Focus on Order Management Systems (OMS) – what approaches are there and what are their effects
In the first part of the mini-series “The New Retail Omnichannel Commerce”, we discussed the new omnichannel requirements, among other things. Part 2 builds directly on this and sheds light on which approaches can be used to address these requirements.
Omnichannel requirements can be met with any of the following approaches/scenarios. The interaction of the most important systems involved – ERP, OMS and eCommerce – shows the character of the scenario – each with a major impact, e.g. on a subsequent evaluation of the systems.
Scenario 1 – “As usual, ERP & eCommerce include OMS functionality”
- In both ERP and eCommerce systems, OMS functionalities are more or less statically built in – this is the actual situation that we often find.
- Since a lot of effort and money has been put into this constellation in recent years, this should basically also be the target scenario – fair enough!
- An upcoming modernization of the eCommerce system is basically to be seen as a 1:1 replacement of the existing solution, the OMS functionalities often have to be developed again on the new system.
Scenario 2 – “specialized OMS between ERP and lean eCommerce”
- A specialized order management system is intended to close the gap between ERP (not flexible enough for the new omnichannel requirements) and eCommerce (where these overarching work processes of the employees involved from the store and central services such as support should not be located).
- This is the classic scenario from which our customers expect the most flexibility and which many specialized OMS on the market are aiming for – which are almost all modern SaaS systems in terms of architecture.
- The evaluation of a specialized OMS is very exciting, because here too there are different approaches in terms of functionality and licensing models.
- Regarding project costs , please note: API-first sounds very good in each case, but for certain cases the interface must also be built!
- Necessary integration into both ERP (pretty standard) and eCommerce (there can be a lot of effort involved with deeper integrations in the direction of open shopping carts etc.) must be taken into account.
Scenario 3 – “Combined Omnichannel eCommerce & Strong OMS”
- An omnichannel eCommerce system already combines OMS and eCommerce without further integration, which is a plus point from a process and architecture point of view.
- Parting with the favored eCommerce system and becoming dependent on a new manufacturer is a difficult step for many customers. For this reason, this is only possible in the wild at the time and in combination with the modernization of the eCommerce system, which is necessary anyway.
- If you get involved in this combination at the time in question, it promises some advantages in terms of flexibility and project costs compared to scenario 2.
Scenario 4 – “Omnichannel Retail All-In-One Solution with Strong OMS & ERP”
- A retail all-in-one solution includes all system components relevant to the retail business.
- In these comprehensive solutions, there are two more camps – those that have bought the components together under one brand and those that have outgrown the size of an SME as complete solutions and are definitely suitable for larger companies.
- Under the term “Digital Operations Platforms” coined by Forrester in 2021/2022, something is emerging that describes these all-in-one solutions well.
None of the scenarios mentioned is fundamentally wrong or less sustainable than the other. It is important to realize that a decision for a scenario sets the direction for important parts of the architectural landscape – with major implications for the order of evaluations as well as the entire digital transformation of architecture.
Until now, the two “extreme scenarios” 1 (left) and 4 (right) were less the targeted future scenarios of our customers – these tended more towards the middle, whereby obvious intermediate scenarios were always discussed.
Recently, however, scenario 4, which is unimaginable for many customers, has become a possible option – hypothetical but also concrete ERP re-evaluation has been discussed from different situations … and suddenly even “the classic ERP in the form we have been used to for decades” was allowed to be questioned.
And this is exactly the scenario that the last part of the mini-series will be about: