Context switching harms productivity
It’s complex, and everything plays a role...
Order management process is what makes or breaks any eCommerce company. Aspects of this process touch on every other aspect of business. Customer makes an order on the website, it goes through an ERP system, everything needs to be coordinated with suppliers, processed, shipped… Actually, there is not a single instance in a lean eCommerce company that does not play a role in order management process.
…especially other IT systems
In addition to employees involved in the process, all the company's IT systems are utilized. And these systems come in all shapes and sizes. Usually the website is custom developed, as these are web-based companies. Then we have the internal invoicing system, external shipping providers, email accounts used to communicate with clients etc. etc. It goes without saying that all these systems need to be coordinated somehow.
Just because information is available, it doesn’t mean it's at hand
Order management, being a customer-oriented process, has a single goal: to provide customers with a superior experience when ordering from an eCommerce provider. To attain excellence in customer communication, it is crucial that customer support have all the information at their disposal when dealing with a specific case. But, even though information may be available, it is often stored in different systems (shipping provider's system, invoicing system, email correspondence...) and usually not very well organized. This means that valuable time is wasted while communicating with clients, which can lead to lower customer satisfaction.
Store it all in a single place and organize information around the order
To have an efficient customer support, all information about an order should be organized around it, not around IT systems. A quality order management system should have information stored in a single place and accessible when dealing with the order. All external systems should be organized around order management system, where information from other systems is delivered in time and organized to be easily accessible.