Orders as customers see them
In the eyes of the customer and CE, an "order" has a one-to-one correlation with a cart that has gone through checkout - regardless of the contents of the cart. That is, a cart that is checked out could be as simple as one line of stock coming from the primary warehouse in a single shipment bundle, or a combination of MOD and stock items; or multiple bundles of stock items (with or without MOD items in the cart) shipping on different dates from different warehouses, depending on inventory.
This is similar to the way Amazon presents "orders" – for example, a single order may consist of multiple bundles (shipments) of items:
Summary view | Detail view |
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As we have defined them, bundles need to have their own freight terms and "ship via" selections so that customers or CE can avoid labor intensive workarounds for the inevitable requests to, for example, expedite a shipping bundle coming from an alternate warehouse, while not expediting the bundle coming from the primary. In addition, by default, MOD items are bundled separately from stock due to a) longer lead time and b) larger quantities that stock shipping methods typically do not support -although this default can be overridden, by bundling a stock with a MOD bundle.
Orders as Avante sees them
However, to Avante, as it is currently configured, an "order" can have no more than a single set of freight terms and "ship via" selections. In effect, each bundle is an "order." To rewrite the code to allow orders to consist of multiple shipment bundles may be prohibitively complex at this time (because.... elaborate further?...).
The problem
If we cannot figure out a way to "fool" Avante by coming up with a master order number that pieces together separate bundles/shipments into a single "order" (as far as the customer is concerned), it will be challenging for CE or customers to perform simple tasks like reordering, or for CE to perform functions (such as sales order changes) that are remaining in Avante?
Q: What happens today when there are multiple items in a (stock-only) cart, where one item is coming from Sterling and the other from Iowa? A: Even if lines of stock within the same order are shipping at different times or from different locations, the web (and Avante?) currently offer only one "ship via" method. The 'ship via' method is the linchpin for Avante's definition of an order.
Q: This is a part of the conversation I had a hard time following. Why can't we handle this on the front end, roughly the way Amazon does? Can't we let Avante continue to "think" that bundles are orders on the back end, and yet create an uber master order number on the front end, to which individual bundles/shipments (and their ship via's) are attached, like hubs around a spoke? If not, why not? Jim made it sound as though you could not do that, but that you could enable a customer to search on a bundle (an order to Avante), and it would pull up not just that bundle, but any other bundles associated with the same "order" (customer definition). If you can do that, then why can't you just present a single order number (a new master order ID that would have to be created)?
Potential solutions
- Rewrite Avante to fully support the customer definition of "order" on the front end (web inteface) and backend (Avante interface)
- Pros: Cleaner and more logical to customers and CE. Addresses both stock and MOD. Gives customers and CE greater flexibility; will increase self-service and/or will make split shipments easy entry level staff.
- Cons: Will require an unknown level of programming effort; in any case, it will greatly exceed current estimates for level of effort, with a payoff that may not warrant the effort.
- Defer offering 'ship via' by the bundle; offer only one set of ship via/freight terms for all stock bundles.
- Pros: Easiest to implement. Preserves sanctity of the "order" as customers define an order. Will feel familiar to customers; similar to what we do today.
- Cons: Less shipping flexibility for customers with complex, split shipments. Will require manual workarounds by CE for customers who need different ship via options for specific lines. They will have to split orders to achieve a different shipping method; it could complicate free freight calculations. These are tasks that entry level staff may be unable to perform. (They must have to do this today, how frequent is it? how onerous is it?) Doesn't address MOD, which typically requires different type of carrier (pallets and truckloads v. packages); will undermine goal of erasing today's stock/MOD distinction.
- Turn stock bundles from a multi-bundle cart into separate "orders" as Avante defines them.
- Pros: Easier to implement? Provides 'ship via' flexibility for split shipments.
- Cons: Unless this can be done in a way that presents Avante "orders" from a single cart as an "order" in the way a customers defines an order... This seems like it will be confusing to both CE and customers on the web, no matter how you slice it during Checkout and in Order History. It will still require some programming effort to link up bundles from a single cart, and poses some UI design challenges to make it appear seamless.
