SCT Advisors bring extensive expertise in B2B and DTC order promising and order management solutions. We deliver measurable near-term improvements while partnering with clients on strategic planning, operational best practices, and comprehensive program execution – ensuring your order management operations are efficient and scalable with strong focus on achieving customer service expectations across channels.
Navigating the Order Management Solution Landscape
When considering potential partners across the warehousing solutions landscape, high level segmentation can quickly filter out misfits to your organizational needs. Order management often sits as a pivot between commerce and execution technology stacks. As such, providers in these areas have sought to extend their solutions to embed order management considerations into their solutions while they build out robust OMS/DOM capabilities. None have achieved a best in class solution across both, so evaluating providers requires considering the strength and complexity of your channels, and the relative emphasis needed on associated functions for that channel. SCT considers the following early in the process to focus the conversation on relevant suppliers and associated capabilities as follows:
- Core Solutions Providers – ERPs have developed out strong order promising and management capabilities, and as such exist with scalable approaches both to core solutions and best of breed functionality. Down market ERPs and niche players can be found that provide basic order management lifecycles, increasingly in the form of commerce partners such as Shopify and Cin7, though more traditional software providers such as Fluent Commerce are seeing traction.
- Extended Solutions Providers – B2B Commerce focused software providers have extended into the order management arena with solid capabilities to empower digital commerce stacks. Salesforce, Kibo, and CommerceTools are examples of these. Warehousing providers also have extended into OMS en masse, with some developing into best or breed providers but others such as Blue Yonder, Deposco, Softeon, Korber, Logiwa, offering the basics with compelling roadmaps.
- Best of Breed Providers – The long established leaders in the order management space are, as mentioned earlier, the ERPs that focused on developing promising and reservations capabilities focused on B2B with the objective of managing strategic relationships and effectively orchestrating backorders and manufacturing assets (often in conjunction with manufacturing planning tools). The most prevalent examples include SAP and Oracle. The emergence of Commerce brought heavier focus on effective fulfillment which was embraced first by IBM’s Sterling Commerce and perhaps most effectively by Manhattan’s OMS, which has now been re-platformed as Active OMS.
Navigating the Order Management Services Partner Ecosystem
One of the most important considerations to recognize when working order management technology strategies is that you don’t have to do everything yourself. There are a variety of firms that are available to assist and accelerate that offer strong value propositions and expertise that could not reasonably be developed in house in timeframes that align to aggressive internal initiatives (such as M&A or geographic expansion).
From the Big 4 advisory firms down to a plethora of niche startups that have evolved out of the software provider landscape, a large number of implementation and support specialists offer on shore, near shore, and off shore services to scale and accelerate implementations, and to provide ongoing support. They are often critical extensions of the software provider. SCT works with many of these firms to ensure scoping and staffing plans are vetted and budgets are aligned to our clients success criteria. Examples include Accenture, Bricz, Spinnaker, enVista, Ignitiv, etc.
SCT’s Approach to Order Management Solution Selections
Selecting a new system can feel overwhelming—especially if it’s been years since your last process or if you’re new to it altogether. SCT has experience on each side of the table – creating, facilitating, and responding to RFPs and navigating the selection cycles. Our process ensures that scope is visionary and not static, that the organization is well aligned on the objectives and importance of the project, that requirements are well understood and that the staffing and schedules support a light on risk and heavy on value realization approach.
SCT’s value proposition lies in the process that ensures requirements are not a regurgitation of the current state, but a well developed visionary view of capabilities that will achieve organizational objectives, and that the leadership team is well aligned to those objectives, and these objectives are ready to be vetted with the broader organization and potential partners.
Selecting the right order management solution, or designing the right combination of features and functions across solutions to meet the various needs across your fulfillment channels, can be a complex exercise requiring breadth of familiarity with business rules that often is not available outside of the higher levels of the organization. Whether focusing on B2B requirements like available to promise inventories and reservations or B2C challenges like efficient order sourcing and returns, SCT helps our clients navigate tricky sales cycles and trade-offs to design and achieve the best fit solution.
- Stakeholder Alignment & Program Charters – Interviews with key stakeholders are combined with SCT-led education on the current Order Management technology landscape with a focus on your critical business needs and opportunities. Aligning on key objectives for the project through a high-level review, or a detailed Opportunity Assessment will allow SCT to build consensus and shared vision across the organization for OMS project objectives to ensure alignment during the requirements definition and vendor selection.
- Integrated System Architecture & Analytics Design – As SCT lays out a broad view of the provider landscape, it is often necessary to shortlist those providers that are more likely to participate in the proposed architecture. This may include large CRM or WMS vendors, smaller niche providers, or custom development and automation providers. Vendor identification and interviews, built upon a foundation of clear requirements, allow our clients to hear the stories and prioritize activities in a way that will provide the needed insight to develop scope for the evaluation and program planning exercises. The output is a longer term vision to a holistic architecture that establishes a foundational alignment for roadmap development and vendor selection purposes.
- Requirements Definition – Detailed process walk-throughs through each area of the business and user persona allows SCT to align current state capabilities to best practices, identifying the list of critical capabilities needed from an order management solution as well as additional capabilities and considerations. The output is a prioritized list of requirements to be used in an RFI/RFP, along with any near term improvements that can be achieved prior to a more formal project.
- Critical Differentiators – SCT’s elevation of critical requirements and differentiators across functional requirements and provider approach can be leveraged in weighted scorecards as an effective tool to socialize priorities across different stakeholder entities within the organization and to ensure that priorities are aligned when selecting a vendor and solution.
SCT Advisory provides RFI and RFP support for Order Management System and associated technology selections by capturing and prioritizing key business requirements, facilitating the organizational alignment on program objectives while orchestrating the selection process with the right group of WMS providers given the required capabilities, budget and culture fit. Our unique value proposition combines the depth of familiarity with the solutions and how they can be configured or customized to achieve process objectives and operational results, combined with an understanding of the effort required to translate requirements into systems capabilities. We drive aggressive plans with the partners, while setting realistic expectations and contingency plans with our clients.
SCT Advisory provides RFI and RFP support for Order Management System and associated technology selections by capturing and prioritizing key business requirements, facilitating the organizational alignment on program objectives while orchestrating the selection process with the right group of WMS providers given the required capabilities, budget and culture fit.
- Sourcing Strategy, RFP Oversight, & Vendor Selection – As project scope is defined, mobilizing the best-fit ecosystem of vendors and services providers across software, cloud, services, and support is needed. Designing partner-friendly programs leveraging our industry expertise provides a stream-lined approach and short list of candidates to deliver a successful implementation.
- RFP Management – Managing vendor communications, scoring responses, consolidating evaluations, and tracking contract progress can be time-consuming and complex. Our proven methodology streamlines this process, keeping it efficient and transparent—while providing clear updates and recommendations to your executive team. Vendor demonstrations are a critical step in vetting the solutions and ensuring consensus on success factors and preferred vendors across the organization which is critical to the success of the overall program. SCT provides vendors with guidance on your organizational priorities and while presenting what we see as critical differentiators to you for a 360-degree view of the options to choose from. Briefing sessions following the demonstrations translate vendor positioning into valid expectations, and roundtable discussions unveil any reservations from the team that can be addressed in future conversations with the vendors.
- Program Planning – Company-wide projects require careful collaboration, roadmap development, milestone planning, and executive engagement. With supply chain experience across a broad array of industries, SCT knows which questions to ask, critical success milestones to track, and KPIs to monitor—helping you build a strategic program plan that drives lasting value across your organization. Following vendor demonstrations, as the preferred solution is materializing, Scoping workshops allow our customers to dig deeper into capabilities and setup requirements to more fully develop an appreciation for solution capabilities and the effort required to achieve them. SCT facilitates workshops with 1-2 vendors to walk through the day in the life of warehouse operation (end to end given the surrounding system architecture), implementation methodology, roles and responsibilities, and critical success factors.
- Scoping, Scheduling, and Roles & Responsibilities – Aligning project and program objectives with high level estimates of effort allows a best in class approach to take shape. Iterations allowing the evaluation of complexity and projected results allow refinement of scope to deliver optimal value. Considerations of staff availability and supplementation options allow time and cost tradeoffs to be evaluated, delivering an ideal balance of speed and value.
- Program Justification & Business Case Preparation – Investment priorities will be scoped and sequenced, providing clarity on transformation strategies and business justification. Cost estimation and returns on investment will be combined into a time phased justification for your program, and combined with soft benefits and insights to socialize effort & procure funding.
SCT’s advisors integrate with your project teams to help extend conversations related to transportation project design and its successful delivery. Embedding ourselves into regular conversations with program stakeholders provides a third-party view of progress and a supportive yet challenging voice seeking to provide optimal impacts and value realized from of your warehousing solutions, while minimizing the disruptions that might result in the process. Participating in or leading steering committee meetings provides a third party view free from internal politics on the readiness for system cutovers as well as the ability of the solution to achieve value.
A successful order management system (OMS) implementation requires an integrated, automated system that handles the entire order lifecycle—from capture to delivery and post-sales—with improved accuracy, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, specialized to the specific sales (for inventory allocation) and fulfillment (for sourcing and scheduling) channels that the business services. SCT Advisory brings subject matter experts capable of assuring designs accommodate business requirements while reflecting industry leading practices. With an average of 20 years of experience, our advisors assist in navigating the challenges of project management excellence, change management, and communications to assure our clients of the highest likelihood of success in their implementations.
- Industry Best Practices – Our advisors have succeeded in guiding some of the most complex environments through global design contemplation efforts the balance operational efficiencies with throughput while protecting agile processes prepared to address the needs of channel growth, shifting demand, and the prospect of merger and acquisition impact to operations. Throughout design and continuously as issues arise and parking lots are addressed our advisors provide invaluable insight into industry recognized best practices and opportunities to improve existing processes. Managing the balance of delivering the best solution and deferring potentially disruptive changes to the business delivers a high value outcome with opportunity to grow from a foundation of success.
- Implementation Methodology – Following the critical elements of a best in class methodology assures solution readiness and business preparations to absorb the extended capabilities that implementations have to offer. Our advisors, through years of experience, ensure the rigorous exercises of data cleanliness, testing thoroughness, and robust training are executed in alignment with the appropriate milestones.
- Change Management – Change management is perhaps the most critical element assuring the success of an implementation. Preparing the business for the impacts of process and technology changes, while championing the positive impacts it will have on the personnel and the business can go miles towards driving the correct outcomes. SCT works with client leadership to build awareness of pending change and communicate effectively across stakeholder groups while preparing them for a successful transition.
- Program Leadership Alignment & Coaching – Ensuring stakeholders maintain a clear line of sight to both project success and program objectives is critical. Opportunity often lies beyond your typical cadence of status reporting and milestone presentations. With ongoing and frequent dialogue beyond the mechanics, our advisors will cultivate a dialogue with project stakeholders deliberating project risks related to people, process, and technology, adding rigor to change management and calibrating scoping decisions to balance results with objectives around schedule and costs.
- Steering Committee Oversight & Support – Formal, objective reviews of program success prove useful to calibrating program investment. Our advisors, extracted from the day to day challenges of operations and project management, provide a useful rudder to steer your program to achieve its longer term vision, and serve as a reality check when responding to trends and anticipating potential disruptions.
