Battle of OMS: From Traditional to Next-Gen to DOMS – What’s the Difference?
Today‘s consumers buy their desired products and services via various channels – stores, online shops, marketplaces and social media. At the same time, their expectations are shaped by major players such as Amazon – customers want a seamless, personalized and „in-time“ shopping and fulfillment experience across all channels. Retailers can achieve this with implementing a Distributed Order Management System (DOMS). In this first part of our blog series about DOMS, I will explain the difference between a traditional Order Management System (OMS), Next Generation Order Management System (Next Gen OMS) and a Distributed Order Management System (DOMS).
OMS as the basis for omnichannel fulfillment in logistics
To survive in today‘s interconnected world, retailers and brands need to integrate all channels into one customer facing network. Doing so will enable them to create an intelligent and comprehensive network of fulfillment locations, forming a foundation for their omnichannel activities to ensure a faster and more reliable service for their customers.
To take advantage of decentralized logistics, retailers must ensure optimal interplay between Order Management and Inventory Management across all channels. Retailers and brands are required to create a consistent experience on all channels, always provide customers with detailed updates on every step of their orders, deliver quickly and offer flexible delivery options and services. Falling behind in these areas risks losing customers to competitors. Poor implementation of their omnichannel concept, characterized for example by manual processes or inflexible, unsuitable software solutions, leads to inefficient processes, high costs and dissatisfied customers and employees. A Next Gen OMS is essential for a seamless omnichannel strategy, as it integrates all channels and ensures an optimal shopping experience as well as improved resource utilization.
A Next Gen OMS is essential for a seamless omnichannel strategy, as it integrates all channels and ensures an optimal shopping experience as well as improved resource utilization.
Next Gen OMS vs. Traditional OMS: What is the difference?
With our Next Gen OMS, we offer retailers an efficient and scalable platform that simplifies inventory management and the entire fulfillment process – from availability displays and information in the checkout to a real-time overview of stock levels, intelligent order routing, picking and packing through to shipping or handover to the customer and any returns.
A Next Gen OMS differs from a traditional OMS. A traditional OMS focuses on the entire order processing, including tasks such as pricing, promotions and payment processing. It aims at making internal processes efficient by automating key processes such as transactions, payment and communication. Traditional OMS are typically designed for a limited number of sales channels with a single fulfillment location. They struggle with complex decentralized fulfillment networks and cross-location inventory visibility. Consequently, they are often insufficient for many retailers today. Some of the tasks of a traditional OMS have now been transferred to other parts within a modern eCommerce ecosystem.
Our Next Gen OMS is an advanced evolution of the traditional Order Management
System that focuses on efficient fulfillment. It is a software-as-a-service platform that manages and coordinates orders, inventory, and fulfillment options across an omnichannel network, covering the entire order lifecycle.
The relevance of Distributed Order Management
While an OMS purely handles the organization of orders, our DOMS is a part of our Next Gen OMS, which specializes in the orchestration of orders while also managing inventory and location data. Our DOMS supports any type of business model, be it pure online business, pure physical store business or combined omnichannel business. However, it proves particularly advantageous for retailers dealing with high fulfillment complexity and rising customer expectations. This complexity can be caused by various factors, such as numerous different locations, diverse product ranges, high shipping requirements, complex decision-making processes or high service requirements. With the help of DOMS, retailers can easily manage their fulfillment network and offer the most complex services to customers.
Our DOMS is a part of our Next Gen OMS, which specializes in the orchestration of orders while also managing inventory and location data.
Conclusion: Which OMS is the best choice?
No matter if you choose to integrate a Traditional OMS, a Next Gen OMS or DOMS, all of these solutions bring different advantages and priorities. While our Next Gen OMS manages and coordinates orders, inventory, and delivery options across an omnichannel network, our DOMS – as part of the Next Gen OMS – specializes in the orchestration of orders while also managing inventory and location data.
In later posts of this blog post series, we will go into more detail about the advantages that DOMS brings to retailers as well as how our DOMS’ routing works and why it is special in comparison to other DOMS on the market.
Do you want to know more about Distributed Order Management? Read our Ultimate Guide to find out all you need to know!