Personalized order orchestration services have organizations re-examining the fulfillment cycle, and it’s imperative to be agile in supporting both B2C and B2B customers and their expectations. An order management (OM) solution can help you deliver that exceptional experience, improve internal performance, and streamline processes to be more efficient.
Streamlined for Synergy
The OM system is the heart of your operational platforms. It sits in the middle and orchestrates processes from your various systems to guarantee intelligent fulfillment and improved customer experiences. It integrates with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, your commerce platform, product information management (PIM) system, and more. A true, enterprise-grade OM system will continually monitor your different systems and channels to create seamless communication and improved workflows.
An OM system is designed to reduce the margin for error and improve efficiency. When orders are delayed or canceled, inventory quantities change, or orders are eligible to be drop-shipped from nearby fulfillment centers, the OM system knows immediately. Humans can only see what is directly in front of them, while your OM system is connecting and communicating data in real-time between every system to ensure no mistakes are made. It ties together data from carriers, suppliers, drop-ship locations, and more to ensure every player in your supply chain is interfacing effectively. It possesses capabilities such as intelligent shipping, inventory management, and optimized fulfillment practices so you can get your orders to your customers cheaper and faster. As a result, an OM system can reduce costs overall.
Built for Flexible Growth
Typically, an enterprise OM system is built with a modular architecture, meaning the functionalities of the program are separated so that each module has the components necessary to carry out one piece of the overall function. In addition, these modules are designed to interface and integrate smoothly with one another to create seamless operations. Developed to be scalable, additional free-standing modules can be added to an existing flagship solution to provide additional capabilities.
Because an OM system is designed to act as an interface for users across the supply chain—from back-end manufacturing and shipping to in-store processing and customer capabilities—the interface used throughout the journey changes to fit the needs of the user, as do the capabilities attached. That is why these microservices are born in the cloud, so they can be agile enough to integrate and operate independently.
Improves Customer Experience
The architecture of an enterprise OM platform, in addition to the capabilities it provides to internal teams, is integral to enabling an exceptional customer experience. The demand for personalized order orchestration from customers isn’t diminishing, and organizations have found that an order management platform can vastly improve their order-to-fulfillment cycle.
First and foremost, you’ll have the ability to provide customers with continuous updates on their order. Transparency into the fulfillment process means customers know when their order is packaged, shipped, and delivered, as well as any delays or issues that may come up.
Should issues with an order arise, customer support software can be integrated with the OM system, allowing support agents to have a full view of the customer account, cart, and order history. Say a customer is having trouble completing his order. An OM platform enables customer service agents to share their cart and go in to manually help them resolve their issues. If a customer has questions about an order and calls in, the system is even able to communicate the likely cause of the call to the support agent.
The system’s advanced fulfillment capabilities also benefit customers. Intelligent sourcing through the system means customer orders can be shipped from the closest fulfillment center, reducing shipping costs and time-to-delivery. Additionally, the platform gives you the ability to drop-ship inventory you may not stock internally, but have the ability to distribute to your customers when needed.
These are just some of the capabilities an OM platform can provide. To stay ahead, it’s imperative to continue to upgrade and improve your systems, remain agile, and provide the experiences that will set you apart from the competition.
Interested in what an order management platform can do for you? Contact us to get started.
