The problem with Frankenstein Inventory & Order Management Software

Order management software is at the heart of every inventory & order management system. In many of the setups and sales order processes we’ve examined we see the sales order software as a standalone component that often has to be integrated with stand alone accounting and CRM software.

These Frankenstein mashups are often a barrier to achieving efficient sales order management inasmuch as they introduce complexities into the user experience because different vendors most often means different user controls and multiple screens. In a busy order management environment this creates discomfort for users which in turn can feed through into, and be detrimental to the customer experience.

Furthermore each component most often has its own database and therefore data is duplicated and sometimes mismatched. Any data duplication in the order management process will mean issues in the integrity and reliability of report data, a spectrum of errors i.e. discrepancies in address data and user frustration. This layered on top of the aforementioned issues relating to the user experience multiplies the negative effects upon order management teams and is to the detriment of the customer experience.

When we laid out the design for our order management software we decided our system had to address the three key pillars of successful order management namely the operations inherent in Sales Channels, Fulfilment and Accounting.

In the hundreds of customer situations we review every year we see definitive evidence that Frankenstein order management systems composed of disparate software components simply will not scale.

Furthermore the relentless change of software as a result of version changes and new features increase the risk of drawn out support interventions resulting from problems created from incompatibilities.

All of the problems are real and everyone who operates stand alone order management software as part of their Frankenstein management information set up risks both losses in efficiency and profitability. Our system eliminates these problems.