The order fulfilment workflow (OFW) is not only a key feature but also one of the fundamental concepts in Flōware’s design (it’s in the name!). We define order fulfilment workflow as the predefined sequence of steps that has to be performed to successfully complete an order from start to finish.
The process of creating an OFW is mainly defining and configuring each step in the order process. The steps are defined in Flōware as "milestones". By breaking the order workflow up into smaller chunks aka milestones, we can exercise more control and provide granular oversight over the order fulfilment process.
Each milestone can be configured with its own business rules, permissions and automated actions.
Each milestone in an OFW can have a set of rules that must be satisfied in order to consider that the milestone has been reached and for the order to advance to the next step. This ensures that your order fulfilment is conducted in a consistent and compliant manner.
If any of the rules defined for a milestone is not met, the order is prevented from proceeding to the next step. This helps to eliminate mistakes and reduces time wasted trying to conduct operations without the preparation required.
Every action on an order is timestamped and logged to form an audit trail that ensure full accountability during each step of the order fulfilment process.
Milestones provide a way to define how your teams or departments should collaborate during order fulfilment process. By defining user permissions to each milestone you can define which users are able to perform tasks on orders.
A simple example of this is when a customer places a large order on credit. In such a case you may want to define a milestone that requires someone from finance to first check whether the account is in good standing before the order is released for processing.
Obviously it is vital to the business that a sensitive task like this should only be performed by an authorised person. This can be achieved in practice by defining the appropriate permissions for such a milestone.
Every milestone that is defined in the OFW can have certain automated actions configured. These action can be triggered automatically as soon as an order has successfully reached the milestone.
This is very useful in eliminating the need to perform repetitive tasks by hand. Although the possibilities are endless, below are a couple of examples of typical automated actions:
We believe that ERP software should be flexible to conform to the way you run your business. Not the other way around. With the ability to define multiple ecommerce-businesses">order fulfilment workflows in Flōware, you have the freedom to implement the tried and tested practices that works best for your unique environment, constraints and challenges.
Some business with more complex operations may have different rules and process depending on certain factors such us the type of product, type of customer, the method of delivery, etc.
Such complexity is supported within Flōware and can be implemented by defining multiple order fulfilment workflows. Because each OFW defines it's own milestones and business rules you are afforded the flexibility to define all the various ways your order operations function.
This type of flexibility is also vital in order to adapt as you grow or as market conditions dictate.
A very simple example of this could be the steps required to complete a collection order vs a delivery order. Although some of the steps may overlap, the orders that need to be delivered may have a few more steps to complete.
More complex businesses might have different process for various business units, different markets, jurisdictions, etc that may require different steps to complete an order.
Why go to all the trouble of predefining a workflow? Well it may require a bit of work upfront, but there are several advances that will pay dividends for some time.
By defining the milestones of a workflow it becomes possible to:
The order fulfilment workflow is the cornerstone to help your business:
Are your current systems and processes hindering your business from achieving its next growth milestone? Now there is a smarter way to get work done.