Akita has worked with a Surrey-based catering company on a Power Apps solution to streamline their ordering process.
Our custom Microsoft Power Apps order automation solution has delivered tangible time and cost benefits.
The company provides outsourced catering services for education establishments. As part of its role, the catering company provides education staff with consumables such as tea, coffee and fruit, which are then billable as part of their contract.
The process was manual and time-consuming. Orders had to be handwritten, collated once a week and posted to head office. Once received, the accounts team manually entered the information into their order system and then uploaded information to Sage for the purposes of billing. Because of the time involved in the process, billing was often delayed. Furthermore, manual entry errors would result in invoices being contested.
The wholesale prices of consumables also fluctuate. So in some cases, the catering company could lose out financially where an item was invoiced at an older quoted price. A smarter automated system was required.
About The Power Apps Order Automation Solution
Akita designed a solution in Power Apps that would streamline the ordering process. Run from inexpensive mobile devices at each site, the custom Power App captures details of the location and person placing the order.
When an authorised person goes to log an order, they’re able to scroll or search for the product which is displayed alongside its order code and unit price.
Logging an order sends data immediately to the accounts department in headquarters. Here, order details from all locations can be quickly outputted as an Excel spreadsheet ready for incorporation into the billing and Sage systems.
Results & Benefits
Our Power Apps order automation solution has saved staff at all stages of the order process significant amounts of time. This, in turn, has a cost-benefit for the company.
Because the process is now quicker, the catering company can now bill - and get paid - faster. And as there’s minimal scope for data errors in billing, fewer invoices are disputed.
Improved reporting from the Power App also allows for the catering company to be smarter in ordering wholesale consumables. This means it can secure better discounts against more popular items. And as pricing in the Power App is now updated automatically, the catering company never makes a loss on sales.
Through all of these improvements, our Power Apps solution has delivered measurable cost-benefits for the company.
For more about our capabilities with Microsoft Power Apps use, please see our service page:
