Esker offers their eponymous document automation platform, for paperless ordering and billing, and accounts payable / accounts receivable (AP / AR). It can be delivered as a cloud offering (as Esker on Demand), or on-premise (as Esker DeliveryWare).
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PeopleSoft eProcurement
Score 6.8 out of 10
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Oracle's PeopleSoft suite of software includes eProcurement, the suite's procurement automation solution.
Esker On Demand is great for Sales Order Processing order creation. We use it with web services. It can make table read calls, test order creations (simulate order), and help with order creation. They are also working on change order management, but if you have multiple order entry methods or touch points, this feature may not be usable for your company.
Currently we are only using ePro on the back end - we have an integrated front end for workflow approvals, catalog management that is much more user friendly than previous versions of PeopleSoft. It may be time to review what's now available in the new versions.
System allows for quick ordering from preferred vendors or past orders. This can expedite the process for frequent users.
PeopleSoft communicates with our finance department so allows for quick lookup and linking to the thousands of accounts that can be used fro purchasing. This reduces error in entering incorrect numbers that do not exist.
Streamline flow to the direct supervisor or account control to approve the ePro request. Triggers a direct email with link to the request, and the review/approval is less than a few clicks.
We can't enter credit memos in Esker. Need to enter in SAP and then link.
PO invoices that were trained to go into the PO bucket, route into the non-PO buckets.
Freight invoices that have had hundreds going into the non-PO bucket have a tendency to route to the PO-bucket because a PO number is referenced on page 7.
Esker does everything that it promises to do, but it is very hard to figure out. I am a very tech-savvy person, but I needed extensive training to be able to use the basic functions of Esker. Once you know what you're doing, it's not too hard, but I don't understand why they couldn't make it easier to use.
I am aware of better systems, but this is what the employer I work for has to offer. Overall, there are fewer negatives than positives so I would support the usability. New staff members can quickly obtain access and go through a 5-10 minute training video that we build in house. The speed at which someone can become a proficient user speaks to the usability of ePro.
They have been very helpful and the online support site is awesome. They keep the site up to date with the latest changes and present challenges to keep learning the new updates to keep things entertaining. They are overall a great crew to work with
I have listed a few that we considered but there were many more in the initial assessment, Esker was priced well and had the best user interface. Was really easy to use and the implementation process was well designed. It was a system that could handle a two tiered delegations of authority for project expenditure and operational expenditure.
Ariba is another option to look at as I understand end user interface is straight forward, given it is configured correctly. It is a SaaS offering with SAP that offers a market place with it's portal. Unfortunately I do not have much detail on Ariba but from what I've heard from colleges it is pretty nice. One draw back is the cost passed to vendors who sign up to use it to provide product and services to your business. I'm not sure if that is a must for all users but if so, I don't believe that is a good way to tread your vendors, especially if you have smaller vendors with slim margins
We now have reporting available down to the individual field level (changes, errors, etc) and can calculate cost to serve.
It replaced on-premise hardware with cloud SaaS that is more cost effective and risk adverse.
It is more intuitive; we can put new hires on order entry and experience less user errors. As a solution owner who fixes problems and answers questions, I don't find myself having to "think" about Esker and it has become a smaller part of my job now that end-users are more self-sufficient.
