Bringing Order to the authorisation process

JBA, today announced a new product in its @ctive Enterprise Series. JBA Purchase Authorisation is an @ctive Process, designed to solve the administrative headaches caused by traditional methods of signing off purchase orders.

The vast majority of organisations have multi-level authorisation processes for their purchase orders, determined by both their type and value. Identifying and then appropriately allocating each purchase order is a complicated task that costs both valuable time and money. To solve this problem, JBA Purchase Authorisation automatically routes the order to the correct employee for sign off. Additionally, the @ctive Process ensures that all the relevant parties are constantly kept informed of its status, as Bruckner de Villiers, Managing Director of JBA South Africa explained:

"JBA Purchase Authorisation enables each organisation to enter their own sign-off hierarchy into System 21, and from then on the software takes care of all the administrative work. Instead of sheets and sheets of paper being passed around the building, and often mislaid, all purchase orders can be sent automatically to the correct person and authorised from within the System 21 architecture, efficiently smoothing the business flow."

When an order is submitted, JBA Purchase Authorisation checks whether it needs to be signed off at all. If it does, an action agent will compare the value and type of the order to the previously defined levels of authorisation and send an email to the member of staff with the corresponding level of authority and responsibility.

The individual is then offered a choice of three completion buttons that enable authorisation, rejection or referral of the order. These action buttons provide direct links into System 21, and the underlying Work Management Engine automatically informs the person who submitted the order of the decision as soon as it is made. If it is rejected, the reasons for the rejection can be added, enabling the purchase order to be swiftly and efficiently altered and resubmitted.

The benefits can be significant, de Villiers added:

"Signing off a purchase order is one of those tasks that appears to be straightforward but can be deceptively complicated. JBA Purchase Authorisation is designed specifically to make any authorisation as pain free and efficient as possible without compromising the integrity of the signing off process."