As an excellent efficiency tool for JD Edwards for users that want to get more out of their technology investments; JDE Orchestrator is an intuitive and user-friendly component of JD Edwards used to create orchestrations and notifications. Orchestrator eliminates tedious manual entries, minimizes redundant tasks, and puts timely, efficient, and useful intelligence into the hands of leaders and decision-makers. This translates into reduced data errors, improved financial visibility, enhanced controls, and lower costs.
With costs being under the microscope in these unprecedented times, everyone is looking for quick wins that provide immediate benefits, without taking on a major project. Here are 10 quick wins use cases for JD Edwards Orchestrator that can help your organization minimize business process complexities by automating tasks and streamlining business operations:
With Orchestrator, it takes just a couple of minutes now to set up a new customer, which equates to major time savings for companies that have to onboard dozens or hundreds of new customers every week. Typically, it would take 5 minutes or more to set up a customer including manually setting up address, AR, billing instructions, credit information, etc. Now, with an Orchestration, using different customer default types in the system, most of the customer information can be automatically created reducing the setup time to just 2 minutes, saving 2.5 hours a day for a person creating 50 customers.
This orchestration validates category codes by comparing customer data to the supplier master/address book and automatically corrects if they are out of sync. This helps ensure very high levels of accuracy and fewer mistakes, leading to improved efficiency and higher customer satisfaction. Also, if the system detects an inaccuracy (i.e., no email address for a customer invoice), it flags the issue for the user to correct. Orchestrator’s other error-proofing capabilities include Cat code validations and AB validation with USPS.
If a new item has been entered into JD Edwards without a cost associated with it, this Orchestration will flag the problem and report it to the person who is responsible for costing. He or she simply gets an email notification and knows to go into the system and make the update. This orchestration validation on the front end eliminates errors on the back end and improves customer satisfaction.
JD Edwards comes with standard margin-checking capabilities, but Orchestrator expands on that functionality to allow you to do a range (+/-) of margin. Users can now process in a range, eliminating items being flagged for unmaterial variances, while still flagging major variances, making the process more efficient.
Entering an order into the JD Edwards transportation module allows you to build out the shipment routing for that order. An orchestration can take this a step further by auto-creating (at the time of order entry) based on product weight. It will then generate the best routing options based on speed, cost, and other parameters. This all happens in the early stages of the order, versus at the tail end of the shipping process, saving up to 15 minutes per order. A potential 5 hours a day could be saved when processing 20 orders.
JD Edwards’ Item Master enables easy coordination of branch plant records across different locations, while Orchestrator automatically “pushes” those records out across all branches without the need to manually handle every record. It also flags potential issues, including missing product costing or the addition of new items. In JD Edwards, a user can push out up to 10 branches/warehouses/stores at a time when entering a new product. With an orchestration, they now can send to hundreds with the push of a button.
If supplier pricing is expiring, an Orchestration can let the planner or buyer know that there is a 30-day window for renegotiating that pricing, eliminating errors, loss of special pricing, etc. on the back end. With the orchestration notification, they can now start the renegotiation process while the contract is still active. Orchestrator also handles automatic purchase order, change order, and payment notifications for suppliers.
Native to JD Edwards, Kanban lets you process a ticket and then create a work order or purchase order for that sale. With Orchestrator, you can now create automatic notifications to planners, buyers, suppliers, etc. notifying them of all order releases without the need for human intervention. You can also set up notifications for approvals, stockouts, and order notices.
For consignment inventory and vendor-managed inventory (VMI), an orchestration can now automatically sends a notification to supplier for replenishments, which is not a native feature in JD Edwards
This orchestration ensures that the tax rate is set up for each customer at the order level. Orchestrator also handles the validation process automatically by double-checking that rate as orders are generated eliminating manual errors.
Companies looking for some quick wins from their JD Edwards Implementations should consider using Orchestrator to streamline and automate processes. And while Orchestrator may not solve every company’s automation issues, it has proven itself as a strong contender in the race to create more efficient, error-free, automated business processes.
To find out more about how to create JDE Orchestrations and how GSI can help, or to attend one of our upcoming free Orchestrator virtual workshops, please contact us today.