Why ERPs weren’t built to meet today’s B2B customer expectations

The transformation of business-to-business (B2B) commerce is accelerating as buyers expect increased accuracy, availability, and reliability. Businesses that don’t react to marketplace changes now run the risk of losing customers, failing to capture new business, and falling behind the competition.

In response, B2B companies are increasingly seeking to better manage inventory, handle order velocity, meet fulfillment commitments, and deliver on-time and in-full (OTIF) orders. However, these companies are currently leveraging ERP systems. An ERP is an application that automates business processes and provides insights and internal controls, drawing on a central database that collects inputs from departments including accounting, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing and human resources.

Top priorities for B2B businesses:

of B2B buyers have higher expectations of the sales experience

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of B2B leaders now believe eCommerce solutions are essential

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of ordering and replenishment will be touchless for most organizations by 2024

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ERPs were not designed for the dynamic, real-time sales ordering and inventory management required for today’s supply chain and customer experience demands. As a result, ERPs are not equipped for:

Scalability – Today’s marketplace demands a system that can quickly scale to meet evolving day-to-day operations, peak demand seasonality, and unplanned disruptions.

Adaptability – As strategies transform, order management systems are more equipped to adapt to meet new requirements for sales, inventory, and fulfillment processes that directly impact customer experiences.

Visibility – The ability to leverage a multi-enterprise view of the customer, pricing, inventory, orders and shipments ensures that SLAs are met. There are solutions that bring together siloed ERP data to deliver a single, real-time view so companies and customers have insight into orders and inventory at any time.

Complexity – B2B companies need tools to better manage increased complexities with customized business rules that are typically not available in an ERP, such as unique pricing by customer, prioritizing orders or customers, and stock thresholds to prevent low inventory. Companies typically have many different sales and fulfillment channels, both within the organization and via trading partners. Enterprise order management systems have the ability to easily integrate with a myriad of internal, external, and partner systems to get the job done.

The strategic priorities of leading B2B companies are clear: transform, streamline, and automate.

Order and inventory management solutions, with precise, real-time inventory counts and the ability to help better manage SLAs, are the answer for B2B organizations looking to transform their business. The method for achieving these objectives:

An advanced order management solution enables B2B companies to accelerate transformation and automation, improve customer service and loyalty, manage cost controls, and drive profitability.