How Order Management Process Workflows and Flow Charts Work

  • by Vera Agiang
  • Dec 12, 2021

order-management-process-flow-chart

The 3 major steps in the order management process flow chart are accepting, fulfilling, and resolving customer orders.

Merchants can use flow charts to have an overview of their order management processes.

Merchants can also use OMS to automate and streamline order management processes for customer satisfaction.

fabric OMS is the ideal OMS for merchants who need a centralized hub for data collation.

The typical order management process flowchart illustrates three steps; accepting, fulfilling, and resolving the aftermath of customer orders. With a manual order management process in place, it’s tricky to achieve that.

If you prioritize speed and accuracy in order fulfillment, this article will uncover how to improve your order management workflow.

What is an order management workflow?

When a customer places an order online, certain actions take place behind the scenes before their order is fulfilled. Those actions make up the order management workflow.

Workflow in order management refers to activities that make it possible to fulfill customer orders. These include everything from accepting customer orders, creating invoices, managing inventory , and packaging items for shipment.

An efficient order management process workflow is critical for today’s online retailers. 56% of customers expect speedy, error-free deliveries and are not afraid to switch to competitors after having a negative order fulfillment experience.

What is an order management flow chart?

order-processing-flowchart

The order management flow chart is a graphic or diagrammatic representation of the processes involved in order management. It contains shapes, lines, and colors, all of which help to provide visual imagery of what the physical processes look like.

How Manual Processes Limit Order Management

Many of the inefficiencies during the order management process are the result of using ineffective technologies. Two popular choices are to simply use an e-commerce platform or make spreadsheets.

E-commerce platforms can handle some parts of the order management process but come with limitations. The order management tools built into most platforms only allow you to capture and track orders from your e-commerce site.

You can get by with this if all your orders come from your e-commerce website and you do not sell through any third-party channels. However, if you sell through more than one channel, or if you have multiple warehouses, you’ll need an additional system to manage inventory and the orders from other channels.

Many businesses use manual processes to manage orders across different sales channels. This generally involves using a spreadsheet to compile orders from each channel. Inventory is updated manually. These changes are then manually applied to each sales channel. If the company has multiple warehouses, a team member must manually choose the warehouses for order routing.

Manual order management is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and unscalable. The time that staff spends updating the system could be better spent on other tasks. Manual processes are also more prone to human error which can lead to further delays in fulfilling orders.

How to Improve the Order Management Process

Standalone order management systems (OMS) provide an end-to-end tool for tracking and managing inventory and orders across multiple channels. With a centralized order management tool, you are free from the bottleneck of having to log into multiple systems to complete essential tasks. For example, logging into Amazon and eBay separately to process orders.

The OMS processes orders from any channel, making details for every order available in a single place. Parts of the workflow are automated, eliminating many manual processes. Some of the tasks an OMS can automate include:

  • Processing customer payments
  • Routing orders to the appropriate warehouse, especially for dropshippers working with numerous suppliers
  • Choosing the best shipping carrier based on the customer’s location
  • Printing shipping labels
  • Forwarding information to the accounting system
  • Updating inventory levels in real-time
  • Sending transactional messages like confirmation emails

With an OMS, information moves between different parts of your e-commerce system instantly. This enables orders to be processed and delivered faster. Less manual input also leads to fewer errors throughout the fulfillment process.

The 6 Steps in Order Management Process

On your flow chart, the basic steps for fulfilling customer orders include accepting, fulfilling, and resolving customer orders. To help you understand it better, here’s a detailed walkthrough:

  • The customer places an order on a company’s e-commerce site or third-party sales channel.
  • The company records and accepts the order after validating payment details through a payment gateway.
  • A confirmation email is sent to the customer verifying the purchase.
  • The order details are sent to the company’s warehouse or third-party logistics (3PL) provider .
  • The products are picked, packed, and shipped to the customer.
  • The customer receives a shipping confirmation email and the order.

On the surface, the process seems straightforward. But it gets more complicated when you have orders coming from different sales channels. E-commerce companies without a centralized solution for managing the process can experience operational inefficiencies.

Automating Processes with OMS

An OMS can streamline your order management workflow to let you deliver customer orders with precision and speed. OMS software tracks inventory levels with the help of scannable SKUs .

When employees scan the SKU bars on products, the software automatically removes the item from your inventory. This gives an accurate view of your stock and reduces the time it would take to manually update the quantity on spreadsheets.

OMS also tracks and monitors customer insights on multiple sales channels. That means if you’re a merchant on Amazon , eBay , or Shopify , you can have a central platform where all your customer data can be stored and accessed easily.

E-commerce channels also have features for monitoring customer data and processing orders. However, they are limited. For example, if you’re a merchant on Amazon, you can view orders and sales you’ve completed. But you can’t track the data on Shopify through Amazon’s sales platform.

So to keep track of all that data, you must create a spreadsheet using Excel and enter them separately. This is time-consuming and stressful.

Improving Order Management Workflow with Flow Charts

By building a flow chart, you are able to get an aerial view of what your order management process looks like. This will help you to identify bottlenecks.

When you have a clear view of inefficiencies in your processes, you can find solutions for them. It will also help you determine which order management system is ideal for resolving those issues.

Here are 5 best practices for creating a good flow chart:

1. Choose an intuitive software

When choosing software to design your order management flow chart, ensure that the software is user-friendly. It should have drag-and-drop functionality and multiple formatting options. These will help you create your chart easily and with fast speed. You can use the following software:

2. Be consistent

Mismatching texts and shape sizes can make your flow chart look disorganized and confusing. A more organized flow chart allows you to concentrate and make better decisions.

To achieve consistency in your flow chart design, start with making all shapes the same size. Next, use the same colors for similar processes. For instance, you can use blue to indicate the order processing step, and then use yellow to highlight the packaging and shipping processes; post-delivery steps can be orange.

If there are steps in your order management process that are not automated, you can also indicate them in your chart with different shapes or colors.

3. Space out elements

Spacing out your design elements makes it readable. Avoid squeezing too many elements together on one flow chart.

Though it’s better to fit every possible element on one page to get an aerial view, you should consider creating another flow chart and continue your design there. You can link the new and old charts together with hyperlinks.

4. Use decision symbols

On your flow chart, you can indicate your responses to certain situations. For example, a customer places an order, but his credit card details are invalid. You can illustrate alternate scenarios that could happen after this.

Your OMS can cancel the order or prompt the customer to enter in new details. If the customer corrects his details, then the software may confirm the order and collect the data.

5. Use trigger words

Your flow chart should use simple language. This means you should use trigger words over sentences. For example, use “Process invoice” and “package order” in place of “processing of customer order” and “packaging of customer order”.

Trigger words are words that initiate an action or process. They are short and straight to the point, unlike full sentences. Using full sentences takes up more space on your chart and makes it confusing.

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How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

In a perfect world, every business process would be documented. Employees would have everything they need to do their jobs and would know exactly how to carry out each step.

But this isn’t always the case — 60% of employees find it difficult to get the information they need for their work. This suggests that companies aren’t doing enough to document their processes, which can lead to inconsistent results.

So how can you improve your processes? And how can you ensure that employees have the information they need to do their jobs well?

Using a business process diagram is a good place to start.

In this article, we’ll cover what a business process diagram is, how it can help your company, and how to create one. We’ll also look at using business process automation software to document and automate your processes.

Click the links below to jump straight to the section you want to learn more about :

  • What Is a Business Process Diagram? 
  • How Does a Business Process Diagram Help Your Business? 

5 Essential Parts of a Business Process Diagram

7 steps to create a business process diagram, what is a business process diagram.

A business process diagram is a visual representation of a process that your company carries out to achieve a goal. It uses standardized symbols to describe each step of the process.

You can use a business process diagram to depict anything from onboarding new hires to developing and launching a new product.

Typically, a business process diagram will look like a flowchart. It could be a basic flowchart, or it could be a more complex cross-functional flowchart that spans multiple departments.

Here’s an example of a business process diagram for purchase orders:

Example of a business process diagram for purchase orders

Creating a business process diagram is the first step to improving operational efficiency. It can help you understand how a process works, allowing you to identify inefficiencies that may not have been obvious before.

When you share your process diagram with colleagues, higher-ups, and stakeholders, you can get feedback on how to adjust and optimize the process. 

If you think your business processes are as efficient as possible, think again: 68% of organizations saw key processes break down in the rapid shift to remote work in 2020. 

68% of organizations saw key processes break down due to remote work

Using a business process diagram increases productivity, minimizes errors, and facilitates digital transformation when you combine it with workflow automation software.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of business process diagrams.

How Does a Business Process Diagram Help Your Business?

Business process diagrams contain plenty of valuable information for your business. They show you how your processes actually work, not just how you think they should work.

That’s incredibly useful. 

When you use that information to identify roadblocks and optimize your workflows, your entire business benefits. Here’s how a business process diagram benefits your company.

Increases Efficiency and Productivity

44% of organizations measured the return on investment (ROI) of their business processes through how much time employees saved. The results? 66% of departments that prioritize automation say they reduced time spent on manual tasks by 11–30%. 

Reduces Business Costs

A business process diagram breaks down each step of a process, which can help you identify automation opportunities and lower operating costs. 46% of departments that prioritize process automation say they’ve reduced costs by 11–30%. 

two pie charts showing that 66% of teams reduced time by 11-30% and 46% of teams reduced costs by 11-30%

Increases Transparency

With a clear process diagram, every team member can see what they need to do. Business process models extend this idea, helping everyone see how they’re part of the larger picture.

Creates a Record of Institutional Knowledge

When employees leave the organization, they take a lot of knowledge with them. If that information isn’t documented, it’s likely gone forever. Creating a business process diagram and keeping it updated helps preserve company knowledge.

Reduces Errors and Redundancies

When everyone knows their role in a business process, you’ll get fewer mistakes and fewer instances of people doing the same work twice. 

Prefer to see and hear it rather than read about it? Let us show you how easy it is.

Improves the Employee and Customer Experience

Employees and customers appreciate when processes move quickly, whether that’s returning an item or getting all your new hire documents signed. 

With business process diagrams, you can speed up your processes while also keeping them accurate, leading to better employee and customer experiences.

While any part of a business can benefit from process mapping and automation, some departments will get a higher ROI than others.

The following departments see the highest ROI from process automation, according to a Salesforce study:

  • Operations: 47%
  • Customer service: 37%

Process Automation ROI by Department

Before you can start creating a business process diagram, you need to understand how it’s structured.

A key goal of business process mapping is to connect different sources and types of information. 

The average business process has five components. Think through where to look or who you’ll collaborate with to find the following pieces of information:

  • Goal or outcome: What is the end result of the business process? Define Points A and B, so you can fill in the blanks later in the process. 
  • Steps of the existing process: What are the main steps of the process? Communicate with your team about the steps they follow or perform the process in its entirety yourself. If any step includes a subprocess, note that here, too. 
  • People or departments involved: What skills or resources are needed to complete this process? Do specific people or departments need to be involved? Keep in mind that different steps may require different people. For example, contracts may need to go through multiple rounds of approval before they’re processed.
  • Rules or conditions for moving from step to step: Does the process change depending on who is involved, such as a new or important client, or other factors like budget and time limits? 
  • Software, tools, or devices: What resources do you need to complete the process? This could include anything from a customer support platform that logs customer complaints to BPM tools that track vacation requests. Make sure everyone who needs access to these tools has it. 

icons showing what you need to create a business process diagram

You’ll also need to consider how you’ll create, share, and manage the business process diagram. Using a BPM tool with plenty of customization options like frevvo, you’ll be able to create workflow diagrams that meet your needs. 

Now, let’s go step by step through creating a business diagram. 

This exercise is sometimes called business process mapping . The goal is to create a business process flow diagram , often known as a flow chart. 

By the end of these steps, you’ll have more than a process flowchart — you’ll have a fully automated business workflow. 

1. Outline Your Business Process 

When you begin your business process map, start by writing out the steps of the process as you understand them. You can do this on scrap paper, a whiteboard, or a mind map tool.

Outline of a business process diagram

Consider all the components listed in the previous section, as well as anything that might be unique to your organization. If you have a project management tool or other records, use those to track the current state of your business process.

2. Gather Necessary Information

Make a list of any gaps in your initial outline of the business process flowchart. Then, figure out where to find that information. 

You’ll also need to do some of your own brainstorming. If there are any obvious breakdowns in the business process, how can you fix them? Who can you recruit to help find a solution? 

This is also a good time to think about who will fill each role in your business process. Some steps may be tied to certain positions, like managers or vice presidents, but you may need to designate someone to carry out certain aspects of your process. 

3. Have Colleagues Offer Feedback 

Before you move forward with your business process diagram, get insight from other people who use this process. They may have information or ideas that you can’t see from your position. 

Ideally, you’ll get feedback from someone who is involved at each stage of the business process. This will help you build out the organizational context of your business process, which helps you best optimize it. 

Next, refine your rough draft of the process map according to the feedback you received.

4. Build Your Business Process With a BPM Tool

The best way to visualize a process is to use a business process management tool.

A BPM tool like frevvo can help you create flowchart diagrams using standardized notions that’s easy enough for your whole team to understand. You can also use the code-free workflow builder to create and automate your diagram to speed things up.

5. Assign Roles

At each step of your business process flowchart , designate specific people or types of users who are responsible for the tasks there. 

For instance, if you’re creating a purchase order approval workflow , you may need to assign approvers at the manager level and in the finance department.

When you create a new workflow in frevvo, you can assign approval steps to individual users based on their roles.

Assigning roles to a new workflow in frevvo

By integrating data sources with frevvo, you can autofill information like managers and chains of approval. This will make it easier to have a business process that adapts to your workflow.

6. Set Rules and Conditions 

The next step is to set up the rules and conditions that govern your automations. While this might sound intimidating, frevvo has wizards to walk you through setting up the controls and rules you need. 

Your rules and conditions help your process run as smoothly as possible. When set up correctly, everything seamlessly moves between people, devices, and tools, so the process doesn’t get stuck.

For example, let’s say that invoice approvals are painfully slow. Employees have to constantly chase down their managers for signatures, which makes the process take even longer.

In frevvo, you can create an invoice approval workflow that automatically routes forms to the right approver to sign. You can also add dynamic routing into your workflow (e.g., route an invoice to a senior executive for additional approval above a certain value).

Here’s an example of how this looks:

Example of an invoice approval workflow in frevvo

Approved invoices route directly to the finance department to issue payment.

By outlining what should happen in the case of almost any outcome, you can keep errors to a minimum. There’s always a clear plan of what should happen, so nothing falls through the cracks. 

7. Launch and Test Your Business Process

Before you launch your automated business process, test out your process automation with your team. You may need to make a few small changes so that it runs correctly. 

If needed, train your employees on how the process works or how to use your BPM tool. Since transparency is a key benefit of business process mapping, it’s essential that your team has what they need. 

Remember that BPM isn’t a one-time activity. You’ll always be monitoring, optimizing, and improving your business processes. With frevvo, you can easily make changes whenever you need to. 

Create Your Business Process Diagram Now

A business process diagram helps you visualize your workflows so you can optimize them. 

As you create your business process diagrams, be sure to get insight from everyone on your team. You’ll also want to make sure everyone understands their role in the business process. 

Then, convert your diagram into an automated business process using frevvo, which you can try for 30 days here .

Request a demo of our modern, cloud-based software.

Related posts:

  • 12 Crucial Features Your Workflow System Needs
  • Business Process Management: The Complete Guide
  • The 6 Step Guide to Performing Business Process Analysis

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The Ultimate Guide to Order Management

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Order management (OM) sits at the intersection of marketing, information technology, and logistics as a function of coordinated supply chain management. Marketing strategies put pressure on supply chain logistics to help satisfy, keep, and attract new customers. When these customers, empowered and connected by mobile devices, rapidly elevate their service expectations, the logistics processes involved in order management grow more complex. In step with this cycle of growing expectations, the corollary demand for investment in and innovation of order management systems (OMS) increases. Capable of bridging the gap between the supply chain, marketing strategies, and the customer experience in the digital economy, OMS is essential to the future of successful businesses. 

This article explores order management as a business process and how the technology of OM integrates with the customer experience. It also serves as a guide to choosing the right OMS, including examples of order management software that can streamline supply chain functions. We also offer expert insight on the paradox of achieving successful order management while improving the customer experience. In addition, you'll find expert commentary on optimizing your order management process and a discussion of modern features and trends of OMS technology. You’ll learn how OMS tech works and get free order management templates.

What Is Order Management?

Order management is the process of receiving, tracking, and fulfilling an order and shipping an order to a customer, business, or intermediary. It's simple to define, but its complexity is easy to underestimate. The process begins and ends with the customer experience. If something goes wrong during order processing, informed customers want immediate access to what's wrong, a response regarding availability if a product is lost, unavailable, or out of stock, and a level of service that matches their expectations.  

Managing the life cycle of an order requires time and resources, including systems, software, and designated processes. The optimization of order management occurs when the discipline provides value to both a business and a customer by ensuring that ordered goods or services arrive on time and accurately.

The life cycle of an order occurs in different environments — from digital e-commerce applications, warehouses, third-party drop-ship facilities, and shipping companies to delivery intermediaries. The retail industry supply chain best represents the cycle, because it is where positive customer experience, for business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) operations, is the primary outcome. Of course, the life cycle of an order is a core process in the supply chain operations of many industries, including healthcare, technology, finance, manufacturing, and entertainment.

Ordering Management Process Templates

The document management process in order management is critical to the customer experience. Avoid wasting valuable time and resources in your workflow, and standardize your order processing documentation with these free, downloadable templates.

Inventory Control Template

Inventory Control Template

Inventory management is a core function of order management process and technology. Use this Excel template to track inventory status, including product availability, and restock levels. This template is customizable to match your order management needs. 

‌Download Inventory Control Template

Excel | Smartsheet

Document Management Workflow Template

Document Management Workflow Template

Use this template to manage, submit, and store documents, both in their physical and digital forms. With space to include everything from document creation to publish date and archival location, you can safely manage and track all documents using this streamlined workflow template.

Download Document Management Workflow Template

Excel | Word | PDF

Purchase Order Template

Purchase Order Form with Images

Use this purchase order (PO) template to bridge the gap between OMS implementations, or to save to your order crash kit should your system go down. The template allows you to include images for better order accuracy, or to aggregate like products (such as parts) on one PO. This template is available as an Excel, Word, or PDF file.

Download Purchase Order Form with Images

Purchase Order with Price List - Google Sheets

business process flow chart online ordering

Purchasing is a core function of effective order management. Use this purchase order template to compile accurate price lists to expedite the purchasing process. It is designed so you can create and update separate price lists for multiple vendors. You can save this Google Sheets template and print it as a PDF file.

‌Download Purchase Order with Price List - Excel

Purchase Order Checklist Template

Purchase Order Checklist Template

If you’re implementing new order management processes or systems, use this free purchase order checklist template to guide employees and customers through creating and submitting POs. Include the new PO requirements and processes that match your order management process so your customers have a clear understanding of new requirements. 

Download Purchase Order Checklist

Purchase Order Tracking Template

Purchase Order Tracking Template

Use this purchase order tracking template to keep track of outstanding orders by PO number, vendor name, payment status, and delivery dates. It is designed with a filter for individual suppliers, outstanding payments, and more. 

‌ Download Purchase Order Tracking Template — Excel

What Is the Order Management Process?

In his book, Essentials of Supply Chain Management (4th Edition) , Michael H. Hugos defines order management as the process of communicating information throughout the supply chain, starting with customer orders and moving back through a supply chain made up of retailers, distributors, service providers, and producers. The order management process shares information such as delivery dates, product availability, and general order status communication.

Hugos has advised and mentored development teams for organizations like Microsoft, Starbucks, and the U.S. Navy. His company SCM Globe provides cloud-based supply chain modeling applications for academic institutions, business services, humanitarian relief, and military logistics.

The Order Management Life Cycle and Process Flow

The order management process flow lives in the supply chain management ecosystem. The fundamental business services that makeup this process flow involve the following supply chain practices:

  • Order placement and data entry
  • Payment processing
  • Order fulfillment 
  • Inventory and warehouse management
  • Picking and packing
  • Shipping and delivery 
  • Carrier control
  • Customer order tracking
  • Returns and refunds

In some organizations, order management is a standalone job title, with various title renditions (e.g., order management specialist or customer order management specialist). For more on customer order management professions, see this customer order management article . Outside of specific tasks and responsibilities related directly to order management roles, the order management process flow incorporates various business functions and people, including the following:

  • Sales and Marketing: The process of attracting, improving, retaining, and expanding customer orders 
  • Customer Relationship Management: The record of the sales and marketing processes, including customer (and vendor) data that involves customer relationship management (CRM)-related functions and systems  
  • Accounting and Back Office Operations: Accounts receivable/accounts payable processes involving purchase history, purchase, change, work orders, payments, invoicing, receipt, and back ledger operations 
  • Logistics and Warehouse Management: The order fulfillment process, including inventory management, shipping, and delivery 
  • Information Technology and System Operations: The management of electronic systems, software, hardware, and databases related to customer orders

The History of Order Management

To better understand the new paradigm of order management, and the value of modern order management systems, it helps to evaluate the history and characteristics of traditional order processing. Before modern web-based inventory and order management platforms, organizations relied on telephones and outdated paper document management of purchase orders, work orders, change requests, warehouse pick tickets, shipping manifests, and invoices. Relying on paper document management made accessing valuable business intelligence tedious.

The advent of electronic commerce and direct business-to-customer order processing from catalog sales gave rise to early catalog management systems. Customer service representatives (CSRs), working from a siloed department as an extension of a sales and operations team, took orders by phone, fax, and eventually email. Determining workflow status, finding a customer the right product, or inquiring about shipping or billing details required multiple queries, with different stakeholders across different teams. Long workflow lead times and lags in shipping and delivering to customers in larger geographical markets created demand for another siloed team of CSRs. One team might handle customer complaints, account management, warranty issues, and returns, while another siloed team, located in the warehouse or factory, might be responsible for order fulfillment, inventory management, packaging, shipping, and tracking activity.

The New Paradigm of Order Management

SCM Globe’s Hugos opines that supply chains are evolving and becoming more complex. For order management, this means customer response times increase in sync with customer service expectations. The global digital economy (and the e-commerce markets that define it) is made up of multiple tiers of suppliers, vendors, managed service providers, multichannel distribution partners, and third-party drop-ship intermediaries. These parties have an increased level of expectation for the business services involved with the order management process. 

To compete and evolve with new supply chain complexity and changing markets, Hugos advocates for a new paradigm of order management that relies on faster, more accurate, and more responsive exchanges of digital order data. He recommends four order management principles: 

  • One and Done: The process of capturing an order and entering it into the system should happen once, without manual steps for reentering data, and as close to the source as possible. For example, online orders entered by the customer create order data that moves through all systems and communicates to all supply chain participants without any intervention in order to create purchase order or invoices. 
  • Automated Routines: To spot problems and provide real-time information, Hugos recommends automating routine order processing. Doing this frees up your CSRs or account management team to shore up essential business services related to inventory shortages, delayed delivery, or customer change requests. Learn more about automation and other technological innovations of modern OMS in this section . 
  • Order Visibility: Vendors, suppliers, and customers should not need to contact your people to view the status of an order. If problems occur, such as an inventory shortage, your order management system needs to alert the appropriate CSR for resolution, so they can communicate to all parties without being prompted by the customer.
  • Integrated OMS: Connect systems and integrate software to create a platform for order management that is accurate and provides real-time status on products and orders. The applications that manage customer-facing content, data, and pricing need to automatically flow with applications (used to update inventory status, calculate delivery schedules, and generate invoices) into a single source of information.

What Is OMS?

Order management is a business practice and a type of software technology. The term order management systems (OMS) refers to standalone software applications, or end-to-end software platforms, that merge business practices concerned with three areas of operations: sales, order fulfilment, and accounting. In conversation, someone using the term OMS is likely referring to the software application(s) they use to aid their business in inventory management and customer communication. 

Order management systems are useful as a type of business infrastructure and as a business strategy to optimize customer interactions. 

A fully integrated order management system, for example, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite, might incorporate some (or all) of the following functions: 

  • Content management (product information, promotion, pricing) 
  • Inventory management (location, quantity)
  • Vendor management (supplier purchasing)
  • Sales and marketing (customer relationship management) 
  • Customer database (analytics and business intelligence)
  • Accounting (payment processing and invoicing)
  • Order fulfillment (picking, packing, and shipping)

Some vendors offer integrated suites with a large number of modules, while others specialize in one or two particular functions. Most, however, include the following core functionality: catalog management.

What Is Order Management Software?

The term order management system is often used to describe the functionality of software applications embedded within the larger ecosystem of CRM, ERP, and SCM systems. OMS is also used to describe a class of standalone software applications, often integrated with the larger ERP systems, that take advantage of features and processes related to order fulfillment, customer communication, and work order management. These tools bridge the gap between order entry, processing, tracking warehouse operations, accounting, and business intelligence.  

Digital, web-enabled commerce, social media advertising, and mobile devices with payment processing applications completely changed the demand for order management software functionality. Modern order management software is designed with functions that enable a single ordering agent or CSR to deal with the end-to-end order management for a multichannel business. Enhanced technology, like order process automation and integrated document management, transforms individuals into order management superheroes, capable of resolving more customer problems with less interruption and with less interaction with other stakeholders.

Who Buys Order Management Software?

The market for this technology includes small business owners, manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, entrepreneurs, e-commerce sellers, and brick-and-mortar operations. Order management software helps businesses of any size or scale in the digital economy manage supply and demand for their products at the right place and the right time. Using retail as an example, OM software touches multichannel business services, from order entry and tracking and inventory stock and logistics to packaging and shipping. Other industry domains served by OM software vendors include the following:

  • Wholesale distribution
  • Banking and financial services
  • Hospitality and food service
  • Manufacturing and automotive
  • Transportation
  • Telecommunication

Order Management Software: An Application for Every Step

The supply chain is an ecosystem of integrated processes and business services. Modern OMS platforms can streamline order entry, processing, and fulfillment of orders, from the point of sale to payment processing and delivery, and enable real-time communication to manage all aspects of a multichannel business. This system creates methods for managing customer call center support, customer relationship management activity, purchasing, sales forecasting, inventory and warehouse management services, product marketing, and accounting functions. 

A unified OMS also provides a single source of information to manage and analyze order management-related supply chain data. By automating the search for inventory by region and providing customers with multiple options for shipping rates and carrier availability, Amazon uses an integrated OMS to optimize the online customer experience. Reducing errors, eliminating manual customer service steps, and gaining access to specific business intelligence with an integrated system replaces the need for multiple standalone applications. 

Enabled by digital communication, customers stay connected to their orders at all times and expect the companies they spend money with to do the same. Failure to deliver on time or provide the right product is a surefire way to lose customers. Now, failure to communicate each stage of the order fulfillment process to the customer carries the same risk. Thankfully, there is a type of application and system architecture designed for the order management process.

Order Management Microservices

Individual services that touch multiple business channels throughout the order management process are the backbone of large-scale enterprise resource platforms and customer relationship management systems. Easy-to-automate business services — payment processing, customer logins, inventory search engines, and customer notifications — are good candidates for a type of software application architecture, or framework, know as microservices . Microservices refer to software applications that are designed around independent business capabilities, but built to serve as end-to-end platforms.

Amazon helped popularize this type of architecture in order to divide the business capabilities of its most profitable product, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Using the steps from this order management process flow example, a hypothetical retailer uses microservice-based OMS with the following independent, backend services (business-facing events, like storing and manipulating data) for its online website:

  • Order Placed: A sales rep, CSR, or customer creates an order event on a mobile device, back office sales order system, or B2B web portal. With microservice architecture, the order event kicks off a series of OM services. Eliminating manual data entry and document management eliminates cost redundancy and paperwork and increases the accuracy of order processing activity.
  • Order Data: The first business service event is the order data stored and saved in the database. This database of vendor and customer records acts as the defacto CRM. Stored data is used for internal general ledger activity involved with account history, customer terms, billing, payment processing, back ledger data, discounts, and promotional codes.
  • Order Fulfillment: Microservice architecture provides visibility for the entire order processing lifecycle, from initial order event through internal fulfillment actions, like stock reorders, inventory caching and counts, invoicing, and payment. Ideally, at this stage, the OMS automates all communicated business services to manage, allocate, pick, package, and ship orders across all inventory classes and available SKU assets.
  • Order Delivery: The proper documentation for carrier, billing, and scheduling is stored as a delivery event. The OMS processes a carrier event to control shipping status and create updates for the customer as well as all involved departments. This service monitors real-time delivery status for omnichannel business supply chains involving multiple brick-and-mortar inventory, warehouses, and regions. If there is a delay due to bad weather, a change in carrier, or changes in freight classifications, then the OMS communicates updated billing and payment events.
  • Order Follow-Up: A service event creates automated customer service notifications confirming the order event, email marketing communications (customer opt in), and order tracking. After delivery, customer service notifications handle help requests and follow-up services, like returns, exchanges, refunds, and customer rewards points tracking. 
  • Order Metrics: The microservices system creates a series of actions, starting with the order event, to measure and analyze internal analytics related to business processes, performance data analysis, digital advertising data, and CRM metrics and sales trends.

Additional Order Management Software Business Capabilities

The logistics-oriented organization depends on effective supply chain management. Order fulfillment is a core supply chain process on a global scale. An OMS platform that integrates all phases of the order management process (from order through delivery) is capable of generating information that flows from the market to the supply chain on demand. The capabilities of order management software are shaping the way organizations respond regarding internal business services, product offerings, and customer service. OMS vendors advertise a range of product functionality that their software possesses, including the following business capabilities:

  • Security: Processing payment, involving multiple regions, online and mobile payment vendors, and currency exchange
  • Order Routing: Managing by regional warehouse proximity, common carriers, and delivery destination in order to expedite and optimize shipping
  • Platform Integration: Software compatibility with internal legacy systems and companies like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Shopify, as well as carriers like UPS and FedEx
  • Supply Side: Supplier management and tracking to monitor purchase and sales orders
  • Third Parties: Notifications for third-party logistics (3PLs) intermediaries in order to manage freight, shipping batches, and expiration dates  
  • Demand: Inventory demand forecasting and sales reporting for strategic restocking fill rates, inventory turnaround, and purchasing
  • Packaging: Label creation, packaging coordination, and post-shipment document management
  • Hardware: Wireless device compatibility from anywhere with the iPhone, iPad, tablet, and laptop catalog and work order management 
  • Customer Satisfaction: Personalized customer service features for customer loyalty/rewards program and automated email notifications

Order Management System Trends and Technology from the Pros

“Companies that automate their order management will see a great impact in terms of customer experience, because everyone wants to know that an order they place is being processed immediately,” says Smith. “There is no reason to ask your customers to change the way they send you orders, and the process should be as simple as possible for them,” he continues. “As you use the system, the solution should then have the ability to easily ‘learn’ the different formats. In this scenario, there’s no need for expensive templates, which will be of no use if the customer changes their format over time.”

In Smith’s opinion, AI will greatly reduce manual order entry steps beyond currently available OMS technology. “Any solution you look at should have, at a minimum, machine learning technology, which learns from the changes made by the person entering the order,” Smith notes. “Machine learning is now advancing to ‘deep learning’ technology, which utilizes the neural network and can intelligently predict, without human intervention, how the order should be managed.” AI disrupts existing processes ordinarily performed by people by creating new forms of machine-driven interaction between companies and customers. 

“With the right order management technology, you can greatly reduce the time it takes to enter orders and manage order volume growth without the need to add more people,” says Smith.  There are several supply chain trends to watch as organizations adopt new technology and OMS vendors innovate to keep up with market demand. Faster, more accurate supply chain operations rely on the adoption of order management processes and technology that are capable of handling the digital economy’s increased speed and volume of orders.  

  • System Convergence: OMS vendors are aligning with the demand for and market growth of unified omnichannel systems that handle supply chain planning, execution, and visibility. For example, the trend to integrate traditional OMS capabilities with the sales and marketing services of CRM systems creates a hybrid system capable of improving order response times.   
  • Robotics: Industrial robots working in factories and warehouses are more affordable and more capable. Companies of all sizes now have access to programmed robots that can move inventory without rest and with improved durability. Using central intelligence and sensors to alert robots of people or obstacles in their paths, warehouse automatons improve the speed, efficiency, and safety of the order fulfillment process.   
  • Driverless Carriers: The digital supply chain requires enhanced efficiencies that match the demand for customer-centric delivery options, including flexible scheduling, rapid delivery, and streamlined returns. Delivery drones and driverless freight vehicles make managing 24-hour, rapid order fulfillment and transportation a possibility. 
  • 3D Printing and Manufacturing: Improvements in the cost and availability of 3D printing technology present a unique order management challenge. Companies like Tesla, using advanced 3D material manufacturing, can build unique vehicles designed by a customer. In theory, Tesla needs a customized, on-demand order management process and an OMS to allow customer-driven order entry and handle unpredictable material demand.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is creating a more efficient digital supply chain by using simulation modeling capabilities and predictive analytics in order to spot trends in massive amounts of data. The effects of this technology threaten changes and the availability of traditional ordering management process jobs in the physical supply chain. An OMS that uses machine learning algorithms to run supply chain simulations frees up people to improve day-to-day operations involved in order fulfillment. 
  • Internet of Things (IoT): Wireless-connected warehouses and factories equipped with mobile devices, like radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and automated sensors, provide unique order management solutions, while also minimizing infrastructure changes or space requirements. IoT-connected devices can gather large amounts of data in real time and collaborate with AI-driven databases to react to the speed and demand of a digital economy.
  • Big Data: IoT-connected devices and AI-powered systems create massive quantities of supply chain data. OMS technology needs to be capable of organizing (and making comprehensible) order management-related data, so multiple users across different geographical regions can do business. The big data trend also creates demand for AI applications that enable users to analyze and make use of specific supply chain and ordering management process data.

Order Management Process Data and Benchmarking

Capturing and organizing order management data empowers the decision-making component of the supply chain process. Having confidence in your supply chain analytics prepares you for solving future order management problems. Measuring internal order processing — order lead times, order frequency, cost per order activity, rate of return, and inventory accuracy — are best practices. Competitive benchmarking , which is assessing your order management, logistics, and supply chain performance against the best of class in the market is a popular strategy. 

Benchmarking involves defining the opportunity or problem using a customer-centric model, acquiring, structuring, and filtering data, query analysis, testing for correlations and patterns, and applying the lessons learned. Competitive benchmarking requires continuous measurement of the order management process metrics (or key performance indicators) of your leading competitors. Keeping the customer experience and their perception of your performance is an integral part of benchmarking order process metrics. 

Competitive benchmarking enables the incorporation of order management best practices based on industry standards. For order management professionals and other supply chain specialists, benchmarking provides a creative outlet for problem solving supply chain and logistic problem and protects against stagnant best practices. Benchmarking order management process metrics offers valuable insights for adopting new OMS technology.

Order Management and Value Chain Analysis

A supply chain association called the Supply Chain Council (now a part of APICS ) created a standardized benchmarking framework called SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference). SCOR is a reference model based on the Porter value chain framework : supply chain, planning, procurement, manufacturing, order management, logistics, returns/retail, product design, research, prototypes, integration, launch, CRM, service support, sales, after-sale service, and contract management. Participating organizations complete an anonymous, detailed SCOR questionnaire designed around six common business service categories: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return and Enable. For more information on value chain analysis, Porter’s value chain, and the SCOR model, read “How Your Business Can Benefit from Value Chain Modeling.”

Porter’s value chain modeling requires you to determine whether you are trying to differentiate or lower costs, prioritize changes with thorough analysis, and consider how changes to order management benefits the entire supply chain and business operations. According to Professor Martin Christopher, organizations find value by using value chain analysis to investigate and define the “logistics vision” of their organization. 

In his book, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (5th Edition) , Christopher recommends building a logistics vision around the question “How do we intend to use logistics and supply chain management to create value for our customers?” Christopher believes the best starting point for creating a logistics vision statement (and the purpose of this investigation into value) is “to give a clear indication of the basis on which the business intends to build a position of advantage through closer customer relationships.” By drilling down further and modifying the analysis specific to the order management process, value chain analysis can answer questions such as, “What order management activities do we excel in?” and “What differentiates us from our competitor’s order processing?”

Potential Order Management Software Benefits

Organizations look to technology for competitive advantages and solutions (for example, minimizing or removing manual steps or establishing centralized ordering system). The primary function of OMS technology is to convert customer data and order entry into action and provide management, sales, marketing, and customer service professionals a single-source of data, workflow, and communication. It enables companies to simplify the complexity of e-commerce and multichannel business. 

Any organization with a product to ship, workflows to follow, and data to manage is a candidate to benefit from order management software. Whether you leverage Amazon, eBay, your website and warehouse, or a brick-and-mortar store or factory, the proper order management system helps solve problems and create value for your business. OMS applications can approve digital workflows (from desktop or mobile devices), automate inventory management, and speed up the purchase, procure and fulfill process to keep up with the digital customer experience. Some additional benefits often advertised by order management software vendors include the following:

  • Sales Visibility: A fast, accurate order-to-delivery cycle requires real-time data to communicate order status, reduce backorders delays, and provide improved supplier response capabilities for product returns and exchanges.
  • Optimized Inventory: An OMS keeps inventory levels up to date in a shared database. This single source of information helps to circumvent order delays and provide optimal restock purchasing data. 
  • Customer Satisfaction: Order management software provides easy-to-access order data like product descriptions, availability, and pricing. Keeping customers informed reduces order-to-delivery errors and order processing disruptions.

How to Choose the Right Order Process Management System

The digital economy changed customer expectations. The e-commerce market created an environment where information is expected to be made available to customers rapidly, and at any time. This dynamic makes choosing the right OMS technology critical.

 Selecting the right OMS is a process involving a competitive market of of vendors that offer products by solution type (multichannel, e-commerce, or wholesale operations), deployment type (cloud or on premises), organization size, industry vertical, and geographic region, to name a few. Use the following steps to guide your selection process:

  • Define Project Scope: This is a process of organizing your team to determine the high-level requirements of your OMS and overall project objectives, create project plans, gather stakeholders, and create a scorecard. For OMS, the scorecard might include criteria to evaluate the application features, support and service considerations, internal technical requirements, risk assessments, and cost of ownership.
  • Identify Vendors: This stage involves creating a short list of potential OMS vendors and developing criteria to evaluate against your scorecard, and the high-level project objectives you established. Major players in the OMS market include Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft, IBM, Astea, IFS, ClickSoftware, ServiceMax, ServiceNow, eMaint, Hippo CMMS, Corrigo, Coresystems, Infor, Maintenance Connection, Loc8, MEX, Fingent, and ServiceChannel, Handshake, Amazon, Veeqo, Zoho, TradeGecko, and more. 
  • RFPs: The next step is to draft a formal request for proposal (RFP) memo and documentation that provides details for vendors to evaluate against their product and service offerings, request demos, and evaluate vendor references. 
  • Vendor Negotiation: After reviewing the RFP proposals submitted by qualified vendors, narrow the selection based on your completed project scorecard, including detailed analysis of product trade offs, pricing, service, and a competitive analysis. Negotiate changes with vendors and review updated terms. Ask questions about automated features, multichannel business capabilities, data reporting and analysis features, software innovation and third-party ecosystem integration, and software update and feature development schedules. 
  • Contract: The final step in selecting the right OMS involves coordinating installation and training schedules, determining final system deliverables and support plans, and drafting contract documentation.

Pave starts by determining his clients OMS needs by asking questions. “What tasks are you trying to accomplish with this software and what is most important to you today?” he asks. He also asks about the “nice-to have” features. 

“It’s best to explore and document all possible use cases, prioritize these needs, and then examine the different solutions to see if anything exists that covers most or all of these tasks,” says Pave. “Doing so helps maintain a strict focus on the problem my client is looking to solve. It’s so easy to get caught up in what systems can do and so easy to forget that if the system you get can’t do what you bought it to do, it’s basically worthless.”

Because OMS business services affect multiple departments, Pave encourages people to start thinking about existing system integrations early in the selection process. This includes inventory, any logistics or product delivery systems, accounting or Configuration Price and Quoting (CPQ) systems. 

“If you can set up your order system so that it automates as much as possible and eliminates double data entry and any risks for human error, you will be set up for success with shorter delivery times, higher customer satisfaction, higher rate-of-repeat orders, and more frequent orders,” says Pave.

Order Fulfillment Problems and Managing Order Management System Changes

Problems with your order fulfillment process and OMS technology threaten all aspects of your supply chain operations. In broad terms, the order fulfillment process includes steps in receiving, processing, and shipping inventory. The OMS links information systems to the physical process flow of order fulfillment. If there is a problem in demand forecast data, production flows, or inventory purchasing, order fulfillment is compromised. Problems with the order fulfillment process leads to problems across all business services and supporting systems. The following problems require changes to the order fulfillment process:

  • Manual inventory handoffs
  • Antiquated inventory systems that don’t interact with the OMS
  • Limited visibility into order status
  • Network outages
  • Dependency on suppliers with antiquated systems
  • Outsourced customer service operations
  • Changes to product offerings
  • New vendor technology
  • Multiple responses to manual sales orders
  • Failure to confirm pricing
  • Problems configuring orders
  • Inaccurate shipping addresses
  • Problems sourcing inventory or carrier
  • Delayed order entry changes
  • Damaged goods or theft
  • Calculation errors

If you break down order fulfillment into three broad processes of receiving, processing, and shipping, you see that an OMS platform or an integrated microservices architecture is capable of addressing order fulfillment challenges. 

  • Receiving: A common source of order receiving issues is outdated vendor systems without proper back office integrations to verify order accuracy. If a new product is received with changes to product packaging, the OSM manages the new information to calculate changes in inventory and delivery and restrict order processing. Whether it’s removing the need for manual processes to receive single orders or large batches, automated OMS features eliminate problems caused by human error.
  • Processing: An integrated OMS solution provides a complete and detailed view of inventory and order status and prevents delayed order processing with automated features. Fallout management refers to the process of resolving a failed order processing event due to some task or order failure, like an empty shelf where inventory was indicated, from impacting the rest of the order processing flow. The OMS runs two types of fallout management programs: A hard point-of-no-return program prevents the processing of the next order until completion of the existing order process; no order changes are allowed at this stage. A soft point-of-no-return allows amendments to the order, but is programmed to notify customer of extra charges or change restrictions. 
  • Shipping: There is OMS technology that automates tasks like carrier selection, shipping label printing, and address verification to prevent order fulfillment delays at the last stage in the process. Automated shipping status notification services send customers updates about the shipping stage. To manage to after-sales experience, the OMS flags the email notification service to check in on the customer’s purchase or ask for a positive online review. Using this feature, the shipping stage of order fulfillment transforms into a customer-centric strategy for managing customer experience, and clear communication of the return/refund policy and procedure.

What Is Sales Order Management?

The term sales order refers to both an agreement between a customer and a business, and a document that captures the details and order data of a sale. Sales order management applies to the business processes, tasks, and documentation involved in generating this agreement. The sales order management process includes the following service capabilities and data:

  • Sales quotes
  • Order entry templates
  • Order status notifications
  • Product information
  • Discounts, terms, and promotional data
  • Customer relationship management
  • Customer service representatives
  • Shipping methods
  • Invoicing and receipts
  • Cost of goods sold metrics
  • Credit monitoring
  • General ledger accounting

The sales order management system is involved with order entry, order system, payment processing, and records data. This system might communicate with an inventory management system to retrieve relevant data such as the item number, pricing, availability, and quantity discounts. Sometimes the term is interchangeable with the order management system (for example, Oracle Netsuite). The finance industry commonly uses "sales order management system" instead of OMS because there is no physical inventory for a separate system and the data managed is digital.

The Order to Cash Process

Order to cash (O2C) refers to the sequence of taking a sales order, preparing, processing, fulfilling, delivering, and invoicing the order, and then collecting money from the sale. The O2C process is typical in wholesale business and is used as a metric to measure healthy cash flow operations. In addition to maintaining a stable, reliable information system network and OMS, the O2C sales order management process includes the following requirements:

  • Master Data: The accuracy of your list prices, products specs (dimensions, size, and weight), pack size, and freight details is critical. Communicate changes to this master data frequently and promptly.
  • Terms and Conditions: Do not deviate from the standard terms and conditions of your customer's sales order process. Offer early payment discounts to build relationships and regularly review account performance with your customers. Contact customers as soon as an invoice is overdue (and do so consistently) so they prioritize your company.
  • Bill-to-Cash: Learn your customer's billing payment methods. Do they pay as billed or deduct credits to compensate for money owed? Create an agreement up front to manage price promotions, reductions, and refund methods. Record credit notes regularly and accurately to correct invoicing and delivery mistakes.
  • Customer Tendencies: Be proactive and learn your customer's order details – the frequency, typical order day, order size, regular promotions, and new product introduction process – to avoid delays in O2C processing.

Order Management Systems for Financial Securities

Financial markets use industry-specific OMS, sometimes referred to as a trade order management system, to manage financial securities trading activity. A financial OMS serves as an information system, database, and network connection that enables traders to enter and transmit orders to multiple execution points through electronic data interchanges (EDI) and track results. Firms conducting business electronically with OMS are called trading partners . Early systems used a primary spreadsheet style interface called a blotter . Trading partners managed pending orders and controlled how the OMS displayed and organized information. 

A variety of financial OMS and trading system vendors popped up to serve the market with enhanced automatic execution (AutoEx) features and the ability to handle various order types (for example, limit orders). Foreign exchange traders could buy or sell securities day or night and manage orders automatically based on a wide variety of technical indicators – calculations based on the price, volume, or interest in financial securities. Implementing financial OMS produces accurate and timely data and frees up time and resources dedicated to monitoring and executing trades. OMS data reporting provides information about an investment portfolio's performance, composition, activities, and cash flows.

Buy-Side and Sell-Side Order Management Systems

The core function of financial OMS is to trigger buy or sell orders. Buy-side traders receive orders from a portfolio manager. The buy-side trader decides how to execute the order request and depends on the OMS to manage the order through the execution process. This process might involve trading partners known as sell-side traders. The trader either uses internal market data capabilities of the OMS independently or opens the information to sell-side interests to execute the order process. 

Buy-side OMS has network connectivity with sell-side partners. Sell-side OMS uses open market exchange data connectivity to execute order processing. When a sell-side order is performed, the OMS updates data reported to the buy-side firm that originated the trade order. 

The OMS provides information on open and previously closed orders. It provides a real-time network connection to market price streaming on global exchanges. To create competitive advantages, OMS vendors and internal development teams create advanced features using advanced technology and the fastest broadband networks. Firms use automation and AI algorithms for tactical asset allocation (TAA) – reallocating shares for market exposure – and to manage cash flow allocation, correct for market fluctuations, and track market trends.

Order Management Processing with the Financial Information eXchange Protocol

Sell-side OMS send requests to another intermediary (a dealer) using the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol and may connect to other execution-management systems. The FIX protocol established a series of standardized messages that, when programmed into an OMS, ensure the words are handled electronically and without transcription errors. Financial regulations in the 1990s caused banks and financial firms to allocate more resources to obtain the correct trading data and adhere to new compliance metrics.

The FIX protocol links investment firms to the global banking and finance markets using OMS technology. The OMS employs the FIX protocol with a FIX engine that furnishes FIX messages between trading partners to communicate buy and sell orders accurately. Trading partners use different FIX standards to adopt the message types they use, so the FIX engine permits communication even if the OMS uses different versions of the standard. Trading venues use FIX messages to format order data for routing to sell-side or buy-side firm. The OMS uses internal market data to execute orders against the firm’s securities inventory. Otherwise, the OMS provides routing algorithms to send the order request to another trading partner. 

A financial OMS manages order data such as the security identifier (ticker name), order type (buy, sell, or short), the number of shares, share class, order limit type, order instructions, and order transmission. The accuracy and availability of this order data are critical in securities trading to ensure that a firm's positions meet all regulatory investment guidelines. OMS infrastructure must maintain strict cybersecurity protocols to prevent network breaches and resolve service outages promptly. For this reason, there is still a mixed market for both on-premises and cloud-based OMS technology based on the infrastructure and resources of the firm.  

Investment firms are graded on unrealized profit and loss, and pay capital gains taxes on realized profits and loss, so the accuracy and security of OMS data are critical. In the U.S., the OMS provides advanced functionality to provide tax lot assignments or record the price that an account received from aggregate order trading – hundreds or thousands of grouped small orders – to manage the shares of financial securities allocated to the individual accounts.

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Order processing flowchart

Order processing flowchart

The Order  processing flowchart outlines the process of fulfilling an order. The first step in the process is to receive the order. This involves receiving the  order information  from the customer, such as the  product name , quantity , and shipping address . This step is crucial in ensuring that the order is processed accurately and efficiently.

Once the order has been received, the next step is to process the order. This involves verifying the  order details , checking the inventory, and preparing the order for shipment. This step is important in ensuring that the order is fulfilled correctly and to the satisfaction of the customer.

After the order has been processed, the next step is to ship the order. This involves packing the order, labeling it for shipment, and arranging for shipping. This step is crucial in ensuring that the order is delivered to the customer in a timely and efficient manner.

Finally, after the order has been shipped, the next step is to send a  shipping confirmation  to the customer. This confirmation includes information about the shipment, such as the tracking number and  estimated delivery  date. This step is important in providing the customer with  peace of mind  and ensuring that they are aware of the status of their order.

What are the pros of creating order processing flowchart?

An Order processing flowchart provides a standardized process for fulfilling orders and can help identify potential issues, improve communication, increase order accuracy, and increase efficiency. By following a well-designed flowchart, businesses can improve the accuracy and efficiency of the order fulfillment process, resulting in better customer satisfaction and a more successful business.

Searching for some flowchart templates? Go to  Visual Paradigm Online  and select some designs for customization now!

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Creating a Process Flow Chart: A Step-by-Step Guide

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If you're looking for a way to visualize your business processes and increase efficiency, process flow charts are a great tool to use. These process diagrams show the steps of a process and help you identify areas where improvements can be made. In this article, we'll provide a step-by-step guide to creating a process flow chart, from understanding what they are to validating your final product.

Understanding Process Flow Charts

What is a process flow chart.

A process flow chart, also known as a process map or process flow diagram , is a visual representation of a process in a business. It uses symbols and arrows to show the flow of tasks and decisions that are involved in completing the process from start to finish.

Process flow charts are used by businesses of all sizes and across industries to help them better understand their processes and identify areas for improvement. By creating a visual representation of their processes, businesses can more easily identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks that may be slowing down their operations.

Benefits of Using Process Flow Charts

There are several reasons why process flow charts are beneficial for a business. First, they can help you identify parts of your process that are inefficient or unnecessary, allowing you to cut out unnecessary steps and improve overall productivity. Additionally, process maps can be used as a training tool for new employees, making it easier for them to understand how things work and reduce errors in the future.

Another benefit of using process flow charts is that they can help you communicate your processes to others within your organization. By creating a visual representation of your processes, you can more easily explain how things work to colleagues and stakeholders, which can help build consensus and support for process improvements.

Types of Process Flow Charts

There are a few different types of process flow charts that businesses can use, depending on their needs. A high-level process map gives a broad overview of the process and is useful for identifying areas where improvements can be made. Detailed process maps, on the other hand, provide more in-depth information about each step, including specific inputs and outputs.

Another type of process flow chart is a cross-functional flowchart, which shows how different departments or teams within an organization work together to complete a process. This type of flow chart can be particularly useful for identifying areas of overlap or conflict between different teams, and can help you develop strategies for improving collaboration and communication.

Overall, process flow charts are a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve their processes and increase efficiency. By creating a visual representation of your processes, you can more easily identify areas for improvement and communicate your processes to others within your organization.

Preparing to Create a Process Flow Chart

Process flow charts are a visual representation of a process, allowing businesses to better understand and improve their operations. Here are some steps to help you prepare to create a process flow chart:

Identifying the Process Scope

The first step to creating a process flow chart is to identify the process that you want to map. It's important to choose a process that is important to the success of your business and has potential for improvement. For example, you might choose to map the process of onboarding new employees or the process of fulfilling customer orders.

Once you have identified the process, it's important to define the scope. This means determining the boundaries of the process and what steps will be included in the flow chart. For example, if you are mapping the process of onboarding new employees, you might include steps such as conducting interviews, completing paperwork, and providing training.

Gathering Necessary Information

Next, gather all the necessary information about the process. This might include data on the time it takes to complete each step, the people or departments involved, and any inputs and outputs. You can gather this information by observing the process, interviewing employees, and reviewing documentation.

It's important to gather as much information as possible to ensure that the process flow chart accurately represents the process. This will also help you identify areas for improvement.

Assembling a Team

Creating a process flow chart is a collaborative effort, so it's important to assemble a team of people who are knowledgeable about the process and can offer insights and feedback. This might include employees from various departments or stakeholders who are invested in the process.

When assembling your team, consider including people who have different perspectives and experiences. This will help ensure that the process flow chart is comprehensive and accurate.

Overall, creating a process flow chart can be a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve their operations. By following these steps and gathering the necessary information, you can create a comprehensive and accurate process flow chart that will help you identify areas for improvement and optimize your processes.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Process Flow Chart

Step 1: define the process start and end points.

The first step in creating a process flow chart is to identify the beginning and end points of the process. This might include actions like receiving an order or delivering a finished product. It's important to have a clear understanding of the start and end points, as it will help you to identify all the steps that need to be taken in between.

For example, if the process involves delivering a finished product, the start point might be when the product is completed and ready to be shipped, while the end point might be when the product is delivered to the customer.

Step 2: List the Process Steps

Next, list out all the steps involved in the process. It's important to be as specific as possible, and include any subprocesses that might be necessary. This will help you to identify any potential roadblocks or areas where the process can be improved.

For example, if the process involves delivering a finished product, some of the steps might include packaging the product, labeling it, and arranging for shipping.

Step 3: Determine the Sequence of Steps

Once you have all the steps listed, determine the order in which they should be completed. This will help you identify any bottlenecks or areas where things are taking longer than they should. It's important to consider the dependencies between different steps, as some steps may need to be completed before others can begin.

For example, if the process involves delivering a finished product, packaging the product would need to be completed before it can be labeled and shipped.

Step 4: Add Decision Points

Some processes involve decision points, where you need to choose between different paths. It's important to identify these points and include them in your process flow chart. This will help you to ensure that all possible outcomes are considered and accounted for.

For example, if the process involves delivering a finished product, a decision point might be whether to use ground shipping or expedited shipping.

Step 5: Connect the Steps with Arrows

Once you have all the steps and decision points identified, it's time to connect them using arrows. This will show the flow of the process and how each step leads to the next. It's important to use clear and concise language in your flow chart, so that anyone can understand it.

For example, if the process involves delivering a finished product, an arrow might connect the step of packaging the product to the step of labeling it.

Step 6: Review and Validate the Flow Chart

Finally, review your process flow chart to make sure everything is accurate and complete. Test the flow chart by following it step by step to ensure that it accurately represents the process. If necessary, make any changes or adjustments to ensure that it's as effective as possible.

It's important to remember that a process flow chart is a living document, and should be updated regularly as the process changes or evolves over time.

Creating a process flow chart can help you optimize your business processes and reduce inefficiencies. By following these steps, you'll be able to create a clear and accurate process map that can be used to make improvements and train new employees. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback from others involved in the process – collaboration is key to producing an effective process flow chart.

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Mastering the Order Fulfillment Process: A Comprehensive Guide

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Darren DeMatas

February 22, 2024

[show_reviewed_by_link]

Order fulfillment is a key part of any ecommerce business. It constitutes getting the customer’s order from your store to the customer.

Order Fulfilment

Some strategies use fulfillment centers that store and deliver goods once an order is placed. Understanding order fulfillment is important for growing businesses and cutting operational costs. This process helped Amazon achieve its global dominance and continues to be a major focus in ecommerce and retail.

What is Order Fulfillment

How Fulfillment Works

Order fulfillment is the process that takes place between when a customer places an order and when it arrives on their doorstep. This includes pulling and packing orders, then shipping them out for delivery.

While many companies will handle this process on their own, fulfillment services can do all the legwork allowing you to focus your time on growing your business. These services will even store your products, meaning all you have to do is get them the orders and shipping addresses; they’ll handle the rest.

This allows small teams, even a single person, to run an ecommerce operation on par with much larger companies. Let a fulfillment service handle all of the physical inventory for you, so all you have to worry about is getting orders.

Why Is Order Fulfillment Important?

Order fulfillment strategies can make or break an ecommerce business and its sales channels. No matter how good your products or prices are, your customer base won’t be happy if their orders arrive late or incomplete. Timely delivery of shipments, especially for online orders, is one of the best practices for any business model.

A good order fulfillment operation ensures customers receive their orders quickly and accurately. For ecommerce websites , order fulfillment encompasses the entire physical aspect of the operation. If you want to build a reputation as a reliable company that meets customer expectations , you need to work out how to create an efficient order fulfillment process.

How Product Fulfillment Companies Work

A number of companies handle order fulfillment with different services and specialties, but they all operate off of the same basic process.

The fulfillment process begins when a customer places an order. Their information is sent to the fulfillment company , so they know what to pack and where to send it.

The receiving process can be automated in many cases thanks to the integration between these services and popular ecommerce platforms . Say a customer buys a product from an eBay listing. Rather than the seller manually sending that information to fulfillment, eBay can automatically send details like the shipping address and purchased item to get the ball rolling.

After order processing, they can get started.

Adding Inventory

Fulfillment companies need to have your product inventory on hand in order to ship it out. Depending on the size of your company and the nature of your business, this can be as easy as delivering a box of goods to their warehouse or setting up a supply chain.

Either way, the fulfillment service is responsible for storing and managing that inventory so they can fill any orders received. It is up to you to keep them supplied.

Routing Orders

Once an order is received, the order fulfillment company finds the best way to get it to the customer. This is usually accomplished through major carriers like FedEx or USPS, though some companies have their own fleets. In any case, they will find the best way to get the product from the distribution center to the destination location.

Picking, Packing, And Shipping

Before the product arrives at the customer’s door, it is processed at the fulfillment center. Your products will be stored with many others, like shelves at a store. Once the order is received, the warehouse team will pull the product from stock, pack it according to the agreed-upon methods, and send it out for delivery.

Delivery of Products

In most cases, delivery will be handled by a major parcel or freight carrier. Once the product is picked and packed, the fulfillment service will arrange for it to be picked up or delivered by a parcel carrier for delivery.

This step tends to be the biggest time saver for ecommerce companies who would otherwise have to package and ship each order individually.

Managing Inventory

Once an order has been processed, the fulfillment center will remove it from their warehouse inventory. This allows you to stay updated with your current stock levels, so the fulfillment center doesn’t run out of inventory. An efficient warehouse management system is crucial to your ecommerce order fulfillment strategy .

Usually, you can check product inventory levels through an app or account portal.

Handling Returns

Some fulfillment services also handle the inevitable returns when a customer wants a refund. Especially for categories like clothing, where returns are common, this is an integral part of the process.

When an order is returned, the fulfillment service will receive it and add it back to stock (unless it is defective).

Some fulfillment services do not handle returns, so be prepared to have your own process in place if that is the case. This may not be a concern for categories where returns are few and far between, but in some cases, you will want to ensure a fulfillment service handles returns before signing up.

Challenges of Order Fulfillment

Especially for ecommerce companies , order fulfillment is a huge part of the operation. When you consider that you can outsource shipping, it cuts down on your operational requirements significantly.

Most order fulfillment processes come with many challenges and can be time-intensive. Here are some order fulfillment challenges you can avoid with a third-party service.

Inventory Management

As a company grows, its need for warehouse space also increases. Many ecommerce startups can get by with a closet or corner of the garage, but soon that won’t be enough. Renting warehouse space includes a lot of overhead costs, including staff on-site.

You need accurate inventory levels to manage order volume and avoid overselling or running out of stock. If you do, you will lose out on sales and maybe even customers. That’s why it’s so important to keep track of SKUs.

In many cases, using a fulfillment service can be more cost-effective. You also avoid the risks and time commitment of setting up your own product inventory management system.

Demand Planning

Part of effective inventory management is demand planning. You need to be able to predict future sales to ensure you are sufficiently and efficiently ordering stock.

While this aspect of fulfillment is usually left up to you, it is critical to running an ecommerce business .

Logistics Planning

Order fulfillment is the result of smart planning and logistics. Sourcing, storing, and shipping products, as well as order management, requires a lot of forethought to ensure everything runs smoothly.

While sourcing will still usually fall to you, letting logistics companies figure out inventory storage and shipping can save you a lot of hassle.

Supply Chain Execution

Once the logistics plan is in place, executing it requires space and man-hours. As your company grows, these needs will grow with it.

Incoming inventory needs to be received, often with the help of forklifts and loading docks. It then needs to be stored appropriately in a warehouse. Lastly, it needs to be pulled from stock and staged for shipment.

The more you sell, the more product needs to be received, stored, and shipped. This can be a significant challenge for startups and small businesses on the rise.

International shipping

International shipping comes with its own hoops to jump through. Depending on where a shipment is going, there may be customs forms, declarations, and restrictions, not to mention shipping labels, the freight cost and possibly other fees.

Ecommerce fulfillment services that ship internationally will be familiar with the process, saving you time and money. If your ecommerce business appeals to a global market, don’t limit yourself to a much smaller market.

Season and event fluidity

For some product categories, sales will fluctuate drastically depending on the timing. This could be seasonal, like swimwear or holiday gifts, or related to other events, like masks during COVID.

If you are managing your own warehouse, it can be tricky to be cost-effective during the off-season. Most fulfillment service providers allow the flexibility to pay for less space during slow periods, then ramp up stock to meet seasonal demand.

Order Fulfillment Models

Order fulfillment options come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on the nature of your business and the variety of products you sell, it can be a very simple or an extremely complex step-by-step process. Your order fulfillment model will probably fall squarely into one of the following categories.

In-House Order Fulfillment

For smaller companies with a limited selection of products, internal fulfillment may be sufficient. This means your company handles rea independently, which often requires a warehouse or other type of facility.

Outsourced Order Fulfillment

Outsourcing fulfillment, such as third-party logistics (3PL), means another company handles receiving, storing, and shipping items for you. This usually means you provide the physical inventory and orders, and they handle the rest, like providing warehousing . Fulfillment services can handle a large portion of the physical operation, so you can focus your resources on growing the company and getting more sales.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping companies fulfill the products they sell. In other words, you can sell their products, and they will deliver them for you.

How Dropshipping Works

For example, if a customer purchases a dropship item from your website, you simply send that order to the supplier. They pick, pack, and ship the product to the address that the customer provided you when they placed the order.

This is a very convenient option for ecommerce as the company that provides the product also fulfills it.

Hybrid Fulfillment

Hybrid fulfillment happens in scenarios where in-house fulfillment works better for some orders while outsourced fulfillment or dropshipping works better for others.

For example, say a small company sells video games and arcade cabinets. While they may have the capability to store and ship video game media easily, arcade cabinets are another story. For cabinet orders, they have partnered with the manufacturer to dropship those products. This way, they don’t have to store and handle heavy arcade cabinets but can still save money by fulfilling other orders internally.

Hybrid fulfillment can be a good choice when an all-or-nothing approach wouldn’t be the most efficient use of your time and money.

Best Tips for Improving Your Order Fulfillment Process

Order fulfillment is dependent on two main factors: speed and accuracy . The faster customers receive their product after placing their order, the happier they will be (assuming it is correct).

Here are some ways to improve your entire order fulfillment process for a faster and more accurate operation.

Optimize Inventory Management

With modern software, inventory management can be automated to the point that it requires little human intervention. Every time an order goes out, that quantity should be automatically removed from stock. When a new order comes in, that should likewise be automatically added to stock. Aside from occasional physical counts to ensure accuracy, inventory should be tracked automatically.

The actual physical management of inventory will depend on your products and storage solution. Keeping products clean, dry, and accessible is essential to ensure they are ready to ship as quickly as possible.

Double-check the Products Before Shipping

Accuracy is vital for order fulfillment. Shipping the wrong item or to the wrong customer inconveniences shoppers and costs you money. A simple double-check of the packing slip can catch mistakes before they leave the warehouse. This will save you money and improve the customer experience.

Work on Relationships With Shippers

Your shipping provider is a critical piece of the order fulfillment puzzle. They are responsible for the last leg of the journey, getting the product from you to the customer.

It is important to choose the right shipping carriers for your business and make the most of their services. Are you wasting time delivering packages daily when you could schedule a pickup? Are you printing your own labels for the best rates? Ask them about shipping strategies and ways they can help.

Understanding your shipping provider and working with them as an order fulfillment partner will help you find the best shipping method and could even increase shipping speeds.

Make Data-Driven Decisions

Data-driven decision-making ensures you are making the objectively best choice at each opportunity. When it comes to order fulfillment, the numbers are very important.

Using stats like products sold per month, order fulfillment time, and shipping costs can help you find ways to save money and speed up your operation. Remember, if you aren’t measuring it, you aren’t managing it.

Utilize Automation Where Possible

When it comes to ecommerce order fulfillment , almost everything can be automated to some extent. When a customer places an order on your website, the entire fulfillment process should run almost independently.

Any repetitive task can be automated. This includes:

  • Entering orders
  • Creating a packing slip
  • Printing each shipping label
  • Sending email confirmation

You can save time and reduce human error by automating these processes with order fulfillment software and ecommerce integrations.

100% Full Transparency

When customers spend their hard-earned money, they want to know where their products are. Letting them know how long it will take to have their product in hand can significantly improve customer loyalty. This includes real-time delivery tracking and accurate estimates before placing their order.

If you can get your streamlined order fulfillment process down to a science, with accurate shipping times and costs, your customer satisfaction will go up.

Best Fulfillment Services

The benefit of outsourcing fulfillment is worth considering for many ecommerce companies. Rather than managing your own warehouse, packaging each order, and shipping them from your location, you can let a specialized company handle all of that for you.

If you are looking for a fulfillment partner, here are our picks for the best fulfillment providers.

Shipbob Ecommerce Fulfillment Solutions For Online Brands

ShipBob is one of the best values for a capable fulfillment service provider with a strong track record. It boasts over thirty fulfillment centers across six countries and is capable of 2-day shipping.

ShipBob offers integration with many popular ecommerce platforms like eBay, Etsy, and Walmart. An intuitive UI makes it easy to manage your account, orders, and customer service. Just connect your accounts, send ShipBob your inventory, and they will automatically ship orders from the nearest warehouse.

For the price, ShipBob is an effective and reliable option that is tough to beat.

deliverr - product fulfillment solution

The Deliverr service boasts 2-3 day shipping and simple fulfillment pricing. They handle every part of the process, and you can use their cost calculator to estimate expenses.

Deliverr integrates with Amazon, WooCommerce , and Shopify, in addition to other major ecommerce platforms. Real-time inventory status and order tracking provided by warehouse management systems keep everything transparent so you can effectively manage your business.

The downside to Deliverr is that they do not handle returns or ship internationally. However, they have the most fulfillment locations of any service on this list, all in the U.S., allowing for fast deliveries at a great value.

Falcon Fulfillment

Falcon Fulfillment Homepage

Falcon Fulfillment is a full-service option with one major hurdle: order minimums. Falcon has a 4,000 order minimum per month, which makes it viable only for larger ecommerce operations.

If you do move that quantity, Falcon Fulfillment is a good value with some additional services available. Kitting, custom packaging, and eco-friendly packing material are all available. So if you want your packages to stand out with custom branding or other embellishments, you can leave it to Falcon.

They also do returns management , leaving you very little to worry about after an order is placed. Note that Falcon Fulfillment only operates out of the U.S.

Simpl Fulfillment

Simpl Fulfillment

Their ability to handle special products makes Simpl stand out from the other fulfillment options on this list. With a climate-controlled warehouse and the ability to handle fragile or even hazmat items, Simpl is an excellent choice when other services can’t meet your needs.

They operate from a single location in the U.S. with no order minimum. You can manage everything live with real-time inventory management software that covers orders and returns.

While Simpl may not be the cheapest option on this list, the value is still very good, considering the ability to handle more specialized goods. The service also integrates with the most popular ecommerce software and online marketplaces making it very easy to use.

Ryder E-Commerce by Whiplash

Ryder E-Commerce by Whiplash

Ryder is another good option for larger operations that can meet the order minimum. Ryder has a lot to offer if you send at least 2,500 orders per month.

Two dozen nationwide locations and two international fulfillment centers ensure you are well-positioned for fast deliveries. Ryder also supports dropshipping, which, combined with their automation tools, can help you build a very efficient operation.

Returns management and kitting services give you complete control over orders coming back and shipping out. Fulfillment costs are less transparent with Ryder, so you may end up paying more, but the premium service may still make it a good choice for busy ecommerce companies.

Below are some answers to questions about online order fulfillment.

Order fulfillment is the phase between when a customer orders a product and that product is delivered to them. It generally involves receiving the order, pulling and packing the products, then shipping them to the address provided by the customer.

For order fulfillment includes the additional step of acquiring the product. A typical example is a special order. When a customer orders something that isn’t in stock, it must first be sourced as part of the supply chain before it can be delivered to the customer.

Logistics may also include aspects of the follow-up phase after the  shipping process . A common example is returns. While the simple definition of order fulfillment may only focus on getting the product to the customer, logistics must also have a plan for processing returns and getting those items back into supply.

How to Choose the Right Order Fulfillment Service

While there are many factors to consider when selecting a third-party fulfillment service , one of the easiest ways to filter your options is by order quantity. Advanced order fulfillment services have minimum order thresholds that affect pricing or availability. Start by estimating your monthly order amount and compare that to the criteria for services you are considering.

From there, the next obvious way to filter your options is pricing. Fulfillment services will eat into your profit on each order, so naturally, you want the best deal. Just be sure to temper low costs with acceptable service, or you may end up losing customers who have a negative delivery experience.

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What is Business Process Modeling Notation

What are your requirements regarding bpmn diagrams.

Professionals in sales, project management, and other areas use business process modeling software to map out their approach to any specific process. Learn the essentials of BPMN and BPMN 2.0, along with the history, purpose, benefits, symbols, diagram types, and key tips for business process modeling.

7 minute read

Would you like to create a BPMN diagram? Test Lucidchart - fast, easy, free.

What is BPMN?

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a flow chart method that models the steps of a planned business process from end to end. A key to Business Process Management, it visually depicts a detailed sequence of business activities and information flows needed to complete a process.

Very recent history

Purpose and benefits.

At a high level, BPMN is targeted at participants and other stakeholders in a business process to gain understanding through an easy-to-understand visual representation of the steps. At a more involved level, it’s targeted at the people who will implement the process, giving sufficient detail to enable precise implementation. It provides a standard, common language for all stakeholders, whether technical or non-technical: business analysts, process participants, managers and technical developers, as well as external teams and consultants. Ideally, it bridges the gap between process intention and implementation by providing sufficient detail and clarity into the sequence of business activities.

The diagramming can be far easier to understand than narrative text would be. It allows for easier communication and collaboration to reach the goal of an efficient process that produces a high-quality result. It also helps with communication leading to XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents needed to execute various processes. One main XML standard is called BPEL or BEPEL4WS, standing for Business Process Execution Language for Web Services.

BPMN 2.0 diagram elements and symbols

BPMN depicts these four element types for business process diagrams:

  • Flow objects:  events , activities , gateways
  • Connecting objects: sequence flow, message flow, association
  • Swimlanes: pool or lane
  • Artifacts: data object, group, annotation

These are the individual elements and how they are used to define a business process:

A trigger that starts, modifies or completes a process. Event types include message, timer, error, compensation, signal, cancel, escalation, link and others. They are shown by circles containing other symbols based on event type. They are classified as either “throwing” or “catching,” depending on their function.

A particular activity or task performed by a person or system. It’s shown by a rectangle with rounded corners. They can become more detailed with sub-processes , loops, compensations and multiple instances.

Decision point that can adjust the path based on conditions or events. They are shown as diamonds. They can be exclusive or inclusive, parallel, complex, or based on data or events.

Sequence flow

Shows the order of activities to be performed. It is shown as a straight line with an arrow. It might show a conditional flow, or a default flow.

Message flow

Depicts messages that flow across “pools,” or organization boundaries such as departments. It shouldn’t connect events or activities within a pool. It is represented by a dashed line with a circle at the start and an arrow at the end.

Association

Shown with a dotted line, it associates an artifact or text to an event, activity or gateway.

Pool and swimlane

A pool represents major participants in a process. A different pool may be in a different company or department but still involved in the process. Swimlanes within a pool show the activities and flow for a certain role or participant, defining who is accountable for what parts of the process.

Additional information that developers add to bring a necessary level of detail to the diagram. There are three types of artifacts : data object, group or annotation. A data object shows what data is necessary for an activity. A group shows a logical grouping of activities but doesn’t change the diagram’s flow. An annotation provides further explanation to a part of the diagram.

Who does business process modeling?

Business Process Modeling can range from simple, hand-drawn diagrams to more involved ones with expandable elements to provide sufficient implementation detail. At its most sophisticated, BPMN is conducted by credentialed analysts. The Object Management Group (OMG) provides OCEB 2 , which stands for OMG-Certified Expert in BPM 2.0. One track is business-oriented, and the other is technical. OMG intends for BPMN 2.0 to standardize business process modeling in the same way that Unified Modeling Language (UML) standardized software modeling.

BPMN requires a commitment of time and energy, but the payoff in understanding and improvement can be huge. Version 2.0 builds on previous versions by providing a richer standard set of symbols and notations, allowing more detail for those who need it.

The idea behind Business Process Management is to create a life cycle of continuous improvement. The steps are model, implement, execute, monitor and optimize. BPMN diagrams play a key role in that.

Sub-models within a BPMN diagram

The diagrams are used to communicate with diverse audiences, both non-technical and technical. Sub-models allow the diverse viewers to easily differentiate between sections of the diagram, finding what’s most applicable to them. The types of sub-models are:

  • Private business processes. These are internal to a specific organization and don’t cross pools, or organizational boundaries.
  • Abstract business processes. These occur between a private/internal process and another participant or process. The abstract process shows the outside world the sequence of messages needed to interact with the private process. It doesn’t show the private/internal process itself.
  • Collaboration business processes. These show the interactions between two or more business entities.

Other diagram types

In BPMN 2, there are these other diagram types: conversation, choreography and collaboration.

  • Choreography diagram: Shows interactions between two or more participants. It also may be expanded with sub-choreographies.
  • Collaboration diagram: Shows interactions between two or more processes, using more than one pool. All combinations of pools, processes and choreography may be used in a collaboration diagram.
  • Conversation diagram: In general, this is a simplified version of a collaboration diagram. It shows a group of related message exchanges in a business process. It may be expanded with sub-conversations.

Key tips for business process modeling

  • Clearly define the scope of the process with a beginning and end.
  • You might first map the current business process to highlight inefficiencies before modeling a better way with BPMN.
  • Aim for BPMN diagrams that fit on one page, even if the page is poster-sized, as some are.
  • Lay out sequence flows horizontally. Show associations and data flows vertically.
  • You can create different versions of the diagram for different stakeholders, depending on the level of detail needed for their role.
  • BPMN is not appropriate for modeling organizational structures, functional breakdowns, or data flow models. Although BPMN depicts some information flows in business processes, it’s not a Data Flow Diagram (DFD.)

How to do business process modeling with Lucidchart

It's easy to make business process models with Lucidchart. After signing up, simply log in, then create a blank document or start with a template. Be sure to open the BPMN shapes library, then drag and drop shapes onto the canvas as needed.

You can also stylize lines, format text, and reposition elements to get the look you need. Afterwards, share, download, or export your diagram however you like.

Helpful Resources

  • Visio BPMN Stencil and Templates
  • BPMN Event Types
  • BPMN Diagram Symbols & Notation
  • BPMN Activity Types
  • BPMN Gateway Types
  • BPMN & BPMN 2.0 Tutorial
  • All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams

Lucidchart's complete BPMN shape library along with its easy-to-use interface make it the ideal tool for modeling your business process. Try it today!

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Online Ordering System System Flowchart 1 [classic]

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10 Best Online Ordering Platforms for Businesses

Online ordering platforms make it easier for b2b eCommerce businesses, restaurant business es, cafes, catering business es, bakery business es, and other hospitality businesses, to take orders online or in person. When integrated with a POS system , it streamlines payment and invoice processing .

Wholesale distributorship s and dropshipping suppliers can turn their websites and online eCommerce marketplaces into a customer acquisition channel with an online ordering system. You can turn your website into a lead magnet when you integrate it with an online ordering platform.

Key Takeaway : With more and more customers buying products online, setting up an online ordering platform will improve the omnichannel customer experience . Customers will be able to access your digital catalog or food menu through their mobile devices or by scanning a restaurant QR code .

Online ordering platforms can drastically speed up the ordering process. In this article, we’ll review the best online ordering platforms for restaurants and wholesale businesses. Let’s get started!

online-ordering-platform-demo

10 Best Online Ordering Platforms

Here are the 10 best online ordering platforms.

BlueCart is an all-in-one eCommerce platform for wholesalers, B2B businesses, hospitality businesses, and businesses in the food and beverage industry . The platform is designed to streamline your online ordering processes and operations.

The BlueCart mobile ordering platform handles everything, including keeping track of your product catalogs and sales. Other benefits include managing and filling outbound orders, answering customer inquiries through an integrated messaging platform, and sending out product announcements and marketing materials to your consumers.

Best For: Wholesale food distributors , restaurant businesses, and hospitality businesses. Offers B2B eCommerce businesses an easy-to-use self-service online ordering solution.

  • Reasonable prices
  • Website and app for businesses 
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Order management  
  • Multiple payment gateway integrations
  • Inventory control
  • Route optimization and monitoring
  • eCommerce marketplace
  • Revolution Ordering

The Revolution Ordering platform is used by restaurants and businesses within the hospitality industry. It is an off-premise solution for online food ordering that also offers third-party marketplace insertion. With Revolution Ordering, you get access to all the online ordering features your restaurant would need for a flat monthly fee. Book a demo with Revolution Ordering today to learn more.

Best for: Restaurants and other businesses in the food industry such as hotels, casinos, country clubs, and more.

  • One flat monthly fee
  • Third-party marketplace insertion (DoorDash, GrubHub, UberEats, Google Food Ordering)
  • 7-day/week customer service
  • POS integrations
  • Group reservations

Revolution Ordering demo request

Menufy is a business listing and browser-based online ordering website design service. In order to offer on-demand delivery services from third-parties, Menufy integrates directly with Uber and DoorDash. 

Like Toast, Tock, and DoorDash, Menufy operates a listing website and a connected mobile application to assist in bringing in new consumers to your restaurant. Users of Menufy can purchase a wireless receipt printer and a Menufy tablet to take online purchases.

Best for: Excellent fit for small restaurants that need marketing assistance.

  • Low processing rates
  • 360 eCommerce marketing solutions
  • Online restaurant listing platform
  • Pay-as-you-go delivery
  • Multilingual support

You can create your own online ordering platform with 247Waiter. The system is easy to set up and use. To support your business, the platform provides you with a website and online ordering platform. 

Some benefits of using this platform include the branded website, access to priceless customer data , geofencing, and multiple third-party payment integrations. 247Waiter offers businesses the basic features of an online ordering platform.

Best for: Small businesses and restaurants.

  • Simple setup
  • Branded website
  • Online ordering platform

resources-listing-free-download

A dependable restaurant online ordering system is provided by Toast online ordering. You can set up the online presence of your restaurant. Toast is a complete restaurant POS software with integrated internet ordering features. 

By connecting you directly to clients at any stage of the cycle, the Toast online restaurant management software system minimizes errors. With the system, you can send out notifications, regulate how many orders you want to handle at once, and manage the menu at any time.

Best for : POS integrated online ordering system. Restaurant businesses looking for a streamlined, single platform approach can use Toast.

  • In-house and third-party delivery driver management
  • Customer arrival notifications
  • Custom branding
  • Multiple device support

The takeaway ordering system from Epos Now comes with free staff training and easy onboarding e-modules. Real-time reporting on employees, clients, and inventory is only one of the platform's many outstanding features. 

Epos Now online ordering system can be used alone or in conjunction with hundreds of other programs, such as payment processing software and eCommerce accounting software.

Best for: eCommerce reporting and insights.

  • Inventory management software
  • In-depth reporting
  • Digital catalog and menu
  • Online ordering system
  • Flex Catering

From online ordering to production management, Flex is an all-in-one software that helps businesses handle all of their off-premises and catering needs. Flex can help you save time and money so your catering business can expand more quickly. Its business process flow was designed with both B2C and B2B sales process es in mind.

Orders, events, production, delivery, and everything else in between are all managed by Flex, giving you complete control over the catering portion of your business. For all forms of catering, Flex Catering is the ideal solution.

Best for: For different types of catering and event management businesses. 

  • Online ordering
  • Orders and invoices
  • Create and send proposals with e-sign capability
  • Account management
  • Menu management
  • Delivery management

iMenu360 is an intuitive and practical restaurant management platform solution. It has every functionality required for an online ordering system for restaurants. Mobile ordering, delivery zone geofencing, loyalty programs, a coupon engine, a restaurant manager app, and other features are among the features.

Best for: Restaurants businesses, cafes, and hotels.

  • Coupon engine
  • Mobile ordering system

Restolabs is a reliable, cost-effective internet ordering platform for restaurants. Unlike Toast, DoorDash, and Square Online, Restolabs offers multiple payment gateways. 

The platform makes it easy to route deliveries to on-demand, third-party drivers by integrating with DoorDash, Uber, and Postmates. With a strong focus on increasing sales and improving the omnichannel customer experience and customer relationships, Restolabs features a robust mobile ordering platform and menu customization options.

Best for: Payment flexibility.

  • Menu customization
  • Facebook ordering
  • Mobile ordering platform
  • Delivery options
  • Multiple payment gateways

With Flipdish, you have access to everything you need to accept orders directly from your own websites and mobile applications. The online ordering platform enables you to provide digital ordering from kiosks or phones, and expand your business through marketing and customer loyalty programs.

You can access the platform through your own Flipdish portal and take advantage of the detailed reporting and real-time sales metrics. Flipdish is a very thorough digital ordering solution that includes a number of sales channels, such as websites, smartphone apps, in-store kiosks, Google, and order and pay apps.

Best for: Small businesses looking for affordability and simplicity.

  • Third-party restaurant POS systems integrations
  • Branded online store
  • Customer retention and loyalty campaign setup

online-ordering-ystem-for-businesses

Frequently Asked Questions About Online Ordering Platform

Let’s answer a few questions about online ordering platform for businesses.

What do Restaurants use for Online Ordering?

There are several software and platforms that restaurants can use for online ordering. These platforms include:

What is Web-based Ordering?

Web-based ordering allows customers to browse, select, order, and pay for products via your website without having to download a mobile application. The platform enables easy access to your digital menu.

What is Restaurant Ordering System?

A restaurant ordering system is a platform that allows restaurants to receive online orders from customers. It can also streamline payment processes when integrated with a POS system.

Choosing the Best Platform

With several platforms to choose from it can be difficult to select the right online ordering platform for your business. When selectiing an online ordering system, look for the one that fits your business needs, customer demands, and budget.

You should consider using an all-in-one eCommerce platform that caters for all your restaurant management needs. Platforms like BlueCart and Revolution Ordering offers demos and walkthroughs to help you make the best decision.

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Overview of working with business process flows

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This topic applies to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). If you are an online user, see Business process flows overview in the Power Automate docs.

You can help ensure that people enter data consistently and follow the same steps every time they work with a customer by creating a business process flow. For example, you might want to create a business process flow to have everyone handle customer service requests the same way, or to require that people get approval for an invoice before submitting an order. Business process flows use the same underlying technology as other processes, but the capabilities that they provide are very different from other features that use processes. To learn how to create or edit a business process flow, see Create a business process flow .

Watch a short video (4:49) about business process flows.

Why use business process flows?

Business process flows provide a guide for people to get work done. They provide a streamlined user experience that leads people through the processes their organization has defined for interactions that need to be advanced to a conclusion of some kind. This user experience can be tailored so that people with different security roles can have an experience that best suits the work they do.

Use business process flows to define a set of steps for people to follow to take them to a desired outcome. These steps provide a visual indicator that tells people where they are in the business process. Business process flows reduce the need for training because new users don’t have to focus on which entity they should be using. They can let the process guide them. You can configure business process flows to support common sales methodologies that can help your sales groups achieve better results. For service groups, business process flows can help new staff get up-to-speed more quickly and avoid mistakes that could result in unsatisfied customers.

What can business process flows do?

A business process flow definition is represented as a custom entity and an instance of a process is stored as a record within that entity. Each record is associated with a data record (such as an Account, Contact, Lead, or Opportunity) and in case of cross-entity processes, with a data record for each participating entity.

With business process flows, you define a set of stages and steps that are then displayed in a control at the top of the form.

Business process with stages.

Each stage contains a group of steps. Each step represents a field where data can be entered. People advance to the next stage by using the Next Stage button. You can make a step required so that people must enter data for the corresponding field before they can proceed to the next stage. This is commonly called ”stage-gating”.

Business process flows appear relatively simple compared to other types of processes because they do not provide any conditional business logic or automation beyond providing the streamlined experience for data entry and controlling entry into stages. However, when you combine them with other processes and customizations, they can play an important role in saving people time, reducing training costs, and increasing user adoption.

There are a number of ready-to-use business process flows available. More information: Add ready-to-use business processes .

Business process flows integrated with other customizations

When you or your user enters data using business process flows, the data changes are also applied to form fields so that any automation provided by business rules or form scripts can be applied immediately. Steps can be added that set values for fields that are not present in the form and these fields will be added to the Client API object model used for form scripts. Any workflows that are initiated by changes to fields included in a business process flow will be applied when the data in the form is saved. If the automation is applied by a real-time workflow, the changes will be immediately visible to the user when the data in the form is refreshed after the record is saved.

Although the business process flow control in the form does not provide any direct client-side programmability, changes applied by business rules or form scripts are automatically applied to business process flow controls. If you hide a field in a form, that field will also be hidden in the business process flow control. If you set a value by using business rules or form scripts, that value will be set within the business process flow.

Concurrent process flows

Concurrent business process flows let customizers configure multiple business processes and associate them with the same starting record. Users can switch between multiple business processes running concurrently, and resume their work at the stage in the process that they were on.

System business process flows

The following business process flows are included. To understand how business process flows work, review these system business process flows:

Lead to Opportunity Sales Process

Opportunity Sales Process

Phone to Case Process

Multiple entities in business process flows

You can use a business process flow for a single entity or span multiple entities. For example, you may have a process that begins with an opportunity, then continues to a quote, an order, and then an invoice, before finally returning to close the opportunity.

You can design business process flows that tie together the records for up to five different entities into a single process so that people using the app can focus on the flow of their process rather than on which entity they are working in. They can more easily navigate between related entity records.

Multiple business process flows are available per entity

Not every user in an organization may follow the same process and different conditions may require that a different process be applied. You can have up to 10 active business process flows per entity to provide appropriate processes for different situations.

Control which business process flow will be applied

You can associate business process flows with security roles so that only people with those security roles can see or use them. You can also set the order of the business process flows so that you can control which business process flow will be set by default. To set business process flow order, open a business process flow in the designer and then select Order Process Flow on the command bar. Select the up and down arrows to move the business process flows in the order you want.

When someone creates a new entity record, the list of available active business process definition is filtered by the user’s security role. The first activated business process definition available for the user’s security role according to the process order list is the one applied by default. If more than one active business process definitions is available, users can load another from the Switch Process dialog. Whenever processes are switched, the one currently rendered goes to the background and is replaced by the selected one, but it maintains its state and can be switched back. Each record can have multiple process instances associated (each for a different business process flow definition, up to a total of 10). On form load, only one business process flow is rendered. When any user applies a different process, that process may only load by default for that particular user.

To make sure a business process is loaded by default for all user (behavior equivalent to “pinning” the process), a custom Client API script (web resource) can be added on form load that specifically loads an existing business process instance based on the business process definition ID.

Business process flow privileges

Each business process flow definition that is represented as a custom entity comes with its own set of privileges that can be edited within a security role just like any other system or custom entity. You can specify the privileges in the Business Process Flows tab for a security role.

Set privileges for business process flow.

You can assign the following privileges on a business process flow:

  • Create : Allows creating an instance of the business process flow, which is done at the same time as creating a new record.
  • Read : Allows viewing the business process flow on a created record.
  • Write : Allows updating the business process flow. For example, changing state and navigation.
  • Delete : Allows deleting an instance such as when a record is deleted.
  • Append : Allows cross-entity navigation from an entity. For example, the Lead entity in the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process business process flow.
  • Append To : Allows cross-entity navigation to an entity. For example, the Opportunity entity in the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process business process flow.

The System Administrator and System Customizer security roles have access to all business process flows by default.

Business process flow considerations

You can define business process flows only for those entities that support them. You also need to be aware of the limits for the number of processes, stages, and steps that can be added.

Business process flows that call a workflow

You can now call on-demand workflows from inside a business process flow. You can configure this from the new business process flow designer by dragging a workflow component to a process stage or to the Global Workflows section. For more information about using workflows in business process flows, see Blog: Business process flow automation in Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement .

When you include a workflow that you want to trigger on Stage Exit of a stage in your business process flow, and that stage is the last stage in the flow, the designer gives the impression that the workflow will be triggered when that stage is completed. However, the workflow will not be triggered because a stage transition does not take place. You will not receive a warning or error preventing you from including the workflow on the stage. When a user interacts with the business process flow, finishing or abandoning the process does not result in a stage transition, and therefore the workflow is not triggered. Consider the following examples:

You create a business process flow with two stages, S1 connects to S2, with a workflow on stage S2 and set the trigger to Stage Exit .

You create a business process flow with three stages, S1 connect to S2, then S2 branches to S3. You include a workflow on S2 and set the trigger to Stage Exit .

The workflow will not trigger in either case. To work around this issue, you can add a Global Workflow and add the workflow you want to trigger to it so that the workflow is triggered for the business process rather than a stage of the process. You can set the trigger for a Global workflow to Process Abandoned or Process Completed to cause the workflow to trigger when a user abandons or completes the business process.

Entities that can use business process flows

Only entities that use the updated forms can use business process flows. This includes custom entities and the following system entities:

Appointment

Campaign Activity

Campaign Response

Entitlement

Marketing List

Opportunity

Price List Item

Recurring Appointment

Sales Literature

Social Activity

To enable a custom entity for business process flows, select the Business process flows (fields will be created) check box in the entity definition. Note that you can’t undo this action.

If you navigate to the business process flow stage that contains the Social Activity entity and choose the Next Stage button, you’ll see the Create option. When you choose Create , the Social Activity form loads. However, because Social Activity isn’t valid for Create from the app user interface, you won’t be able to save the form and you’ll see the error message: “Unexpected error.”

Maximum number of processes, stages, and steps

To ensure acceptable performance and the usability of the user interface, there are some limitations you need to be aware of when you plan to use business process flows:

There can be no more than 10 activated business process flow processes per entity.

Each process can contain no more than 30 stages.

Multi-entity processes can contain no more than five entities.

Business process flow entity customization support

Business process flow entities can appear in the system so that entity record data can be made available in grids, views, charts, and dashboards.

Use business process flow entity records with grids, views, charts, and dashboards

With business processes flows available as an entity, you can now use advanced finds, views, charts, and dashboards sourced from business process flow data for a given entity, such as a lead or opportunity. System administrators and customizers can create custom business process flow grids, views, charts, and dashboards similar to those created with any other entity.

Business process flows, such as Lead To Opportunity Sales Process , appear as a customizable entity in Solution Explorer.

Solution Explorer with lead-to-opportunity process entity.

To access a default business process flow view, open solution explorer, expand Entities > expand the process that you want, such as Lead To Opportunity Sales Process , select Views , and then select the view that you want.

Several default views are available that you can view as a chart, such as the Active Opportunity Sales Process view.

Active Opportunity Sales Process view.

Limitations of using business process flow entities

Currently, you can’t create custom forms for entities based on a business process flow.

Watch a short video (4:49) about business process flows Add ready-to-use business processes Create a business process flow Enhance business process flows with branching Whitepaper: Process Enablement with Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement Create custom business logic through processes Workflow Processes Actions - Overview

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Additional resources

IMAGES

  1. How Order Management Process Workflows and Flow Charts Work

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  2. Customer Order Processing Flowchart

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  3. How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

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  4. Simple Customer Ordering Process Flowchart Template

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  5. E-commerce Order Process Flowchart

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COMMENTS

  1. Order Management Process

    Order Management Process - 3 Core Steps & Flow Chart Midsize business Order Management Process: Key Steps & Flow By Ben Oliveri December 3, 2021 When a customer visits your store or website, they select an item, they purchase it, and your staff updates inventory records to reflect that purchase.

  2. E-commerce

    Map your e-commerce site or online business portal's order processing flow with this flowchart template. Identify customer pain points and improve your e-commerce fulfilment process. You can easily edit this template using Creately's flowchart maker.

  3. How Order Management Process Workflows and Flow Charts Work

    The 3 major steps in the order management process flow chart are accepting, fulfilling, and resolving customer orders. Merchants can use flow charts to have an overview of their order management processes. Merchants can also use OMS to automate and streamline order management processes for customer satisfaction.

  4. ECommerce Process Flow

    Key areas of a typical eCommerce process flow include: Receiving orders from your eCommerce system Processing order information Shipping Download Brochure Top-Level eCommerce Process Flow Unless you are already automating your eCommerce processes, managing eCommerce orders is a manual process.

  5. All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams

    9 minute read Would you like to create a BPMN diagram? Test Lucidchart - fast, easy, free. Creating a BPMN Model What is business process mapping? Business Process Mapping details the steps that a business takes to complete a process, such as hiring an employee or ordering and shipping a product.

  6. Mastering the Purchase Ordering Process

    Purchase Ordering Process Flow (Click on image to modify online) What is a PO (purchase order)? You encounter forms of a purchase order in your everyday life. When you order a meal at a restaurant, the waiter or waitress writes down your order and gives it to the kitchen to fulfill.

  7. Business Process Flow Chart: How to Make One In 7 Steps

    Create the Process Flow Diagram. You can use a pen and paper to draw out the diagram. Make sure to draw out the start and end points of each process. For example, the start point for purchase order management can be to "create a requisition," and the endpoint is "issuing the invoice.".

  8. How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

    7 Steps to Create a Business Process Diagram What Is a Business Process Diagram? A business process diagram is a visual representation of a process that your company carries out to achieve a goal. It uses standardized symbols to describe each step of the process.

  9. Order and Delivery Processing

    Order and Delivery Processing. Use Creately's easy online diagram editor to edit this diagram, collaborate with others and export results to multiple image formats. This flowchart describes the order and delivery process in detail. You can edit this template or create new template using shapes and libraries by clicking (+) icon on bottom left.

  10. Complete Guide to Order Management

    Order management is the process of receiving, tracking, and fulfilling an order and shipping an order to a customer, business, or intermediary. It's simple to define, but its complexity is easy to underestimate. The process begins and ends with the customer experience.

  11. What Is Order Processing? 5 Steps & 10 Tips to Improve

    5 Steps in Order Processing Workflow Order processing includes five main steps from order placement to delivery — and sometimes continues on if a customer starts a return process. But what is actually happening while an order is processing? Here's a breakdown of the typical workflow: 1.

  12. Online Shopping Flowchart Template

    Online Shopping Flowchart Template by Mili U. Edit this Template Use Creately's easy online diagram editor to edit this diagram, collaborate with others and export results to multiple image formats. Editable Online Shopping Flowchart template for visualizing the process of an ecommerce site.

  13. Business process flows overview

    What business process flows can do. With business process flows, you define a set of stages and steps that are then displayed in a control at the top of the form. Each stage contains a group of steps. Each step represents a column where data can be entered. You can advance to the next stage by using the Next Stage button.

  14. Purchase order process flow

    This purchase order process flow template can help you: - Streamline your purchase ordering process. - Identify the relationship between purchasers and vendors. - Manage an organization's orders efficiently. Open this template to view a detailed example of a purchase order process that you can customize to your use case.

  15. Order processing flowchart

    The Order processing flowchart outlines the process of fulfilling an order. The first step in the process is to receive the order. This involves receiving the order information from the customer, such as the product name, quantity, and shipping address. This step is crucial in ensuring that the order is processed accurately and efficiently.

  16. Creating a Process Flow Chart: A Step-by-Step Guide

    If you're looking for a way to visualize your business processes and increase efficiency, process flow charts are a great tool to use. These process diagrams show the steps of a process and help you identify areas where improvements can be made. In this article, we'll provide a step-by-step guide to creating a process flow chart, from understanding what they are to validating your final product.

  17. Mastering the Order Fulfillment Process: The Complete Guide

    December 27, 2023 Ecommerce Learning Center » Mastering the Order Fulfillment Process: A Comprehensive Guide Order fulfillment is a key part of any ecommerce business. It constitutes getting the customer's order from your store to the customer. Some strategies use fulfillment centers that store and deliver goods once an order is placed.

  18. Free Online Flowchart Maker

    To use the flowchart creator, click on the Data tab and choose the flowchart icon. Choose a shape to start building your flowchart. Click on the first shape on the canvas and you'll see the sizing tabs along with a grey arrow on each side. Click on an arrow and pick from one of the six building options.

  19. Free Process Flow Diagram Maker and Examples

    Dive deep into your workflow. Go in-depth and map out every step, task, and activity in your workflow with an online process flow diagram. Start inspired with free templates from Canva Whiteboards, add shapes and icons to represent each step, and then connect parts to show relationships between tasks. Go beyond simple text and arrows—use our ...

  20. What is Business Process Modeling Notation

    Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a flow chart method that models the steps of a planned business process from end to end. A key to Business Process Management, it visually depicts a detailed sequence of business activities and information flows needed to complete a process. Its purpose is to model ways to improve efficiency, account ...

  21. Online Ordering System System Flowchart 1 [classic]

    Online Ordering System System Flowchart 1 [classic] by Jane Kintana Edit this Template Use Creately's easy online diagram editor to edit this diagram, collaborate with others and export results to multiple image formats. You can easily edit this template using Creately.

  22. 10 Best Online Ordering Platforms for Businesses

    Online ordering platforms streamline order management and processing. Let's review the top 10 online ordering platforms for businesses. ... Its business process flow was designed with both B2C and B2B sales processes in mind. Orders, events, production, delivery, and everything else in between are all managed by Flex, giving you complete ...

  23. Use business process flows in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on

    To set business process flow order, open a business process flow in the designer and then select Order Process Flow on the command bar. Select the up and down arrows to move the business process flows in the order you want. ... charts, and dashboards. Use business process flow entity records with grids, views, charts, and dashboards.