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This Partner Powerup Series webinar features Sachin Sharma, Chief Product Officer at Kibo, discussing what truly differentiates next-generation order management systems from legacy platforms. Learn about MACH architecture, intelligent order routing, agentic AI, and why capabilities like catalog, pricing, and subscriptions belong in modern OMS platforms
Major themes: next-generation OMS architecture, MACH principles, total cost of ownership, experience modernization, intelligent order routing, reverse logistics ownership, EDI modernization, unified inventory management, catalog in OMS rationale, agentic AI commerce, four agent classes (engage, configure, explain, tune), modular microservices, incremental modernization, API extensibility, drop ship marketplace.
The discussion reveals three core drivers for OMS modernization: total cost of ownership (human capital maintaining legacy systems), experience modernization (accurate EDD, inventory visibility, performance), and new channel onboarding (marketplaces, drop ship, cross-border). Kibo's agentic AI includes shopper agents, CSR agents, configuration agents, explanation agents (why was order routed to location X out of 9,000?), and tuning agents (autonomous optimization).
Q: What are the three core drivers for order management system modernization?
A: The core drivers for modernization order system management are total cost of ownership (expensive human capital maintaining legacy commercial and in-house applications), experience modernization (accurate pre-purchase EDD, inventory visibility on 100-product pages, routing strategy changes), and new channel onboarding (third-party marketplaces, drop ship programs, cross-border expansion that's difficult on legacy platforms).
Q: Why does MACH architecture matter for order management systems?
A: MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture is important for order management as it enables incremental modernization. You can chip away at monolith legacy order management systems component-by-component rather than doing a big-bang cutover, dramatically de-risking implementations. It also allows buying single modules (reverse logistics, subscriptions, routing engine) from MACH vendors as adjacent capabilities without wholesale OMS replacement, driving revenue and profit through new experiences.
Q: What does intelligent order routing look like with a large network of fulfillment locations?
A: Kibo provides 95% UI configuration (non-developer accessible) for complex scenarios: radius-based filtering (5-mile, 10-mile, 30-mile progressive), product attribute matching (perishable items requiring cold packs), inventory burn-down strategies, partial quantity assignment, after-actions (backorder, cancel, customer care), carrier cost integration, and API extensibility for third-party platforms.
Q: Why should returns management be an OMS responsibility, not e-commerce platform?
A: Return creation should happen in OMS first as system of record, though UI can live anywhere (e-commerce, Salesforce Service Cloud). Kibo Q1 2025 reverse logistics module includes fully featured return routing engine with filter conditions, sorting, grouping, after-actions, API extensibility, disposition location logic (DC to store, store to DC, damaged to liquidator), and centralized management across all channels including Amazon marketplace.
Q: How does API-first platform handle legacy EDI supplier requirements?
A: Kibo's December 2025 drop ship marketplace module translates shipments into EDI purchase order messages, handles full transaction flow (PO acknowledgement, ASN, invoice), supports self-service vendor onboarding, product listing/PIM/inventory updates via EDI, and provides UIs for smaller non-EDI drop shippers. Addresses EDI modernization trend as clients move off AS/400 legacy ERPs.
Q: Why should catalog, subscriptions and promotions live in order management systems?
A: Catalog, subscriptions and promotions should live in order management systems because they're critical for CSR order creation (product information needed for draft orders, discount application), uneven exchanges (crew neck return for different-priced pants in single transaction), substitutions (curly leaf parsley for flat leaf with price adjustments), and subscription modifications (add/remove products, change destinations). One-place CSR access eliminates separate subscription engines and integration overhead. Kibo uses same catalog microservice across e-commerce and OMS.
Q: What are Kibo's four classes of agentic AI agents?
A: Engage agents (shopper and CSR for buying experiences and support), Configure agents (natural language configuration for products, promotions, order routing rules without UI clicking), Explain agents (why was order routed to location X out of 9,000? Why promotion applied?), and Tune agents (2026 release: autonomous optimization like "reduce split shipments 10%" through historical back-testing, unintended consequence analysis, administrator recommendations).
Q: Can agentic AI work without Kibo data and platforms?
A: Yes, Kibo's agentic AI offerings can work without other Kibo solutions as a purely standalone solution. Shopper agent can hit other platforms like Bloomreach for search instead of Kibo catalog, Sterling OMS for inventory instead of Kibo, any third-party platform via tool concept. Framework with LLMs (Gemini), UIs for configuration, extensibility layer. API call destinations fully configurable. Not locked into Kibo at all—works with Kibo a little, entirely, or not at all.
Q: How does Kibo handle inventory visibility across stores, DCs, and 3PLs?
A: SKU-location level inventory retention, future inbound inventory with configurable allocation windows (6-month visibility, allocate against 14 days only), channel-specific segmentation (protect first-party storefront over marketplace), condition tracking (returned, refurbished, new), perishable expiry/sell-by dates, safety stock management. REST APIs and GraphQL for performant high-load queries summing by condition, date range, location, segment. Drives accurate EDD pre-purchase.
Q: What makes next-generation OMS different from legacy systems in routing complexity?
A: Multi-product orders to multiple addresses with in-store pickup requiring transfer, broken into shipments with optimal location selection. Goes beyond basic "nearest location" to: progressive radius filtering with partial quantity assignment, product-location attribute matching (cold packs for perishables), inventory burn-down prioritization, carrier cost integration, after-action handling (backorder/cancel/customer care), all configurable via UI by non-developers.
Q: Is Kibo's drop ship and EDI module modular or does it bloat the package?
A: Every module sold standalone and deployed independently. Drop ship used alone or with Kibo OMS or someone else's OMS. Individual microservices deployable (inventory service alone, catalog service alone). Flexible pricing: pre-packaged business capabilities (PBC collections of microservices) and solutions (combinations of PBCs like e-commerce, OMS, drop ship, subscriptions, search). No forced bundling.
