How to Improve Customer Service By Optimising Your Order-to-Cash Process

Who Will Benefit Most from this Whitepaper?

This whitepaper will be of greatest value to organisations that recognise that their order-to-cash processes are not fully optimised; and that they must regularly deploy valuable people to take on transaction-related tasks that provide little opportunity to enhance customer relationships.

Within these organisations:

GPOs • Heads of Customer Service • Heads of Supply Chain •Heads of Shared Service Centres •Heads of Finance • Heads of Logistics •

How to Improve

Customer Service By Optimising the O2C Process

OmPrompt White Paper

2| OmPrompt - How to Improve Customer Service By Optimising the O2C Process

Today’s Customer Management ChallengeOf the millions of transactions that are part of the supplier-customer order-to-cash (O2C) process, some transactions, like sales calls, are opportunities for suppliers to build their relationship with a customer. Most, however, represent no such opportunity to add value – but do have the potential to erode the relationship if they go wrong. Every time an order, order acknowledgement, shipment notice, proof-of-delivery note, or invoice is delayed or inaccurate, you run the very real risk of disappointing your customer.

For these millions of daily transactions to operate efficiently, consistently accurate and on-time communication must take place between all the different systems involved in transactions. A practical solution would be to standardise communications across all customers and all systems. But suppliers just don’t have the leverage to impose standards; instead, you’re forced to try to accommodate a dizzying array of formats, processes, and data standards.

The Cost of Manual Intervention

Adapting to these diverse formats requires time-consuming manual intervention and workarounds, with people in customer service, accounts, and logistics often called on to process orders and goods receipt notes, chase proof of delivery documents, and check the validity of claims. However, time and effort that these customer-facing people spend on manual tasks is time they could be spending building relationships with customers. Manual intervention also leads to costly mistakes and delays that cause customers to lose confidence in your ability to serve them.

The problem is driving up costs, slowing revenue growth, and eroding customer loyalty. In an increasingly competitive world, this is no longer a sustainable situation.Today, a perfect order performance of 45% to 55% is seen as good, with manual intervention filling all the

gaps. What suppliers need is a tool that communicates all this transaction-related information using the preferred and/or optimal mode, and for the translation mechanism to be automated and error-free.

The desire to improve the O2C process is great. According to a 2011 Aberdeen Group study, 67% of those surveyed cited “pressure to reduce overall costs” as the primary reason for evaluating their current O2C processes. Other reasons included “risk of customer non-payment or default,” and “customer demand to improve service levels.”

DID YOU KNOW?The #1 practice leading to effectiveness and

quality in the revenue cycle is “using tools for automatic assessment and cleansing of customer and

product master data.”

– IBM 2013

Key pressures to implement O2C process automation

Pressure to reduce overall costs 67%

Risk of customer non-payment or default 29%

Customer demand to improve service levels 29%

Inability to accurately forecast cash flow 21%

Rising cost of servicing major customers 19%

Customer pressure to extend payment terms 19%

How to Improve Customer Service By Optimising the O2C Process - OmPrompt | 3

The Solution? OmPrompt Customer Automation Management

Using customer-facing people to remedy inconsistencies and errors in the O2C process isn’t the answer. OmPrompt Customer Automation Management is.

OmPrompt Customer Automation Management is a cloud-based managed service that captures, centralises, automates, and shares all the critical intelligence as a company-wide resource via an easy-to-use dashboard, freeing your staff to add the kind of value that allows your company to compete more effectively.

Our solution combines technology, people, and processes to provide the capabilities essential to handling the diversity of transaction formats and preferences, including adaptive multi-format support, intelligent business rules processing, customer master data validation, and accelerated exception management.

OmPrompt automates non-standard but commonly-occurring events in the O2C process to boost efficiency and improve the level of service your team delivers. It also recognises exceptions and accelerates their management, all whilst updating its business rules engine for future reference. OmPrompt automates every form of transactional message through every part of the process, from ordering through to fulfilment, delivery, invoicing, payment, dispute management, customer care, and more.

With OmPrompt, you’re able to automate customer management processes and eliminate:

• inaccurate sales orders• high fulfilment error rates• high Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)• the inability to meet special requests

and sudden changes• the high cost of resolving disputes• long-term losses resulting from customer

dissatisfaction• the costs and errors associated with manual

intervention.

Leading companies are using OmPrompt Customer Automation Management to:

• automate up to 100% of their orders• track and manage on-time performance and KPIs

across all deliveries, instantly invoicing the clean ones

• automate the collection and reconciliation of proof-of-delivery (POD) documentation.

These companies have reduced processing costs by up to 30%, accelerated cash collection by 20%, and maintained service levels at the same time.

A 2011 Aberdeen Study showed the #1 objective for organisations when automating part/all of their O2C processes was to reduce Days Sales Outstanding, or DSO.

Primary objectives cited for O2C automation

Reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) 54%

Improve cash flow forecasting 42%

Reduce receivables processing cost/time 36%

Reduce O2C cycle 35%

Improve transaction efficiency and expense collection 34%

Manage credit risk, losses from bad debt, and collection

expense30%

technology + people + processes


Optimising the O2C Process at Every Stage

Receiving Orders Today: the Costly Reality

In most businesses, a significant percentage of orders require some form of manual intervention, reducing overall efficiency and accuracy. Gaps in the order process have a ripple effect that impacts the entire O2C cycle.

Receiving Orders with OmPrompt

OmPrompt’s intelligent business rules capture all the inherent diversity within customer management, permanently integrating the accumulated knowledge into the system to make it possible to quickly and accurately process orders, in whatever format they are received. The orders are then automatically entered into the back-end systems that are part of the supply chain.

Order Fulfilment Today: the Costly Reality

Suppliers often must rely on delivery information that is 24-48 hours old, supplied from memory, then manually entered into a transport management system. When information is delayed, invoicing and payment are also delayed. This makes it difficult to rectify unclean loads or resolve claims in time to avoid customer penalties. Without

insight into the reason for a late arrival, short-shipment, or damaged goods, you cannot accurately measure carrier performance or take swift action to remedy the situation. Gaps in fulfilment visibility are corrected only after time-consuming manual workarounds including data entry, telephone calls between drivers and the traffic office, and document retrieval.

Component What it does Positive impact on your business

Pre-order automation

• Hones best-practice

• Delivers visibility into future sales by managing diversity, including Vendor Managed Inventory systems integration and forecasting in multiple formats.

• Eliminates repetitive, zero- value-added tasks

• Improves forecast visibility and accuracy

• Provides a consolidated view that helps companies make more informed decisions.

Order automation

• Combines technology, people, and processes to provide multi-format order support, accelerated exception management, and intelligent business rules

• Optical scanning of orders in any provided format identifies pertinent information and enters it directly into the system.

• Reduces errors

• Reduces human resource investment

• Allows customer service teams to focus on managing customers more effectively and on upselling.

DID YOU KNOW?For all but “best-in-class” organisations, only 34% of purchase orders are received electronically

(and just 53% for best-in-class)

– Aberdeen 2011



Order Fufilment with OmPrompt

All the knowledge your team has accumulated about your customers, their quirks and their preferences, is essential for efficient order fulfilment. OmPrompt helps capture as much of the information they hold in their heads as possible to establish “one version of the truth” that can then be stored as business rules and then acted upon. The gathering and storing of knowledge also applies to products as it applies to master data management (MDM). The following are just a few examples:

The system can be programmed so customers ordering a product of which there is limited or no stock are offered a similar one (of which there is an excess) at a better rate. Once supply levels balance out or a new delivery arrives, that offer can be dropped.

Changes can be made in the system for all customers, individuals or groups. If the roads in a region are affected by bad weather, alternate delivery plans can be set up and the affected customers informed of

contingency plans as orders are processed. If there is an agreed offer across all branches of a retailer, the system can honour it for the agreed period for all their orders, but not for other customers.

If an order comes in with an unknown stock keeping unit (SKU) code OmPrompt detects this and can raise an alert. It may be that the order needs manual processing to correct a mistake, or that the customer wants a new product for which the SKU code has not yet been added to the master database.

If there are days of the week when deliveries cannot be accepted and customer shipments should be delayed or speeded up, this information gets to the right people because OmPrompt integrates with logistics and transport companies; the creation of dispatch notes is automated with all the information drivers need to get orders to the right place as quickly as possible.


Fulfilment automation

• Based on an order, OmPrompt automates the movement of stock, location and expected time of movement, booking and bay management, and transactional messages across the system.

• Frees up your people to manage complex situations

• Allows staff to focus on service, not mundane tasks

• Ensures the highest degree of transactional excellence.

Delivery automation

• Captures, collates, and automates inputs from multiple sources and integrates them into usable data: trip events, discrepancies, and POD networks, no matter what the source

• Helps pre-empt issues by flagging potential problems automatically

• Eliminates the need for manual delivery status updates

• Provides accurate on-time and in-full (OTIF) metrics.

• Provides end-to-end visibility into what is happening at every stage of the logistics supply chain, allowing you to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.



Getting Paid Today: the Costly Reality

Getting paid on time and in full (OTIF) relies heavily on having visibility over your entire O2C process. Manual intervention slows the process down and often hides information that could prevent a dispute or help resolve it more quickly. The wait for POD documentation to be returned by the logistics provider, or for their investigation into customer claims, places a burden on your accounts receivable department. These are gaps in the system that delay cash collection.

Getting Paid with OmPrompt

OmPrompt’s customer automation management system helps ensure prompt payment by improving the accuracy of order entries and ensuring these orders are fulfilled more rapidly. Faster POD means that problems with orders, such as breakages or returns, are reported more quickly and invoices can be adjusted accordingly. Invoices that match POD notes and take into account delivery problems are more likely to be uncontested and paid the first time around, promptly and in full. Undisputed invoices mean less finance staff time is wasted chasing late payments. Most importantly, faster payment means a lower number of DSO.


Invoice automation

• Links available data from transaction messages submitted by the customer with internal systems

• Identifies issues in the master data and corrects them before hitting the accounting system, or flags them for review

• Automates repetitive interventions that can be identified by the system not requiring human interaction.

• Reduces downstream errors• Reduces DSO, leading to better cash flow• Frees customer-facing staff to provide better service.

Payment automation

• Captures, collates and automates multiple payment notification types

• Stores information about transactions that haven’t been reconciled yet

• Built-in intelligence monitors and flags outstanding issues.

• Accelerates exception management • Speeds the payment process.

Dispute automation

• Automatically reconciles supplier and customer delivery with claims documentation

• Identifies common patterns of miscommunication and eliminates them from the process.

• Promotes fact-based negotiations• Ensures compliance with defined processes• Speeds claims management thanks to accurate data• Identifies root causes of miscommunications• Eliminates opportunities for withholding or

delaying payment• Reduces the likelihood of future disputes.

Customer care automation

• Captures, collates and automates the collection of complaints through notifications, classification of product failures or complaint trends; provides a holistic view of this information

• Flags illogical or irreconcilable information to be handled by customer care and service teams.

• Brings automation to the process in a way that may offer insight into not just what happened, but why it happened.


Critical Benefits for Your Business

One of the primary benefits of OmPrompt customer automation management is the ability to serve existing customers better and attract new ones. It also offers a number of other important benefits.

Lower costs

• Improved accuracy of order entry means fewer mis-shipments, disputes, and returns

• Better exception handling means true exceptions are identified and dealt with more quickly

• International visibility improves cross-border inventory and cash management.

Increased value

• CSRs (customer service representatives) are freed up to focus on improving customer relations and driving more sales

• More integrated operations allows you a greater choice of supply chain contractors

• More accurate order processing, tailored for each customer, leads to greater overall customer satisfaction.

Improved cash flow

• Reduced DSO means less cash lingers in the supply chain and more goes in the bank

• Proactive stock management means surplus goods can be moved using special offers

• Lower DSO leads to improved cash management, which can raise stock prices and enhance your reputation

• More comprehensive and better quality master data improves your ability to put in place special offers, etc.

Reduced process time

• Closing the O2C gaps minimises the length of the O2C process, so customers get products more rapidly – and you get paid sooner.

Reduced risks

• More accurate data across the O2C process leads to better reporting and a greater ability to demonstrate compliance

• More information about customers’ quirks and preferences is captured centrally, not held in the heads of individual staff members, leading to fewer errors and better overall service

• Processes can be adapted on a customer-by-customer basis to ensure unique requirements are consistently met

• Contingency plans for filling orders can be put in place if and when events, like bad weather, affect logistics operations and dispatch notes

• Real-time visibility helps you manage cash and inventory

• Reduced administrative work and solid internal controls ensure that you’re paying what you should be paying for invoices and claims; it also reduces costly errors that result from manual intervention.

Happier employees

• Staff members who feel more motivated by their ability to have a positive impact on customer relationships will likely earn more bonuses and commissions; consequently, they are more satisfied and productive. All of this leads to increased employee retention/reduced churn.

BENEFITS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS

Your customers’ greatest need is to get the exact goods they ordered delivered on time. OmPrompt ensures this by giving suppliers the mechanism they need to:

• Acknowledge orders more quickly

• Process orders more quickly and accurately

• Deliver orders on time and in full more often

• Minimise overall turnaround.


The OmPrompt Components

Adaptive Multiformat Support

The O2C cycle involves a number of challenges, first of which is the diversity of customer order types and formats that suppliers must accommodate (or risk losing the business). A significant number of orders will require some manual intervention before they can be captured, leading to unnecessary delay and greater risk of errors, and requiring suppliers to divert customer service representatives from more valuable activities.

These issues are easily solved with OmPrompt:

• Emails and electronic documents are parsed (analysed into logical syntactic components) and key elements describing the order are captured

• Paper documents are scanned using optical character recognition (OCR). The customer name is usually recognisable from the header, and the format of what follows is predictable based on past experience; the order is processed with little operator intervention

• Handwritten or verbal orders are keyed in manually. If the OmPrompt system knows that a customer has always ordered a product in quantities of 100 and the operator enters “1,000”, this can be flagged as an exception to be double checked by contacting the customer

• Of course there will be exceptions, like when a late amendment has been added by hand. The amendment can be flagged for an operator who can amend the information already gleaned through OCR.

OmPrompt’s intelligent cloud-based approach is based on the principle that suppliers must – and can – embrace the diversity of customer behaviours rather than try to impose standards on customers. Adaptive multi-format support allows our customers to fully automate far more of their inbound orders.

Accelerated Exception Management

No matter how many business rules are embedded in your customer management environment, there will always be exceptions because customers modify their processes and don’t always let you know.

Without OmPrompt, a delivery date missing from a purchase order, a new address, or a new column on a spreadsheet must be investigated by a CSR, a step that takes that person away from the front office (and often what they learn is not stored appropriately, except in their heads, to avoid the problem occurring again).

OmPrompt identifies, escalates, resolves, learns from, and then uses the information that’s gathered in dealing with every exception to perpetually drive down the number of exceptions.

OmPrompt’s operations team works with our customers and customers’ customers to resolve exceptions 24/7, delivering a superior service on the exceptional occasion when automated transactions hit a bump in the road.

OMPROMPT LEADS TO ONGOING IMPROVEMENTS

“What gets measured gets improved.”

Better data collection results in better reporting, with improved accuracy across customers

and countries. It also allows greater visibility into the activities and effectiveness of supply

chain partners. Accurate reporting is also necessary for organisations to prove that they are in

compliance with the rules that govern their industries.


The OmPrompt Components Intelligent Business Rules Processing

OmPrompt’s intelligent business rules capture the diversity of customers’ formats and preferences, absorbing workflow rules into a permanent glossary of communications. This significantly reduces the need for manual intervention by customer-facing staff. Here are just a few examples of the kind of rules that can be applied:

• Recognise multiple phrases and convert them to standard terms. “Duty paid” might be received in an order as “DP” or “DutyP” or “DUP”. OmPrompt converts a range of descriptions to a single phrase the system recognises

• Ensure the number of cases ordered does not exceed pallet quantity by product. If 18 cases of a particular product fills a pallet, this rule is applied to make sure the customer hasn’t ordered 19 cases, as this would result in a split order requiring two pallets or two vans

• Alert if mixed duty status on order. If an order includes one line that shows “duty paid” and the next shows “duty unpaid”, this rule sends an alert to customer service telling them that this order contains multiple stages, in order to avoid sending the second line if the duty has not been paid

• Check total weight & cases by product type. If you are to deliver an order to the Outer Hebrides, local regulations may prevent you from using anything but a small van, so you want to make sure that the order fits properly. This rule checks that the order being shipped doesn’t weigh too much or isn’t too large for the van

• Convert product description to product code. From the product description we can set a rule that extrapolates the product code. This is useful if the product code isn’t actually included in the order – something that happens more frequently than you might think!

With intelligent rules in place, a significant percentage of orders that would otherwise require intervention are quickly processed and moved along to the next stage of the O2C process.

Customer Master Data Validation

Master data often becomes a jumble of old, new, organic, acquired, correct, and incorrect information. New products are continually being developed, launched, improved, and phased out; some may be added to the customer’s portfolio as the result of a merger or acquisition, with some having codes similar to existing ones. Without OmPrompt, a customer order, remittance advice, or POD document containing information that does not match the system’s master data is likely to be entered manually, resulting in the wrong product being dispatched or the right product being delivered to the wrong address.

Manually correcting mistakes like these is expensive and quickly adds to operational costs. Incorrect data can also have a negative impact on DSO as invoices remain unpaid because they can’t be reconciled.

OmPrompt’s customer master data validation verifies the accuracy of the master data stored in your ERP system, preventing expensive fulfilment errors – now and in the future.

HOW DO YOU COMPARE?BEST-IN-CLASS ORGANISATIONS & O2C

• Percentage of accounts receivable past date due: 3.3%

• Number of days required for payments to clear the accounts receivable ledger: 1.3

• Percentage of invoices that require manual intervention to resolve: 16.2%

BIC represents top 20% of aggregate performance scorers

– Aberdeen 2011


The Right Solution for FMCG & Healthcare Suppliers

Consumer Good Suppliers

Today, 98% of top FMCG companies receive orders from customers that need rekeying.

• OmPrompt’s customer automation management helps reduce the need to manually process regular orders and therefore reduces associated errors, freeing up back-office staff to deal with exceptions and have more productive conversations with customers

• Improved delivery and automated processing of POD notes can reduce the time taken to confirm that goods have been received from weeks to hours

• Better insight into the delivery process helps handle one of the biggest issues retail outlets have: late deliveries. When problems arise, suppliers can be proactive and warn customers

• Compressing the time between processing an order and receiving a POD means invoices can be raised more quickly, DSO reduced, and your overall cash management position improved. That frees up cash for investment in other areas, such as improvements to customer service.

Healthcare (Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices)

Customer automation management can enhance and improve the O2C process for pharmaceutical and goods/equipment suppliers in a number of ways:

• Compliance. Tracking drugs, from a legislative perspective, and having an electronic blueprint of their movement is better managed and more secure using an electronic system rather than a paper trail

• Replenishment of consignments. Some suppliers still own their goods, even when on their customers’ shelves, and invoices are only issued for what is used. Automated systems make it easier to forecast the need for new supplies and recognise when expiry dates are nearing

• In countries with national services, such as the UK’s NHS, automation can ensure required standards are met and that volume discounts are applied across different outlets.

“OmPrompt has helped us take our customer service to the next level.

Customers are happier because they’re getting goods on time and they’re getting

the attention they need, when they need it. All of this means we’re getting paid faster,

too.”

– FMCG Customer

An unoptimised O2C process is felt throughout the company

The Customer Sales

Customer Service Finance/Accounting

Supply Chain Fulfilment/Logistics


Brief Case Studies

Customer

The EMEA division of a global personal care products company, embarked on a major transformation initiative to achieve process efficiency and deliver enhanced customer experience.

ChallengesThis customer’s challenge was to consolidate its customer service functions into a new shared service function without negatively affecting customer service levels – all whilst achieving its cost reduction targets.

Our Solution• OmPrompt automated the entry of 120,000 fax and PDF orders• Implemented business rules processing to replicate decisions made at the order capture stage• Put master data synchronisation in place to validate and populate order details.

The Results• The customer realised cost savings of €540k per year• In addition, employees have more time for to spend on value-added interactions

with customers.

1

Customer

The UK division of a global drinks manufacturer serving a diverse range of customers, from major retailers to independent pubs.

ChallengesThis customer’s dynamic shipment patterns resulted in lower than optimal service levels and high transportation costs. In addition, a significant percentage of its shipments were coming from 8 distribution centers (DCs) in various locations.

Our Solution• OmPrompt implemented the order management platform with business rules validation and

master data synchronisation that resulted in:– Exception management that identifies order discrepancies such as pricing, product

details, and delivery addresses– Correct order detail population and amendments to missing data.

The Results• The customer realised €612K total impact across 60,000 orders per year • Our solution is key to the improvement of order accuracy from 98% to 99.7%• Customer service has moved closer to The Perfect Order.

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Brief Case Studies

Customer

A dairy products manufacturer producing its own label and branded products across the UK food sector.

ChallengesThis customer had a high volume of shipments originating from 8 distribution centers (DCs) in various locations, and dynamic shipment patterns that resulted in lower than optimal service levels and high transportation costs.

Our Solution• OmPrompt implemented a delivery visibility platform to capture and normalise all delivery

information. This platform also:• Automates the updating of delivery documents to a single platform• Provides an audit trail and visibility across all stages of delivery, to challenge any disputes• Captures and organises all complaints to validate with them against delivery information.

The Results• Because all information is available in real time, customer service is able to respond more

quickly and effectively to customer complaints• Good-will write-offs have been reduced by €5.4M per annum• The customer also realized a reduction in annual effort by €240,000.

3

Average customer results using OmPrompt customer automation management

Perfect order performance 2%

Overall cost reduction in O2C process 40%

DSO reduction 8%

OTIF improvement 3%

O2C cycle time 12%

Number of invoices requiring manual intervention

to resolve22% of queried invoices

These case studies are just three examples of the challenges customers have and how OmPrompt helps solve them. The table below shows the average improvement of all customers across a number of metrics.


Decide for Yourself: Can Your Process be Optimised?

16 Facts you Need to KnowAbout OmPrompt

“Can we achieve more, faster, and with the same or fewer resources – without compromising our ability to deliver a very high level of service?”

Yes, it is possible to strike this critical balance and radically improve your O2C process performance by eliminating the workarounds performed by staff in order to bridge gaps in the process or between systems.

To better understand where the gaps are in your O2C process and if your organisation could benefit from customer automation management, you must first look at the current state of your processes. Within each step – order, fulfilment, and payment – we recommend you investigate the following:

1. The causes of mistakes. Are workarounds leaving you vulnerable to error? When errors are made, what are the consequences and what do they cost you?

2. Where does variation or constraint in speed and processing time impact your overall efficiency? What slows you down? Does it impact other departments? What workarounds have you put in place?

3. Are you able to identify, escape, and resolve exceptions in a timely fashion? If not, what impact does this have on the rest of your business?

4. Where are you diverting people to work around gaps in technology or processes? How much cash could you release by automating these workarounds?

5. Where are you missing opportunities to add value to the customer experience because people are being diverted from customer contact?

6. Are there areas for which your managers are accountable but have less control than they would like?

How you answer these questions will provide a clear picture of where opportunities exist to optimise your processes through intelligent automation.

The OmPrompt solution:

1. Allows you to “start small”, get results fast, add customers, and add additional component solutions as and when required

2. Is fully secure, available 24/7 and infinitely scalable

3. Uses award-winning industry-leading technology to fully automate your O2C process

4. Can be implemented within weeks or days – no need for IT investment; no hardware or software to install

5. Integrates with your existing infrastructure

6. Is a pay-per-use solution based in the cloud so everyone in your organisation has appropriate visibility into orders, shipments, inventory, invoices, and payments

7. Supports all EDI formats, such as EDICT, TRADACOMS, ANSI, email, PDF, fax, AS/2, FTP, HTTP; it also supports all the main ERP, CRM, transport management/planning and warehouse management systems.

OmPrompt allows organisations to:

8. Manage risks more effectively

9. Improve service

10. Spend more time pursuing new customers

11. Have greater visibility over the fulfilment process

12. Have a more accurate picture of compliance

13. Speed up the O2C process

14. Reduce the costs of processing transactions

15. Improve fulfilment performance

16. Improve reporting.


A Business Case for OmPrompt

Consider this scenario:

Your closest competitor, challenged by many of the same weaknesses in its O2C process as your business, sees the need to find a better way of operating. The company’s Head of Customer Service is charged with reducing DSO and the percentage of complete orders. She learns about OmPrompt’s capabilities and is convinced of its potential to fill those gaps and improve the overall process. In addition to getting her team members back to the work of growing the business (instead of investing in manually repetitive back-office tasks), she knows that there will be other ways OmPrompt will streamline and enhance the quality of their O2C process.

Within days of making the decision, OmPrompt is implemented, with no software to install or hardware to buy. Onboarding is quick and coordination with existing systems is easy. Operators are trained and ready to use the system almost immediately.

Three months later, this Head of Customer Service is asked by the Head of Finance to put together a narrative describing any improvements in the O2C system that can be tied to the OmPrompt implementation so that he can determine ROI. The Head of Customer Service looks at the entire process, from order to payment, and identifies the most dramatic benefits:

“Our order-to-cash cycle has decreased from 40+ to 37 days. This result

can be attributed to the combination of OmPrompt components, all of

which contribute to a quicker process through greater accuracy”.

“We’ve had far fewer fulfilment errors and, as a result, fewer disputes with customers.

I’d say that in general they are more confident in the our ability to ‘get it right’”.

“Qualitatively, I expect our customers are finding our CSRs more helpful, better

able to focus on the positive aspects of customer service”.

“Our DSO has gone from 40+ to 37 days due, in part, to improvements in order-accuracy-related-

automation. Our customers are experiencing more accurate fulfilment of their orders and we’re

being paid more quickly because more of our orders are ‘right’”.

“It’s much easier to handle the variety of unique requirements our customers have. This is something we thought would always require

intervention, but is now automated”.

“The system learns how to process exceptions, so these are dealt with much faster.

Once we know something about a customer and how they do things, that information is retained and referred to again and

again by the system”.

“I can let CSRs take on the kind of work that allows them to help customers, build relationships,

demonstrate our ability to satisfy their needs, and even to upsell

when possible. I’m happier about that and they seem to be, too”.

OmPrompt gives companies a strong competitive advantage. With OmPrompt, your competitor now has a process that’s virtually free of wasted of time and effort, and they are able to consistently satisfy customers with greater accuracy and speed. They are also in a stronger position to grow their businesses.

If your customers were to become dissatisfied with your performance, would this competitor be their next choice?


Glossary of Terms Accelerated exception management. The component of the OmPrompt solution that identifies, escalates, resolves, learns from, and then uses that intelligence to perpetually drive down number of exceptions.

Adaptive multi-format support. The ability of our solution to embrace the diversity of customer behaviours and enable customers to fully automate far more of their inbound orders.

Customer automation management. Helps suppliers regain control of their customer management processes, bridging all of the gaps that are currently dealt with by throwing people at the problem.

Customer master data validation. This component of the OmPrompt solution verifies the accuracy of the master data stored in your ERP system, preventing expensive fulfilment errors now and in the future.

CRM. Customer Relationship Management: a system that manages a company’s interactions with current and prospective customers.

CSR. Customer Service Representative: a person whose role is to address a variety of customer needs, answer enquiries and help resolve issues.

DSO. Days Sales Outstanding: a measure of the average number of days required to collect cash after invoices have been issued. It is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) stock markets look at to measure the health of a company. When customers are paying more quickly, that means less working capital is locked into inventory and therefore “idle.”

EDI. Electronic Data Interchange: the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard electronic format between business partners.

ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning: a suite of integrated applications that companies can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from many business activities.

Intelligent business rules processing. This process captures the inherent diversity within customer management, absorbing workflow rules into a permanent glossary of business communications.

IOD. Information On Delivery: information pertaining to the delivery of goods to a customer.

MDM. Master Data Management: comprises the processes, governance, policies, standards, and tools that define and manage the critical data of an organisation to provide a single point of reference.

OCR. Optical Character Recognition: the mechanical or electronic conversion of images of typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text.

OTIF. On-Time, In-Full: a percentage indicating how many orders are delivered on time without any items missing.

O2C. Order-To-Cash: the process that includes all transactions that are part of any trade involving goods or services.

POD. Proof of Delivery: a method to establish the fact that the recipient received the contents sent by the sender.

Transactional excellence. This is what happens when the optimal levels of processing work efficiently and the least number of errors is achieved.

About OmPrompt

As the pioneer of customer automation management, OmPrompt helps a growing number of the world’s leading brands eliminate gaps in the order-to-cash process that have traditionally required manual workarounds.

OmPrompt has innovative ways of automating repetitive manual work in the customer management cycle, enabling clients to free up resources, manage by except, remove restrictions, and eliminate risks to their businesses.

Our intelligent, cloud-based solutions are delivered as a service, co-exist with EDI-based solutions, are quick to deploy, easy to extend, and offer an exceptionally fast ROI.

ContactOmPrompt Ltd67 Innovation DriveMilton Park, AbingdonOxfordshire, OX14 4RQUnited Kingdom

+44 (0)1235 [email protected]

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http://www.omprompt.com

mailto:info@ omprompt.com

http://www.omprompt.com/free-consultation

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Date post:	20-Feb-2017
Category:	Technology
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How to Improve Customer Service By Optimising Your Order-to-Cash Process

Technology