Quote and Order Entry Automation

See the use case of how the quotes and order process can be automated.

In this scenario, we'll explore how AI is used by Orchestration Engine and Commerce Engine to automate Order Entry across various sales channels. Handling sales orders by email channels requires manual involvement, which is often very time consuming and inefficient. The integration of CE, OE and AI enhances and improves business processes by minimizing manual work. You can see how Emporix contributes to automating the quote and order entry process.

The scenario covers a use case when a customer sends an email with a PDF order form. Information about this event works as a trigger for OE to start the process and then for AI to begin a quote preparation that finally leads to completing the order for the customer.

Process flow

1. When the customer sends the email with an order request attached as a PDF file, it sets off the whole digital process.

   The trigger is a starting point for the digital process and is configured to listen to the specified event and starts the process execution.

   
2. When the process starts with the received event, the next step is to check the purchase order identifying the products that were ordered and their quantity, calculating a quote for the order, and matching the customer with the order. This process step consists of smaller subflows that ensure the process is conducted step by step and all the data is parsed together.

   

   • The step starts with AI retrieving the ordered products and creating data that includes the identifier of the ordered products and the quantity.

   • When the data of the ordered products is gathered, the next part is to create a quote based on the number of the ordered items and their matching price.

   • The last subflow of this process step is to match the customer ID with the placed order.

3. The data from the trigger event and the first process step is combined in a process context which fetches data from all the steps of the digital process until the last step. Using the data that is already included in the process step it's possible to move to the next step and create the actual quote. This step is based on a condition that the customer ID was found and it's possible to generate the quote.

   
4. When the quote is generated the process checks whether the quote can be automatically approved or whether it needs additional internal approval. In this digital process we use a business rule that says that the quote can be accepted automatically if the threshold is <4000.

   

   The business rule is created in OE's Rulestore and works as a condition for the quote auto approval step. If the order value is > 4000, then the quote has to be approved manually.

   
5. When the quote is auto approved it creates a new event that works as a trigger for the next process steps. The trigger is to send an email to the customer.

   

   The email contains a link to a quote that can be accepted or rejected by the customer.

   

   This document can be prepared for the customer using Forms that are integrated within OE.

   
6. When the quote is sent to the customer, the digital process waits for another event, which is the customer response to the quote. The customer can either accept, or reject the quote. When the customer accepts the offer, and sends their response, it works as a trigger for the last step to complete the order. The customer can accept the quote directly from the link, it doesn't require any additional logging in.

   

   Having the response from the customer who accepted the quote, the quote status is automatically updated and visible in Management Dashboard as accepted. The order is confirmed and can be completed.