Introduction:

What happens when a customer contacts you and asks for a product that he wants immediately and you discover that your warehouse doesn€™t stock it at that moment? And if this happens after the item has been logged in as a confirmed order? Are you able to respond in a timeframe that€™s suitable to your customer?

What happens if the customer contacts you through telesales, or through online sales on the web? Is your staff able to respond accurately to the customer€™s query? In the process are you really making money in these deals? What do you need to ensure that you are not in a situation where you are in the dark about orders and inventories, and maybe even customers?

We know that customer orders drive a supply chain. A primary requisite for any e-commerce business is that it employs systems that manage orders and inventory levels efficiently.

When customers demand service through multiple channels, order promising, tracking and fulfillment become more complex and intensive. Multiple channels could mean customers calling in through the web; phone, fax or email and usually different people attend to these calls in an organization.

Disparate order processing can lead to serious gaps in demand and fulfillment. If order commitments are not honored throughout the enterprise a consolidated order status at any point of time can be difficult to view and this difficulty may in turn to be communicated to the customer.

Consolidating orders into a single interface for submission, tracking, routing, fulfillment, and order status queries, can help all employees access vital information from a common interface thus ensuring visibility in the entire process. And if this visibility is in turn communicated to the customer, it means that the customer has a complete picture of the status of his order until the final delivery. Customer order history implies viewing and managing pending orders by status, accessing order numbers by invoice numbers, tracking number or customer.

Order management services:
Order management services are a critical component of customer service €?enabling internal communications within an organization and facilitating collaboration among trading partners to ensure that all customer orders are fulfilled and delivered when promised.

How can order management features in an inventory software application help?

• Consolidated order management that lowers costs in turn.
  
• Advanced order commitment and tracking that can in turn help improve customer service
  
• Allocation of inventory and products in a profitable manner
  
• Automation of workflows through order management processes
  
• Order visibility (order tracking)
  
• Optimized price lists and customer quotes to maximize margins
  
• Consolidation of order data to support enterprise forecasting and replenishment initiatives
  
• Significant increase in the visibility of demand and future requirements
  
• Elimination of repetitive tasks and physical paper handling
  
• Addition of the value of availability to a product
  
• Reduced lead times, reduced administrative workloads and the use of multi databases
  
• Optimization of catalog price lists for profitability.

A product that is in excessive demand is usually extremely difficult to manage. Supplying the right amount of products implies that an accurate demand forecast is essential. This impacts the entire supply chain. A similar situation exists at the warehouse level and even the manufacturer end.

Continuous replenishment in a warehouse can become a mammoth task if consumer response is not studied accurately. To facilitate efficient consumer response based on consumer demands, warehouse data, sales forecasts, and inventory planning, it becomes imperative that such companies consider inventory management seriously. Making accurate demand and supply predictions is an ideal situation that anyone in the supply chain management arena could dream off.

Inventory management can remove barriers between manufacturer and retailers and establish a closer relationship between them. Ideally inventory management should be easy as the main aim is to reduce inventories. If items wanted are not at hand or even if merchandize wanted is reordered often, sales will be lost to competitors. Precise control of inventory is an essential ingredient for a successful company.

The 3 main objectives in inventory management are:

• Improved customer service
  
• Reduced inventory investment
  
• Increased productivity

Benefits of inventory management applications:

• Complete control of inventory.
  
• Complete information about the value of the inventory
  
• Complete visibility on Quantities on hand, Quantities committed and Quantities sold
  
• Response time to demand changes reduced
  
• Increased sales
  
• Knowledge of the exact size of merchandizing inventory
  
• Frequent analysis of purchases, sales and inventory records.
  
• Removal of unnecessary use of warehouse space used by unneeded part of inventory.
  
• Reduction in excess merchandize stock.
  
• Taxes and insurance premiums paid on excess merchandize inventory avoided.
  
• By providing timely accurate information pertaining to inventory location, movement and valuation, receipt of goods, sale and return of goods and profits you can make sure that your inventory is visible throughout a network.

IT (Information Technology) is a key enabler in the transformation of purchasing into a strategic business function. The challenge is to find a way to put these technologies to use and create value and competitive advantage.