Explore distributed order management (DOM)

  • 2 minutes

To help improve the customer experience, Dynamics 365 Commerce provides visibility into inventory, across all channels. A single, holistic view of all the inventory can help optimize order fulfillment, allocation, and distribution. To further optimize the order fulfillment and allocation process across multiple inventory locations, the Dynamics 365 Commerce solution includes a distributed order management (DOM) feature that intelligently sources orders to the fulfillment centers that are best equipped to accommodate the inventory needs.

In an omnichannel environment, different sources generate the order. Customer orders where products need to be shipped to the customer can be created in store, online, or through a call center. All these orders, created from different sources, are considered as a part of the Order management system (OMS).

DOM optimizes order fulfillment across a complex network of systems and processes. It relies on a single, global view of inventory across the whole organization to intelligently manage orders, so they are fulfilled accurately and in a more cost-effective manner. By improving the efficiency of the supply chain, DOM helps the organization better meet customer expectations.

The following illustration shows the lifecycle of a sales order in a DOM system.

Sales order lifecycle in the context of DOM. Order sources are connected to an Order Management System.

Organizations consider multiple cost components to determine the optimal location to fulfill an order from. Some of these cost components are shipping cost, handling cost, and packaging cost. AI-infused Distributed Order Management (DOM), with the combination of customer defined business rules, calculates the best fulfillment location.

The cost configuration feature lets organizations define and configure additional cost components that will be calculated and factored in to determine the optimal location to fulfill order lines from.

When cost components are configured, the DOM solver uses only those cost definitions to determine the optimal location for order fulfillment.

Here are some things to consider when you use the DOM feature:

  • Currently, DOM looks only at sales orders that are created from Dynamics 365 Commerce channels.

  • DOM is available only on the cloud version of Commerce.