What does this module / this process contain:
Order processing is divided into the transmission of the order to the supplier and the feedback of an order confirmation from the supplier. In the event that the supplier can deliver the desired quantity at the desired time, the process is relatively simple. In the area of eProcurement and the standard articles that are listed there, no order confirmation is often required at all, since the time of receipt of the goods is not particularly important and the effort outweighs the benefits.
Since the same order processing can also be used for systems, tools and production-critical products at a production company, it is often decided for each product group or supplier whether they have to send an order confirmation. If the order processing is also used for production material, an order confirmation is necessary for each one because the ERP system needs to know for its MRP (Materials Requirements Planning) run whether the supplier can deliver or not, as this has an impact on the next order run.
Deviation management (or exception management) is necessary above all for more critical products. In the production environment, these would be, for example, machine spare parts, tools or IT components that could be critical for a company and for which deviation management is absolutely necessary. Deviation management describes the process when the supplier cannot deliver the quantity requested by the customer or cannot deliver at the desired time. There are also cases where the supplier can change the price, but these are special cases. In the event that the supplier cannot deliver, there is a "ping-pong" between the customer and the supplier because the customer or the supplier has to adjust their production so that there are no production downtimes and high additional costs. There are several options for mapping this "ping-pong" between two IT systems. Especially in times of high volatility and difficult to predict quantities, the efficient design of this process is very important.
Delivery call-offs are another element, especially for recurring and plannable requirements. Here, not individual orders are transmitted, but a complete forecast over several weeks, whereby the accuracy of the information becomes less and less the further the planned delivery time is in the future. This process is usually not linked to an eProcurement system but directly to the ERP system, since the requirements in eProcurement are mostly not plannable at all. There are also different variants of the call-offs themselves, such as just-in-time or just-in-sequence, with the main area of application being in the automotive and high-tech industry.
Consignment warehouses are also widespread in the area of eProcurement. Here the goods remain the property of the supplier until they have been completely used up by the customer. This means that the customer manages the consignment store as if it were his own and immediately reports any removal electronically to the supplier. 3PL (third-party logistics) service providers are often involved in this process or manage this process independently.
Vendor managed inventory is often used in combination with the consignment stock. In the VMI process, the supplier is responsible for ensuring that the goods are always available to the customer. The supplier determines the number of deliveries and the quantity of the individual deliveries. This often has great cost advantages for the customer, especially if the supplier can optimize himself to reduce costs. The supplier achieves cost reductions because he can adapt the production size to the delivery capacity in order to avoid intermediate storage, since he can always completely fill the truck upon delivery in order to reduce transport costs and can optimize his transport routes if there are several customers in the area according to the milk-run system.
Service orders are a separate issue because these processes work according to other criteria. The following points must be observed when ordering services:
- Orders for services often run over a longer period of time, which makes it necessary for the supplier to report back his services online on a weekly or monthly basis and for the client to approve them so that payment can be made.
- This results in obligo management, which the customer can use to check how many days have already been completed and whether the progress of the project corresponds to the services charged.
- The ordering of services in the area of maintenance and repairs is usually based on service catalogues, where a specific service is described in detail and also provided with a specific price. The maintenance and updating of the service catalog is also part of the service order management process.
- Advanced, integrated systems can also use the service catalogs in eSourcing and automatically create them in eProcurement as the result of a tender.
- The acceptance of the services at the end, as is usual in plant construction, for example, completes this process. Acceptance criteria are checked and the result is automatically transferred to the supplier performance data in order to be able to automatically award a bonus/malus in the next tender.
What are the main goals:
- Process cost reduction, especially if you use EDI and two ERP systems communicate with each other without human input. There are also large savings on the customer side when using WebEDI, but the supplier benefits to a lesser extent here because he has to coordinate all incoming orders and order confirmations manually with his ERP system. Some companies use RPA to automate these processes successfully.
- Acceleration of processes through process standardization. Accelerated processing can be very important, especially in product development / R&D.
- Avoidance of production downtimes or system failures, especially when it comes to spare parts, repairs or IT and control equipment.
Specifics per industry:
If supply chain collaboration is only seen as part of the procure-to-pay process, there are no differences in the industries, since the products and services that are managed in a classic eProcurement process are usually not critical. The situation is different when a company decides to use the same solution for all supplier communication. Here are the following special requirements:
Manufacturing companies with series production have a high level of effort and risk when it comes to ensuring supply, especially in volatile markets. The cost pressure and thus the reduction of the inventory on the one hand and the securing of the supply with long-term supply agreements on the other hand require tried and tested tools. These companies mostly use more complex scenarios, which in turn require more complex tools that also perfectly master processes such as deviation management, call-offs or VMI.
Make-to-order manufacturers, plant manufacturers and construction also have special requirements for the supply chain tools.
Latest innovations:
No-UI tools can also extract an order confirmation from normal email text or PDF attachments. The big advantage is that these systems can also be used by very small suppliers or suppliers without an ERP system without any additional effort for the supplier. Often only 60 to 70% are connected online and the rest of the suppliers and orders still have to be tracked manually.
AI agents for order follow-up: agents now read supplier emails, update confirmed delivery dates in the ERP and chase missing order confirmations on their own. Didero, for example, raised a $30M Series A in February 2026 for this use case in manufacturing.
Predictions based on machine learning in order to obtain better planning security and to eliminate problems in the supply.
Low-code development tools also have a communication layer, but allow customers and suppliers to easily build additional features such as workflows on top of existing tools.
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is used in all areas where classic interfaces do not make sense because they are too expensive or the use case does not pay off due to the small amount of data.
In-context messaging provides users with the right information at their fingertips via a user-friendly interface. In-context messaging promotes collaboration by enabling users to communicate seamlessly in real time, without having to switch between systems.
Extensions and additional functions:
Quality management and the exchange of quality-related data between customers and suppliers is sometimes seen as an add-on to communication.
Customs clearance is also often integrated into the supply chain process, especially when it comes to preference declarations or the like.
Invoice processing is part of a different process, but most customers do not want their own portal for suppliers, but want to give the supplier the opportunity to have all information at a glance (and not shared information about inquiries, orders and invoices in different portals).
Supplier performance is often driven by a supplier's delivery performance, which is why it is important that supplier performance information updates a supplier performance dashboard on a daily basis whenever possible. After all, it wouldn't be good if a supplier's delivery problems weren't taken into account in an ongoing negotiation just because information wasn't synchronized immediately.
Supply chain simulation is a big trend, which ERP manufacturers used to own, but which is now being supported more and more and better by separate supply chain tools such as e2open (part of WiseTech Global since August 2025).