Creating an order management system in the form of personal accounts on the site

Introduction

Sooner or later, any successful business increases the flow of orders. Processing orders becomes more time-consuming, and the task of working with orders more efficiently becomes more difficult.

The order processing system allows you to solve many different issues that have arisen in connection with the growth of sales.

In this article, we will look at why you need an order management system, what the order system consists of, how to create your own order management system, and show our basic version of such a system.

We will also look at possible extensions, because how to make such a system more efficient and user-friendly.

What is an order processing system

Let’s imagine a business that sells certain products or provides services on the stream.

An order processing system is an information system that allows you to keep records of orders and customers in the system, as well as to go through the entire order cycle from the New to Closed status.

In a simple case, orders can be kept in a notebook, where we indicate what we sold, to whom, when, and at what price.An improved option is to keep the same notebook, but in an Excel file. An even more advanced option is to support the same Excel in the cloud, for example, on Google Disk. In this case, several people can work with the file at the same time.

These approaches have their own significant drawbacks, which we have described in a separate article.

The order processing system can be presented in the form of personal accounts on the site. The manager has his own interface for processing orders, the customer creates orders and tracks the progress of orders, the sales manager monitors the general metrics of the sales system.

The system can also have a logistician’s office that looks for offers on the market. There can be a warehouse office, an engineer’s office that makes calculations on an order, or an accountant’s office that marks payments on an order.

Such a system can be developed indefinitely in the direction of the depth of order processing — the search for raw materials, the coordination of parameters for the project, the loading of data from outside for the order.

It is important that the system provides for such a possibility of customization and development, but more on that later.

Why does a business need an order processing system?

1. Speeding up the order processing process

Time is money. The faster the order goes through its life cycle, the less likely it is that the transaction will fail, the less resources are required (remember Parkinson’s law: ‘Work takes all the time allotted for it’).

To speed something up, you need to measure it. To do this, you need to record all delays in order processing and find bottlenecks.

If you do this in Excel, it is very difficult to fix the time. In your personal accounts, you can log any action, for example, changing the Order status. This allows you to identify segments where the order simply stands still without moving.

Also, delays can become part of the KPI for the staff dealing with orders. The fast ones need to be encouraged and put their KPIs as the standard of work.

2. Standardizing the order processing process

The more standardly each specific order is executed, the less resources are spent on its processing and fewer errors occur when processing the order.

The order processing system sets a certain routine that every person working in the system must follow.

You can greatly restrict a person in the freedom of departure from the process. This degree of freedom can be varied by business rules.

Excel-based systems give too much freedom to the operator, so the standards are more difficult to comply with and control.

The order processing system allows you to increase the accuracy in the distribution of employee tasks relative to the order. Each executes a strictly assigned role in the order processing process. In practice, this is not so easy to achieve, and it requires iterative reduction of the process to the desired Ski track (implementation of the basic process and gradual tightening of the screws).

3. Logging events for orders in the system

Each order action can be recorded in the database for further analysis.

You can create a digital picture of how your business actually works in terms of order processing. This information will be as objective as possible. The system simply records all events on orders and actions of employees regarding orders.

4. Metrics and statistics on orders in the system

A lot of structured data about orders will allow you to get a lot of interesting information about orders:

• where do the delays occur?
• who are our top money clients?
• where do overspends occur and why?
• find positive anomalies (in excess of the expected positive result) and draw conclusions, as it was possible;
• who has what load on orders? who is idle, who sells more, etc.
• which regions generate more revenue?

Understanding these issues increases the likelihood of making the right decisions.

5. Reducing the human factor when processing orders and depending on specific people

The more precisely the system is built, the less everything is tied to the individual. This reduces the risks of the business in the event of the departure of key people.

The system itself becomes a key object.

Ideally, you need to decompose the ordering process into atomic components, each of which does not require unique skills. The result is an order processing pipeline, where each person plays a strictly defined role.

The second point is the errors. A person gets tired, a person gets distracted. The system should ‘look out’ for its operator, help him avoid mistakes. And if they occur, then suggest how to fix them.

6. Remote customer service via your personal account

Remote interaction with the client provides many advantages. You can process multiple requests at once in parallel. A single operator can interact with multiple clients via chats at once.No time is required for moving and delays associated with traffic jams, queues, delays.

The time spent at the greeting ceremony and talking about general topics is reduced. The person addresses their need, and you immediately start solving their problem/processing the order without further ado.

7. Possibility of mass processing of orders (when there is no central dispatcher)

If the client can create an order himself through his personal account, then there is no need to create a pool that receives customer requests to create an order (for example, by phone).

This makes it possible to process many requests per unit of time.

Customers create orders, and they are immediately sent for processing without unnecessary redirection with the involvement of a person.

8. Saving enterprise cash

The fewer people you need to process orders, the better for your business.

It is necessary to increase the return on each employee through automation.

With manual processing, an employee can process 5 clients per hour, and through the system it can be 1000 (because there is no rigid binding of the client to the employee’s time).

Automation is not a one-time implementation action, but a gradual process of improving the efficiency of employees in the system.

9. In the order processing system, it is more difficult to lose or break information

All information is stored in a single place — in the system database, and in a strictly structured form. This allows you to analyze it and use it more effectively than it was some files and folders on the disk.

If the system has regular support, backups are made. This allows you to say with confidence that the data will not be lost. In the event of an accident, you can restore the previous copy (for the last day).

Employees work through the interface of their personal accounts. In this case, it is problematic to take and break half the database, because the interface usually implies point changes in the data.

In the case of an Excel file, it is very easy to damage the data-select everything and delete it, accidentally insert a large piece of information in the wrong place.

In the case of paper documents, they may burn, they may be taken out, some sheets may be torn out, coffee may be spilled on them.

10. Transparency and efficiency of receiving information

The main benefit of the system is a lot of data for analyzing the situation. You can develop such reports that will clearly show various cross-sections on the life of your business.

Any report is necessary for making certain decisions. Think about what information you need to make decisions (and what those decisions will be).

It is also important to receive information on time, not a month after the event. Notifications are used for this purpose. The system can analyze the data in the database according to certain rules and notify you of some key important events when your intervention is required (for example, the order is hanging in the shipment for a long time, the customer wrote a complaint, etc.)

11. Reducing the number of errors on orders

The system allows you to identify problematic, suspended orders.

You can track duplicates by orders or customers.

Strict data formats allow you to minimize operator errors when entering information (for example, entering a phone number instead of an email).

What is important to consider in the order management system

It makes sense to immediately present in general terms the nuances of using the order processing system. This will avoid unpleasant incidents during the operation of the system.

Flexibility, adapting the system to the company’s processes

The system should adapt to the sales process, not the sales to the system.

It is the process of sales and order processing that can be a competitive advantage of the company. It will be wrong to break your process for the sake of a certain system.

If the system is inflexible and difficult to change, then any innovations in the order processing process will be slowed down. The system should allow for rapid adaptation to the changing realities of the business.

What changes can these be?

• implementation of a new stage in the order lifecycle,
• implementing a new role in the system,
• adding new information to the order,
• giving the client additional features in his personal account,
• integration with client software systems, etc.

Working on different devices of the order accounting system

It is extremely important to be able to quickly access the information in the system. From the phone, in the country, in the car, maybe in a stuck elevator.

This will allow you to quickly manage certain processes and make adjustments.

If the system works through a browser over the Internet, then it is available almost everywhere and always. This gives you the ability to physically be anywhere, but still keep operational communication with the entire business system.

Notifications

How flexible can I manage notifications? Where can they go? Can I remove unnecessary notifications? All these are very important questions, because with a very large flow of unnecessary notifications, you simply stop responding to them.

Notifications should be a trigger for some action, and not turn into an action by itself — ‘ so, now I need to sort out a pile of useless notifications.’Creating the right notifications is an iterative process. As you use the system, you will come up with more and more subtle cases when you will need notifications.

At the beginning of creating a system, it is important to know that you will be able to create very flexible notifications that will be created for specific situations in the order processing process.

Access levels in the system

Each employee should have everything necessary for work, but no more than that.

Unnecessary access increases business risks. If a person only works with order A, then he does not need to know anything about order B. The sales manager may know everything about sales, but you do not need to give him information about production details.

It should be possible to fine-tune access settings.

In the Falcon Space system, this is done at the expense of roles + at the level of prescribing access to the object for a specific user in SQL. This allows you to set the access control for the people working in the system very flexibly.

Operation speed and speed of the system performance

If the system slows down, it is very annoying for the user. When working with the system, a person should not notice the details of the download. He should be focused on the business process, and not angry that the page takes a long time to load the report.

With the fast operation of the system, the user develops a certain rhythm of work, and the number of distractions decreases, which increases the productivity of the person.

Simplicity, clarity, and error protection

Evaluate the convenience of working with the system. An inconvenient, incomprehensible system will provoke the user to make mistakes. The system should guide the user to achieve the desired goals, and not be an obstacle.

In difficult places, the system should tell the user what to do, what to enter, in what format and at what stage of the process it is.

Make the system interface as simple as possible (over time, it will still become complex due to new implementations). This will reduce the entry threshold for system users and reduce the number of operator errors.

Minimizing time costs

The system should allow you to find time costs. It is not just a data accounting tool, but a time accounting tool.

Any business is a movement from status to status. The faster this movement is, the more operations we can execute in a day, a week, or a month.

It is important to reduce this time interval between statuses. To reduce it, it must be fixed and measured. And then analyze and make a management decision.

The order processing system should allow you to record any time intervals when the state (status) of any object changes (order, warehouse request, project stage, etc.). No ready-made box system can give this by default. This is your unique experience and way of working with time costs specific to your order processing business process.

Metrics and performance indicators of the order control system

The default metrics in the system are not suitable. In the course of the work, it will be necessary to obtain narrow, non-trivial metrics, which most likely will not be among the initial set.

It is important to be able to collect all the necessary data regarding the work on orders and to be able to make analytical reports on this data.

Order cycle in the order accounting system

Every thing has a life cycle. The order is no exception.The entire order can be broken down into some stages that it goes through sequentially.

These stages, statuses, are the skeleton of the order processing system. The status determines what is currently happening with the order, and what needs to be done next with the order.

The order does not exist in a vacuum. It is processed by various people who do their part in the execution of the order. Managers prepare comercial purposes. Engineers make a technical assessment of the project. The lawyers will agree on the contract. The accountant issues invoices and records payments, the warehouse ships, the logistician provides the order components.

Everyone performs a strictly defined function on the order, without getting into someone else’s garden. On the order page, the employee has only those features that are determined by his role and the current status of the order.

This can be represented as a table, where the rows are the roles in the system, and the columns are the order statuses. At the intersection — what an employee of this role can do with an order in this status.

Example of order statuses

The standard order execution scheme can be represented as follows:

Lead (Interest) — Request Comercial Purposal-Comercial Purposal-Contract-Payment-Production (and configuration) — Delivery — Closing documents-Service.

1. Interest

There is a potential customer who leaves a request for a possible sale (i.e. shows interest). This is still far from an order, but an application is already being created, which is a prototype of the future order.

2. Request for commercial proposal

Our task is to encourage the client to create a formal Request for the comercial porposal, in which he will specify all the relevant data on the order, necessary for calculating the cost of the order.

In our case, we ask the customer to create a project concept and help them draw it up free of charge in case of difficulties.

The project concept is not tied to us and our platform in any way, and is a more formal description of the client’s fantasies about their project.

3. Commercial proposal

Based on a well-formulated request, you can make a commercial offer that will contain cost estimates, deadlines, details of work and special conditions specific to this client.

This stage may be more complex and may be divided into sub-stages, because in some cases, a deeper study of the technical part of the project is required. In this case, engineers are connected, and additional stages of comercial porposal preparation are introduced.

In our case, the comercial porposal is prepared in the CRM and then uploaded as an Excel file for the client and sent by mail. Example of a template.

4. Contract

Conclusion of a contract, registration of securities, exchange of securities, marking the fact of receipt of documents.

In the system, it is very important to record all the artifacts of the order processing process. This will allow you to more accurately restore the picture of events on the order in the future.

We proceed from the principle that everything related to the order should be stored in a single place. That is, the entry point to the order should be a single one-this is the order page in your personal account.

5. Payment

It is necessary to receive payment on the order. This fact is recorded in the system by one of the roles (for example, accountant or manager).

It makes sense to allocate this in a separate stage, if you do not under any circumstances start working on the order until there is no money.

If this is not the case, then you can simply make the order sign paid or not, but do not make a separate status (for example, you can immediately transfer an order that has not yet been paid to the Production status and start working on it).

6. Industry

We do basic work on demand. If this is the sale of finished goods, then it is rather assembly and configuration. In the case of services or the creation of goods, this can be a large internal cycle and even the creation of separate production requests with their own statuses.

7. Delivery

The product or the result of the provision of services must be delivered to the customer. Record the fact of delivery. If the delivery is complex, you can additionally create transport requests within the system, or create requests to external systems (for example, create a request in the transport company via the API).

8. Closed

After all the work is completed, the order must be backed up with closing documents, for example, an act of completed work. Be sure to enter the artifacts in the system. This can be a scan of a signed document.

You can make it so that it is simply impossible to close an order without such a scan. That is, to some extent, you will have confidence that all closed orders will have all the necessary closing documents.

9. Service

If your order processing process involves a post-sale service, then you transfer it to the Service, put down some dates-reminders for the order (to conduct a preventive inspection of the product in a year), send the client some pre-prepared commercial proposal for additional services for the service.

This is what the order processing process might look like. There may be many nuances in the division of statuses, the creation of additional types of requests (transportation, repair, evaluation). That is why, with a deep study, the order process will be unique in most cases.

What should be taken into account when moving an order by status in the online order system

Delays in order processing

Delays can be systematic. Our task is to understand where the delay is, what is the cause of its occurrence and how it can be neutralized.

You can understand this by using statistical parameters. You can measure the average time spent in statuses for each order and draw conclusions where the delay is abnormally high.

What can be the reasons for delays: employee overload, negligence (just forget and forget about applications), lack of important notification, no control, unclear processing process.

Order Status Artifacts

Ideally, each status should have its own actual confirmation. Put the order in the status Canceled — it would be good to give a screen of the Client’s message in the messenger, where he cancels the order.

This simplifies further analysis of the order history. You will not only have the manager’s value judgment, but also the exact artifact that confirms the setting of this status.

An artifact can be a created document(comercial offer), a scan of the document (act), a photo of the correspondence, a voice recording, or a scan of the client’s review.

Notification volume

You need to vary the volume of notifications. Too many insignificant notifications are bad. People will just stop paying attention to them.

The notification should directly encourage the recipient to take a certain action. A new order has arrived — check it and start processing it.

Notifications like ‘You have a lot of open tasks’ don’t help much. It simply increases the person’s stress, and he will turn to this tool less.

Digital traces of the client and managers

Every action on the order is logged. Changed the status — it was recorded in the log. The client threw off an additional file — also an entry in the log.

As a result, then you can fully restore the full picture of the actions on the order — from the first request to the closing of the order: who, what, when did this order.This is convenient. But this only works if all the processes are running through the system.

Automatic event handling on request

Some elements of order processing can be automated. This will reduce the workload on the staff and reduce the number of possible errors and delays.

Gradually, everything that is possible should be automated. At first, the order can be created by the manager in the system, but gradually you can implement the client’s account, and he will create an order for himself.

It is also necessary to minimize the informal interaction between the manager and the client: phone calls and meetings. The less informal interaction there is, the easier it is to control, improve, and automate it.

Ideally, to achieve a state where the manager and the client do not need personal communication at all.

The client places an order in the personal account, the manager processes and issues information on the order in a strictly typed form, the client confirms the parameters through the LC.

Additional communication may be required only in case of emergency situations or problems.

What does the order accounting system consist of?

Here we will look at the main blocks and features that can be implemented in such an order management system.

Sales Manager’s office

The manager is the central link in the system and coordinates all the processes on the order.

The main functionality for the manager is the order lists and the order processing process.

Cabinets of the director, the Head of the sales department

The directors, like the Head of the sales department, are interested in general sales metrics. It may also be interested in problem areas: where problems arise, complaints, delays and losses (refunds).

The functionality of this cabinet is reports with the ability to drill down, as well as general statistics in the form of dashboards and graphs.

Client Account, client service

The client independently enters the site in their personal account.He can view his orders, the status of them.

The main functionality is that it can independently form an order and give feedback on it. This reduces the burden on the company’s staff.

The client’s personal account simplifies customer service and differentiates your offer from similar ones without a similar service.

Read the article about creating Customer service on the example of a personal account of a hotel or resort visitor.

Administrator’s Cabinet

This is a service cabinet for system support.

The administrator changes the system settings, adds and blocks users, manages the directory structure, and moderates data (if necessary).

API-program interface of the system

It is quite possible that it will be convenient for your customers to create an order not from their personal account, but from their own 1C or other account program.

In this case, the system should offer a certain API that clients can connect to.

API methods are made for each system separately. This can be creating an order, receiving an order, uploading some order data, or receiving a notification.

The API can be either from the system side or from the client side. I.e., the system will call the API method of the external system when a certain event occurs (for example, execute a certain GET or POST request to an external address).

Payment Module

If the payment takes place in the client account, then a payment gateway must be integrated, which will allow you to accept payments to the current account through various means: cards, electronic money, terminals, etc.

An alternative option is to prepare an invoice document for subsequent payment by the client in manual mode.

Catalog

If there is a certain range of products that the customer can order, then it makes sense to make a convenient catalog to search for suitable products.

Example of the catalog in our demo

The catalog can contain categories, filters, and various ways to display products.

The catalog does not have to be presented in the usual form for online stores. It can also be just a table with a bunch of filters with a more concise interface and more functionality (additional operations on selected products).

User Support

This is a kind of ticket system that allows you to process user questions: both clients and managers.

The point of such a system is not only to help users, but also to improve the system itself.

If users ask the same questions, it makes sense to make adjustments to the system interface so that people immediately understand it correctly.

Storehouse and delivery

These are two large subsystems that provide logistics. Of course, you can use some external solution, but it is still convenient when all data processing is done in a single place, and you do not need to fool around with complex integration.

This can also include a repair system, if we use some equipment involved in the processing of orders (or the essence of the order is the rental of some equipment).

Production

If the order is to create something, then you need the Production block, where the main points of the executed order are recorded.

The production itself may actually be performed in another system, but it is important to note key events in the order management system.

This block can be either very simple (the Production is completed mark), or a whole block with multiple roles, when the entire production process is performed step by step in the system.

If we take our example, we separately conduct CRM and separately conduct a system for implementing client projects. At the same time, there is a connection between the systems, and it is implemented through special communication fields (client ID).

Finance and Accountingя

The financial block allows you to track costs, keep reports. Track payments.

Accounting often uses 1C products, in this case it makes sense to integrate the order processing system with 1C accounting — to transfer order data to it and receive information about payments.

Customer Loyalty Program

One of the ways to retain a customer is to implement loyalty programs.

The more a customer buys, the more preferences they get.This can be expressed in different ways. For example, a loyalty card, participation in clubs, a discount for VIP customers.

In this regard, the personal account allows you to accumulate the client’s savings. You can display its discount percentage, its bonuses, its membership in certain clubs (for example, IKEA Family).

You can very subtly personalize the work with the client (but it is not the manager who works with the client, but the system as a whole). You can also encourage the client to do what is beneficial to the system by rewarding them with bonuses that can be converted into the company’s products.

Feedback from the customer

The client’s personal account allows you to implement feedback collection in an unobtrusive form. For example, after each purchase, please rate the order. If less than 4, then ask briefly what is wrong.

And all this without annoying calls. If he wants to answer , he will vote. If he doesn’t want to, he’ll ignore it. A good time to engage the client through points: earn points (for voting, for example) and give them the opportunity to spend them on something useful.

The more you get adequate feedback from the customer, the more accurately you can provide the service.

The more opportunities you will have to work more closely with the client.

Tasks for employees

If the order moves by status, then the people in the system move from task to task.

You can associate different order statuses with different tasks. You can call it requests.

The order is formed? The manager sets a task (or creates a request) for its transportation.

Tasks can be either tied to something (an order, a project, a client), or just be on their own (to work out a competitor in the network).

The task is the minimum unit of the company’s work.

Make your own or use a ready-made one?

Perhaps, until you have this question in your head. But it will not be very good when you have chosen a system, worked in it for a while, and then it turns out that it has significant limitations.

How to determine which type of order management system is suitable? I suggest the following scheme.

Simple and stable order processing

If your processes are stable and simple, and you do not plan to improve your order processing in any particular way, then look for a suitable ready-made system. It is not a fact that it exists. But the fact is that a suitable ready-made solution will be cheaper to implement than to make your own system (under adequate conditions for purchasing a solution).

If there is no such system in the example, then go to the next option.

Its own system on a certain platform

If your process can change, or you want to continuously hone your processes-take a ready-made solution on the platform with the possibility of improvements.

This is our option. Our platform Falcon Space has a ready-made solution for order processing, which can be modified as you like and developed in any direction:

• add new cabinets,
• change the appearance of the system,
• change the order data structure,
• implement new processes.

This option involves the project part (i.e., adapting the solution to the company’s processes). Therefore, it is more expensive than buying a ready-made solution. However, this is nothing compared to the cost of solution 3-developing a system from scratch to suit your needs..

The main advantages of this approach are:

• speed of improvements and changes in the system,
• low cost of ownership of the product,
• getting broad platform features at the current moment and in the future with platform updates.

The main disadvantage is that the system imposes its own architectural limitations (they allow you to achieve a huge increase in comparison with the development from scratch).

Own system-development from scratch

This is a fullstack system development with the involvement of a whole team of programmers, designers, analysts, and testers.

We used to do projects in this segment. It suits very few people. These are the projects where you need to make everything as much as possible for your needs, according to your own standards, with a strong emphasis on scaling and complete independence from any platforms.

The main disadvantages of developing from scratch:

• Expensive — many things are done under the project. Any new revision is exactly the creation of something new, and not just a setup in the system. Customers who are used to CMS settings, are perplexed why they pay for the obvious things — in this case, they are wrong, because they themselves chose the path of development from scratch. They got maximum flexibility, but there is a price to pay for it.
• Long — the fullstack development process is quite complex, and involves quite a lot of service gestures. Any revision (even just adding a field in the Order) goes through a bunch of stages, and often requires the participation of several specialists.If on the platform it can be added for 1–2 hours with verification, then everything can stretch for a couple of days.
• A lot of bugs — if the system is made from scratch, it has a lot of new untested code. This code is 100% error-free. There will be a certain period of code stabilization — errors will pop up that need to be corrected (and the edit is not as fast as we would like). Gradually, there will be fewer bugs, but still this moment can not be avoided in such projects.

Order management system based on the Falcon Space web platform

Our Falcon Space platform and its solutions are the second option, where we prepare a lot of ready-to-use bricks from which a new system is assembled. These building blocks can be flexibly combined by using SQL. All the revision is carried out directly in the office. This allows you to make quick changes to the system.

Test stand of the Falcon Space platform. System elements and features.

All the features of the web platform are described in the features catalog . The capabilities can be tapped through SQL.

The platform has very detailed documentation.

For technical support and development of the system, you need to know only 2 popular technologies:

• SQL Server (business logic and data storage);
• Bootstrap (interface styling).

How to create an order processing system in the form of personal accounts

In this section, we will discuss how to create your own step-by-step order management system.

1. Initial description of the order accounting system

We call this a project concept. Create a basic description of the system in your own words, without technical terms. More details

There you will also find a template for the project concept.

2. Project implementation assessment

On the basis of the concept, you can make an initial assessment and get a comercial offer. This will give you a guide on the timing and cost of implementing the first version of the program.

The more accurate the initial description of the system, the more accurate the project evaluation will be.

3. Creating a technical requirement for the order accounting system

This is usually the first stage of the project, where the main requirements for the system are recorded in detail in the form of a document.

The TR can include both description elements and implementation elements, i.e. what the system will look like, page structure, database structure, etc.

More about creating a technical specification

After writing the technical requirements, the evaluation is detailed, and it is the basis for further stages before the implementation of the first version of the program.m.

4. Implementation of the order management system

A test stand is being created, and new cabinets, new pages, and functions on them are gradually appearing on it.

In parallel with the work of programmers, there is an opportunity to watch and try to work with the system. Yes, it does not yet have many features, but you can make adjustments to the process, give feedback and start the first acquaintance with it.

The implementation of the first version of the program usually takes 1–2 stages (stage 1 is about 3–4 weeks).

5. Commissioning of the order system

Implementation into operation involves the re-connection of all accounts to the main ones, cleaning the database from test data, establishing users in the system, training and supporting users.

At first, there may be quite a lot of requests: some errors have surfaced, some can be made more convenient, or the page has slowed down. Gradually, the number of these requests will decrease. It is important to organize operational work on processing feedback from users.

6. Support and development of the order management system

Any actively used system does not stand still. There are new ideas on how to improve it, make it more user-friendly.Errors may also pop up that need to be handled quickly.To do this, you need to support the system.

More detailed support, development, and maintenance processes for working on the Falcon Space platform are described here.

The process of creating any accounting system is iterative in nature. You can’t know what you’ll need in a year. There’s no point in trying to guess everything in advance. In this case, there is a great risk of making some nonsense that will not take root in the company. Act better in stages, gradually increasing the capabilities of the system and polishing it.

The general procedure for working on the project is described here.

Advanced features for online order tracking system

The system can be very simple, for example, it’s just an order table and an order page. Designed for a single manager role.

And it can be very difficult — there are many roles in the system. Approval of details on the order. Preparation of documentation. An ornate order path by status. Complex business logic for automatic actions when changing orders.

Here we will discuss a few additions that may be in your order processing system.

Telegram bot for notifications and commands on request

What are the advantages of instant messengers? They are always at hand.They work quickly, do not require downloading, they are clear to everyone.The employee can receive some notifications directly in the messenger, which will increase the degree of responsiveness to system events.It can also perform certain control actions via telegram — send an order to the client, close it, or transfer the order further along the cycle.

Why Telegram, and not vatsap, Viber?

First, telegram is much better off with the API (extensive features, low entry threshold for conditions).

Secondly, in our platform, integration with the Telegram bot comes out of the box! To manage the bot, you only need to know SQL More about.

Integration with Google Drive for working with documents

Google Disk-external storage that allows you to work with various types of files — Tables, Documents, Presentations, etc.

You can store documents on Google Disk and edit them directly from the dashboard in the Excel Spreadsheet or Word document interface.

You can generate files from templates with client data and export them to PDF, and then send them to the client by email.

All this can be implemented on the basis of our web platform.

Demo stand for working with Google Drive

Daily reports by email

Perhaps it will be convenient for someone from the system to receive a certain summary by email. In this case, you can implement flexible reports that will be automatically generated at the appointed time and sent to the mail.

This can be the sales status for the day, the monthly sales report, the results of employees for a certain period of time.

Integration with other systems

The more deeply integrated your order management system is with the outside world, the fewer human errors, manual operations, and data processing delays there will be.

It is important that the system can be integrated with any system via the API.

The Falcon Space platform has a universal API that works via HTTPS GET/POST requests in XML, JSON format. All API configuration is also done via SQL.

More about Falcon Space API.

Setting goals and KPIs

KPIs are the key indicators that the company strives to achieve. The KPI can be for a person (the number of KPIs issued per day), for a department (total revenue per month), or for all of the company (the number of new customers).

Setting the KPI clearly shows the direction the company should go.

KPI can become the basis for a system of bonuses and incentives for employees.

Technically, the KPI is expressed in the form of some result panels that everyone can see. You can also place the bonus results for the previous period on this panel. Thus, everyone sees what to strive for and works to achieve this goal.

The user’s work in the personal account — what it might look like.

Everyone has a phone. And we must assume that for operational information, people will log in from the phone.

So, the user types the site address, enters a username and password, and gets to his dashboard.

He sees the key figures for his work, sees orders where some actions are required from him.

It can also view system notifications. Critical ones are marked in red. Non-critical in blue.

Then he goes to one of the orders, where he can change the status, add a document, some data to the fields, or comment on the current status of the order in the chat.

Some roles will always work with the PC. Most of the processing is probably done in tables, sub-tables, and modal windows to get more information or perform an action on individual orders.

Beauty and design aesthetics are not the main thing in such systems. The emphasis must be made so that the user does not notice that he is working with the system at all. He should not pay attention to the details of the system. He should be focused on solving his problems. Therefore, the system should be predictable, fast, and easy to understand.

Conclusion

Consider the implementation of the order processing system not as an expense item, but as a strategic investment. It is the system that will eventually work as a conveyor for the movement of orders.

The system should be built for processes, not vice versa. The process will change, and the system must keep up with it.

The ideal of such a process:

• When everyone knows exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
• When there are no delays and the order goes through all the stages from New to Closed very quickly. When the customer is satisfied and ready to recommend your service.
• When any anomalies and deviations can be immediately tracked and find out the cause of their occurrence.
• When the customer can do many operations on the order independently, thereby reducing the load on your resources.

Achieving the ideal is difficult. If you use a rigid system that is impossible or difficult to change, it becomes impossible. Move iteratively to your ideal order processing process.

Start with a description of the project concept: what features will be in the system, what roles will be, what will be the life cycle of the order. This will be the starting point for creating your own order management system.

Originally published at https://falconspace.site.