Customer Order Management

Introduction

One of the key strengths of enterprise management systems is the integration of business functions. This process starts with the contact with a potential customer. This process of customer ordering is at the heart of the information system. The chart above shows the integration of sales and distribution to capture the order and ship the goods, material management to control the inventory, financial accounting to manage the billing and flow of cash, controlling to measure the profitability of operations and production planning to ensure an economical flow of goods to inventory and customers.

The logic of the organization of master data and other procedures in the system is built on Organizational elements. These are:

• Company code--an independent accounting unit.
• Sales organization-- responsible for marketing.
• Distribution Channel-- the means though which sales material reaches the customer, e.g.wholesale, retail, etc.
• Division--used to segment a business into lines.
• Plant-- a manufacturing facility or warehouse.
• Shipping point-- a fixed location that carries out shipping activities.

Master Data contains the records that remain in the database over an extended period of time, are maintained centrally and shared across application modules to eliminate data redundancy.

Customer Master Data is shared between the accounting and sales and distribution departments

The system copies data from one document into another to reduce data entry and make problem resolution easier.

The following interfaces are connected to the sales process:

• Check to see if the customer has exceed the credit limit FI
• Checks to see if there is enough stock available for shipment MM
• Updates the Cash Forecast FI
• Creates production orders at sales order time PP

Invoicing is a major interface point in the system:

• FI updates the receivable and the inventory by automatic journal entries to the general ledger
• CO-PA updates profit center accounting to track the revenue and costs associated with the sale