One of the major challenges in e-commerce is the complexity of integrating multiple customer-oriented applications with diverse internal or external business applications as well as partner systems. Can an Order Management help in this?
The reason for this is often the existence of legacy IT landscapes, whose components are woven together through a complex array of direct point-to-point integrations. Besides creating headaches for IT departments, such legacy environments undermine the company’s agility and performance.
Not that point-to-point integration is necessarily a bad thing. If you only need to integrate a few applications, the point-to-point strategy is fast, simple, and inexpensive. The problem is that most companies have to integrate many different applications and/or external partners—and these integrations are rarely static.
The task of maintaining or expanding the ever-increasing number of interfaces and integrations presents a range of problems for IT departments. While project and maintenance costs rise, the speed of integrating new systems and partners or replacing existing solutions is reduced. And whenever another point-to-point integration is needed, the IT architects and developers often end up reinventing the proverbial wheel.
Modern e-commerce solutions consist of a large number of systems that have to be networked with each other. E-commerce middleware solutions play an important role here in creating a powerful and flexible e-commerce architecture.
These middleware systems can be used to centralize and standardize future integrations, thereby eliminating complex point-to-point architectures. Rather than being directly connected, applications are linked using the standardized methods defined by the middleware.
This is where a modern and sophisticated order management system comes in. As e-commerce middleware, it integrates heterogeneous systems using common information and process elements.
It embeds itself completely in a wide range of processes and solutions, linking online stores, marketplaces, EDI hubs, approval processes, credit checks, payment providers, marketing and reporting solutions, ERP and logistics solutions, CRM, and offline stores to create a holistic order processing system.
A well-designed order management system is also capable of streamlining all processes and aiding the integration of all important data and processes into a unified e-commerce architecture.
One of the most significant results of digitization is the fact that large global corporations are becoming increasingly indistinguishable, mostly in terms of their order management requirements. Of course, there are differences with regard to the complexity of the processes used throughout each business.
Yet all companies need a high level of agility and flexibility and the ability to integrate an increasing number of sales channels in order to remain competitive.
The Intershop Order Management System has been created to achieve this. It bridges Commerce Platforms and fulfillment, while providing 100% transparency and self-services towards your customers. It also can be adapted to fulfill individual business needs, while still offering a wide range of B2B-specific features out-of-the-box.
"A powerful order management system is a game changer for your supply chain. It will smoothen your ordering and fulfilment processes, provide enterprise-wide inventory visibility, optimize your returns management and thus boost customer satisfaction." says Gerrit Enthoven, Director Sales EMEA
Do you want to dig deeper into the added values an Order Management System can bring? Watch this video where Gerrit explains everything in detail:
