Intershop Order Management Concepts

This section explains important concepts that are relevant for understanding the Order Management Tool's operation.

Tip: For an introduction into Intershop Order Management System basics, refer to Getting Started.
Table 1. Intershop Order Management System concepts
Concept Description
Aggregated invoice A document formally specifying details of multiple orders (of a given time period) with their order positions and all related information, explicitly and separately stating the applicable tax.
Approval Approval workflows may appear in various contexts (e.g. order processing, return processing etc.) and are carried out by various stakeholders (e.g. order approval, cost center approval, availability approval, etc.). If such an approval is not granted, the related business process is stopped.
Business manager A typical role in the IOM. Merchants' business managers use the Order Management Tool to track orders.
Cancellation A cancellation is a confirmation of a revocation. Such a revocation can be placed by the shop or the supplier.

A cancellation by a supplier means that an already placed order or parts of it (order positions) will not be fulfilled. That means the ordered products and services will not be delivered to the customer.

In contrast, the cancellation by a shop, once an order has already been received by the supplier, means a request for a cancellation. If such a request arrives too late, the goods will be delivered nevertheless.
Contact center agent A typical role in the IOM. Contact center agents use the Order Management Tool to retrieve all order-related information upon customers' requests.
Credit note

A document which states that a certain amount of money has been credited to the customer. This may be issued in various situations:

Automatic credit notes are created/used for:

  • Returned products, e.g. if delivered products did not meet the customer's expectations,

  • Correction in case of overpayment,

  • Cancellation of already paid orders.

Besides, credit notes can also be created manually to:

  • Lower the invoice amount, e.g. to correct a price, or as a gesture of goodwill.
Delivery confirmation

A delivery confirmation is a mandatory message from the supplier about the delivered products of an order.

Such a message contains information like the carrier, product delivery date, package count, tracking number and the delivery note number. The information which product of which order position is shipped with which quantity is essential.
Intershop Order Management System Intershop Order Management System is a middleware between one or multiple online shops and one or multiple suppliers. It is designed to help merchants to control their orders, to track and manage the order and payment statuses, and to provide all required information for both the online shop(s) and the supplier(s).
Invoice A document formally specifying details of an order with its order positions and all related information, explicitly and separately stating the applicable tax.
Order Management Tool The Order Management Tool is the frontend of the Intershop Order Management System used by merchants' operators to control orders and to track and manage order and payment statuses.
Order

The stated intention, either spoken or written, to engage in a commercial transaction for specific products or services.

In the context of the IOM an order is a commercial document issued by a customer to a merchant, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the merchant will provide to the customer.
Order position

Also known as line item, a summand (term, addend) of the order calculation, e.g.:

  • A specific quantity of a given product

  • A charge (fee, tax, etc.)

  • A discount
Organization

Generally, organizations are domains (structuring entities used to group business objects) that represent the corporate actors in Order Management Tool. There are three types of organizations: general organization (), shop (), and supplier ().

Organizations are hierarchically structured, following these rules:

  • There is always one root organization given as OmsSystem. It is a general organization and can have multiple child organizations (general, shop, supplier).

  • A shop can have multiple child shops.

  • A supplier can have multiple child suppliers.
Organization assignment The organization assignment is the association between an organization and a user. Users are assigned to one or more organizations, which control the visibility and, consequently, the "manageability" of the users.
Payment Compensation, discharge or performance of an obligation, or reimbursement, by giving over something that is of satisfactory value to its recipient, such as money.
Payment Notification

Whenever a payment is made or a modification is processed, the payment service provider (PSP) will notify the IOM or the IOM will notify the PSP of the event and the action whether or not it was performed successfully.

Notifications are used to keep the system up to date with the status of each payment or modification to a payment is made.
Promotion A promotion is a marketing instrument with the intention to push the sales and to increase the customer satisfaction. In technical terms a promotion has at least one condition to be fulfilled. Such a condition can be related to a special product, a shipping method, the entire basket amount, a customer segment, seasonal offerings or other. If fulfilled, the promotion may result in discounts on products or entire baskets, free shipping, bonus products, gratifications, or others.
Receipt

With a receipt a supplier confirms the product availability and the delivery time. The supplier may also submit the purchase price for the retailer with such a message.

The IOM creates an initial order response during the supplier assignment process.
Refund A refund means the actual repayment of already paid money to a customer for over-invoicing or for returned goods. It belongs to a credit note, but not every credit note ends up in a refund.
Return

A return (or return confirmation) is a document in which the supplier acknowledges the receipt of the returned goods to the customer.

The IOM supports different types and different reasons for returns which are configured in the supplier setup. The essential information is which product of which order position is returned with which quantity.
Role Roles combine specific permissions, i.e. access rights for manipulating business objects, representing different typical user types in the Order Management Tool such as contact center agents, warehouse operators, or business managers.
Role assignment

The role assignment is the association between a user and a role in the context of an organization. Role assignments are used to grant users authorizations that control the tasks that they are allowed to perform in the context of an organization in Order Management Tool.

In the hierarchical organization structure, child organizations inherit the user-role-organization assignments from their parent organizations.
Shipping bucket A shipping bucket is a group of items of an order that is to be sent to the same shipping address by using the same shipping method.
Shop A specific type of organization that represents a merchant and acts on the "sales side" of the IOM.
Supplier A specific type of organization that represents a manufacturer or a distributor and acts on the "fulfillment side" of the IOM.
Transmission A transmission is a message delivery between IOM and a connected system in any direction (e.g. the order transmission from the IOM to a supplier).
User Users represent individual (human) actors in the Order Management Tool, defined by an individual, dedicated user account. Users are assigned to one or more organizations and have one or more roles in the context of the assigned organizations.
Warehouse operator A typical role in the IOM. Warehouse operators use the Order Management Tool to capture returns.