01
Order processing
Capture, validation, payment and credit checks, fraud screening, stock allocation and release to fulfilment, in seconds for the ordinary order and with a clear queue for the ones that need a person.
02Operations & finance · OMS
Order management system development.
An order management system takes every order from every channel and sees it through to delivery, and back again if it is returned.
We build it to order, around the way you work, or extend and connect the one you already have.
01What it is
In plain words.
An order management system takes every order from every channel and sees it through to delivery, and back again if it is returned.
Selling through more than one channel breaks simple order handling. The website, the marketplaces, the sales team and the shops each take orders against the same stock, and without one system in the middle the company oversells, ships late and cannot tell a customer where their order is.
An OMS is that middle. It takes in every order, decides where it should be fulfilled from, follows it through picking, shipping and delivery, and handles the exceptions: the split shipment, the change of address, the return.
02What it includes
Every part, explained.
6 parts. Each can be built by itself; together they are one system.
02
Order tracking
One status the customer, the service agent and the warehouse all see, from placed to delivered, with notifications at the moments that matter.
03
Fulfilment management
Choosing the best source for each order, whether a warehouse, a store or a supplier shipping direct, by stock, distance, cost and promise date, and splitting an order only when it has to be.
04
Returns management
Authorisation, labels, receipt, inspection, refund or exchange and the return of good stock to sale, with the reason recorded so patterns can be seen.
05
Multi-channel order management
Website, app, marketplaces, sales team, call centre and stores feeding one order book against one view of available stock.
06
Order automation
Rules for routing, holds, back-orders, partial shipments and customer messages, so staff handle exceptions and the system handles the rest.
Buy, extend or build?
Buy if you sell through standard e-commerce channels with simple fulfilment. Build when you fulfil from several places with rules of your own, sell both to businesses and to consumers, or need orders tied closely to production or to an ERP.
Where intelligence fits
Intelligence in order management is built to predict a realistic delivery promise, to pick the fulfilment source that balances cost and speed, and to spot the order that looks like fraud or like a mistake before it ships.
03What it works with
Never on an island.
A system is worth most when it shares its records with the ones beside it.
- Warehouse management systemA warehouse management system knows where every item in the building is, and tells people the best way to put it away, pick it and send it.
- Enterprise resource planningAn ERP is the one system that records what a company owns, owes, buys, makes and sells, so every department works from the same numbers.
- Point of saleA point-of-sale system is the till: it rings up the sale, takes the payment, and tells the rest of the business what was just sold.
- Customer relationship managementA CRM is the one place a company keeps everything it knows about the people it sells to: who they are, what was said, what was offered and what happens next.
- Product information managementA product information management system holds the definitive facts about everything a company sells, and sends them to every place the products are listed.
Part of a family
Operations, supply and finance: From purchase order to delivered order to closed books, in one flow.
04How we build it
Five steps, in the open.
- 01
Listen
You describe the work and where it hurts. We look at the systems and the data you have now.
- 02
Specify
A written specification: what the system does, what it does not, what it connects to and how we will know it works. A clear quote before any work starts.
- 03
Build in stages
A working piece at each stage, on real data, so you steer early. The part that matters most comes first.
- 04
Move the data
Existing records mapped, cleaned of duplicates and reconciled against the old system before anything is switched off.
- 05
Hand over
Training, documentation and the keys. Your team can run it, and we keep it working for as long as you want us to.
One set of records underneath
Customers, products, suppliers, people and stock are each defined once. A second system joins the first; it does not start a competing copy.
Runs where you decide
Your own servers, a private cloud or a cloud account that belongs to you. Customer, employee and financial data stays on infrastructure you control.
Yours to keep
You own the code, the data, the configuration and the documentation. There is no licence fee to us and nothing stopping another team from taking it on.
05Questions
Before you ask.
Questions about OMS
What is the difference between an OMS and an ERP?
An ERP records the order for accounting and stock. An OMS manages its life: which channel it came from, where it is fulfilled, what the customer was promised and what happens when something changes. A company with one channel may not need both.
Can it stop us overselling across channels?
That is one of its main jobs. Every channel sells against the same pool of available stock, updated as orders arrive.
Does it work with marketplaces and couriers?
Yes, through their interfaces: orders in, stock and tracking out, labels and delivery status from the carriers.
Guides
Plain-language guides on the problems this work solves.
- CRM, ERP, HRMS, CDP, PIM, WMS and the rest: thirty business systems explained in plain wordsBusiness systems · 8 min
- Custom software or off-the-shelf: how to decide whether to build, buy or extendBuild or buy · 3 min
- Custom CRM or off-the-shelf CRM: which does your sales team need?CRM · 3 min
- When does a company need a custom ERP?ERP · 3 min
- All 16 guides on this →
Rather talk it through? Tell us the problem in a few lines and a person will answer it.
Ask us →Tell us how the work runs today.
How the work runs today, what the system must do and what it has to connect to. A person reads it and replies honestly about whether to buy, extend or build.
Contact
Hire the
swarm.
Tell us what you want the swarm to do. We'll tell you honestly whether it can — and what it would take.
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