Blog Posts 7 Characteristics of a Robust Order Management System
Key Takeaways
- Delivering a positive omnichannel customer experience requires a robust order management system.
- Many omnichannel retailers are focusing on improving their OMS.
- Saddle Creek’s 7-point checklist can be useful when evaluating potential systems.
Omnichannel growth is forcing many retailers to raise their game to help deliver a positive customer experience. Meeting consumers’ expectations often requires a more robust order management system. In fact, 60 percent of online retailers will invest in improving their OMS this year, according to a study by SearchNode.
With a multitude of options available, how do you find the right system for your fulfillment operations? Our guide to Utilizing an OMS to Deliver an Outstanding Omnichannel Customer Experience offers the helpful checklist below.
Checklist for an Optimal OMS
The following seven characteristics help to ensure a robust system:
1. CLOUD BASED
A cloud-based system can be accessed from anywhere, a particularly important benefit when operating from a single inventory. It allows for faster implementation and greater scalability down the road. The cloud also provides built-in redundancy, disaster recovery and fail-over redundancy.
More and more retailers are opting for cloud computing. In fact, nearly 90 percent of organizations in the retail/wholesale industry consider cloud business intelligence to be important with close to 60 percent describing it as “critical” or “very important,” according to a study by Dresner Advisory Services.
2. RESPONSIVE, REAL-TIME
With real-time enterprise inventory visibility across all fulfillment sources, users can pull data whenever they want instead of waiting for it to be pushed to them on a scheduled basis. Retailers will know immediately if they have product in inventory or “available to promise,” so they can make commitments to their customers. As end customers’ demand for accurate inventory information increases, this will become more and more important. End consumers will also have the ability to track their order all the way through to delivery.
3. SINGLE PLATFORM
An OMS that operates on a single platform can integrate numerous systems to work seamlessly in real-time – receiving orders from various channels, managing inventory across multiple fulfillment sources and routing to the best fulfillment sources. This helps to ensure visibility and provide accurate information to the end customer.
4. SCALABLE SYSTEMS
When selecting an OMS, retailers often focus on their current needs instead of looking to the future. However, it is advisable to seek out an OMS that is able to grow with their business and adjust to fluctuations in the sales cycle. As customer expectations continue to become more sophisticated, the system will be able to accommodate them more readily.
5. INTELLIGENT ORDER ROUTING
An effective OMS will automatically route orders so that they are fulfilled from the most effective fulfillment source. This helps to optimize inventory management, increase efficiency, control costs and – ultimately – provide the optimal customer experience.
6. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
A robust OMS will be able to manage inventory across the retailer’s entire enterprise – both available to ship and available to promise. It should allow for inventory segmentation to protect inventory by customer and sales channel. It should also incorporate a backorder management process in order to capture sales at peak demand and automatically fill orders as inventory becomes available.
7. ORDER VALIDATION
To ensure accuracy and safeguard customer information, it is important to select an OMS that can integrate with order validation partners such as an address validation service or fraud protection service.
Read the report to learn more about how an OMS can help to provide a positive customer experience.
Related to: Customer Experience, Fulfillment Technology, Multiple Sales Channels, Omnichannel