Sales Order Process Map

Currently, the sales order process involves multiple departments in the organization. At University Cellular, customers, which are retail outlets, call orders into their sales representatives. They can request an inquiry, which is a sales quote, or can place an order. Once an order is placed and released for shipping the shipping department is responsible for picking the order from the warehouse and shipping it. Finally, accounting is responsible for invoicing the customer and collecting payment.

The following interviews provide the details at University Cellular for an “as-is” process without the support of an ERP system like SAP. Your task is to create a swimlane process diagram of the current sales order process for this “as-is” process.
Use Visio or some other diagramming software. If you feel you need additional information, feel free to contact me.
Donna Richards in Sales

You: Good morning Donna. I assume you’ve read my email and understand what we’re trying to accomplish today.

Donna: You want to understand what we do when customers call their reps to place orders.

You: That’s correct. Why don’t we start at the beginning? What are the reasons a customer might call a sales rep?

Donna: Well…sometimes they call just to get some information, you know prices, products…stuff like that. That happens quite often.

You: Why do you think that is?

Donna: We’re really not set up with internet or other systems to handle some of these inquiries so we handle them manually. As a result, our salespeople are fairly busy answering mundane questions.

You: OK, why else to they call?

Donna: Some customers want a quote.

You: What’s that?

Donna: It’s like a sales order except they haven’t committed to buying the product. They just want to see how much an order would cost after quantity discounts, promotions and all. Sometimes they just want to know when they can get a delivery of products.

You: Tell me…