Syteline(CSI) is fabulous–but it can leave your procurement team still working on the wrong requirements. The good news? SourceDay can help.
As anyone who’s worked in Syteline(CSI) knows, the purchasing process has a million things going on, all of which have to be managed effectively to keep the business healthy. That makes it really hard to imagine how rough it must have been before Syteline and everything was done manually.
Syteline came along and streamlined a whole lot of that work. By digitizing and centralizing purchase requirements and PO processes, it took a lot of paperwork and computerized it. Creating POs became largely automated, with centralized data on regular suppliers and purchasing information saving a huge amount of that manual labor you had to spend in days prior. So, don’t get me wrong–that was a huge step forward.
The Real Work Begins… Manually?
The trouble is that once a PO has been created in the Syteline buyer workbench, most of the real work has only just begun. That’s because research shows that over half of all POs change after they’re first written, and many of them change multiple times. PO changes, driven by factors both internal and external to your company, can happen daily. Whether external supplier constraints require changes for a part currently on order, or internal modifications driven by MRP or APS cause Syteline’s Planning Detail to suggest changes to a current order, it means there’s suddenly a lot of additional work needed for that particular PO–work that’s not necessarily made easy by the ERP.
If Syteline is your sole resource, then those changes will call for a substantial amount of manual work. There’s the communication process (both internal and external) and the tracking of the changes being made, tasks which are often handled within siloed processes like email and spreadsheets. There’s also the manual task of updating the information within Syteline itself.
So what happens in reality is that your Purchasing team becomes completely focused on all those manual processes, and new requirements end up getting missed. While you may want your Purchasing group focused on things like risk management and strategic sourcing, what this all usually means is that they spend their time instead focused on the administrative work, such as running reports, sending emails, responding to emails, making calls to follow up with suppliers, and manually updating the ERP so the information is current.
What’s even worse, along the way they’ll very likely also wind up going back to bad old paper to track changes (printing hard-copy POs and writing in the margins) or to keep up with all the manual information flows (sticky notes on computer monitors and desktops). Yikes.
SourceDay Automation Added to Syteline is a Better Answer
This is where SourceDay can help. Because we work in conjunction with Syteline, our software solutions allow you to leverage the power of your ERP and fully digitize and automate all those tasks.
Our PO Collaboration tool facilitates proactive PO management, and anticipates that changes are likely. Our simple interface allows you to see the status of every line on every PO at a glance. Our intuitive dashboard allows buyers to filter orders by status, ask suppliers for updates, and make changes to orders without resorting to paper or other siloed programs. And communication of changes for both you and your suppliers are all handled within the tool, too, along with acknowledgements of the changes, so everyone is on the same page— all the time. No more miles-long email strings or repeated phone conversations.
And all the changes made within SourceDay’s tools are automatically updated within Syteline too. So, no more manual ERP updates are required for the change order process!
SourceDay’s Supplier Collaboration tool lets you push all these capabilities out to your suppliers as well, so that you’re all working from the same playbook. Everyone has access to the same dashboard, and can see every line of every PO in real time.
Finally, for the bigger picture, SourceDay helps you drive tangible improvement results with our supplier scorecard, which is also available to both you and each of your suppliers. Real-time tracking of KPIs like Acknowledgement Rate, On-Time Delivery, and Quality allow you to see problems right when they occur and to work with your suppliers to get things back on track. Over the long haul, these measures also help your suppliers set and achieve improvement targets, making your partnerships increasingly valuable.
In conclusion…
Failing to have the great people on your Purchasing team work on the most valuable tasks frustrates them and you. While Syteline helped you make huge strides toward that objective, it didn’t quite get you all the way there. Your people still spend too much of their time on administrative tasks that keep them from focusing on the most important things.
SourceDay will get you the rest of the way there. By digitizing and automating all that remaining manual work (and appalling use of paper!) your Purchasing teams are still doing, we get them focused on the right stuff, the stuff that will make your business stronger and more resilient.
