What is an Order Management System?

An Order Management System is an application that helps a company track the orders placed by its customer at various stages of processing. It gives a complete picture of the events happening around an order right from the instant when an order is placed till it gets closed.

An order may have to pass through different functions within an organization for it to get executed successfully. Manual processing may be time consuming as well as ineffective in several conditions and hence automation of the workflow becomes mandatory. Not only does this help in the speedy processing of the order and hence the timely delivery to the customer but also serves as a structured mechanism for the organization to review its performance and capabilities.

Ideally Order Management Systems are linked to other applications such as the CRM and Warehouse Management System so that related information are obtained automatically without manual intervention. Why should you link the OMS with other applications? What are its benefits? Assume a situation where there are many orders floating simultaneously, the OMS can assign priorities to the orders based on the customer profile when integrated with the CRM. It can also give an indication immediately when an order is placed whether the required product is available in the right quantity if it is integrated with the Warehouse Management System.

How is Lotus Notes Domino relevant to an Order Management System?

The OMS is essentially a tracking system of the flow of work among several functions within the organisation, sometimes even outside organisation by associates and partners who operate together for the completion of the Task. Apart from being a convenient platform to build workflow applications Lotus Notes has all the features that are required to have complete control of the system including assigning access privileges to external users. Lotus Domino’s capability to support web enabling of these applications can be a great asset in making the OMS a powerful tool that can be accessed from any where with minimum risk of information security.

The comprehensive programming features available in Lotus Notes Domino helps to build the application that can literally meet any requirement. Other technologies like Java, J2EE, XML etc can be integrated around the core Lotus application to obtain advanced features and customized User Interfaces.

Lotus Notes Domino also has the advantage in its capability to integrate with other Enterprise applications and platforms. With tools such as the Lotus Enterprise Integrator available, it makes it easy for integrating the Lotus Notes applications with other Enterprise application including Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) applications.

To develop a successful OMS, defining a well structured process for the entire system is absolutely essential, an experienced partner can help you develop the application that can be reliable and make your business stable.