Features of an Order Management System

An Order Management System (OMS) is software used by many industries to enter and manage the order processing. The OMS normally would be an integrated system supporting the order entry, order management and order delivery. Preferably this should be a centralized system with on-line updates, so that customers, sales representative, delivery agents are all accessing and updating a single system and up-to-date counsel is available to all. The orders could come from multiple sources, viz. customer call, fax, e-mail, EDI, mobile device (salesmen carrying a mobile device), internet etc. Order Management would involve: Order search, customer search, order modification, approval, cancellation, order copy, product search, product substitutes etc. There could be multiple delivery mechanism viz. Door to Sales, 3PL, External Carrier, Customer Pick-up etc. Another common employ of order management software is by eCommerce and Catalog companies. This software facilitate
s entering of an order, whether via a web-site shopping cart or a data entry system (for orders received via phone and mail). It typically captures Customer Proprietary Data and Account Level information. Credit Verification or Payment processing is done to check for validity and/or availability of funds. Once entered, valid orders are processed for warehouse fulfillment, such as picking / packing / shipping. Typical Features of an Order Management System 1. Marketing News (Catalogs, promotions, pricing) 2. Prospects 3. Vendors (Purchasing and Receiving) 4. Customer Material & Search (Names, addresses, order history, preferences, product catalog, pricing, taxing, credits, promotions, customer bill-to, ship-to, alternate ship-to, support for customer hierarchy etc.) 5. Product Facts & Search (description, attributes detail, inventory info (local warehouse / remote warehouse locations, quantities, product substitutions, complimentary items, product kits/
groupings) 6. Pricing (rules based: list, cost-up, list-down, specific and popular contract, discount, promotion, best bill comparison and item/group column/volume) 7. Taxing (Order level or limit level jurisdictional sales tax) 8. Billing Terms 9. Credit limit management 10. Order Entry (Sales Order, Quotes, Credit Memos, Special Orders, through EDI) 11. Customer Order History 12. Customer Order Rules and Preferences 13. Order Processing (Selection, Printing, Picking, Packing) 14. Order Delivery (Multiple shipping methods: external carrier, customer pick up, 3PL etc.) 15. Customer Work (Returns & Refunds) 16. Ability to mass update, duplicate orders etc. 17. Data Analysis and Reporting 18. Integration with other required systems like Finance Systems for GL / AP / AR, Warehouse systems for inventory, Logistics Systems for Delivery, Sales Force Automation systems etc. 19. Integration with mobile devices / internet Typical Non-Functional Features of an Orde
r Management System 1. User friendly interfaces 2. Adequate security features 3. Adequate Assist and documentation Full text: http://computerandtechnologies.com/technology/news_2008-09-25-22-00-04-471.html