How Data Exchange Products can Help Your Company Grow: Benefit 2 - Generating Fewer Errors

Hi, my name is Kasia Komander, I am a consultant for Electronic Data Exchange solutions. You already know how data management products can help you save time, so today I would like to give you a short example of their enourmous impact on limiting data errors in the process of exchanging documents in your company.

Let’s think about a simple case of document processing between two business partners, carried out traditionally by processing the documents manually on paper, by phone or by fax. Manual document processing carries a great risk of mistakes. Just imagine that one 0 is missing in the item quantity. In such a case, payment will be received not for 10000 items, but only for 1000. So, another document will have to be issued which will correct it.

A mistake in the address may happen due to a slip of the tongue or spelling mistake, and this can also cause delays. Forgetting to enter an invoice in the IT system is another potential error. It will not be tracebale later on, which means information about the data will not be collected and your analysis and forecasts will be based on inaccurate statistics.

Physical document storage carries risks too. Printed documents might be filed in the wrong place, or misplaced as they pass through the hands of many people. The company may face major problems with audits because of that. Remember that an invoice has to be archived, for up to 10 years in some countries.

According to entrepreneur.com, incorrect data costs businesses 30 per cent or more of their revenue on average. Fortunately, there are many data management products that can help you reduce the number of errors. Let me give you some key examples.

First, Reduction of document processing stages

With data management products, document data are entered just once in a company’s internal IT system and then sent with just one click directly to the receiver’s system, so the information cannot be altered by many different people.

Second, Turnaround wizards

Modern systems enable the use of turnaround wizards, which make it possible to create an invoice based on an existing order, and in which all the data (such as item quantity, delivery address, etc.) are already set beforehand and saved in the system. This means that information is transferred automatically to the invoice. As a result, an invoice can’t contain an incorrect address or VAT number, because it is filled in automatically by the system, which stores all the master data of a given business partner.

Third, Validation process

EDI or e-Invoicing, simply don’t allow mistakes to occur because automatic document validation rules such as checking net and gross amounts are always performed during document transmission.

Fourth, E-archiving

Some products give the opportunity to store and manage all invoices (sent and received) for the legally required retention period.

Fifth, No need to ask for product data

When placing an order, the customer doesn’t have to call the supplier and ask for every single product detail as all information can be automatically collected and verified using master data management. Each product is assigned to a specific category with a set of attributes that must be completed by your business partner. Data values are evaluated and updated in a real time, so the possibility of errors, duplicates or outdated information is reduced to zero. These are only a few examples of the elimination of mistakes in your document exchange processes using master data managementt. In a world that is increasingly digitized, technological development is crucial if companies wish to maintain their competitive advantage.

If you’d like to talk about specific Comarch solutions for your company, don’t hesitate to contact me at Katarzyna.Komander@comarch.com.