By
Jyoti Tejpal
World’s #1 Cloud ERP solution Unified platform Helps all back-office processes Accounting CRM eCommerce Built-in Business Intelligent Real-time Visibility Growth
Online application Manage order & inventory Multi-channel selling Shipping integration Powerful inventory control Optimize management Purchase packing to payments
User-friendly Single interface Order Management Speed ups order processing & fulfilment functions Gain real-time, Visibility of status, All-in-one tool No errors
Order management software assists in order management from initial acceptance to final shipment. Its key features are order processing, inventory control, product cataloguing, and dispatch management. These solutions provide businesses to coordinate with supply chain operations and managing multichannel sales strategies. Additionally, Order Management Systems provide features such as payment processing, multichannel marketing, and customer relationship management. This software category is related to eCommerce software, order entry software, and inventory management software.
Before going further ahead, we must understand the concept of an order management system. An order management system helps in tracking sales, orders, inventory, and fulfilment. It also helps in managing the people, processes, and partnerships necessary for products to make their way to customers. An active OMS offers one centralized place for managing orders from all the side-by-side sales channels.
With this kind of unified order management system, user can handle everything from customer information and interactions, accessing client as well as owner’s accounting data, customizing the retail point of sale system, and updating user warehouse inventory — all from one system.
With the right tools in comprehensive software, user can also use the data for collecting and employing business intelligence practices to improve the business processes — including supply chain management.
If the user has an e-commerce business, the user is over-likely to have an OMS in place. It is critical to ensure security and meet regulatory standards. Still, you may not have the ideal system in place, and this would be apparent in both customer satisfaction and overall losses.
You might not even be aware of the losses incurred by you, especially if you are a small budge company or operating over a single sales channel.
If the company wishes to grow, do ascertain you are using the best order management system is a vital step in making sure you can do so efficiently as well as effectively.
An efficient and effective OMS will mean a less manual job for a higher level of order accuracy, along with best in business tracking and reporting. This real-time transparency gives the user an edge over to see how the business is getting along with competitors all around it, at each step and illustrated by numbers so that user can know where the prime focus should be kept for future improvements.
A sound order management system will also help in smoother customer experience, as it offers easy and user-friendly access for the consumer to get information about the order status.
Nowadays, stores both traditional as well as online face challenges that are related to increased marketing channels, even faster delivery expectations, and integrated supply chains. To stay in the job and remain competitive, it’s necessary for merchants and suppliers that they should ensure that orders are filling and dispatching promptly, precisely and error-free. Order management software assists businesses in shortening their order delivery times and gaining more considerable control over related processes. These systems offer benefits, including:
Better customer service: Order management software provides real-time status updates for clients, allowing them to get their delivery timely. The software stores customer details like the delivery address and payment mode when a new customer saves their information for the first time. This entirely abolishes the requirement for the same customer to re-enter the customer information for future orders, giving them an easy, hassle-free and faster checkouts.
Reduced order processing errors: It’s way more natural for mistakes to happen when a business system is managing huge order volumes of multiple channels. Through features like QR code tagging, barcode, order management software correctly handles the situation and ensures that orders are dispatched to the right recipients at the right time.
Quick order processing: Order management software offers a centralized database to store information related to the warehouse, shipment, inventory levels, and employees. This storage of data assists sales representatives in getting needful information without calling the work station or tediously going through the number of spreadsheets.
Order entry: Registering received orders in the system.
Order tracking: Tracking orders and their status as they keep moving along the supply chain and reach the customer.
Backorder Management: Managing orders for products that are currently unavailable due to inventory shortage.
Catalogue Management: Creating and managing digital catalogues of products, with details like price and specifications.
Inventory management: Tracking available inventory and managing the flow of goods from warehouses to point-of-sale.
Most products available in the market are priced on a “per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. A premium product is rated higher and includes exceptional features like batch tracking and an eCommerce store.
Mobile capability: User must check whether the software user is considering has a mobile app. If it does, which is a must according to new business trends, then must evaluate whether the app incorporates the latest technology/market trends, like automated event-based alerts.
Barcode scanning: The most common 1-D barcodes in use today are UPC, code 128, and system 39. User must go for researching and then determining the barcodes that suit best for the business and needs to ensure that the software user shortlist supports that barcode requirements. Most retailers should choose UPC barcodes, while Code 128 is usually used in distribution and transportation. Code 39 is generally used in the automotive and defence industry.
Scalability: For businesses to grow without incurring repeated software costs, the user must see to it that the software chosen is scalable. The system must be flexible to accommodate future business scenarios like more employees/customers and ever-expanding product catalogue.
Robots to manage stock and delivery: Businesses using robots for checking and restocking the inventories are on the rise. Robots, those who can pick orders and move them to required destinations will be a new in-thing. Cognitive learning systems and sensors assist robots in assessing product quality, and an algorithm guides the entire operation. Order management software can track the progress of deliveries in real-time. UPS is currently using an AI-powered GPS tool called ORION for creating efficient routes for its fleet. ORION helps in creating layouts based on driver and customer feedback.
IoT and automation: The IoT helps in connecting a group of devices/equipment and thereby creating a network wherein the connected elements keep on exchanging real-time data and work in conjunction with each other. As each component keeps on feeding relevant information to another modulating an accurate response, warehousing operations are automated and streamlined. Like, after scanning and automated reading of the barcode on a product, it can instruct an automated guided vehicle for carrying and storing the product on a designated shelf.
