Has your company being toying with the idea of adopting an OMS System for awhile now? You can see some of the benefits but of course the adoption process can be time consuming and may cause a bit of disruption for awhile. So its worth stopping and considering what the real advantages and benefits are of an order management system so you can weigh up whether it would be worth taking the leap right now.
Major Benefits of an OMS System
There are actually many benefits of integrating an order management system in your business so let’s examine them briefly to see which would make the most impact on your business.
Outsource and Integrate EDI: EDI is the lifeblood of efficiency in your relationship with both suppliers and corporate customers. If you’re not compliant with their EDI systems then you’re having to do a lot of manual data entry and production of paperwork to duplicate efforts. Whereas you may have integrated EDI at the touch points with their business, you may have found that that smooth process comes to a shuddering halt when it hits your order management and supply chain systems. So this is where a modern online order management system comes into play as it integrates smoothly with EDI taking an order to fulfilment within seconds with no manual data entry along the way.
Manage and Enable Drop Shipping: With a reliable order management system that delivers product on time every time to every customer you will soon be considering adding in new SKUs to your inventory to increase sales and leverage your new found customer loyalty. An OMS system can enable dropship suppliers, integrating them into your supply chain easily and allowing you to manage them and their stock as if it were your own.
Manage Business Rules and Exceptions: Data led decision making created by your order management system and EDI data will allow you set threshold rules on re-ordering of stock, and manufacturing demand, as well as being alert to exceptions and issues before they escalate to a point where they affect your customers.
Carrier Integration: Once your order management system is running smoothly within your own business you can start to plug in some of your major suppliers, such as your carriers. By integrating them you will greatly improve the relationship between you and them as your previous frustrations that were probably down to miscommunications will be eased by automating the shipping orders through to their system, so they will arrive on time very time and are aware of the expectations your customers have on shipping dates. They can even help manage those expectations by setting thresholds on shipping turnaround and provide tracking data to your end customer.
Integrate with Financial Institutions: An order management system which integrates with EDI and your ERP will allow for automatically sharing the required financial data to stay compliant with financial institutions. Your bank, external management accountant and auditors will have immediate access to the data you wish to share.
