Order Management (OM) is a service where technology, logistics, and supply chain disciplines intersect. At Expeditors, we’ve developed our OM offering through years of hands-on experience and close work with customers across industries. Recent analysis and long-standing customer relationships have helped us reflect on what we do well and where customers encounter friction.
What Our Customers Appreciate Most
- End-to-End Visibility: Our systems connect purchase and sales orders to bookings, shipments, and delivery milestones. This creates a clear line of sight across the supply chain, helping customers plan more effectively and respond to changes.
- Exception Management: Delays and disruptions are part of global logistics. What matters is how quickly and effectively they are addressed. Our teams monitor shipments in real time and act when something goes off track to keep supply chains moving.
- Carrier and Container Optimization: By analyzing container utilization and carrier performance, we support smarter planning and more efficient movement of goods.
- Global Expertise: Our teams on the ground in sourcing regions work directly with suppliers, carriers, and other partners. Their local knowledge and relationships ensure that global operations are executed with consistency and care.
- Integrated Technology and Custom Workflows: Our proprietary systems are designed to adapt to the way our customers do business. We support a wide range of workflows and data formats, allowing us to tailor OM programs to each customer’s needs.
These strengths are central to how we support our customers and reflect the value that Order Management can bring to a global supply chain. Still, implementing and operating a service like OM involves real-world complexity. By understanding these challenges and the reasons behind them, we can better support our customers and continue improving how we deliver this service.
How We Tackle Challenges With the Territory
- Implementation Complexity: Order Management depends on accurate order data, and each customer handles data differently. For many, onboarding is straightforward thanks to tools we’ve developed to support standard formats and workflows. However, legacy or third-party infrastructure can slow the process. These integrations require close coordination between IT teams, detailed data mapping, and a shared understanding of how information flows through the business. Our teams bring the experience and structure needed to manage these efforts.
- Fit for Small Businesses: Smaller businesses often approach OM with the hope that it can fill broader gaps in their internal systems or processes. We’ve built tools like Generic Order (GO!) and Generic ASN specifically to make onboarding more accessible for businesses that may not have large IT teams or sophisticated systems, but some smaller companies need more support than a standardized service can provide. The best outcomes arise from early alignment of expectations and a solution that fits current needs, with room to grow.
- Learning Curve: Every customer brings a unique set of goals, processes, and challenges. It takes time to understand how a business operates and how OM can support it. Our teams invest in that learning process because it leads to stronger partnerships.
- Cost Considerations: OM services involve both management fees and origin or forwarding charges. These costs support the systems, people, and processes that make the service work. While the fees are a small portion of overall logistics spend, they should be evaluated in the context of broader business outcomes. OM can reduce inventory, improve delivery predictability, and streamline administrative work. These benefits often show up in planning, sourcing, and finance, not just in freight budgets.
- Data Quality Dependency: Reliable data is essential to making OM work. Our teams collect, validate, and manage data on an ongoing basis and from a wide range of sources, including suppliers, carriers, brokers, and government systems. Good data enables better decisions, and we treat it as a core part of the service.
- A Long-Term Approach: OM is not a plug-and-play solution—it is a service that evolves through collaboration, learning, and shared goals. At Expeditors, we continue to invest in technology, automation, and process improvement. We are committed to transparency about the challenges and working alongside our customers to overcome them.
Getting started with Order Management is an investment in a partnership, and the return on that investment often far exceeds the cost and complexity involved in getting started. We don’t shy away from challenges, and we make every effort to be clear about what we offer and how we deliver it. Our managed-service model, supported by a global network and integrated technology, allows us to provide solutions that are as effective or better than anyone in the industry.
Contact your local Expeditors representative, and let’s discuss how we can build a partnership to support your Order Management needs.