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Business Need
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Order Management
Order Management (OM) is a complex management process designed to help organize and streamline business processes for efficiency. Order Management Software allows businesses to take these processes and automate them in an effort to provide a more functional tool to manage their entire service lifecycle. This software increases employee productivity and improves customer support services through its automated processes.
Components of Order Management
Order Management Software is typically built from many processes that when put together streamline the management approach and allow for easy handling from start to finish of the order lifecycle. OM Software usually encompasses product information vendors, purchasing and receiving information, marketing documents such as catalogs and promotions information as well as customer information. This information when integrated with the OM software allows for functional use in all order lifecycle processes within the software. This helps to decrease the time it takes to complete each process of the order lifecycle and stores information for future use. OM software not only collects this information but uses it to make order entry and customer service more efficient as is the goal of Order Management.
Once the information is fed into the system, the software deals with the actual order entry and usually customer service plays a roll here. Order entry is exactly how it sounds; it is the entry of the order, whether done online by the customer or whether the customer calls into the business to place the order. When the Customer calls in, this is where customer service comes into play, orders can be taken on these one on one phone calls or information on returns and refunds can be acquired. Like with customer service in any business it is important to provide the most complete service to the customer, this is why all account and customer information is stored in the system and can be accessed when they call in. This saves both the order technician and the customer time by not having to share information on every call.
After the order has been placed on OM software, the financial processing is the next phase. This involves the selection of the product that has been ordered, the printing of the order information which includes shipping address, the packing of the parcel and the shipping to the final destination. Once this is completed the order processing is done, which involves sending the order information through all the proper channels in order to reach the next phase, with OM software the order is typically routed to the proper person automatically once the financial processing has been completed. To keep accurate records of the order and the customer, data analysis and reporting is the next phase. This phase ensures the all information in the system is correct and analyses the information with the customer to find buying trends. The final Phase is Financials or payment of the order, which means the order, must go through the proper accounting channels for accounts receivable and or payable, before the order is shipped.
Features of Order Management Software
Managing orders becomes a much less strenuous task with OM Software as the processes are all well defined and automated within the program. Order Confirmation Processing, Order Quotations, Billing, Orders and Quotes, Employee Resource Allocation, Contract and Quote Analysis and Order Processing can all be managed by the order technician. OM Software not only utilizes these processes but ensures compliance with the rules and regulations or order quality insurance. Each of these processes are described below:
• Order Confirmation Processing – this enables the order technician to confirm working times, materials used and expenses for service performed. When these are confirmed a service order document is draw up.
• Order Quotations – This enables the order technician to provide a quote to the customer before the actual order is processed.
• Billing – This process automatically creates customer invoices once orders are processed and the proper information is applied to the document.
• Orders and Quotes – Orders and Quotes allows companies to plan for peaks and valleys in buying patterns during each year. This allows for smart buying partners which represent cost savings determined by the consumers buying habits
• Employee Resource Allocation – This tool allocates the person needed to complete each task in the order lifecycle and auto populates this process even in their screen for completion.
• Contract and Quote Analysis – This helps to monitors customer satisfaction with each services performed under contracts for customers.
• Order Processing – This process is designed to allocate the order to external and internal departments as necessary to carry out the lifecycle of the order.
Benefits of Order Management
By using OM Software, customer service is improved and much more efficient. 24/7 customer service becomes easier, processes take less time, phone time for orders from customers can be dramatically cut down while maintaining a high service quality which allows order and service desk technicians to handle more customers over in less time. OM Software allows for easy online ordering as well which provides the customer with multiple points of access to order information and processes. This online access also allows for multi-channel support through phone and E-mail. Companies can improve their capacity utilization with faster processes allowing for customers to be served faster and more efficiently, this helps to maximize profitability and increases revenues.
Order Management at a Glance
Order Management is a complex management process designed to help organize and streamline business processes for efficiency. By doing so, businesses see increased profitability and increased revenues. This is accomplished by the streamlined processes OM Software provides by cutting down time and effort to complete the order lifecycle.
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