Exception-Heavy B2B Order Workflow Automation
60% of B2B orders required manual approval workflows that took 2-3 days to process
Context
Manufacturing distributor selling to industrial clients. Processing 150-300 orders per day, average order value $8,000. Orders frequently required credit checks, inventory allocation, pricing approvals, and custom configuration validation. Each order type triggered different approval workflows. Sales team used CRM for order entry, but approvals happened via email chains, phone calls, and spreadsheets. Average order processing time: 2-3 days from entry to warehouse release. Sales team spent 40% of time on order administration rather than selling.
The Real Problem
Off-the-shelf order management systems assume standard approval workflows. This business had 12 different approval rules based on order value, customer credit terms, product categories, and inventory availability. Complex rules: orders over $10,000 required CFO approval, orders from customers with payment terms >60 days required credit manager approval, orders for custom-configured products required engineering review. Approval routing couldn't be static—same customer might have different requirements based on order composition. Existing CRM had basic approval workflows but couldn't handle conditional routing or parallel approvals. Email-based approvals created bottlenecks when approvers were unavailable. No visibility into approval status—sales team and customers couldn't track where orders were stuck. Legacy ERP system couldn't integrate with modern approval workflows. Constraint: Approvers refused to learn new systems—workflow had to integrate with email and existing tools they already used.