Business Process Analysis – Order Entry

Let us start at the beginning and look at sales orders.  Sales orders are a common denominator between all businesses large and small.  Web developers and software designers must have orders.  Manufacturing and service companies must have orders.  Without orders, there's little need for products and services unless you give them away.  Even giving them away, how will you know who they go to and what you're giving away?

How do orders come in?  Do they come from credit card transactions off your website, e-mail, phone, snail mail, walk-ins or all of the above?  The way orders are received will offer options and requirements for how they can be handled later.

Who takes the order?  Someone?  Everyone?  Is the person taking orders well versed in the process?  Does the person know everything he or she needs to know for an efficient process?

How are orders recorded?  Are they written down in a note pad, a preprinted order form, or typed into some software program?  Maybe your orders are processed like the old diners where the waitress just yelled the order back to the short order cook?

What information is required from the customer to process the order?  Obviously information about the customer, contact information, addresses for shipment or billing if the order isn't prepaid.  A list of items or services purchased seems like a good idea.  Service companies need to know what kind of equipment will be serviced?  Except for pickup orders, information on where the product should be delivered or the service performed is vital.  All the required information should be noted on the order form, be it paper or a computer program.  Itemizing this required information is necessary for the business process analysis.  Is all the needed information being taken now?  Is there any detail that should be added to the input process that isn't being taken now?

Now, the order has been received and recorded, what happens next?  Who is responsible for seeing the order is processed?  How are they notified the order needs to be filled?    Does the order require a customer call back?  If there's a customer call back, how is it recorded so someone else doesn't call the same customer again for the same reason?  A service company will need to an appointment for the service to be performed, how is that handled and recorded.

There should be a lot of communication between the spokes of the wheel.  That can be yelling back and forth, passing paper from one hand to another or entering data into a computer that generates a report that will be frequently checked at the next spoke.  It can be like the fast food industry where an order is taken and displayed on a computer monitor for the cooks to fill.

Communicate, communicate, communicate!