Supply chain transparency has been a #1 priority for procurement executives for the last 5 years and is becoming increasingly important as global economic relationships continue to evolve. According to Ivalua, 77% of organizations consider supply chain transparency critically or highly important, yet only about 31% are satisfied with their current visibility into their supply chain.
Most procurement teams acknowledge that there are gaps in data, information, and systems that limit their ability to achieve full supply chain transformation. As these organizations rely on traditional data systems like ERP systems, achieving a simple, comprehensive procurement process is often a challenge. Some of the challenges we hear from customers with supply chain visibility are:
For customers of Dynamics F&O, there are some capabilities within Dynamics to address these challenges, but they often have only a surface level solution. At Lasernet, we work alongside Microsoft to help solve these challenges that our mutual customers face such as:
A major challenge to procurement teams is knowing whether an invoice has been sent, received, or rejected from a supplier. Dynamics will generate an email and attachment to send directly to the supplier, but there is no confirmation that it was received and that the attachment was not blocked. With Lasernet’s new email tracking module, you have the ability to track and report on whether an email and attachment has been delivered and opened.
This functionality gives procurement professionals the necessary information to either confirm or take action on sent purchasing documents.
As more organizations work and adhere to international procurement policy, there is a need for multiple different formats of documents. In Europe, as eInvoicing regulations roll out, more organizations need a flexible system that can take data from Dynamics FO and deliver it to the end recipient in the right formatting. Out of the box, Dynamics offers a few select formats, but with Lasernet the number of available output formats can be extended.
This is critical to procurement professionals because they need to ensure that their supply chain is not disrupted by delayed or incorrectly formatted documents. With eInvoicing, there can be financial penalties for each inaccurate document sent or received. With Lasernet, you can track the receipt of the document and whether the attachment has been opened or received.
This feature can inform procurement professionals that the data has been received, opened, or rejected. If something is rejected, the team can then run a report and either resend or reformat failed communications.
Communications can fail for a multitude of reasons: incorrect or missing email addresses, spam filters, or recipient email configuration rules. Often your ERP does not alert the user when a communication has failed and this can lead to disruptions in the procurement process. With Lasernet embedded in Dynamics, you can run a report, identify the failed communications, understand why they failed, and then rerun or edit those communications to ensure business continuity.
This is critically important to procurement teams because by being able to report on failed communications, the team can address these failed processes and create solutions to avoid business disruptions.
For procurement teams working in Dynamics FO, there are ways to increase your supply chain visibility with Lasernet. If you would like to learn more, please reach out to our sales team for a personalised demo by filling out the form below.