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Scenario for Order Management

This scenario provides an example of how order management can be used. Your company may follow a different process according to its business requirements.

• When your customer expresses interest in your products and services, you keep track of that information and help the customer identify the appropriate solution. A sales representative creates an opportunity and records the best solution to meet the customer's needs.
• After the best solution is identified, you provide a quote that details the products and their prices. A sales representative converts an opportunity to a quote, or creates a quote manually. Products and services are customized so that your customers specify exactly what options they are interested in and see the associated prices for each option.
• Your customer accepts a quote, and it is converted to an order. (Or, a sales representative creates an order directly, without creating a quote.)
• The sales representative enters shipment information and checks on the availability of the items. If an order contains a number of items, the sales representative checks the availability of each line item. The sales representative also performs tasks such as calculating tax and shipping costs, verifying payment information, checking the customer's credit, and authorizing their use of a credit card.
• The sales representative performs final tasks, such as attaching electronic documents such as a purchase order or a letter of credit to the order, and generating service activities related to the order such as installation.
• The sales representative submits the order. If appropriate, the order is routed for approval by a supervisor. An acknowledgement of the order is automatically sent to the customer by email.
• If you are using asset-based ordering, when the order has been filled, the appropriate product line items become assets. Assets are associated with your customer's account and are a central part of your customer's service profile.

  When using asset-based ordering, not all products in an order convert to assets. For example, if you create an order for telephone service, the installation is a line item of the phone service product, but it does not become an asset. You specify what products will become trackable assets through the Product Administration screen.

• If your customer wants to revise an order before it has been fulfilled, you handle the change by modifying unsubmitted orders or by creating supplemental orders that revise submitted orders.
• As the needs evolve over time, the customer may request additions and changes to the products and services. To make these changes, the new quotes and orders are based on the current items in the customer's profile. Requests for changes to existing services are called delta quotes or delta orders.

NOTE:  Although end users may start the order management process at a number of different screens and views, the underlying order management cycle is essentially the same.