant. Everyone uses the same dashboard, and everyone receives notifications within the platform anything their attention is required. If a shipment is partial, buyers know within minutes. That information is automatically entered into the ERP, and from the word go, buyers have full visibility into their inventory..

Automated ERP data is critical to your success. Manually entering that information requires too much time that buyers could spend thinking and working strategically. Instead of focusing on data entry, they could be focused on diversifying and strengthening supplier relationships to ensure you always have backups for the parts you need. When your ERP is updated automatically, you eliminate data errors that could lead to stockouts or overstocking parts. And when your data is 100% accurate, you know even from the first mile that you have 100% clear inventory visibility.