Order management – when to let a modern solution take over

Shoppers are intelligent; is your order management solution?

So you think you can use your ERP’s order management solution to handle complex fulfillment models like direct-to-consumer (DTC), omnichannel, and multichannel?

Don’t bet on it. At some point, it’s time to cry “Uncle” and let modern order management technology take over.

Even though most ERP vendors offer order management functionality as part of their software portfolio, their solutions are not designed for the dynamic demands of today’s omnichannel and DTC consumers. Trusting your ERP to make your job easier, realize quick value and smooth adoption, or facilitate future requirements creates friction and lasting negative repercussions.

Find out why: My ERP has an OMS module – Isn’t that good enough?

Order management is complex

It involves receiving high volumes of customer orders from multiple sales channels and assigning them to order fulfillment across a distribution network.

Those challenges require using next-generation, intelligent order management systems built specifically for omnichannel commerce.

I’ve never heard of order management – What does it do?

Modern OMS software leverages real-time, reliable technology that captures an order from a buyer – and then tracks and optimizes fulfillment through its lifecycle until the order gets delivered. That includes publishing timely updates so the customer can stay on top of the progress of their orders. If the buyer returns an item, it will also track and optimize that.

When order management technology first appeared, enterprise retailers, manufacturers, and distributors used it to receive periodic orders for large inventory quantities. Those first-gen order management solutions were good enough when dealing with orders before the rise of omnichannel commerce. Then, things got much more complex.

Today, the need to orchestrate order management more strategically and efficiently has never been greater.

Read more: What is OMS?

How do I know it’s time for an OMS solution?

If you’re a retailer, ecommerce company, or brand having problems with:

• How to quickly and accurately fulfill all orders flooding your website
• High shipping costs from fulfilling orders from the wrong location
• Knowing whether you have the stock on hand to meet an order
• Lost sales and customer churn

Then you need an intelligent order management solution to address your growing pains.

Fast-track omnichannel order management

Most companies know they need to implement OMS features, stat. But they are simply too busy, short-handed, or underwater with orders to deal with a big IT project. Or, the thought of adding yet another bolt-on to their already taxing ERP or legacy WMS system is overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. 

Capable of integrating directly to your existing workflows including ERP, modern order management solutions fast-track omnichannel readiness for companies that want to strike while the iron is hot. 

Benefits of integrated OMS technology

When you consider the impact of legacy solutions in the next 5 years and their impact on the mid-market today, the case for order management is clear. Create rapid, measurable growth by automating fulfillment, drop shipping, right inventory by channel, automatic order routing, and pre-ordering. Plus, it’ll make your job easier!

What can order management do for my high-growth business?

• Ultra-reliable, up-to-the-minute data to balance inventory available to promise + inventory available to sell
• Virtually error-proof order pick pack ship tasks
• Huge labor savings – scale orders by 4X to 9X without adding staff
• Confidence that products will be delivered as promised, no matter where they are ordered or fulfilled 
• Customers can track order status in real time
• Fast and consistent fulfillment times – under 24 hours
• Ongoing cost reduction and staff productivity improvements via supply chain data analytics, tailored to your business

Order management: effortless and fully integrated

Explore a truly integrated OMS & WMS platform that helps you easily see what inventory you’ve got, where it is, and where there’s new demand for it. Before you set out to look for an order management partner, it’s important to understand what it takes to make growth work:

• Supply Chain Simplified: Seamlessly connects all touchpoints of an order to improve decisions and speed workflows. From the time a customer places an order to when the product hits their door, and everything in between. 
• Rapid Value: One team that makes sure you ask the right questions to effectively address top bottlenecks and priorities, like labor management. The partner should meet regularly with your teams, providing analytics and recommendations that improve decisions and accelerate value.
• Platform for Growth: Focus on scaling with adaptive, built-in “extras” like software integrations to remove the frustrating and costly process of managing disparate systems and unwieldy data exports for systems not built to sync with each other. This includes WMS, ERP, legacy supply chain systems, shipping carriers, order tracking, POS, and even customer-facing systems such as ecommerce OMS.