3 key considerations when choosing an order management system

3 key considerations when choosing an order management system

by | Mar 28, 2022 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed “order management” from the backend of logistics operations to the spotlight of supply chain and commerce strategies. Retailers, consumer package goods (CPG) companies, and distributors rushed to adapt their business models to fulfill the explosive growth of online orders through different digital channels. End-customers and organizations buy through various channels such as marketplaces, in-store, mobile apps, and even social media. They expect faster and more convenient ways for pickups and returns, such as pickup in-store, at a partner’s location, and for returns, drop off at the nearest location, QR codes, and even at-home pickup.

As the number of order sources and fulfillment options grow exponentially, organizations need the right order management solution to keep up with the evolving digital commerce landscape. This blog looks at three key aspects to consider when selecting an order management solution and how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management can help you.

1. Open and modern platform

The adoption of online shopping, and the addition of more consumers and businesses online for all types of transactions with the pandemic, have created a demand for convenience and personalization in digital commerce. As the number of online marketplaces grows, retailers, CPG, distributors, and manufacturers with business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business models require to accept orders from an ever-growing external ecosystem. Receiving orders from multiple sources increases order management and supply chain complexity. Therefore, these organizations need an order management solution that helps them accept orders from anywhere to keep pace with the continuing evolution of e-commerce.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management has an open and modern platform that seamlessly integrates with organizations’ existing tech stack. Its architecture reduces implementation time through out-of-the-box pre-built connectors to the best-of-breed ecosystem of partners for order source, delivery, tax compliance, price calculation, and logistics services such as Adobe Commerce, J.B. Hunt, Krber, Uber Freight, Avalara, Vertex, Flexe, Big Commerce, Far Eye, Commerce Tools, Flintfox, Ship Station, and Orderful. Moreover, this platform architecture is composable and flexible to allow supply chain professionals to build in an incremental way through a modular and API-first approach and a supply chain control tower, which ultimate goal is supply chain visibility.

Learn about more extended capabilities in our blog: FedEx and Dynamics 365 reimagine commerce experiences.

2. Real-time visibility and intelligent fulfillment optimization

The 2021 Gartner supply chain risk and resilience survey shows that for 83 percent of large organizations, better supply chain ecosystem visibility is a top priority.1 And another Gartner research shows that 60 percent of chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are expected to make faster, more accurate, and consistent decisions in real-time.2 The cycle-time of business processes continues to accelerate, particularly in order management processes that serve consumers who expect faster and more convenient shipping to the location of their choice. To succeed in these conditions, companies need a solution that simplifies omnichannel order fulfillment by providing real-time visibility and AI-infused real-time data.

With Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, supply chain and commerce professionals can model and automate responses to order constraints by using a journey orchestration designer and assigning rules in a low-code/no-code friendly user interface with drag and drop actions instead of coding. Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management uses an intelligent fulfillment optimization service to infuse AI into order fulfillment within your supply chain network. The intelligent optimization engine works to ensure the right products are delivered from the right source in the right quantities so that you always maximize profits, minimize costs, and satisfy service-level requirements.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Inventory Visibility Dashboard.
Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Rules based order orchestration flow policy designer.

3. Faster deployment times

Accepting orders from anywhere carries an additional challenge: implementation. Businesses need an order management solution that allows them to get up and running quickly. Not only do they need to be able to accept orders from anywhere, but many organizations also have existing systems that they would like to augment, not replace. If you are in the process of updating your order management system and fall into this category, then understanding what is involved in the implementation process is critically important. Will custom coding be required to integrate with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management system (WMS)? How about your customer relationship management (CRM) or transportation management system (TMS)? For most, the best solution is a cloud-based integrated-service-as-a-software (iSaaS) that uses RESTful APIs and can be easily configured using a low-code/no-code user interface.

Applications that take this approach enable supply chain and commerce professionals to continue to use and benefit from legacy applications, while also providing the agility to easily connect and integrate with modern web-based solutions. This is the approach that we have taken with Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management because it delivers these benefits and accelerates the digital transformation process regardless of where a company is in its digital transformation journey.

You can learn more in our infographic: Top five reasons to update your order management solution.

What’s next?

It is essential to look for an order management solution that will give you out-of-the-box pre-built connectors to an ecosystem of partners, provide real-time order visibility, intelligent fulfillment optimization, and get up you running quickly with seamless integration with your existing tech stacks, such as ERP and CRM systems. Traditional, on-premises order management systems can lack the flexibility required to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of e-commerce.

With Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, you can leverage our modern cloud technology, integrate with your existing platforms, and quickly implement new capabilities that enable AI, automation, order flow orchestration, and on-demand scalability. Get started today with Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management free trial and turn order fulfillment into a competitive advantage.

Sources:

1- Gartner, Infographic: Supply Chain Visibility Is Fundamental to Resilience in Supply Ecosystems, February 10th, 2022.

2- Gartner, Reinventing Supply Chain for the Future, Learn four key innovations, 2021.

GARTNER is the registered trademark and service mark of Gartner Inc., and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and has been used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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Treating duplicate threads in forums – best practice for Moderators

Treating duplicate threads in forums – best practice for Moderators

by | Mar 26, 2022 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

From time to time we have users who open the same question multiple times.


 


The Issue – direct result of duplicate threads:


(1) Supporters – People that come to help might waste their time on something that was answered in the other thread.


(2) Users – people that search for the same issue might find the thread which has less information and miss the information in the other thread.


(3) original poster (OP) – the person who asked the question will probably not remember to follow all the threads which he opened.



  • Supporters and Users will waste time on responds which no one will read.

  • OP might miss the best answer/discussion while following a different thread.


In short, this is a lose-lose case where everyone lose!


 


Best practice for Moderators


In each interface the features which are built-in are different so these option might not fit all forums interfaces. With that said, as I want to focus mainly on the QnA forums, I will provide my insights according to the QnA features exists at this time.


The list is sorted from the best option for first time case – note that a user which continue such action is a different story. I the OP was inform on the issue and was asked to avoid such cases, then his behavior can be considered as abusive and should be treated accordingly.


In any case, the options which prevent such issue in advance, will be best!


 


Clear Policy document


In any communication interface, there must be a clear policy document which we can point the OP to. A link to the policy document must be presented in a way that no one will miss it and that everyone can view it from any page where the OP post his question. Usually it is recommended to add a clear link at the top of the page.


 


An intellisense feature


An intellisense feature provides information while the user type the content. It is well common in code editors in order to provide code completion, parameter info, quick info, and member lists. In the scope of the the discussion an intellisense feature will provide the user a list of previous thread according to the information he is typing.


Note! This feature existing at Microsoft QnA forums.


 









Insights! Do not assume that the OP saw the forum policy or noticed the content of the intellisense information! Most people are focusing on their needs and ignore “background noises”. It may not be the most positive behavior but it is definitely a natural behavior.

 


Contact the OP in private


How?



  • If the system include an option to send internal private message then this is your best action!

  • The user email should be visible to other users, but if this information is available to you and there is no internal messaging feature, then send the user an email.

  • If there is no build-in messaging feature, then check the user profile and signature for links to his social media network (Facebook, Twitter, linkedin and so on) and send him a private message.


What?


Inform the user about the forum policy, add a link to the official policy document if exists and ask him to avoid such cases in the future. Don’t forget to send him links to all the duplicate threads which you found. Ask the user to select one of the threads, in all other thread add a link to the active thread and close the rest of the threads as duplicated.


Note! This feature not available to community moderators at Microsoft QnA forums.


 


Contact the OP in public



  • Add a response to the problematic message(s).

  • In most social media network a user which is not connected to you will not see your message. In this case you can add a response to one of the user last discussions. Remember that this is a public message and you should be extremally polite! Do not use this option if not must.


Provide the same information as in the case of private message


 









Note!

Taking actions behind the scenes has no value for the future behavior of the user and might lead the user to re-do the same, as he was not inform about an issue – this only raise the issue as it lead for more duplicate threads (actions behind the scene are for example deleting message, reporting message, and so on).


 


If you chose to take an action behind the scenes then you should also try to inform the OP about the taken actions!

 


Merge duplicate threads


By merging the duplicate threads you can ensure that no information is lost. Users who go to each of the links to the separate threads come to the same place – the merged thread. With that said, this action makes it a little difficult to orient in a discussion because one discussion combines responses from several discussions and the order of the messages can be confusing.


Note! This feature NOT existing at Microsoft QnA forums. It is exist in the MSDN forums.


 


Lock the duplicate thread(s) & comments


By locking the duplicate threads you can ensure that no information is lost. Users can still navigate to each of the links and watch the separate discussion. It is HIGHLY important to add a message that explain why this thread was locked and provide a link to the active thread.


In the QnA system locking the thread is done by closing the thread. It is important to know that close the thread does not prevent people from adding comments! You should go over each of the messages in the thread and lock the comment!


pituach_0-1648349708853.png


Note! This feature existing at Microsoft QnA forums.


 


Redirect the duplicate thread(s) to the one selected for continuing the discussion. 


Redirecting users from a thread to another thread has a very problematic side effect: The original link still exists but it cannot be used to get the original message. This makes it harder to report the issue since the link redirect to an active thread and it make it impossible to inform the user about the issue and show him the duplicated thread.


 


Do not! (on the first case)



  • Do not treat the user as abuser! It can be a mistake.

  • Do not delete a message without informing the user. He might not find the message and create another new message.

  • Do not report the message without informing the user at the same time, since he cannot see the report and know about the issue.


Do you want to add your insights? You can add comments to this post or contact me in private if you want me to update the post, and in the meantime just remember to have fun and continue helping others.


 


Forums, the final frontier
– Ronen Ariely,

Flowlets and Change Feed now GA in Azure Data Factory

Flowlets and Change Feed now GA in Azure Data Factory

by | Mar 26, 2022 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics introduced 2 exciting new features in mapping data flows recently that we have announced as generally available this week!


 


Flowlets: Create reusable portions of data flow logic that you can share in other pipelines as inline transformations. Flowlets enable ETL jobs to be composed of custom or common logic components.


 


 

flowlet-context-multi.png


 

Change Feed connectors are available in data flow source transformations for Cosmos DB, Blob store, ADLS Gen1, ADLS Gen2, and CDM. By simply checking the box shown below, you can tell ADF to manage a checkpoint automatically for you and only read the latest rows that were updated or inserted since the last pipeline run.


 


MarkKromer_1-1648274293160.png


 


 


 


 

CISA Adds 66 Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

by | Mar 25, 2022 | Security, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

CISA has added 66 new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: to view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow on the of the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates.

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known CVEs that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires FCEB agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the Catalog that meet the specified criteria.