ABSTRACT
Every business firm is looking for ways to increase the number of incoming orders, but not all have spent the time and effort necessary to make the processes of order entry and order management more efficient and effective. Although customer orders drive what happens across a business supply chain, they tend not to receive the kind of attention afforded to other supply chain management (SCM) functions, particularly sourcing, logistics, forecasting, and inventory control. The concept of customer order management (COM) as an important function of supply chain management remains elusive and is generally given second-priority attention. This is a mistake as attention to COM and the related issue of inventory management will have a high business payback.
