Customer Order Management: the Key Defining Factor of Business Efficiency

Customer service efficiency of any company is directly linked to its customer order management efficiency. Handling hundreds or thousands of purchase orders on a daily basis from as many customers is daunting task for any company. Major suppliers serving different customers look for state of the art customer order management solution that handles large volume sales orders and accounts for optimized fulfilment of all incoming orders. Order management process extends from order promising to shipment of the items. Sometimes order management process can go two steps further, generating customer purchase orders and managing customer inventory.

Inefficiencies associated with unconnected enterprise systems and redundancy are the main challenges to efficient customer order management. Single point, role-based access to relevant data minimizes redundancy and business inefficiencies. Reduced order lead times, efficient management of change orders and efficient supply chain management all are direct representation of efficient customer order management.

Automated, efficient EDI communication between customer and supplier systems without the requirement of email, phone calls or faxes saves time, facilitates communication between relevant departments and trims overhead costs. Such a communication system that provides deep visibility into customer inventory status allows efficient demand forecasts based on up to minute inventory data. This prepares the supplier to meet existing demand from one or hundred customers while efficiently utilizing plant capacity to its fullest. Thus suppliers can take control of the whole order management process. Suppliers can even generate customer level purchase order based on set min/max conditions, replenish supplier inventory and offer highest levels of customer service.

Buyers can also be given visibility into your order fulfilment status – from production line to supply chain or inventory levels. Customers can also enter product order (PO), view PO status (acknowledged, invoiced, shipped etc.) and send or request communication whenever necessary. Suppliers can benefit from instant electronic order generation, quick communication of order status, analyse product demand based on deep visibility into the whole system, and can prepare for email alerts and order changes.

How on-demand Solutions Can Offer Better Customer Order management Efficiencies

On demand order management software is hosted order management solution that connects different ERP systems over a secure network. No requirement of common standards, each party can access data using a standard web browser and can export or retrieve data in any format like spreadsheet, XML or CSV.

Idle data resting in enterprise systems turns to readily usable information while it is delivered at the right location at the right time. An on demand supply chain management solution establishes connection between relevant systems and make relevant data available to where it is needed for demand forecast, plant capacity planning or supply chain management.

Order promises will be streamlined based on accurate, fingertip data of inventory and capacity. The tangible effects of hosted order management solution will be improved customer service, reduced costs, reduced lead times and better management of stock outs and bloated inventory.

Supply chain management solution provider who has partnered with third party shipping companies can offer even deeper levels of supply chain visibility state of the art tracking systems like GPS. This allows to accurate calculation of lead times and delivery times and keeps the whole cycle of business process streamlined.