eCommerce Necessitates Next-Generation Order Management Solutions

Retailers today are increasingly faced with multiple challenges that necessitate the next iteration of order management, pressures that includes a need for a distribution strategy to compete in an increasingly ecommerce world that complicates the supply chain at each level. To help today’s technology buyers evaluate vendor capabilities with an eye on how the company is addressing distribution complexity to satisfy customer needs, IDC unveiled two new reports.

First one of them states that enterprise-size retailers have pressures on all aspects of their supply chain. Moving large quantities quickly is extremely vital to the success of these businesses, but they also need to develop the ability to move goods at each level just as quickly and efficiently in order to compete in an ecommerce world. These shifting priorities are pressuring enterprise retailers to react quickly with tools that can help them transform swiftly and effectively.

The second one claims that midmarket-sized retailers have pressures pulling their supply chains in many directions while they typically have more limited resources available to meet these challenges. Moving inventory quickly at each level can be complex and expensive if there are no established processes. These shifting priorities are pressuring mid-market retailers to transform the processes by which they run their businesses in order to remain competitive.

The new IDC MarketScapes evaluate eight key vendors that have invested significant R&D dollars to advance their platforms and capabilities to solve and get ahead of current and future retail order management and distribution challenges. Vendors include: Aptos, IBM, Kibo, Magento, Manhattan Associates, Oracle, OrderDynamics, and Radial.

According to the new reports, the retail order management market continues to evolve with the focus shifting from merely enabling simplified bulk order management to acting as a central lynchpin in a strategic omni-channel distribution world. For this reason, these new IDC MarketScapes do not solely focus on order management systems, but the portfolio of tools that create the full distributed order orchestration picture.

Victoria Brown, research manager, Global Supply Chain Execution, IDC Retail Insights and IDC Manufacturing Insights notes, "Order Management has evolved tremendously in the past several years. No longer is it acceptable for retailers to make due with inventory as it is placed. Order orchestration across distribution points has become a competitive necessity in today's retail landscape.