This paper is intended to educate users, developers, managers, and executives of companies using Oracle E-Business Suite to automate and maintain the distribution of business documents.

Communications between companies is critical so that commerce may occur smoothly and effectively. Any delay in the delivery of information may seriously affect the ability of a company to complete the manufacture, assembly, or shipment of its product or service. Delays impact profitability. Therefore, it is important for every organization to evaluate its communications methods, improve speed and accuracy, and most of all, reduce or eliminate costs along the way.

Business documents (purchase orders, invoices, statements, packing slips, etc.) tend to be well-defined, printed and distributed to intended recipients. Some companies cling to the use of printing these documents on preprinted, multi-part forms. More progressive companies have purchased "forms packages," replacing the preprinted form with an electronic form which distributes to several printers dispersed throughout the company infrastructure.

Unfortunately, many companies overlook automating business communications by failing to improve the delivery of these critical business documents. They continue to use postal delivery, courier delivery, or manual faxing. All three of these methods include wasted material costs, human intervention, and delivery costs. Fortunately, this inefficiency may be significantly reduced or completely eliminated by using an automated document delivery solution.