To ensure that various Siemens organizations receive the raw materials, preliminary products, and other goods they require, they place thousands of orders every day. In many cases this involves manually changing and managing data in the purchasing department. For example, orders are placed and shared via email, with corresponding confirmations later individually input into SAP manually.

On average, every employee in purchasing spends at least two hours a day following up on purchase orders and updating the hugely complex data set of orders. This adds cost and carries the risk of errors. It also makes it difficult to track the scope of different orders across various communication channels and quickly check their status with various suppliers. Another key downside: the longer and more complex the purchasing process is, the longer production might have to wait for the components they need.

Read more about how Purchase Order Management Automation (POMA) answers this complexity in the full article or read the entire Inside GBS magazine here.