Order Management System: Software for Efficient Order Orchestration
ScienceSoft uses 32-year experience in software development to implement robust order management solutions.
Order Management Software: the Essence
Order management software (OMS) consolidates orders across online and offline sales channels and helps efficiently execute different order fulfillment scenarios (e.g., backorders, drop shipments, buy-online-pickup-in-store). OMS integrates with financial software, inventory and warehouse management solutions, and shipping carriers’ systems to ensure end-to-end orchestration and quick fulfillment of customer orders.
Key Features of Order Management Software
Sales order creation and processing
- Automated multichannel order capturing (orders from online and offline sales channels are aggregated within a single interface).
- Support of manual order creation (e.g., based on a customer’s call).
- Order filtering (by customer, date, status) and order status tracking for employees (can be shared with customers).
- Order history per customer (to be leveraged for post-sales support and marketing activities).
- Bulk order processing (confirmation, cancelation, etc.).
- Support of pre-orders and backorders.
Sales order execution
- Setup of order execution rules (e.g., automated order approval for shipment if the required number of items is in stock and the order is fully paid).
- Order routing to an optimal inventory location for fulfillment.
- Automated inventory reservation (via integration with inventory and warehouse management software).
- Order modification and cancelation upon a customer’s request (via ecommerce website, call center, etc.).
- Support of partial order fulfillment (e.g., in case one of the ordered items is on backorder or items are at different warehouses).
Return management
- Setup of return policies to authorize return, exchange and warranty cases.
- Automated retrieval of related sales order details for return order creation.
- Calculation of the refund amount based on the return policy.
- Return order routing (defining where to ship returns).
- Setup of return shipping rules.
- Return status tracking (can be shared with customers as a link via email or a customer portal).
Shipment management
- Support of different order delivery methods and types (BOPIS, dropshipping, ship-from-store, same-day delivery, etc.).
- Order merging (uniting orders into a single shipment, e.g., when several orders to the same address are placed within a few days).
- Order splitting into several packages (in case it doesn’t fit into one by weight or size).
- Generation of picking and packing slips auto-populated with the details from a related sales order.
- Setup of shipment priority rules.
- Setup of preferred carriers for particular product categories.
- Real-time shipment tracking (shared with customers via sales channels or by email).
Analytics and reporting
- Customizable dashboards showing ongoing and pending orders and customer requests, related KPIs, etc.
- Sales reports (sales by products, sales by particular channels, sales by customers, etc.).
Important Integrations for OMS
ScienceSoft recommends integrating order management software with:
- Sales channels (ecommerce website, trading marketplaces, offline stores) – to automatically generate orders in OMS.
- ERP / Financial software – to streamline the order-to-cash process and ensure accurate financial reporting.
- Inventory and warehouse management software – to have real-time visibility into inventory levels; to expedite order picking, packing, and shipping and avoid human mistakes in tasks related to these processes.
- Systems of shipping carriers (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.) – to compare shipping rates and track shipments (for companies outsourcing order shipping).
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A high level of order processing automation to streamline order fulfillment and avoid related human errors (e.g., missed or misplaced orders). |
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Integration with all sales channels (online and offline stores, etc.) to enable seamless customer experience and get instant visibility into order details across sales channels. |
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Real-time inventory visibility via a smooth integration with inventory management software to route orders to the most feasible fulfillment locations (e.g., orders are automatically rerouted to other locations if the stock is unavailable in the nearest one). |
When to Opt for a Custom Order Management System
In some cases, investments in custom OMS may have a better pay-off than platform-based solutions. Here are the examples:
- If you need OMS to include functional modules that are commonly a part of another software suite, e.g., warehouse management software or supplier relationship management software.
- If you need OMS to leverage advanced features unavailable out-of-the-box within platform-based solutions, e.g., AI-driven recommendations on optimal order fulfillment.
- If you need to integrate OMS with custom legacy software.
- If you have complex order fulfillment workflows, custom OMS can be more cost-efficient in the long term. The cost of platform-based OMS is recurring and depends on the number of users, which makes enterprise-scale monthly fees high.
Cost Factors of OMS Implementation and Financial Benefits
OMS implementation cost factors include:
- For platform-based OMS: the number of users, required product customizations, vendor support terms.
- For custom OMS: the number and complexity of functionality modules to implement, use of open source tools.
- Complexity of data migration procedures (to transfer data from currently used spreadsheets and/or software).
- Complexity and the number of integrations (with sales channels, ERP, WMS, etc.).
The cost of implementing custom OMS ranges from $200,000 to $400,000. OMS payback can be expected within 3 months. |
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Key financial outcomes of oms implementation
Increased order fill rate. |
Reduced order fulfillment costs. |
Reduced shipping and expediting costs. |
Increased customer satisfaction rate. |
Platforms We Recommend for Order Management
Magento Order Management
Description
Recognized among strong-performing order management software by Forrester. Companies leveraging Magento’s OMS are Brown-Forman Corporation, Rural King, Frankfurt Airport Shopping Mall.
- Intuitive UI.
- Support of diverse order fulfillment workflows, including an in-store fulfillment option.
- BI-powered reporting on orders, shipments, returns, and payments.
Best for
Midsized and upper-midsized businesses looking for an easy-to-adopt solution.
Pricing
Request Magento OMS implementation cost.
Note: OMS is a part of the Magento Commerce platform offer.
IBM Sterling Order Management
Description
Recognized among leading order management software by Forrester. Renowned clients of IBM’s OMS are Nike, CVS Health, Staples, Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, and FleetPride, Inc.
- A powerful rules engine for OMS customization.
- Support of the whole order life cycle, including after-sales and returns management.
Best for
Enterprise businesses with complex order fulfillment scenarios.
Pricing
Available upon a request to a vendor.
Oracle NetSuite Order Management
Description
Recognized among strong-performing order management software by Forrester. Among companies using NetSuite OMS are Jimmy Jazz, Guthy-Renker, Lovesac.
- Support of custom system triggers to create business-specific order fulfillment scenarios (can be done directly via UI).
- Basic reporting capabilities (advanced reporting is available within a separate analytics solution).
Best for
Midsized businesses without overcomplicated order fulfillment scenarios.
Pricing
Available upon a request to a vendor. Note: OMS is available within the NetSuite platform license.
OMS consulting
Our consultants:
- Analyze your business needs and order fulfillment workflows and define an optimal set of OMS features.
- Help decide what is more feasible: platform-based or custom OMS.
- For custom OMS: design a secure and scalable software architecture.
- Prepare an integration roadmap (with ecommerce platforms, ERP, WMS, shipping systems, etc.).
- Prepare UX and UI software prototypes (optional).
- Estimate implementation costs, time budget and expected ROI.
OMS development
Our development team:
- Elicits OMS implementation requirements.
- For custom OMS: designs a secure and scalable software architecture.
- For custom OMS: develops the front end and the back end of OMS.
- For platform-based OMS: customizes software.
- Integrates OMS with other systems (ecommerce platform, ERP, WMS, shipping systems, etc.).
- Covers end-to-end quality assurance of the system.
- Provides support and software evolution (if required).
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an international IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. We offer advisory and implementation services of custom and platform-based OMS to help businesses centralize and improve order orchestration processes of any complexity. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, we rely on a mature quality management system in our work and guarantee your data security. Check out our software development offer to learn more about our approach.