Order Lifecycle Management: Streamline the order, fulfillment, & returns
Even for companies with only one channel or limited products, managing orders can prove remarkably difficult. Surprise delays lead to stock-outs. Sudden drops in demand generate excess inventory. When your supply chain is complex, managing your orders to ensure goods reach your customers on time and as specified—without pushing inventory costs sky high—can seem nearly impossible.

Then there is the issue of returns. Despite the best of intentions, a certain percentage of what a company sells will be returned. Part of managing the order lifecycle is having a streamlined process in place to efficiently and cost-effectively deal with returns.

With Manhattan Associates' Order Lifecycle Management, you can follow an order from the time it is placed by the customer—at a store, online, via your call center—until they're happy with the delivered product. And for the small percentage of customers that need to return an item, they can enjoy a painless process and will be more likely to continue to do business with you in the future. By managing the process efficiently from supplier to customer—and back again—you save money, win future business and, most importantly, protect your brand image. Our Order Lifecycle Management solution creates a win-win situation for you and your customers—no matter how complex your supply chain.

Stock-outs make customers unhappy—and cost businesses $840 billion in lost sales each year. With Manhattan's solution, you can see orders across channels as they come in, manage procurement from suppliers as needed, predict and respond to impending shortages, and track deliveries to ensure your customers have the goods they want, where and when they want them. The enhanced visibility provided by Order Lifecycle Management gives you the information you need to satisfy customers without carrying excess inventory.

In addition, Order Lifecycle Management automates return activities to maximize your credit from suppliers, simplify refunds to customers, and return inventory to your shelves for quick resale. And, manage vendor buybacks and set the stage for improvements in merchants' Open to Buy. Establish category-specific rules that speed the return process and appropriately handle returns of goods with special considerations such as custom-tailored apparel, personalized items or electronics.

Monitor Inventory across the GCC, Middle East, and globally, as It Moves to the Customer—and Back

Order Lifecycle Management unites three powerful modules to put you in control of the entire order management process.

• Distributed Order Management—Keep your supply and customer demand in profitable balance. A global view of inventory—at the supplier, in transit or at the warehouse—combines with cross-channel order reporting to enable you to deliver what your customers want, when they want it. Satisfy demand using the full supply pipeline by diverting in-flight inventory to where it's needed most: directly to customers, directly to stores, or to the appropriate distribution center based on real-time inventory positions. Manage inventory across channels by creating virtual divisions in the Distributed Order Management layer, alleviating cross-channel inventory complexity from distribution center operators.
• Reverse Logistics Management—Make returns efficient, accurate and easy. Capture customer information, track return reasons, and automatically select the optimal mode of transportation to make returns a source of valuable customer and quality information. Automate vendor rules and streamline return-to-vendor credit process. Improve vendor buyback, reduce cycle time and improve open-to-buy.
• Store/Customer Gateway—Let customers and stores place, track and confirm their orders on line, giving you proof of receipt, opportunities for feedback—and happier customers.