Order management is the process of managing the orders of customers. It helps in creating, processing, and distributing sales orders to the stakeholders in the distribution chain and tracks the inventory status. A modern and smart Order Management System (OMS) is a key tool for businesses across industries for order entry and processing which can help in fulfilling a sales order to the customer’s specifications, delivering goods as promised at the time of sale. So, let us find out what is order management and its significance in supply chains.
What is an Order Management System?
Order management is a modern software application that automates the end-to-end process of managing orders. It enables manufacturers and retailers to track inventory, manage production and suppliers, and provide customers with the right products at the right time. With its powerful dashboard, businesses can easily access all the business-critical data from anywhere at any time and make important decisions.
Inventory management is one of the most important aspects of large-scale businesses. Order management software is helping retailers and manufacturers manage their orders to ensure smooth delivery, keep a tab on inventory, forecast sales volume, meet customer demand, and streamline manufacturing process.
What are the features of an Order Management System?
A powerful order management solution helps to manage the lifecycle of an order in a digital way. Let us look at the most important features of an order management system.
Order entry: This is the process of entering an order into the system. Order Management Software provides a web-based interface or a point-of-sale terminal to enter an order into the system.
Order tracking: It helps you in tracking all the orders placed by your customers and track the status of each order, whether it has been shipped or not.
Order fulfilment: Order management solution also helps in handling all the processes related to fulfilling orders which includes shipping, packing, and tracking items, customer support.
End to end order management: Businesses can capture orders, add items, and approve them for processing and schedule shipping with the order management system.
Order status monitoring: With this specific feature, businesses can view orders in progress, along with the status of each step in their lifecycle.
Order cancellation and return management: This helps in processing returns, as well as cancelling orders at any point during the process.
Inventory management: The inventory management feature in the modern Order Management System allows you to track all the products stocked in the warehouse, including those on order but not yet shipped. This feature helps businesses in planning for future orders and also helps you in maintaining accurate records of inventory levels.
Product data management: With product data management features in the Order Management Software, businesses can enter new products into their system as well as update existing products with their details. It also helps in adding new variants of existing products and modify their prices using this feature.
How can businesses optimise the order fulfilment process with an order management system?
The order fulfilment process is one of the most important processes in a business. It helps businesses to deliver goods or services to their customers on time. With the Order Management System, businesses can automate and optimise an array of their processes which can reduce labour input costs and improve customer service levels.
Here are some ways in which order management systems can help businesses:
Order fulfilment processes can be made more efficient: By automating many of their order fulfilment processes, the order management software can help companies to reduce their cost, improve productivity and quality of their products and services.
Order management system is diverse and flexible and can be used for other purposes such as invoicing, stock management and marketing campaigns. This makes it easy for businesses to track their inventory levels over time, so they don’t run out of products before they need them again.
Save time: Many order management systems use barcode scanning technology so there’s no need for human intervention when fulfilling an order. This means there’s no need for any paperwork either — all orders are entered directly into the system via barcodes attached directly to each item ordered by customers.
Order tracking: Tracking orders from the various stages of product delivery is a big headache for businesses. With the order management system, businesses can track a customer’s order from its creation through delivery, including access to all related documents like invoices and shipping labels.
What are the benefits of an Order Management System?
The advantages of an Order management system (OMS) is multifold. It automates the entire workflow, reduces the manual labour, helps in reducing the operation cost and improves the customer experience.
Let us look at some of the benefits of an Order Management System:
- Order management system is a software that allows companies to manage their orders in an organised manner. It helps them track sales, inventory levels and customer orders in a single system. This makes it easier for them to handle customer queries and complaints.
- It also helps businesses automate their processes by eliminating manual work and minimising errors in their sales process. It can also be customised according to the business needs.
- Order management is a system that keeps track of orders that have been placed and the order status. The main function of an order management system is to maintain the current status of orders and make sure that all orders are shipped on time.
- Orders are tracked in real-time, so you can see if your customers are getting their products on time or late. You can also see if they have been invoiced correctly or not, which will help you increase your profits by reducing the number of returns and cancellations.
- Businesses can track everything from one place as all the order information is stored in one place. This saves time and effort for everyone involved in the process.
What is the future scope of Order Management?
The Order Management System has revolutionised the procurement, supply chain and logistics business. The next phase of this powerful solution will be all about integrating it with other systems like finance, inventory, manufacturing to expand its use cases. Businesses are toiling hard to improve their customer experience and the inclusion of Order Management System is a massive advantage as it provides all the latest technology and real time updates of the product procurement, delivery, and customer experience.
Final thoughts
The success of any large-scale business is now all about understanding their end customers and optimising business critical sections. With an Order Management Software, businesses can unify customer buying channels, invest in integrating all the stakeholders and create a streamline process across the logistics operation. As the global supply scenario is undergoing through emerging and traditional challenges, businesses need cutting-edge solutions to overcome the bottlenecks and achieve success. The Modern Order Management System is definitely a leap forward and ready to assist business in achieving growth and expansion.
