D365 Intelligent Order Management Features, Benefits & More

In March 2021, Microsoft unveiled plans for the latest addition to the Dynamics 365 family: Intelligent Order Management (IOM). Built on the Power Platform, IOM is a cloud-based solution designed to simplify fulfillment orchestration and accelerate omnichannel transformation for retailers, with special attention to eCommerce companies. A Microsoft Dataverse application, IOM seamlessly integrates with other apps in the Dynamics 365 family.

Now that D365 Intelligent Order Management is generally available, let’s take a closer look at some of the exciting features and benefits it has to offer. 

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Features

Intelligent Order Management includes a wide variety of features that enable organizations to centrally manage and optimize order fulfillment, including:

• Rules-based Order Fulfillment Orchestration: Develop and automatically execute as many different custom order flows as needed — Intelligent Order Management uses rules-based automation to streamline fulfillment orchestration across multiple customer journeys.
• Pre-built Platform Connectors: IOM includes over 200 configurable, pre-built Power Platform connectors, enabling it to seamlessly integrate with solutions in your existing order infrastructure and connect to order intake, fulfillment, and delivery partners, such as BigCommerce, Shopify, and more.
• Reference API: Don’t see a pre-built connector for a particular system? No problem. Intelligent Order Management uses an advanced application programming interface (API) and reference architecture, making it easy to build custom connection points between business applications.
• Microsoft Dataverse Synchronization: Intelligent Order Management is designed as a Microsoft Dataverse application and shares a common data model with other Dynamics 365 apps. This means that IOM can easily connect to and ingest data from your current enterprise systems, simplifying onboarding and configuration in the process.
• Journey Orchestration Designer Tools: Built on the Microsoft Power Platform, Intelligent Order Management leverages the latest low-code/no-code technology. Regardless of their development experience, members of your supply chain team can easily design, develop, and deploy order flows using drag-and-drop tools, enabling your company to proactively respond to disruption and adapt to changing requirements in real time.
• AI-based Classification and Anomaly Detection Models: IOM uses advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to proactively identify and eliminate fulfillment bottlenecks, forecast inventory needs across all channels, and deliver targeted insights to help retailers achieve optimal stock levels, adjust delivery times, and improve cash flow.

8 Benefits of Intelligent Order Management

Designed to help retailers streamline order fulfillment and adapt to the changing digital commerce landscape, Intelligent Order Management offers numerous benefits, including:

1. Everything in One Place: IOM makes it possible to manage the entire order lifecycle, from the moment a customer places an order to its final delivery — even returns management — all from a single, consolidated solution.
2. Seamless Data Integration: Thanks to its pre-built connectors and reference API, which allows for custom-built connections, IOM is able to seamlessly integrate with almost any enterprise system you can imagine, including eCommerce platforms, order fulfillment solutions, transportation management tools, and more.
3. Omnichannel Fulfillment: Intelligent Order Management gives customers the flexibility to shop through their preferred channels and select their preferred fulfillment method, whether that’s at-home delivery, buy online/pick up in-store, or buy online/pick up curbside. IOM also enables customers to monitor the status of their order in real time, enhancing their experience from purchase to final delivery.
4. Real-time Visibility: By tightly integrating multiple different systems, IOM creates a single source of data truth for the entire order lifecycle, providing retailers and customers alike with real-time order and inventory visibility. IOM also uses advanced AI and machine learning algorithms for additional cross-channel visibility.
5. Tax Compliance: Intelligent Order Management includes pre-built connectors to some of the industry’s leading tax solutions, such as Vertex and Avalara, for automated tax determination and compliance. Since IOM was designed with scalability in mind, retailers can easily manage tax compliance for sales tax, value-added tax, seller’s use tax, and more, all at a global scale.
6. Automated Payments: In addition to third-party tax engines, IOM also integrates with leading payment solutions, enabling users to design custom order flows for automated payment processing.
7. On-time Delivery: The team at Microsoft understands that retailers require the ability to determine the best fulfillment method and location to increase their on-time delivery rate. That’s why Intelligent Order Management includes out-of-the-box connectors to third-party logistics platforms such as Körber and Flexe, so that retailers can use distributed order intelligence to identify the optimal fulfillment location and provider for each order, as well as provide customers with real-time updates on the status of their orders.
8. Increased Resilience: From supply chain disruptions and materials shortages to traffic and major weather events, life happens. Fortunately, Intelligent Order Management’s drag-and-drop low-code tools and intuitive design interface give retailers the ability to adapt to unexpected occurrences and better manage on-time order fulfillment for customers.

What We Like Best About Intelligent Order Management

There’s a lot to like about Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. Its use of low-code development, pre-built connectors, and reference API makes it easy to handle system integrations, so retailers can manage the entire order fulfillment lifecycle from a single, unified dashboard.

With everything in one place, retailers have greater visibility into order orchestration, from how customers interact with different sales channels to available inventory levels to potential risk factors. These insights position retailers to optimize the customer experience, better anticipate disruption, adapt to changes in the marketplace, and consistently provide on-time delivery.

Another thing the Hitachi Solutions team — and our clients — appreciate about IOM is how easy it is to deploy. Since it seamlessly integrates with retailers’ existing enterprise systems and makes use of the Microsoft Dataverse, Intelligent Order Management allows for easy onboarding, configuration, and data synchronization. This also makes IOM incredibly easy to scale up or down as needed, according to seasonal demand and peak order volumes.

All in all, Intelligent Order Management is an exciting addition to the Dynamics 356 family, and we look forward to future improvements from Microsoft, such as an enhanced rules engine to further refine delivery nuances based on specific industry segments.

There’s no time like the present to update your order management solution. Contact Hitachi Solutions today to get started with Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management.