How Do You Know Your Media Company Needs An Order Management System

While it’s tempting to stick with what has worked in the past, it’s crucial to assess if your existing processes are keeping up with your company’s growth and development.

Many media companies have grown accustomed to their current methods, which appear to operate well or at least get the job done. Manual spreadsheets and ‘workarounds’ become the standard, and users become comfortable with what they have, even if it is at times constraining.

It may be difficult to choose the best choice for your business, but there are several media-specific OMS solutions available. The entire project may be adjusted to your timeline and budget in order to provide you with the maximum return with the least impact on your media company. If you don’t use an order management system, you could be missing out on significant efficiencies and income opportunities.

Below we look at some of the signs that may suggest your media company could greatly benefit from having an order management system:

Your current process doesn’t cover the full order life cycle

This one is simple: if your existing method of operation does not cover the complete life cycle of orders, implementing an order management system will significantly boost your efficiency and profitability. Advertisers require quick responses with precise offers, while sales representatives want to finalize deals as fast as possible.

Using an order management system simplifies, automates, and speeds up many digital advertising activities including Sales, Order, Execution, Accounting, and Analytics. An order management system can help publishers and agencies manage operations including the sale of all forms of inventory, as well as the management of advertising campaigns and the creation of invoices.

Your teams work in silos

This information must be sent to the ad operations and finance teams after the sale to guarantee that the campaigns are correctly generated and invoiced. Without a consistent workflow that provides the information required by the necessary teams to accomplish their jobs, efficiency and increased revenue will always be constrained.

As a result, your teams frequently end up operating in silos. Even within the same department, for example, sales teams can be separated between linear and digital channels, missing out on data and product overlaps that, if harmonized, could benefit both teams.

If you want to create synchronization and break down silos, make sure the technology your business uses is consistent from department to department wherever possible.

You don’t have a 360º view of your data

With the right OMS solution, you can have end-to-end visibility of your advertising data across all departments. Including information from your CRM/ERP and other external systems. With all of this information at your fingertips, your reporting and analytics can become an effective tool for spotting inefficiencies and patterns throughout your whole business. This comprehensive picture enables you to make more informed decisions by identifying opportunities and preparing for growth.

Orders across multiple media channels cannot be combined

Media organizations must vary their sales channels in order to continue growing and being competitive in the market. Your existing order management system may not be able to combine all of the sales channels you currently use or would like to employ in the future. This is a clear indication that you need to upgrade to a solution that allows you to manage all of your channels from a single location.

Modern advertisers and marketers want to provide prospective customers with an omnichannel experience. This begins at the point of order when purchasing inventory. Advertisers want to be able to acquire cross-media inventory in a single order and receive a single invoice for their campaigns. Creating individual orders for each media channel or inventory item adds to the workload of your sales, ad operations, and finance departments.

With unified order capabilities, you can boost sales productivity and expectations across all channels while also lowering the risk of manual processing errors. This also creates an opportunity to increase revenue potential by allowing your sales teams to sell product bundles.

Manual processes use too much of your time

One critical part of optimizing your order management system is automating activities so you don’t have to waste time manually entering or tracking data. Automation lowers the time spent between jobs and decisions, increasing overall operational efficiency. Large ad sales teams benefit from the ability to set up bespoke workflows and approval procedures for improved coordination, reducing manual work even further.

You don’t have a single product catalog for all of your advertising products

It is critical to have a single product catalog for all ad products in order to empower your teams to sell effectively. It streamlines your processes and makes it easier to manage items, saving you time and increasing efficiency. With a single product catalog, for example, your business users can deploy product and pricing updates across all sales channels at the same time, providing you complete control over pricing and profitability.

There is no connection between your ERP/CRM and external systems

APIs and pre-built integrations let you connect your order management system to first- and third-party ad servers, ERP and CRM systems, BI platforms, SSPs, ad exchanges, and DSPs, among other things. For your company’s marketing and advertising initiatives, this establishes a sales and information hub. Implementing an order management system that offers APIs and embedded integrations allows you to develop a continuous data flow between systems, access greater information for forecasting orders, and initiate transactions with the push of a button.

Is it time for your media company to deploy an order management system?

An order management system is a central part of your ad tech stack. OMS platforms offer a consolidated software solution for managing orders from various sales channels. It simplifies the purchasing process for clients and makes it easier for media organizations to manage orders, inventories, and execution. If you choose carefully, OMS platforms can also support CRM, Accounting, and other external system interfaces in addition to the main purchasing process.

There are numerous benefits to using an order management system for the various groups of users that work across your end-to-end advertising sales process. The most fundamental and common for all of them is streamlining the order fulfillment process. But the following are also key benefits to keep in mind.

• Provide up-to-date availability information for your ad inventory.
• Create programmatic advertising campaigns for use across digital media.
• Optimize your cross-media advertising campaigns.
• Respond to requests for proposals (RFPs).
• Produce reports.
• Generate invoices.
• Reconcile your billing.

With a solid plan and a clear understanding of your needs and what is available in the market, you’re ready to make the right choice.

Originally published at https://www.advendio.com on March 28, 2022.