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It is no longer enough to have an ERP system that does not integrate with other platforms, such as eCommerce or CRM. This is especially true if your business is a manufacturer, retailer, or distributor. Let's examine why ERP Integration is important for your business and all other aspects of ERP Integration in a wide range.
What is ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning is software for managing businesses that simplifies the way companies elicit, track, and manage their data, such as customer, product, finance, logistics, supply chain, and other important business data.
ERP systems integrate data from different departments, allowing for seamless management of company data.
We have also written a blog on the following details: Why ERP System Integration is Important for Your Business? The definitive guide for ERP selection and implementation. This blog will guide you through what ERP is and why it is important to your business. It also provides a guide on how to select an ERP that is right for your company. Take a look if you're interested in learning more.
What is ERP integration?
You now know what ERP is and how to select a suitable ERP. Let's look at ERP Integration.
ERP integration is the process of connecting your ERP software to other business applications, such as eCommerce (front end), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), EDI(Electronic Data Interchange), and marketing tools like analytics and best API management tools.
Connecting all points that a business operation uses to input, track, manage, and output meaningful and important data.
A visitor can submit a lead to an eCommerce storefront, request a demonstration, or purchase a product. CRM software is used to manage data about leads, such as their requirements, the point of entry they made, their quality, where they are in the sales funnel, and any transactions.
It is important that the best ERP integration software or tools communicate with other platforms and synchronize data from Omni-channels. ERP Integration is what you get.
Why Should You Opt for ERP Integration
Although it is true that ERP, as a system, is an integrated collection of data points for an organization's operations, it must integrate with other business systems to improve accuracy. Let's first look at the potential pitfalls of not having ERP Integration for your business.
Manual Dataflow
Imagine a form that is submitted via your eCommerce website. It will remain in your eCommerce until someone manually enters it into your ERP. It increases the workload of employees and reduces efficiency. ERP Integration will eliminate time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks.
Error-Prone Operations
This problem is a result of the previous point about manual data entry. People are prone to making mistakes and making errors. It can lead to the wrong data being entered into ERP systems. This results in departments having incorrect information and an avalanche of other problems. All of these problems are more likely to occur if ERP is not integrated with other systems.
Real-time Data Not Available
Disintegrated systems require manual data updates, as shown in the two points above. The data will not be communicated to the ERP as soon as it is generated. The relevant stakeholders of your company will only be able to focus on their own activities and waste valuable time manually transferring the data. After the operations have been completed, it will take even more precious days to deliver the final service to your customers. This leads to a drop in sales and revenue.
Poor Conversions in the Sales Funnel
The Sales Funnel represents the entire cycle, from someone visiting our website to them doing business, and finally, repeat business. The sales funnel includes many stages, such as lead, prospect customer, repeat customers and business evangelist. A sales funnel that is efficient will have a higher conversion rate and a shorter conversion time from one stage to another. It is unlikely that this can happen without ERP System Integration. This will give your business a bad sales funnel, and you may lose out on leads who could become customers.
Collaboration between Team Members is Hindered
It is essential that data be consistent between systems so teams can work together with the same goal and intensity and without conflict. Without ERP System Integration, collaboration between teams will be hindered, as shown in the following scenario:
- The product is no longer available in the eCommerce store.
- The sales team asks the inventory team to maintain the product stock.
- The inventory team checks the ERP product section for stock availability and then gets back to sales to ask them to check the product again in eCommerce.
- There are a number of interactions between the inventory and sales teams, which can lead to conflict and dissatisfaction.
It is not a good way to generate revenue for your business.
ERP Integration: Benefits
You should now be able to describe ERP Integration in detail and explain why it is important for your business.
Automated Business Processes
It is important that your ERP software receives all the data that arise, such as customer data, order information, and key business-related data. This data can come from multiple applications, including eCommerce, CRM, and EDT.
Only by integrating the ERP with other business applications can you achieve this. You will waste your time if you manually enter the data into the ERP. ERP System Integration allows you to streamline workflows and business processes across different office departments.
One Source of Truth
Integration of ERP systems with other software applications allows data to be updated from multiple applications such as eCommerce, CRM, and ERP. All departments will have access to the omnichannel data. Inventory management teams, for example, would be able to see the current inventory of eCommerce products and act immediately if there is a shortage.
The accounting team does not need to wait until the sales and marketing teams provide revenue information. The ERP is the only source of data, and all employees refer to it in case there are any discrepancies.
Accuracy in Operations
ERP Integration is a proven way to automate business processes, reduce the workload of data entry by humans and also reduce human error. As a team works with the correct data, ERP software becomes more accurate.
Without ERP integration, for example, the operations team will have to manually enter customer orders via eCommerce. This is error-prone and could lead to incorrect products being delivered or sales staff approaching leads with incorrect needs.
Increased Efficiency of Time Spent
This eliminates one of the most time-consuming tasks, which is manually entering the data into the ERP. You can spend that time on other important business activities, like market penetration, feature implementation, expansion of your business, process optimization, and so forth.
ERP System Integration allows you to easily access accurate data in real-time. This data can be used to gain high-level insights and to make business-changing decisions.
Enhanced Workflows
Centralizing work-related information is possible when your ERP is integrated with primary business tools such as project management. Everyone in the company can see what each other is working on. You can also set up priority levels for employee tasks and scheduling processes.
Knowing what teams are doing will help you to understand if the ongoing activities are aligned with business objectives and make changes in tasks whenever needed.
If you asked your employee to submit a report on a particular project, but you see that they're working on an important development task, you could reschedule it.
Accelerated Sales Conversions
Sales conversions are faster now that your ERP is integrated. More website visitors will become leads, and more leads will be converted into customers.
Lead data from CRM and eCommerce is immediately transferred into eCommerce. This allows all departments to work together toward specific customer needs and demands. Leads are handled more efficiently in less time. This has the double benefit of increasing customer satisfaction and business revenue.
Different types of ERP integration
It is important to integrate ERP with major business applications. This includes Acumatica ERP. ERP Integrations can be classified based on the business purpose, pain point, and platforms that it integrates with.
Integration of eCommerce ERP
Data collection and implementation should be closely linked when it comes to organization. The eCommerce store is where most of the external data and customer information originates. This is the place where your business interacts with its customers. eCommerce stores data such as leads and customers, orders, transaction statistics, and shipping statistics.
When you integrate your ERP with your eCommerce store, all employees who are working on fulfilling a need that is arising in the store will have access to the data. ERP integration is a must for businesses that use platforms like Magento, Shopify, and SAP Hybris. These platforms generate a lot of data on the front end, making it difficult to integrate without ERP.
Common Benefits of ERP eCommerce Integration:
- Data front-end availability across departments is uniform
- Inventory levels are automatically updated in both the front-end (eCommerce) as well as back-end (ERP).
- Customers-specific dynamic pricing can be implemented in real-time.
- It is easy to use and implement in the event of a contingency, such as an urgent requirement for a product that is out of stock.
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
cisin Integrator is the right choice for ERP integration and eCommerce. cisin Integrator is the leading iPaaS integration tool for integrating ERP applications with Ecommerce platforms.
- Magento
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- SAP Hybris
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
CRM ERP Integration
Customer service and satisfaction are the hallmarks of any successful business. CRM is the central hub for all things related to customers: their transactions, communications, orders, and more. Often, salespeople get blamed for low sales funnel performance when, in fact, other departments like order management, logistics, and inventory are at fault.
It is due to a lack of communication between your ERP and CRM software. Integration between ERP and CRM, in particular, to create a synergy of Demand (CRM) and Supply (ERP), is vital.
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Common Benefits of CRM ERP Integration:
- Teams can collaborate to meet a customer's needs
- Optimized sales funnel performance and conversions
- Customer satisfaction is a result of quick and effective customer service
- ERP CRM systems synchronized across departments and systems provide uniform customer information
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
Cisin Integrator integrates seamlessly with leading CRM software, such as
- Salesforce
- Oracle Netsuite
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Oracle Sales Cloud
- Hubspot is more than just a search engine.
cisin Integrator will be the right choice for you if you're looking for a powerful tool that integrates and automates your transactions between ERP and CRM software.
Integration of Project Management with ERP
Project management is an essential activity for all organizations, but especially enterprises. Project management is the process of gathering all relevant information about a project, including who works on which tasks, when deadlines are due, and any other information.
The majority of ERPs have a built-in project management tool. However, we recommend that you use a standalone project management tool, as it offers more features and sophistication. Integrating your project management tool into your ERP is a great idea for both the manager and every employee.
The Benefits of ERP Integration for Project Management
- All department heads know what employees have completed, are currently doing, and what they have scheduled.
- Work schedules are easy to manage in situations where one team cannot start the process until another team has finished.
- Prioritizing tasks and deadlines is easy for all employees, regardless of their hierarchy.
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
cisin can integrate with the leading project management software. We will integrate your project management software and ERP within a week if you request a demo or contact us.
Business Intelligence Integration in ERP
Business intelligence software can help your organization reach the next level. It helps stakeholders make decisions about new features, business diversifications, new products, penetration of new markets, forecasts, targets, and goals for the next financial year.
Although I have only mentioned high-level, actionable insights, the tool can be used to make any decision. This includes decisions at the employee level. For example, workflow changes that facilitate efficient ergonomics.
Integrating your ERP software with BI allows you to ensure that employees from all departments and levels of hierarchy can access these insights and make decisions according to their degree of freedom.
Business Intelligence and ERP Integration: Benefits to Both
- Data and insights empower all employees
- Employees at all levels can work together to provide suggestions for the organization that could lead to a breakthrough.
- Accurate forecasting leads to enhanced decision-making
- Employee satisfaction would be elevated if there was transparency, openness, and freedom for everyone to make their own decisions.
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
cisin Integrator allows you to integrate your Business Intelligence Software with ERP. You can request a demo, and our experts will walk you through the process.
EDI ERP Integration
Electronic Data Interchange is a platform that facilitates electronic data transfer in a predetermined format between organizations, such as trading partners, suppliers, and distributors.
Data like purchase orders, transactions, and shipment details need to be instantly communicated and securely between organizations. EDI is designed to achieve this.
Where will EDI obtain the data that needs to be transferred? All of the information above is either in eCommerce, ERP, or PDT devices for offline stores. ERP is the source of data truth, so it's a given that your EDI app must be integrated into the ERP.
Common Benefits of EDI ERP Integration
- Data transfer between business partners is instantaneous, allowing for seamless order management. (NOTE: ERP integration with eCommerce is required to achieve this.
- Data accuracy improves in the communication of inventory, orders, and invoices, as well as shipping and much more. This leads to a greater trust in data received or transmitted.
- Supply chain and logistics can be improved for your eCommerce business.
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
cisin Integration integrates your ERP platform with the leading EDI platforms on the market. If you are in eCommerce and have not yet purchased an EDI Platform, it's time to do so. If you need an immediate EDI/ERP Integration, request a free One-on-One Demo.
EAM ERP Integration
Enterprise Asset Management is a piece of software that allows you to manage assets in an organization, such as vehicles, heavy machinery, and installation devices. EAM is a necessity, especially if you work in the manufacturing industry.
EAM can streamline your entire organization's asset management. Asset management includes all activities related to assets, such as inventory management, supply chain, forecasting and demand planning, maintenance management, etc.
By integrating an ERP system, these functionalities can be enhanced and made more efficient. This will synchronize data such as inventory, logistics, and human resources with the TEAM.
Common Benefits of EAM ERP Integration
- Keep the data points of the two systems synchronized and connected to ensure effective asset management.
- Human resource planning is required to manage assets.
- The ERP Inventory data points are in sync with EAM, allowing for comprehensive planning of inventory needs well in advance.
What cisin Integrator can do for you:
If you are looking to integrate your ERP with your EAM system, Request a demo at a time and date that suits you. Our experts will guide you through the process using cisin Integrator.
How to Integrate Your ERP and Business Applications
It is easy to integrate your ERP System with business-critical applications. Here are the steps you need to take to configure your iPaaS Integration for ERP with your systems:
Add System Credentials
You will first need to configure your api integration solutions token (credentials) for the ERP system and any other systems you want to integrate.
Create Flows
Create a base template to determine when and how your ERP should interact with other applications, including CRUD operations (Create Read Update Delete).
Configure Integration Pipes
Pipes are simply data points, like Customer Data, Product Data, or Order Data. You only need to configure similar pipe connections, e.g., Inventory Data) available in all connected systems (ERP, eCommerce).
Install Mapping and Modifiers
Next, create connections between data fields in ERP, eCommerce, and CRM systems. (e.g. (e.g., Create advanced business logic to determine how data fields interact. (e.g., Splitting "Customer name" from ERP into "First Name" (CRM) and "LastName" (ERP).
Enable Auto Mode
After automating the schedule and frequency of the sync, make sure that the integration between your ERP system and any other applications is live.
Now, your Integrator application is in charge.
ERP Integration: Typical challenges
ERP Integration is not a simple task. As stated above, ERP Integration does solve several business problems. Integrating your ERP with business applications can be a difficult task. These challenges are divided into pre-integration or post-integration issues and need to be addressed before moving forward.
Choosing the Right ERP Integration Strategy
Business objectives are different for every business. It is, therefore, important that you align the ERP with your business's goals and operations. If you run an eCommerce company, for example, you may want to find an ERP provider that can cater to the eCommerce specifications.
If your business has specific custom requirements, it is important to check if your ERP software can accommodate them.
Before integrating, you should first consider the ERP System and the strategy to integrate it, including the applications to be integrated or the method/tool that will be used.
Maintaining ERP Integration
A successful ERP Integration strategy is more than just having your systems integrated. Data points that are used to run the business may also change as businesses grow and their goals and activities evolve.
It is possible to add new databases or change the data fields in existing data points (such as the "Customer name"), which would require updating the integration. If data transfer between the ERP system and other systems is not working properly, it could lead to an integration failure.
Standardizing Data across Applications
Data types and formats are different between applications. What is relevant in one application, e.g., ERP, may not have the same relevance as CRM. Your ERP may not accept some data from your CRM, like a unique ID for a customer. It is important to standardize all of these data types across applications.
Before integrating systems, it is important to ensure that the best api integration platform for the ERP and the other systems are compatible with each other. Once you have standardized data, it will reduce the burden of ERP Integration.
Customization is a must
The native interfaces of your applications, such as ERP, CRM, eCommerce, and others, may not meet all your business requirements. The majority of applications offer a standard solution set, and their interfaces support standard data inflows and outflows.
Today's businesses are changing and becoming more complex. This requires customized ERP solutions and customized API interfaces. You will need to ensure that the ERP vendors can adapt to your specific needs, or you may have to find an integration solution provider to provide you with a customized interface or API.
ERP System Integration Specialization
It is important that the ERP Integration team you hire has the right expertise and experience to properly integrate your ERP System with your business.
Although you can integrate ERP systems with your own personnel, it's recommended that you outsource the integration to partners who specialize in ERP Integration. They will have an integration platform that caters to your needs and is able to solve all of your integration challenges.
When integrating your ERP, be sure to address these challenges.
Successful ERP Integration Strategy using cisin Integrator
You now know what ERP Integration is and how it can benefit your business.
cisin is an iPaaS that automates data transfers between applications. cisin Integrator can also handle your custom integration needs with a variety of features, such as a custom flow builder and advanced mapping and modifiers.
Do you want to know what integration features cisin Integrator offers? Check out our full feature set. cisin Integrator also offers Custom api management solutions to integrate with your ERP or business system.
cisin Integrator provides seamless integration solutions to customers who use leading ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor Netsuite Distribution One, DDI Inform, and many more.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Conclusion
You will now have a thorough understanding of ERP Integration. This includes what it is, how to integrate your ERP System, which types of ERP Integration you should use, the challenges and benefits of ERP Integration, and how to implement your ERP Integration.
