The anatomy of an order

1. The order, by hand

1. The order email lands in a shared inbox.
2. Someone opens it and saves the attachment.
3. They read it and work out what the customer means.
4. They look up the customer’s product codes.
5. They check the price against the contract or price list.
6. They key it into the ERP.
7. They check it, and fix what’s wrong.
8. They send the confirmation.

2. The same order, automated

1. Receive. Orders arrive from email, upload or API, in any format.
2. Extract. Customer, products, quantities and prices are read in seconds.
3. Map. Customer SKUs are matched to your product codes.
4. Validate. Pricing is checked against your ERP, with discounts and contract rates applied. Exceptions go to a person.
5. Create. Approved orders become sales orders or invoices in your ERP.

3. What changes

Orders in, sales orders out. Pricing and SKUs are checked on arrival, so a wrong price or an unknown product code is caught before it reaches your ERP or your warehouse, not when the customer finds it.

For the full cost of handling orders by hand, read The hidden cost of every customer order.