Whether in retail or in a major bank: automated processes make work and life easier for companies of all kinds. The magic formula here is Microsoft Dynamics 365. Sven Endres is a process designer and Head of Delivery for AlfaPeople and explains what opportunities automation can offer you.

„The topic of process automation is on everyone’s lips right now,” observes Sven Endres. The AlfaPeople project manager also knows why this is the case: “On the one hand, AI is a big thing right now, on the other hand, automation is simply practical and usually saves cash!” Through the integration of the Power Platform, complex ERP processes can be mapped and controlled in a simple drag & drop application.

Sven Endres explains how this can look in everyday business practice with simple examples:

1. Small modules instead of great effort

Invoice release and invoice receipt – traditional accounting tasks. These workflows can be easily automated and thus optimised. Automatic document recognition goes hand in hand with a comparison of the related facts and figures in the database. Only checks in case of discrepancies must be carried out manually by an employee. If you look at the classic way of making a transaction, it becomes clear what process automation can do: Logging in, opening delivery notes and invoices, looking at the ERP and the tediously completed Excel tables for reconciliation, then entering the data manually… The automation module can now take care of all these steps for you! In Switzerland, automated invoice verification is already the norm.

2. Dynamic ordering saves cash

„In one project, we directly saved several hundred thousand euros in the first year,” Endres reports: he had supported a grocery store in developing an ordering algorithm – a great lever to reduce losses of products, especially perishable goods. Through process automation, warehouses can be kept at a reasonable level without tying up too much capital. “This is already moving in the direction of artificial intelligence, with matching forecasting tools,” says Endres. In retail, the desire to buy always drops off towards the middle of the week. The consultant included these parameters as well as dynamic factors such as barbecue weather: meat sales traditionally go through the roof when the sun starts to come out. If you have set up a clever process, you don’t have to worry about your assortment – and you save time as well as money: “For the store manager in this example, the daily order took 45 minutes, every day. The AI does it in a few seconds.“

Sven-Christian Endres

Head of Delivery

Sven-Christian Endres

Head of Delivery

On the one hand, AI is a big thing right now, on the other hand, automation is simply practical and usually saves cash!

3. Perfect chaos instead of endless idle time

„I was supposed to optimise a logistics warehouse with a team, I almost went crazy,” laughs Endres. The problem: the consultant watched in horror as a single truck was loaded for hours – while the next ones were already queuing up. An intelligent and automated system based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 provided a solution: loading no longer takes place one order at a time, but chaotically for several orders at the same time. This means: “An employee scans a pallet, and the system assigns it directly to the corresponding truck,” Endres explains. This reduces waiting times and avoids idle time – because some pallet always has to be loaded. Process automation ensures that this happens quickly and dynamically.

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