Without effective order management, it’s impossible to meet customer expectations, capture vital sales information, manage inventory, and keep customers up-to-date on their orders. But the reality is that most companies suffer from gaps in their systems and processes. These gaps often prevent order management from being as efficient as it needs to be.
A popular way to resolve this problem is with automation, plugging the gaps with apps that manage the business process and the data. This approach leads to a variety of benefits from a better customer experience to minimizing the impact of supply chain disruption.
Many companies right now are integrating their systems and transforming their processes to create seamless end-to-end order management operations. This provides accurate visibility into order status and unlocks the power of data to improve fulfillment times.
Limited order visibility
Tracking orders across multiple systems can make it difficult to monitor order status in real-time. This lack of accurate information can make it hard to manage inventory levels and communicate order updates to customers.
Data entry errors Relying on employees to manually input order details from across various sales channels into business systems can lead to mistakes e.g. incorrect customer information or product codes being entered that delay fulfilment.
Inefficient processing Manually processing orders is time-consuming as employees are often required to rekey information into multiple systems leading to backlogs and increased lead times.
Automated order management is the use of technology to automate tasks within the order management process including order processing, tracking and customer communications.
At every step of the order process journey, automation gives you more visibility and control. You can use automation and bespoke low-code applications, to effortlessly access sales data, manage inventory, and keep customers updated. You’ll also be able to fulfill orders faster and with greater accuracy, creating happier customers.
Faster fulfillment By automating manual tasks, several key steps in the order approval process can become instantaneous, reducing the time it takes for an order to reach the customer. Your systems will be able to acknowledge an order request, check inventory, and approve the request without human input. That frees up your workforce to focus on getting deliveries to your customers.
Improved tracking Using low-code automation applications, you’ll improve communication between all your different systems. This means you and, more importantly, your customers will always know the status of their order, improving trust and providing a more complete customer experience.
Better inventory management Effective inventory management relies on two things: knowing how much product you have and knowing how much product you’ll need. By connecting your order management process with an automated system, stock availability will be automatically updated, meaning customers can be sure that their order is in stock. You’ll also gain access to a range of insights that can help you allocate warehouse stock based on predicted demand, keeping you one step ahead.
Discover how Bizagi's low-code platform benefits order management.
Fewer errors Mistakes are a serious threat to order fulfillment. An incorrectly entered address, item number, or price will leave your customers frustrated. Automation reduces the likelihood of human error, ensuring that orders are completed more accurately.
Automatic data capture Applications that automate order management can track and record every stage of the order process. You can use this wealth of data for more effective enterprise resource planning, accurate demand forecasting, and order fulfillment optimization.
Easy to scale Software solutions can scale effortlessly with demand. If your business experiences peak periods, or is still growing, adopting automation gives you the ability to scale your order management capabilities while minimizing or removing the need to drastically restructure your process or take on more staff.
Business agility When disruption inevitably arrives as it has in recent years, gaps and workarounds make it extremely difficult to respond quickly and change the way you work. Low-code process applications not only provide consistency and governance, they are also easy to change when your business needs to adapt. That might be integrating a new system, adjusting a process step, or onboarding a new delivery company.
NRF have achieved a 50% reduction in the time it takes to complete customer orders. They did this by integrating all their operations through one platform, ensuring that the whole product flow is completed digitally which has reduced manual labor by 100%.
CBC are now meeting 100% of their delivery SLAs for 2200 vendors, making sure that orders are on their way to the customer the next morning. Using automation, it only takes 35 minutes for the details of these orders to reach warehouses.
Geesinknorba build highly-customizable refuse-collection vehicles and waste compactors. They implemented automated order processes, reducing the lead time for each vehicle and giving customers more flexibility to amend and update their orders according to changes in requirements.
Automating parts or all of your order management processes with a low-code platform means your business can fulfill orders more quickly and efficiently, with fewer errors and more flexibility.
To find out how Bizagi’s low-code automation platform can help you unlock these benefits, watch the demo.
