Modern companies use Customer Relations Management (CRM), which manages client interactions, and an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) to manage back-end business processes. As a result, you and your team will need to be able to access all information when you need it most.
What is ERP?
Software that automates and streamlines business operations is known as enterprise resource planning software. These components could include accounting, distribution, and human resources. ERP software's main advantage is its ability to act as a central data hub for many workflows. This makes it easier for departments to share data insights. ERP software can also automate manual processes normally required by other departments. For example, an ERP system could automatically take data from a sales order to send the relevant financial information to your accounting program.
What is CRM?
CRM software manages customer interactions with businesses. CRM features were initially developed for sales departments. They were also known as sales force automation (SFA). However, many other systems were quickly developed to manage customer service and marketing interactions, especially in the call center. The contact center was once just another channel for customer support.
Through acquisitions and development, software vendors have begun to merge all these areas under one umbrella. This is called customer relationship management. For example, some CRM systems also include sales performance management and sales incentive commissions. Still, these are often sold separately due to their complexity.
Benefits of ERP, CRM Integration for Businesses
Both ERP and CRM offer many advantages to enterprises. First, those companies can successfully integrate the two via a cloud integration platform that takes advantage of each. If a business decides to create ERP-CRM integration architecture, here are some benefits:
Better Reactivity
Combining a CRM and an ERP has the ultimate benefit: it creates a link between both the sales and administrative teams. If information flows between departments easily, there is good to influence organizational thinking within your teams.
Your sales and marketing teams can modify their tactics to reflect the results and performance if financial data is available. In addition, their autonomy speeds up the sales team's response time, which is important because successful teams are agile. But intuition is not enough to make decisions. Data must be available that highlights strengths and weaknesses in sales.
360-degree view of customers
Integrating ERP and CRM systems will give you a complete view of your customers. It provides total visibility and accuracy, from accounting to finance, support, and sales. As a result, it gives you better insight into your customer base. That way, you can efficiently track your customer preferences, profitability, and loyalty. You can also identify cross-selling or upselling opportunities with customers. This will allow you to implement more effective strategies and help you determine your future growth potential.
Better Employee Collaboration
Connected and integrated workers are more productive and efficient. Because everyone is on the same page, they can achieve more results.
When ERP and CRM work together, your team can share and use up-to-the-minute information. This increases their chances of getting better and more efficient results.
Salesforce has confirmed that high-performing employees prefer collaboration between departments. Engaged teams are also more productive, according to the AON study. This can lead to 21% greater profitability and ultimately 10% better customer ratings.
Boost Customer Relationships
Your team can interact more effectively with customers when you have real-time information. This will help you anticipate customer needs and cut down on support time. As a result, your customers will have a better experience.
This results in higher customer satisfaction which leads to repeat sales and customer retention. In addition, you can create loyal customer communities that will tell others about your brand over time. This will result in more visibility, greater growth, and more sustainable success.
Accurate Predictions
It is easier to please customers with a fully integrated system. Let's say, for example, a customer wants to update their order via the service desk. How can your customer service representative access this information if they go through multiple systems? Some information might not be accurate. It can lead to a negative customer experience, resulting in a loss.
Dynamic Signal reports that 52% of employees experience poor financial outcomes due to ineffective communication. This results in lost sales and a damaged reputation.
You can increase communication within your company and external parties by using a fully integrated system. It will also allow you to make better predictions. This can help your CRM team to deliver precise quotes and market campaigns.
Some Common Challenges While Integrating ERP and CRM Strategy
Today, many businesses use ERP (Customer Relationship Management) and CRM (Customer Relations Management) software to help them succeed. These systems can be integrated for many reasons. Although one may call it a customer, the other might call it to contact. Order in one system will make a quote in another. Many ERP providers offer integrated CRM services.
Cleaning up your Data
Your CRM and ERP will both have outdated data. For example, customers who haven't placed an order in 1998. This information should be cleaned up before you integrate. There will be mistakes in both systems. Now is the time to fix them before they become confused. Another part of data clean-up is changing existing CRM IDs if you use an ERP customer ID.
ERP and CRM integrations can be achieved with great results for everyone. However, integrations will be successful if you pay attention to details.
Standardizing Data Format Across Both Systems
Your marketing or sales departments may think they own your CRM. Operations and accounting might think they own your ERP. The enterprise owns all data in both systems. The reason for integration should be to save manual steps and enter new orders quicker - this will benefit the enterprise. Small differences can cause big problems down the line. ERP may have unique customer IDs and fields for 'first name and last name.' CRM has its ID and first, middle, and last name fields. Discuss how you plan to operate in the future. You can agree on which format will be used, and there will be no turning back.
Agreeing on How You Will Integrate
To link your systems, you can hire a third-party integration specialist or a CRM development company. These businesses often have their software to manage data reconfigurations and mapping. The software takes data from one side, transforms it into a format that is readable by the other side, and copies the new data into the appropriate tables. Transforms must be bidirectional, as transactions and new records from either system should be shared.
Flat files can also be extracted, possibly in a.csv format. These files can then be imported into the other system as a sequence of transactions. The imports will follow the same validation rules that a manually entered transaction to ensure data is secure. However, this process is subject to a delay, so transactions on one side may not appear on the other until a few minutes or hours later.
How to Create a Successful ERP CRM Integration Strategy?
Your CRM system centralizes customer data, making it easy to find the information you need to personalize customer interactions. Your ERP system centralizes all your back-office data, so it's easy to find what you need. These two systems can be integrated to centralize data from both.
What does this mean? This will reduce manual effort, less task/data redundancy, and improve productivity. Here are some tips to help you ensure successful system integration.
Align People and Mindsets
Whether you integrate your systems or processes or update or implement new ones, you must prioritize your people. People don't like change, so it is your responsibility to demonstrate that the change will be worth it and not cause too much disruption to their daily lives. On the contrary, it will make your life better.
Prioritize Customer and Business Value
Ensure that your business transformations or changes are value-driven. Value doesn't only refer to financial benefits. Consider the impact of improvements on internal and external stakeholders.
So, what can you do to make the lives of your employees and customers easier? What's in it to them? First, this will make getting their support and approval much easier.
Know your Existing Business Processes and Systems
Be sure to thoroughly review your current processes and systems before you embark on any transformation. What are the current operational conditions? What is working well? What could work better? This information can help you prioritize actions.
Your team is essential for this reason. Your everyday users are better at identifying areas of improvement and assessing the current processes/systems.
Ensure Seamless Back and Front-Office Integration
Once you have a clear understanding of what is needed and when it should be done, you can start to integrate. Integrated ERP and CRM systems provide complete visibility, from 360-degree views of customers to your supply chains.
Regularly Review the Systems
You should always make sure to review your system after it goes live. First, make sure to update your key stakeholders about efficiencies and inefficiencies. Then, if necessary, make any adjustments.
Work with an Implementation Partner
Integration is a time-consuming and complex task. Therefore, it might be good to partner with an external partner if you don't have the resources or time.
They will be able to handle each task associated with the integration and ensure that project delivery standards are met. This allows your team to spend more time on other tasks.
Top ERP and CRM Tools for Enterprises that Can Enhance Productivity
Integration between ERP and CRM systems allows them to share data and information that can help improve business processes. Integration can reduce costs, improve customer service and help organizations make better business decisions.
SAP Business ByDesign
Price: Basis package, $1.673/ mo; Self-service user, $17/user/ mo; Team user $88/user/ mo; Enterprise user $148/user/mo
SAP promises to simplify many business areas, including financial and managerial accounting, project management, CRM, cash flow management, human resources management, and CRM. SAP is designed for mid-market businesses experiencing rapid growth and can help you scale your business without any complexity.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Price: Pricing: Unified Opera Plan, $190/user/ mo; Dynamics 365 Plan. $210/user/ mo
Microsoft ERP can optimize any manufacturing process and set the parameters for each product. You can also streamline your scheduling and accelerate product delivery. It also provides real-time insight and predictive intelligence to improve product quality.
SAP Business One
Although ERP solutions are more commonly used for larger operations, many providers now offer great solutions to small businesses.
SAP Business One is one example of such a solution. SAP Business One is the perfect solution if your company has outgrown its existing software. Or if you need to consolidate all your software into one platform.
The software can manage inventory, sales, financials, reporting, financial analytics, reporting, and CRM. This software is a complete solution.
SAP Business One also offers industry-specific solutions. You can choose from over 500 add-ons to personalize your software according to your industry or business type.
Bitrix24
Remote working is here for the long term. Bitrix24's CRM, an excellent Salesforce alternative, offers multiple options for keeping in touch, sharing information, and collaborating with remote teams.
We won't go into detail about the many features of this app. It has full CRM, marketing automation, web design, and project management capabilities. There are many communication options. You can start by creating departments (e.g., sales, marketing, and service) and adding employees to each one. You can easily create departments to allow you to segment your teams for workgroups, knowledge bases, and communication.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a popular Customer Relation Management tool. It was designed to produce the best possible output and input.
PIPEDRIVE's sole purpose is to make salespeople unstoppable. It allows you to organize your company to provide a great view of sales and increase productivity. As a result, we can all improve our workflows with PIPEDRIVE.
Salesforce CRM
Salesforce CRM is a leading cloud-based CRM software that provides innovative CRM solutions for businesses of all sizes, from large corporations to start-ups.
Salesforce CRM is cloud-based, highly scalable, and very user-friendly. It is customizable and offers a platform for growth or upgrades. Mobile and integration support.
Examples of CRM and ERP Integrations
There are many CRM and ERP integrations available today. Here are two examples.
Commercient
Price: Check out the pricing page of the tool you are integrating.
Commercient offers SYNC Apps that can be used as CRM integrations. These apps do not require code, mapping, server, ETL, or other technical requirements. As a result, Commercient can quickly integrate your accounts, orders, payment records, and other data.
These are just a few of the many benefits that Commercient offers:
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Get your Commercient SYNC App and get instant access to all your customer service, sales, and marketing data, wherever you are.
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You can set up data syncs between ERP and CRM as frequently as possible (daily or hourly, real-time, or daily).
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Integration apps can be used to integrate with several tools, such as HubSpot and Dynamics 365.
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Commercient, which is cloud-based, helps keep your data secure and makes it easy for internal teams to access data.
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You can either integrate your ERP data into your CRM system or integrate your CRM data into your ERP system. Or, you can use a two-way synchronization to combine both ERP and CRM data in one place.
HubSpot and Odoo Integration
Price: Starter, $39/ mo; Pro, $49/ mo
The HubSpot all-in-one CRM integrates with Odoo ERP. Within minutes, you can set up bi-directional, real-time syncs between your HubSpot CRM and the ERP tool.
This integration allows you to:
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You can sync your Odoo contacts with HubSpot or HubSpot customers with Odoo. Or both.
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Use HubSpot's list, smart, and contact fields, or Odoo's default and customized attributes to filter contacts.
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Preset field mappings to Odoo data objects will save you time and ensure data accuracy.
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With custom field mappings, link HubSpot's properties with fields in Odoo.
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Keep track of Odoo connector performance to see how your net new contacts between the platforms are doing. This will keep you up-to-date on the health and impact of your data syncs.
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You can identify failing contacts and align your data.
The Key Takeaway
Every enterprise will have its own unique needs. Still, there is one thing that all companies need: an integration platform that can support their integration needs both now and in the future. A central platform that supports all types of integration in your business ecosystem is essential. This includes enterprise B2B applications, SaaS, big data, and other formats. It is the foundation of any ERP integration strategy.
