Basware AP Automation vs. Emptoris vs. Procure to Pay

The system it self and its functionality is great. Most screens and work flows are easy to understand and use without any training. Its usually obvious what the next step is for the user, e.g adding coding, review etc. The information shown to the user is also built in a good way and the overall "feel" of the system is among best in market. Some of the admin parts require Basware AP Automation help, even though you technically can do it yourself as admin, the documentation available is not enough to help you through it.

Incentivized

If you have a highly bureaucratic organization that is heavily focused on procurement, Emptoris can provide some value. It seemed to be very good at linking the contract information to procurement for better spend control. If you are trying to implement a standalone contract management solution that allows you to easily create contracts and store them in a central location, this isn't the tool for you. There doesn't appear to be a simplified implementation. In general, when a SaaS solution has a complicated and expensive implementation, I am very skeptical. This does not show that the vendor is trying to move customers forward on a single code base. If that many things need to be done during implementation, you are starting to customize the solution for every customer. This hurts the vendor's ability to scale and make improvements in the future.

Incentivized

• Clear and intuitive software interface.
• Easy to see the entire history of what happened to invoice.
• Good integration with ERP system.

Incentivized

• Document protection - the Check Out contract feature is a great way to allow external parties to make modifications to contract language without the ability to accept those changes. Those redlines can then be imported back into Emptoris and reviewed or further modified as needed.
• Notifications & reminders - you can trigger an email manually from within the system, or you can configure automated notifications andreminders to alert users when a new task is received or has aged a given amount of days, etc.
• Interview wizard - there is a lot of value in the interview wizard. Administrators can configure screens with selecting options via check boxes, radio buttons, or typed-in values. Variables and conditions can be used to selectively populate fields within the contract or apply other options, making for a quick and convenient method to generate contracts conforming to corporate standards.
• Field customization - administrators can customize a list of options for various fields including contract substatus, address type, and user created business term variables.
• Approvals - many different options are available to configure approvals to trigger automatically upon presenting and/or executing the contract including specific individuals, one or more approver groups, or based upon various criteria including terms within the contract, type of contract, or the contract's owning organization.

Incentivized

• There needs to be an easier way to view past invoices as the current method requires that you select from the pull-down menu each and every time
• Instructions for the more commonly used features should be available within the program itself rather than having to search the online help index in order to find this information (bubble pop ups would be nice)
• More functionality should be build into the invoice processing system (you should be able to forward via email, include screenshots, etc)

Incentivized

• Reporting, Emptoris comes with standard reports which can not always can be fit into our business. This needs to be improved. I hope Emptoris is addressing this issue in their latest releases.
• Though the feature of editing language in MS word is excellent, loading MS word takes time.

We will continue using product and continue renewing as it is widely used product and it has been well adapted by users in our organization. The product is expensive but we will use it. Hopefully the product bugs will be fixed in future and they will provide more HA architecture feather for Basware.

Incentivized

There are a lot of new, exciting products coming out in every field and I believe that there is always something better right over the horizon. If it was my choice, I would review my usage of Emptoris and other software periodically to make sure I'm using the most efficient software possible.

Incentivized

The GUI and workflows are easy to understand. It makes sense where the "buttons" and menus are located. Design is overall getting improvements constantly as well, so there is updates coming all the time. System is quick, few bugs and errors that cause issues. Up time and accessibility is on a very good level.

Incentivized

Emptoris is a pretty robust tool overall. Learning curve is small and it is simple to use

Incentivized

The above rating for the overall support from Emptoris is for their product / product support, roll out training and refresher training / ongoing training, which is not only good but superior. There is no major or reconizable bad review that can be given to Emptoris at this point in time, from where is stands.

Incentivized

Basware was not my selection as I was not with the company at the time. It was easy to learn and we have maintained a good working relationship with Basware. It is a very good way to process the workflow of invoices from start to finish

Incentivized

I am a fan of Ariba to be used for the entire lifecycle of Sourcing. From RFX's to cutting PO's. I feel Emptoris misses the boat on the idea of a "One Stop Shop" for all of your Sourcing/Purchasing needs

Incentivized

• faster processing of invoices due to short step process
• it's user friendly so not much training is needed to use the system
• templates and favorites decreases time spent

Incentivized

• We won the 2005 Baseline Magazine Award for best ROI related to a technology implementation with an ROI 5544% (see 2005 Baseline ROI Awards, GlaxoSmithkline).
• We always felt we could do "two times the work, with half the people and deliver double the savings".

Incentivized