An unattended order equals an unattended customer.Order management is a significant operational activity for businesses. Any glitches in it can lower the company's ability to meet the bottom line. Right from the first inquiry at the point of sale (POS) to the shipment, delivery, and settlement of bills for products, order management involves multiple steps that have to be processed for efficient order fulfillment. Order management is required to speed up all phases of order fulfillment and provide a quick solution to customers for order related queries. In a nutshell, Order managementis designed to take care of the whole process of order fulfillment.
Order management is the process of using structured methods, practical tools, and optimized processes to manage orders, improve order accuracy, work efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
While the core idea of order management is to handle orders efficiently, still different types of industries require different types of order management system. Businesses use a well-defined order management system that is best suitable for their industry-specific needs.
The order management system used by an e-commerce company such as Amazon that handles several hundred orders on a daily basis would be different from the one used by a stock market giant like Goldman Sachs that handles several hundred orders in nanoseconds.
In both cases, manual handling of the orders is not possible. Companies require technology to handle orders at such a scale of business. They use order management software (OMS) that streamlines and automates the order processing tasks to create a flawless operational environment.
The satisfaction of a customer with a company’s service depends largely upon any of the company’s ability to handle its order management cycle. An OMS helps companies in managing all phases of the order management cycle. For instance, the first step of the order management cycle is- demand forecasting, and planning the orders. It requires coordination between the marketing and the production department. OMS acts as a single point to feed information to both the departments. Other steps that follow include:
- Generation of orders
- Estimation of the cost involved in that order
- Generation of bills and invoices for that order
- Prioritization of orders based on their inherent value to the company,
- Scheduling of the order for its execution with the allotment of tasks to qualified workers and their teams
- And finally, order fulfillment by delivering the order to customers
The order management cycle will also take care of the returns and after-sales services. The functionalities and tools of an OMS assist in all the above phases of the order management cycle.
What is Order Management Software?
Order management software (OMS) provides businesses all the tools and features needed for efficient management of their e-commerce orders. Order management software is used to enter and process various types of orders by businesses. Most of the OMS is an individual and standalone software suite dedicated totally for order management only. Some OMS are part or modules of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
OMS is designed to small various operational issues related to order processing and fulfillment. We have discussed a small case study to show how order management software can help in solving common issues of order fulfillment.
#Case: A customer is trying to return a product that is defective with an order number in hand, but the customer care representative sees on his screen that the product falls into a no return/refund category. However, the customer mails him a screenshot of his purchase order that clearly shows that the product can be returned within 15 days of purchase. The customer care representative is not able to find the exact solution because of the lack of information on his/her screen about the complete order history. (The purchase was made using credit points awarded to the customer, and hence as a matter of policy it was non-refundable). As the company lacked proper order management software, this particular policy information was not visible to the customer nor to the representative.
How could have an OMS helped?
If the company had proper order management software, the applied custom fields would have prohibited the customer from buying a non-refundable product via credit points, or it would have removed the line stating that the product can be returned within 15 days of purchase.
Essential elements of Order management Software:
- Process Centralization:
By process centralization, organizations can have a single-window view of the complex order process. The centralized system displays order, inventory, and shipment related information on a single dashboard from where it can be controlled and coordinated.
- Multi-channel Integration
The sales partners and other channels can be integrated with order management software to provide a single dashboard view of sales from multiple sales channels.
- Automations:
Organizations can automate regular activities by OMS to reduce manual work. This system eases the order load, especially when the inventory turnover is high and businesses need to process hundreds of orders per day.
- Shipping and Logistics
This element and its features take care of all the shipping and logistics related work of the business.
- Payment Processing
The software can be integrated with multiple payment channels to offer customers an easy influx of payment modes.
- Real-time analytics and reports
This element has features to provide various analytical reports regarding the orders and the business performance related to it.
Benefits of using Order Management Software:
- Customer Satisfaction:
Order management software has the ability to take orders, process them and manage all related phases (order confirmation emails, notifications, cancel orders, repeat orders, refund, bill generation, order tracking) associated with it. As a business, if you use OMS, then you can provide your customers with technology-driven visibility of their ordered merchandise. Your customers are able to view the status of their orders in real-time and find if the order is pending, dispatched, on the way, or delivered. Users can also have the option to see the refund process status. Most OMS have algorithms to decide whether the refund process should be initiated or not based on given inputs. All these things are automated by order management software, so customers need not wait for any manual updates by the customer care employees. The order management software can send emails with personalized messages for providing information about their orders. Personalized support for all order related queries and issues and proactive approach of your company will add a value proposition to your business that will always be cherished by your customers. You can simply imagine the extent of satisfaction customers will have when they are transacting with such an efficiently managed business. Their loyalty, trust, and confidence in your brand will increase manifold, and you will not only gain a competitive advantage but also your chances of getting more business increase tremendously.
- Decreased Workload
As most of your regular process is automated by the order management software, you can relax and focus on other essential aspects of your business. When you have a 24*7 assistant to take care of your orders, then you can sleep without worrying about order backlogs or missed orders. With OMS at your side, you don't need multiple teams to handle the various stages of order processing and order fulfillment. OMS, being versatile and able to multitask, will reduce your workload to very healthy levels.
- Removes legacy bottlenecks
The traditional systems of order management lacked a proper coordination. In legacy systems, customer service, manufacturing, and logistics worked as separate entities with limited mutual coordination. This made it difficult for businesses to provide accurate information about the order status. Even the customer service agents found it difficult to answer the customer queries without dialing phones to the logistics or manufacturing departments. Now with order management software, businesses have complete visibility of their ordered products, and they can provide reliable and accurate information to the customers.
- Saves Costs:
With multiple stakeholders involved in businesses, it is difficult to integrate systems to manage everything from a central point. Order management software makes the integration of all major cross-functional partners involved in-order delivery, easy and affordable. Removal of redundant systems results in cost savings.
- Complex Order Fulfilment
With many e-commerce companies disrupting the traditional market-place and increasing the customer expectations to an all-time new high, the need for single-touch technologies to process complex orders has increased exponentially. A complex order is generated when the order fulfillment requires the involvement of multiple delivery players and logistic companies. OMS can tackle this complexity with a seamless one point database integration and handling everything from a single touchpoint.
- Saves Time
Earlier for any order related issue, companies required to have a series of communication at multiple points. They had to speak to manufacturing, logistics, distributors, and retailers, and also all of these had to be individually informed of any changes in the order process and time. It caused unnecessary delays and loss of revenue. Now with the order management software, the changes get updated to the centralized system in real-time, and other associated entities get informed automatically as they either have the controlled access to the information or are notified by auto-generated emails and SMSes.
What will happen without a proper Order Management Software?
Features of Order Management Software:
- Order Management Dashboard:
Order management software has a centralized system for processing, managing, and tracking all your orders. It provides a single interface point for orders coming from all channels (Amazon, eBay, Shopify, FedEx, and others).
- Offline and Online Order Synchronization
Your customers might place orders when you are offline. In this case, your order management software has a feature to synchronize the order as soon as you come online again.
- Order Processing Modes
Your orders can be processed via your own warehouse logistics facility, third party logistics, dropshipping by your manufacturer or distributor, or by the E-commerce company's logistics itself on whose platform you are registered as a seller, for example, Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).
- Customized views of your Orders
You can see your orders in multiple ways, and a customized view of orders is also possible with filters and sorting of various types. You can add custom fields and tags.
- Bulk Action on your Orders
The orders can be canceled, modified, and confirmed in bulk. Importing and exporting details of orders in bulk is also allowed.
- Multiple Payment Options and Payment Gateways
Order management software integrates with multiple secured payment modes and channels to provide your customers with the flexibility to pay via their mode of choice.
- Real-time Order reports
The order management software provides users real-time reports of the orders processed, orders pending, orders canceled, orders rejected, and many other aspects related to your orders. This gives you a quick holistic view of your on-going business.
- Shipping Integration
Order management software integrates with your shipping points to track your order’s location and status. This also provides a view of the delivery and shipping options available to your customers.
- Order Automation
Order management software automates multiple activities to ensure that your time is saved from repetitive manual activities. Processes can be automated to increase efficiency.
- Aligning Inventory with Orders
This feature has an important operational value. As soon as your customer buys your product listed on one of the E-commerce platforms, the order management software will update the number of products on all other shopping channels. This alignment of your orders with inventory is essential to keep your business operations running smoothly. This prevents duplicate orders from your customers or ordering of products that are not available in the inventory.
Although there are many reliable free and open source order management software that we will discuss in detail later, one software that stands apart as the editor’s choice is inFlow Inventory.
InFlow Inventory
With over 1,000,000 installs worldwide, inFlow Inventory is one of the best order management software. This all-in-one purchase order system synced to the inventory provides businesses with all vital functionalities to help you get complete control over your order management processes. It enables businesses to receive orders, automate operations, restock inventory, automatically record costs, eliminate double entry, prioritize purchasing, scan barcodes, email vendors, and more.
Moreover, the inFlow Inventory software allows you to manage orders across multiple locations. That’s not all; you can connect inFlow Inventory to QuickBooks Online to automatically share your order data and enjoy seamless accounting management. Overall, inFlow Inventory is a user-friendly order management system that can help you streamline your business orders, improve efficiency, and enhance profits.
(Source-inFlow Inventory)
Features:
- Order lifecycle management automation
- Easy-to-use interface
- Purchase orders, dropshipping, multiple ship-to addresses, email POs and receipts
- Shipping management, receive shipments, scan to receive, process returns
- Pay vendors, make batch payments, track balances and credits
- Manage customers/vendors, contact information, communication, order histories, vendor-specific defaults
- Backorder management and recurring orders
- Easy integration with QuickBooks Online, Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Squarespace
- Comprehensive analytics and customized reports
If you specifically require free order management software for your business, here are the top free and open source order management systems that you can choose from.
The list of 10 free and open-source Order Management Software:
- Hydra
- Chickpea
- Dolibarr
- Vienna Advantage
- Now Commerce
- Ordant
- StoneEdge Order Manager
- 4Psite
- Deckcommerce
- Orderwave
Comparison table of 10 Free and Open Source Order Management Software
Hydra is a free and open source order management software suite that helps in managing service orders and job orders. It has its own BPM engine to perform this task. This free order management software is different from the other general order management software as it applies business processing management principles to order management while most of the other OMS do not apply it.
Features:
- Automate order execution flow
- User-friendly order execution wizard
- Fast order execution process
- Powerful integration with external software
- Modify orders-the changes come in effect immediately for all new orders
- Hydra billing system
- Customization options available
- Various types of orders can be executed-Claim orders, return orders, Churn customer orders, Re-billing, etc.
- Completed orders are available for report statements and analytics
- Hydra's Execution Wizard is highly configurable via configuration files
- SQL database integration
-
Chikpea(Free Demo)
Chikpea’s O2B is an order management system that helps businesses in managing their orders. O2B is the product of Chikpea that focuses on telecom order management and offers a plethora of useful features such as partial and line-item payment management. It is a software that can be used to replace your existing legacy billing application.
Features:
- Subscription management-Add or remove any subscription plan
- Various types of billings-Distributed Billing, Hierarchical Billing
- Various types of pricing-Tiered Pricing, Volume Pricing, Contract Pricing
- Time Triggers to orders
- First invoice and Order Line Processing
- Offset Billing and Pre-Paid and Post-Paid orders
- Line Payments
- Class of service
- Bill Process Groups
- Price Booking
- Bill by location
- Accounting Link
-
Dolibarr(Free Trial and Free Demo)
Dolibarr is an open source order management software that can manage your customer and supplier orders. It lets you frame rules for your product stock and assist in streamlining workflow orders. It features one of the best in class predefined statistics pages to get reports and analytics about the performance of your sales representative.
Features:
- Pre-defined fields to add content
- Option to add new fields
- Create your orders from customer sheet
- Automatically generated and updated PDF of order statement
- Send your order acknowledgment by Email
- Use your predefined email templates
- Convert your order into a contract (module contract)
- Manage shipments
- Filter and sort orders on any criteria.
- Export your Orders with the Export module
- Reuse exported orders with third-party tools
- Analyze sales and delivery performance
-
Viennaadvantage(Free Trial)
Viennaadvantage is order management software that lets users to manage their orders efficiently and reduces costs involved in order management. It also reduces the number of people required in the order management process. It provides reports and analytics that help you to find your most profitable customers and engagements. It also assists in improving your sales and supply chain designs.
Features:
- 360-degree view of all your orders
- Manual or automatic triggers available
- Reduce human entries by automation and eliminate errors
- See existing orders, create new orders and modify orders
- Create a sales order with customer name
- Complete information of customer’s order history and preferences in one click
- See complete product info in a separate window
- Powerful cloud computing capabilities
-
Now Commerce (Free Trial)
Now Commerce is a B2B online ordering system for businesses that cater to professional buyers. It provides a sophisticated online sales experience that is different than the shopping cart. It is a 24*7 online order system with full access to all features such as custom pricing, inventory, and account history. Customers can track orders and see invoices. Now Commerce is available for free to those who use QuickBooks Desktop.
Features:
- Streamlined ordering
- Simple to advanced matrix order forms
- Admin users have a
- Reports tab which shows complete Order history
- Admins can access sales orders, invoices, estimates, and more
- Displays stock status
- Manage Account Information
- Online orders automatically entered in QuickBooks
- Check Shipping Status
- View real-time Pricing & Inventory
- View Pending Orders
- View complete account history including credits/returns
- Branding with your company logo
- Robust Quickbook Integration
-
Ordant(Free Trial)
Ordant is an advanced order management solution, with an integrated remote publishing storefront. This online tool saves your time by decreasing the need for re-entry from one software to another.
Features:
- Price Estimation and place an order online using the storefront
- See order history, and reorder
- Track the progress of current orders
- Send a PDF proof through an email to your customer
- The customer will then be able to comment, approve, or reject the proof online in real-time.
- Track proofs along with their due dates
- Add a list of vendors
- Create a list of items with their prices
- Use order/estimate to create a new RFQ for your vendor
- Customers can approve or reject the estimate
- Receive email notifications when customers approve/reject the order
-
StoneEdgeOrder Manager (Free Demo)
Stone Edge is an order management software built for retailers who require more functions and flexible configurations in their order management software. It has the ability to create the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) and process returns and exchanges.
Features:
- Search orders by last name, company name, addresses, items in the orders, Web order number various order-related dates, etc
- Use Quick Filters such as Today's Pending Orders, DropShips to be Ordered, Backorders to be Filled, etc.
- Search for orders by names, custom fields, etc.
- Add and delete line items
- Fill, force and cancel backorders
- Process payments
- Create a re-order
- Edit and validate billing and shipping addresses.
- Pre-designed email template to email customers
- View shipping and tracking data
- Create drop-ship purchase orders
-
4Psite(Free Demo)
4PSite is a fully integrated order management software that automatically derives orders from your partner stores and channels. It provides a simple interface, allowing complete insight to your entire workflow. It offers support to 40 different carts and channels, a manual orders system, wholesale orders, and a basic POS system. You can smoothly manage your daily business operations from beginning to end through fulfillment, shipping, payment processing, inventory management, CRM, and returns. Whether you process a couple of orders, a couple hundred, or thousands of orders per day, the system allows you to streamline the process.
Features:
- 4PSite captures orders in real-time for
- The customizable fraud screening tool
- Option to modify orders as needed
- Advanced search and filter options to track orders
- A feature that automatically places out of stock items "on-hold."
- Print packing slips, invoices, and shipping labels
- Returns management to track and manage returns
- Tracking information sent automatically to customers
- One interface
- Cloud-based system
- Automatic functions and flexibility
- Orders can be processed together or separately
-
DeckCommerce(Free Demo)
Deck Commerce is an order management software that simplifies managing customer orders in omnichannel retailing. A market-leading customer order management solution for omnichannel retailing, with the benefits of modern, cloud-based technology.
Features:
- Process orders placed from multiple channels
- Coordinate orders shipped across a distributed fulfillment network
- Real-Time Order Aggregation and Processing
- Fulfillment Routing
- Split Shipments
- Back-Orders and Pre-Orders
- Inventory Aggregation and Allocation
- Real-Time order processing coordination across distributed sales channels
- Manage the requirements for processing an order related to payment, tax, and fraud
- Turn your stores into fulfillment centers and activate flexible fulfillment options like Ship-from-Store & In-Store Pickup
- Support the full life-cycle of an order with our intuitive, easy-to-use, web-based customer service portal.
- Streamline the processes related to payments
-
Orderwave(Free Demo)
Orderwave is an order management software that administers orders with ease using its intuitive interface. Orderwave has the perfect balance of features and customization. It has warehouse routing tools to optimize order delivery time. Orderwave has a strong backend that provides support to your e-commerce site.
Features:
- Aggregates information from all touchpoints
- Customized tasks
- Automated to-do alerts.
- Proper payment processing
- Create HTML-rich emails to send your customers order messages
- Analyzing buyer behavior by its reports
- Captures partially-entered order information in real-time
- Inventory Synchronization
- Shipping Carrier Integration
- Automated Customer Communication
- Unlimited integrations with various systems
We have included a popular Order Management Softwarefor discussion-Orderhive. It is a commercial OMS with robust functionalities. Let us see its features in detail:
Orderhive
Orderhive is an enterprise-level order management software that has robust features and utilities to take your order process to the next level. It has integration with many sales channels, and it can handle orders for all businesses irrespective of their size and type of business. It is a powerful software with functionalities that are best in the industry.
Features:
- Multiple category filters for quick order search
- Order processing through FBA, dropshipping and 3PL
- Export and import orders in bulk
- Quick PO creation for out-of-stock order items
- Online and offline order syncing
- Warehouse priority settings to fulfill orders
- FIFO (First-in-First-out) inventory method
- Add comments or instructions to every order
- All necessary information in one place
- Custom order workflows
- Quickest sync time of orders and inventory
- Add or delete custom fields to orders
- List and Kanban view of orders
- Confirm or cancel orders in bulk
- Clone repeat orders
- Custom tags for easy identification
- Standard and custom invoice templates
- Add due dates and tags to orders
- Pre-order, backorder or partial order fulfillment
Conclusion:
The paradigm shift to B2C from B2B has compelled all businesses to change their core business strategies. When all businesses are striving towards enhanced customer engagement and complete customer satisfaction goals, they cannot afford to disappoint their customers at any cost.
Times have changed, and there is a sea difference in the way orders were processed in the past and the way it is processed today. New techniques and concepts like Lean management, Kanban theory, and many more have brought an unprecedented improvement in the order management field. New fields and industries have started using OMS that earlier used paper and human interaction for receiving and executing orders.
For example, if you remember how people used to trade on the stock market floor (floor trading) with order chits in the hands of the brokers shouting for buy and sell orders. It was replaced with high-frequency order management software where orders for bulk trades can be put in the software, and the software finds the buyers and sellers automatically. It still required human involvement to decide the entry and exit prices, but now with the development of algorithmic trading in the financial securities market, Order Management software can trade on behalf of the companies or individuals. It can decide and execute all types of orders, such as a buy, sell, short sell, cover, or bracket order based on algorithms. It has been a game-changer in the stock market trading world.
It would be worthwhile to see how further developments in this field are going to change the way we conduct business. But one thing is for sure; one has to implement technology as soon as possible to keep businesses intact in the dynamic business world. Order management software is the first thing that you require to stay ahead of your competitors.
Readers can select any order management software discussed in this article for their needs. We will be glad to get your views about the article in the comments section below. If you have utilized any of the free and open-source order management softwarementioned above, then do share your feedbackwith us.
If you wish to see the features of anyother software or any other software category other than the order management software, then do look at our software directory.
