Like many solutions, my latest web application was born because of a need to streamline a task that's been done the same, old-fashioned way for more than 20 years. The solution is for sales people going "door to door" selling products and filling out paper order forms for the same customers over and over again. They come home each night and fax these order forms to their company for processing. The problem is: this takes forever and it's how our grandparents would have done it. My simple solution solves this problem.

I put together a quick video walkthrough that gives an overview of what I'm calling Fire OMS (Order Management System). As example of the possible uses of this system, consider this: A parts salesman goes to his customers weekly to see what parts, etc they need to order. He fills out an order form with their company info, shipping info, billing info, parts etc and then faxes it to his company that evening. Throughout the day, customers are calling him to request items. The salesman copies down these requests, fills out an order form for that customer and then submits them when he gets home. Work never ends. During the day they collect orders. In the evening, they submit orders.

In addition, the salesperson's customers have no efficient options to submit orders. It's either 1) call the salesperson or 2) fax him an order or 3) wait for him to stop in next. This goes against what they are doing with other, larger suppliers where they simply order through the web.

The client (a salesman) originally requested this because his company didn't offer such a service. Now that he has his own website, his customers are his. There is no risk of the customers attaching too strongly to the company's website and rendering the sales person less useful. That said, a company may want to incorporate this system and offer it to the sales people as an option.

Those that are already using the Fire OMS have received a great response from their customers! Here's a quote from one of the current Fire OMS clients: "[Fire OMS] has saved me millions of dollars on Order management."

If you are interested in this solution or know someone that may be, please contact me.