Dear omnichannel community,
we are all aware that the shift towards omnichannel e-commerce has been going on for while and has sped up additionally in recent years due to COVID. More and more retailers find they need to adapt and meet their customers' demands for a seamless shopping experience across all channels and short delivery times.
An efficient order sourcing and a reliable customer promise can be key to achieve this feat, and most order management systems let retailers create strategies that align with their business goals. Traditional order sourcing applications are rule-based (e.g "ship from closest site"). In order to configure a strategy, business users have to make multiple assumptions based on which deterministic rules will help them attain their business goals. Furthermore, rules are evaluated sequentially, with the risk of never even evaluating the rules that appear later in the sequence, if the system finds a solution it deems already acceptable. Last but not least, such strategies quickly become very complex and difficult to maintain.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier if retailers were able to state their business goals directly in the order management system and let the system find the strategy that works best?
This is where
SAP Order Management for sourcing and availability comes into play: Retailers select the business goals that are most important for their business case. They can also assign a weight to each business goal to prioritize them. The solution provides availability data across all fulfillment nodes and channels to make sure the customer promise can be upheld. And after an order has been placed, the system optimizes the sourcing of products according to the business goals that were selected. The business goals are evaluated simultaneously, with their assigned weight considered.
SAP Order Management for sourcing and availability is available as of now and enables you to do the following:
- Import transportation information, used in the sourcing calculations.
- Import availability data for both your distribution centers and stores.
- Import unprocessed sales information from stores to keep availability consistent.
- Manage product reservations from pending orders to avoid overpromising.
- Expose centralized product availability information across fulfillment nodes to all your sales channels, based on imported availability and unprocessed sales as well as current reservations.
- Design optimized sourcing strategies based on business goals such as utilized capacity and delivery time through a business user-friendly interface.
- Assign weight to business goals to define their relative importance.
- Monitor sourcing strategy performance against your business goals.
So, if you're looking for an order management solution that is easy to use, provides consistent omnichannel availability data, and helps you optimize your order sourcing, SAP Order Management for sourcing and availability is just the right solution for you and your business!
Also, don't hesitate to reach out to me directly or leave a comment below if you have questions, comments, or feedback!
You want to learn more?
If you want to find out more about SAP Order Management for sourcing and availability, check
SAP Order Management for sourcing and availability on the SAP Help Portal and stay tuned for updates!
