Everyone wants fewer order errors, faster processing, and happier customers. But achieving the Ideal Order—one that’s accurate, complete, touchless, and exception-free—requires more than automation software.
It demands that Sales, Operations, and IT work in lockstep.
Why? Because each group plays a different but interconnected role:
Sales owns the customer relationship and sets expectations
Operations owns the order workflow and fulfillment
IT owns the systems, integration, and security
Without alignment, even the best automation strategy can stall.
Too often, these teams operate in silos:
Sales promises rapid turnaround without visibility into fulfillment bandwidth
Ops gets blamed for delays caused by inaccurate or incomplete orders
IT implements systems without fully understanding business needs
No one owns the end-to-end Ideal Order metric
The result? Finger-pointing, missed SLAs, manual workarounds, and frustrated customers.
Sales, Ops, and IT should agree on what constitutes an Ideal Order. That includes:
Valid SKUs
Accurate pricing
No manual rework
On-time processing
Successful first-pass yield
By aligning on the definition, each team can measure its role in achieving the outcome.
Everyone needs to see the full order lifecycle—from quote to cash—not just their piece of the puzzle.
When teams understand handoffs and dependencies, collaboration improves. Sales can flag risky customers. Ops can plan capacity. IT can prioritize integration roadmaps.
Order automation should never be seen as “just an IT project.” Sales and Ops need a voice in system requirements, workflow design, exception handling rules, and user experience.
IT, in turn, brings the technical feasibility lens, security oversight, and long-term sustainability planning.
Assign stakeholders from each team. Give them a shared goal—like increasing Ideal Order rates or reducing order exceptions by X%.
Create a recurring touchpoint (weekly or bi-weekly) to review progress and blockers.
Each team brings valuable perspective. Sales knows what customers send. Ops knows where issues arise. IT knows where the data lives.
Mapping the process collaboratively reveals:
Redundant manual steps
Data validation gaps
Process inconsistencies
Opportunities for automation
Look for opportunities that deliver cross-functional wins:
Automating high-volume customer orders
Reducing exception-handling workload
Improving order turnaround times
Enhancing ERP data quality
When everyone benefits, alignment happens faster.
Track before-and-after KPIs like:
Processing time per order
Number of manual touches
Order error rate
% of touchless Ideal Orders
Share wins across departments to build momentum and executive buy-in.
❌ Treating automation as purely an IT project
❌ Overloading Ops without involving Sales in order standardization
❌ Failing to update Sales on what the system requires (e.g., missing customer codes or PO formats)
❌ Rolling out tools without change management or training
Alignment is a process, not a policy.
Conexiom’s Ideal Order Platform is built for cross-functional success:
Sales teams benefit from fewer customer escalations and faster response times
Ops teams gain accuracy, speed, and exception handling efficiency
IT gains a secure, scalable solution that integrates with existing systems
The platform’s reporting tools also allow all teams to track their role in the Ideal Order journey.
Order automation is no longer optional—but achieving the full value of automation means aligning the people behind the process.
When Sales, Ops, and IT rally around the same goal, Ideal Orders go from aspiration to reality—and your business becomes faster, more resilient, and more customer-focused.
CTA:
Ready to align your teams around automation? Download our Ideal Order Process Playbook to kick-start collaboration between Sales, Ops, and IT.