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Are you running a business and finding it difficult to manage your orders? An order management system is an answer to the problem. Some companies use an independent order management system while some integrate it with their already existing ERP systems. Sales, orders, inventory, and fulfillment are monitored by an order management system. This also helps the necessary people, systems, and alliances to make their way to the consumers who bought the goods. A successful OMS offers one unified location for all distribution channels to handle orders.
You can handle customer details and transactions through a single order management system, view your accounting data, configure your retail point-of-sale system, and upgrade your warehouse inventory — all from one platform. You can also use the data generated with the right tools to use business intelligence strategies to enhance your business processes — like controlling your supply chain. It was probably relatively simple handling orders in the early days of your company.
You can probably also recall the first one, from details about the consumer to the product you sold, and even how you handled it. With every new sale, however, you tend to find it harder to manage your orders and will lose the magic to be on top of every order manually. It is critical at this point to find the perfect order management system designed specifically, otherwise, you’ll scare away customers, harm your credibility, or set up an order management system that doesn’t support the process of your company.
In this article, we will discuss order management solutions, tips that you should follow to choose the right order management program, and the benefits of enhancing your order management.
What is an Order Management System (OMS)?
An Order Management System is a tool that allows you to keep track of your order process from the customer’s first interactions with your company to the delivery, thus improving the order management efficiency. In between owning a physical store, social media sales, and managing e-commerce, you need your order management system to help you track:
- Customers
- Multi-channel selling
- Multi-location inventory management
- Purchase order and receiving management
- Customer service
- Order processing
- Make-to-order or make-to-stock business model.
Benefits of Integrating an Order Management System
Let’s have a quick look at the benefits of integrating an Order Management System for your business;
Automation
You may be the master of spreadsheets, but sadly you will not be able to outperform automation of the manufacturing process. Good order management will affect manual labor efficiency, reducing the likelihood of human errors, and freeing up resources so that you can concentrate on growing your company and improving customer service.
24/7 Accessibility
If you wake up unexpectedly in a nervous sweat and want to check your orders quickly for peace of mind, without a cloud-based order management app, it would be a sleepless night for you. By setting up an order management system, you can manage orders, you can check your orders anytime from anywhere. Aside from calming any worrying thoughts about your out-of-whack order management, this immediate, 24/7 access allows for enhanced data monitoring, better customer satisfaction, and more effective order processing.
Growth
Your order management system automates the delivery of your order. Most specifically, all of the distribution platforms are taken into a single forum. This smooth automated process allows you to leave it to run in the background, allowing you to free up time to collect and analyze data. Invaluable free time to collect this information helps you to prepare smartly to expand your company further and recognize any problems that can occur during your manufacturing process.
Management of Inventory
Solutions for order management will significantly enhance your inventory management by providing you with real-time information about current stock rates, products delivered, returned, traded, or in production. This helps suppliers from making inventory over-selling or not producing enough. However, for retailers most order management software was developed in mind, or drop shippers hoping to gain more control over their company. Be sure to find something that can help you out with your inventory management of raw materials when looking into an order management tool.
Business Centralization
Using an order management system, as mentioned earlier, enables manufacturers not only to manage their sales channels in one place but also to manage their entire business from one dashboard. An order management tool can break down complicated details to simplify your orders into one location, protecting you from order mistakes, customer frustration with delays, or loss of low inventory revenue and incorrect invoicing. Yet once again you want to centralize your sales as a distributor, but still consider a tool that can help you handle your production planning and scheduling too.
Real-Time Information Feed
Ultimately, and commented on again in the earlier sections, providing real-time knowledge about the success of your company with an order management system is a critical component to the growth of your company. Even if you use small business order management software, having live inventory and sales updates will help you react to any issues with your automated order management immediately, rather than allowing problems to develop and leave the customer unhappy.
How to choose the right Order Management System?
It is essential to choose the right OMS for your business and you must do your research for the final selection because the wrong system can hurt your business; so, consider the following points while making the decision.
System Integrations
Does the OMS fit easily into your platform, or do you have to create a whole new structure around it? Most leading software systems for order management are designed to be integrated with the major eCommerce platforms. Our list of the best OMSs below will provide examples that can be conveniently installed directly at your eCommerce store or manufacturing management systems.
Consider Your Suppliers
Will this system make it harder for you to get your suppliers to buy and process orders? That should not be the case, at all. The right OMS will simplify complicated concerns about the supply chain and make communication with suppliers simple.
Fulfillment Process Integrations
Not only does your OMS need to integrate with your site, but it also needs to work with those who are packaging and shipping your orders (assuming you are using a partner for fulfillment). A program that has already been tested within the industry will have the framework in place to combine delivery and adequate resources, making fulfillment management easier.
Scalability
When you undergo rapid growth, would your order management system be able to scale with you? Most systems have their drawbacks, and learning what those are is well worth the time. Make sure the system will comply with the growth goals and beyond.
Ability to Generate Reports
Order management systems are not only designed to check the order process, but they are also perfect for monitoring demonstrated results. Revenue, distribution, and demographic reporting are top features and the program should also help you stay within regulatory requirements with ease.
Customer Handling
Can they manage your sales — even multi-channel orders — regardless of where your customer is and what currency they use in the world? eCommerce opens the door to the whole planet, so differences in language, currency, and taxation can cause headaches. When your order management system is equipped with a single interface to automate much of this, it gives you more time to concentrate on the expansion of your company, rather than dealing with order management issues.
Order Management System for eCommerce Business
Although some businesses prefer to use their eCommerce platform as their order management system, it is not commonly advised — especially if you are already taking in revenue in millions. But, if you are a small business (and plan to remain that way), all orders are put on your website, and your website is closely connected to your delivery and inventory (allowing customers to check their order history), this could be a reasonable choice for the current state of your business.Using your order management e-commerce platform may not be the best choice if you have multiple outlets, expecting growth in the long-term, you get orders from multiple warehouses or different locations, i.e websites, point-of-sale, etc. The separation of the distribution channels from the background management processes helps you to separate and concentrate on each specific role.
Few Order Management Systems (OMSs) To Consider
I’ve compiled a list of a few order management systems for you to consider based on the reviews and user experience. Note that the following are not recommended by shopdev or any person associated with the company except for the Omni Channel Engine built by shopdev.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides integrated solutions that enable companies to automate field service, drive sales, and track leads, and improve operations using cloud-based mobile business apps that are ready for the enterprise.
OE (Omni-Channel Engine)
A cloud-based omnichannel commerce platform with multichannel inventory management and distributed order management. A single interface to manage your products, orders, and customers seamless integration with POS, ERPs, eCommerce, Shipping, and Accounting platforms. The Omni Channel Engine adds in the capabilities of Order Management, Inventory Management, and Logistics & Supply Chain management.
ShippingEasy
ShippingEasy is a cloud-based system for shipping and inventory management, suitable for small to medium-sized e-commerce companies. Main features include order control, product customization, multi-seller channel integration.
Odoo
All in one software solution, Odoo is a customizable open-source and fully integrated suite of business applications including sales, CRM, project management, manufacturing, inventory, accounting, and other business needs.
Shippo
Shippo is a cloud-based shipping management solution that supports order management and label printing for eCommerce businesses of all sizes. Its main features include mapping customer experience, cost comparison, monitoring of shipments, and more.
Zoho Inventory
Zoho Inventory is a cloud-based inventory management system designed for businesses of small to medium scale. This provides modules for inventory management including monitoring and analysis, inventory handled by the manufacturer, and traceability by the lot.
Conclusion
As eCommerce continues to expand and break down barriers globally, it’s even more important to employ the right system to manage purchase orders. As you’re searching for the right one for your business, make sure you first Identify your business processes, goals, and objectives, then assess the benefits, costs, and features that align with your business, and at the end do proper research of OMSs to find the one that works best for your business needs. Order management is an inherently complex process.Selecting the right order management system is not only vital to business longevity and quality, it’s an often-overlooked area where you can get some easy wins. You can always opt for custom software development to get an order management system developed that is completely customized for your business but that has its perks and downsides, which I’ll try to cover in another article. A dedicated OMS presents a complete view throughout the lifecycle of all orders across all channels, giving business owners the extra time to focus on what they should be focusing on; the growth. Businesses will save money by increasing business processes faster without compromising on quality while increasing customer satisfaction and retention.Fee free to get in touch if you have any queries or need assistance with order management systems.
