As businesses continue to stabilize their operations amid the ongoing pandemic, improving revenue and customer satisfaction are among the topmost priorities. For companies dealing in the e-commerce and manufacturing business, one of the ways to achieve this is by improving their order-to-cash cycle.
We all know that an order-to-cash (O2C) process comprises the entire sales cycle, which starts from receiving an order to fulfillment of payment including invoice generation and book-keeping. Although O2C is a critical component of bottom-line profits, many companies handle them manually, which can be time and resource-consuming as well as prone to errors.
Challenges in Manual Order-to-Cash Setup
Why Automating O2C is the Need of the Hour
Automation stabilizes order recording, customer handling, billing, and invoice processing. Moreover, replacing manual paperwork with automation helps validate and enrich the entire sales process with an appropriate recording of underlying processes and documentation, alleviating the administrative burden. Automation thus results in faster order fulfillment, streamlined processes, optimized cash flows, that ultimately help improve the customer experience.
Order-to-Cash Automation with Integrated Workflows
Delivering an exceptional customer experience requires unified information and integrated workflows. Although standalone systems like ERP, CRM, and marketing automation systems do automate the respective department’s workflow, the information silos of these scattered systems undermine the efficiency of the overall processes due to poor visibility. In other words, not all automation can process the unstructured data, so it remains a manual process.
By utilizing an integrated business system to automate the cash-to-order cycle, order and customer data can be integrated with billing and accounting systems, resulting in a smooth and accelerated workflow. Moreover, with an integrated system both structured and unstructured information from different sources can be read, analyzed, and processed to make informed decisions as well as devise a better order management strategy. Thus, integrated or unified business systems help in providing omnichannel customer experience, besides providing the following benefits:
Operational Efficiency
When a CRM, billing, e-commerce storefront, and WMS systems are integrated with ERP, it not only automates the ordering and fulfillment process but also helps accelerate the overall sales cycle, increasing the efficiency of the departments and business functions.
Improved Customer Experience
Unified data helps in better management and tracking of orders and ultimately faster and error-free order fulfillment and service. In addition, the connected data helps in providing better product suggestions, resolving queries, and delivering a personalized experience.
Enhanced Revenue Recognition
Real-time visibility into cash flows and orders eliminates accounting errors with automated accounting and reconciliation. This helps in enhanced revenue recognition.
How NetSuite and Salesforce Integration Help in O2C
Integration between NetSuite and Salesforce Using Connect iPaaS
Watch NetSuite Integration Salesforce in Action using Connect iPaaS
In addition, integrating NetSuite with Salesforce imparts the following benefits:
Accelerated & Enhanced Cash Flow
Leveraging the out-of-the-box integration between NetSuite and Salesforce, businesses can reduce the time it takes to process orders and payments, prepare invoices, generate cash receipts, draw reconciliation, leading to accelerated processing of the cash flow. This also enables them to reduce costly errors, decrease DSOs (day sales outstanding) and receivables, and thereby increase collection.
Streamlined Service Order Fulfillment
With rule-based automation, businesses can get immediate access to pending orders, customer information, invoices and billings, and compliance requirements to process orders in real-time. In addition, with continuous updated documentation and information sharing across departments, businesses can streamline their entire order fulfillment cycle.
Expedited Lead Response
Integrating Salesforce with NetSuite also lets businesses get immediate alerts on orders and leads generated. This shortens the time it takes to respond to lead, which enables quick order fulfillment and customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Khushboo Chhatbar
Khushboo Chhatbar works as an Inbound Marketing Specialist at RoboMQ. She carries over 9 years of experience in executing and managing digital, inbound, and content marketing activities for the IT and software industry. She is passionate about writing for SaaS products, application integrations, and technological advancements.
