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Effectively Managing the Quote to Cash Cycle
Today many companies are facing complex quote to cash cycles. Many of them are using various
business systems that are not integrated, which complicates the process even further.
Traditionally in the quote to cash process, a customer sends in a request, a quotation is sent
back, and when the quote is accepted, the company makes the product, ships it to the customer
and sends an invoice. Today, products are manufactured and distributed by a variety of outsourced
providers all over the globe. Intricate product pricing and configuration, and a wide range
of data must be negotiated, approved and monitored. Orders come in through multiple sources,
including websites, stores, to distributors, emails, phone or fax. Companies now play in the global
sphere, where regulatory requirements can be complex and sustainability is yet another puzzle
piece. And with today’s economy comes an urgent need for as much operational efficiency as
possible in order to reduce costs and drive profits.
At the most basic level, this means improving cash flow. Companies use a variety of technologies
to automate the quote to cash cycle, including ERP, electronic exchange, etc. Beyond improving
cash, quote to cash excellence provides a competitive advantage. In addition, end-to-end order
management offers visibility, which in turn, increases business agility. Businesses able to
demonstrate such integration and flexibility stand a better chance of executing a higher
percentage of ideal orders. Achieving a high percentage of ideal orders requires companies to
revisit how existing order processes support multiple selling channels, multiple fulfillment
scenarios and visibility into order management.
To improve the accuracy of quotes through to invoicing, many companies are looking to update
their business systems. Companies should judge their order management performance based on
a variety of key performance indicators, such as:
- Available-to-promise visibility
- Order status across all stages
- Picking error rate
- On-Time delivery percentage
- Order cycle time
- Order accuracy percentage
Fixing the problem begins and ends with a good understanding of the current and desired process
and awareness of points of failure. Companies that execute quote to cash well link and validate all
data in the chain. Looking at a simplistic flow such as Price - Quote - Order - Invoice, one must
make sure that data and business rules come from the same or reconciled sources. If they don’t,
at best you will generate errors and incur costly manual checking and corrections downstream.
By using a flexible, integrated ERP business solution, companies are able to automate much of
the process and improve the accuracy of their quotes, orders, manufacturing, delivery and
invoicing. Companies that use the NDS ERP Solution are able to create more front-end visibility,
which enables the sales staff to be capable of doing more than taking orders. Billing can be run
nightly and customers receive their invoices electronically the next morning. With richer reporting
and visibility, updating sales forecasts is easier when you know what kinds of commitments have
already been made. The benefits can also accrue to your customers. By having a business
system that is flexible enough to allow customer portals, your customers can have self service on
open invoices, status of their work through production, reprinting of documents, and more.
Customers can receive automatic notifications for timely events, such as advanced shipping
notices or overdue invoice notices.
Indeed, ERP solutions help fix errors and exceptions in the order to cash process, automate the
receivables and collections management process, and deliver real-time click-through visibility
across the financial transactions. These solutions are delivering tremendous returns--in revenue
assurance, unlocking working capital, reducing operational costs and improving customer
interactions.
Call us 727-538-2250 or fill out our online form
for more information on how the NDS ERP Solution can solve your business needs.
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