Determining the Best Order Management System for B2B eCommerce

6 Questions to Help Reveal Best-of-Breed Order Management Systems for B2B

By Alexandra Busenitz, Global Marketing Manager for Ultra Commerce

What is an Order Management System for B2B eCommerce?

A B2B Order Management System (OMS) is an orchestration of tracking global inventory, sales, fulfillment, deliveries/servicing, and returns for customers.

As you can imagine, having an OMS to handle the innate complexities of B2B organizations can prove to be a difficult task. This challenge multiplies when striving to deliver customers a seamless experience while hiding such a complex system.

Why use an Order Management System? 

Ultimately, the right order management system will help solve your unique compelling business challenges.

In the clip below from our Order Management Webinar, experts David Crow and Mike Lewendowski outlined a couple of common challenges B2B and DTC organizations have in the market:

Another significant value of order management sits with Distributed Order Management (DOM) or an Order Orchestration solution. The DOM works with your Enterprise Order Management on managing the complexity of multi-channel ordering. A DOM solution automates the allocation of Orders/Order Lines across your distribution network.

To see the full value of your order management, you will want it to be in the cloud.  The cloud comes with many advantages to an OMS and general B2B eCommerce one including cost-saving efficiencies.

The top order management systems and vendors for manufacturing are solutions that can handle cross channel complexity in the cloud.

What is the best Order Management System solution for your B2B eCommerce?

Determining the right solution for your business will take careful consideration and can be an intense process. But, taking the time to find the right OMS module to make your B2B eCommerce platform efficient will be critical to your success.

Many out-of-the-box OMSs were built for retailers rather than for manufacturers or other more complex B2B requirements.

With near 30 years of order management experience for complex enterprises, Mike Lewandowski says one critical capability to look out for is “The system ability to manage the decomposing of an order at a line level.” As one of the main contributors to the Sterling Commerce (now IBM) solution, you will want to take Mike’s advice.

To determine if you have the right B2B eCommerce platform in place to handle complexity and drive efficiency, answer these 6 questions:

1. DO YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO ALLOCATE ORDERS ACROSS VARIOUS INVENTORY LOCATIONS E.G. DC’S AND TRUNKS?
2. ARE YOU ABLE TO HANDLE RETURNS (REVERSE) LOGISTICS FOR COMPLEX ORDERS?
3. CAN YOU ENABLE ADVANCED BUSINESS RULES TO HANDLE COMPLEX ORDERS?
4. DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT ORDER ORCHESTRATION FOR YOUR UNIQUE B2B ECOMMERCE CHALLENGES?
5. ARE YOU ABLE TO EXECUTE COMPLEX DELIVERY & SERVICE SCHEDULING?
6. CAN YOUR B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORM SUPPORT GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES?

Were you confident in all of your answers? Is there any room for improvement? Our trending guide will help you answer yes more confidently: Read the guide to Enhancing B2B Order Management: 6 keys to drive growth, improve efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction.

If you’re in the process of evaluating order management system modules or order management system software, factor in our order management system built to handle even the most complex use cases for Manufacturers, Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, and other complex organizations. Request a demo of our order management system.