Many manufacturing organizations operate through dealer networks to sell their products across multiple regions. Managing inventory and logistics is a complex task. Delivering finished products and spare parts to the right locations at the right time is a critical process which needs constant feedback from every dealer. Most organizations have exclusive platforms or apps to receive this feedback and improve operations. With Journey Builder, dealer order management can be streamlined and automated.
When a dealer raises an order on the platform provided by the manufacturer, the system automatically checks the item's availability from the nearest warehouse. If any items are unavailable, an automated warehouse restock request is raised. The order is shipped once all items are available and inspected. Order status notifications are sent to the dealer throughout the journey, along with the shipment tracking link. Once the products are received at the dealer's warehouse, an inspection officer examines them and prepares a report on the condition of the goods. If the goods meet the officer's approval, the order is accepted. If there are any damages, a replacement order is made and the whole journey is repeated. Once the entire order has been fulfilled, the dealer completes payment within a predecided credit period. Automated payment reminders are sent out starting a week before the payment is due.
Modeling this entire scenario using Journey Builder provides a great deal of insight into a company's outbound supply chain performance. The manufacturer is able to understand how long orders take to close, where delays occur, which items are over- or understocked, and much more. This enables the company to make changes to its inventory management and order fulfillment practices and improve the efficiency of its supply chain.
ERP and commerce integration allows this journey to progress based on inventory, order, and payment status. On-the-ground coordination with the order delivery process is made possible with FSM software integration. Journey Builder can also push updates about the journey to the company's custom-built dealer application.
Some of the integrations are not available out-of-the-box, and need to be built using Zoho's Open API. If you need help integrating Journey Builder with any of the platforms you use, contact us at support@zohocrm.com.