eCommerce integration involves the coordination that takes place between a company’s website and its back-end accounting, inventory, and ERP system. With a proper integration in place, you can enjoy the flow of information bi-directionally, i.e., between the two systems, and you will just have to enter data into the system once.
When you integrate ERP into e-commerce, you can face some challenges. But the advancement of technology has enabled eCommerce stores to automate various tasks. So now think, how do you achieve full automation? The answer is enterprise resource planning and eCommerce integration.
What is eCommerce Integration?
Simply put, eCommerce integration is the coordination of customer data between a company’s eCommerce site and five critical components of the back-end system, i.e., accounting system, inventory, sales, and marketing.
When your eCommerce sales grow, it becomes harder to manage the volume. As a result, you will use third-party applications to manage different aspects of your operations. However, if those systems aren’t connected, they might not be as effective as they could be.
When ERP is integrated with eCommerce, it starts acting as a unified platform for all your data, eliminating silos.
The 3 eCommerce & ERP Integration Methods
The three methods of ERP integration are as follows:
- Integration PaaS (platform as a service)
- Enterprise service bus (ESB)
- Point-to-point (point integration)
iPaaS is a cloud-based integration platform that connects ERP systems with SaaS and other integrated systems. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) are older on-premises solutions that translate between different types of software using adapters and connectors. Point-to-point is a direct connection between two software programs.
Benefits of ERP Integration in eCommerce Business
With an ERP system, large and medium-sized eCommerce businesses can save plenty of time in entering the information manually. The following are a few benefits of ERP systems that a business can enjoy:
- Easily share data between the departments
- Make accurate forecasts
- Reduce administrative and operations costs
- Provide access to the centralized database anywhere in the world
- Increase productivity due to a high degree of automation
- Provide accuracy and security to the information
Challenges Faced in Ecommerce ERP Integration and How to Over Come it
Successful integration between an eCommerce platform and an ERP software goes beyond a mere exchange of data. It is a flawless integration of the complex business process for promoting your business to the next level.
Since most companies are not clearly able to understand the complexities required for a successful ERP integration with E-commerce, their results don’t meet their expectations. Over here, we have explored a few ERP integration challenges that you must resolve for achieving a successful eCommerce – ERP integration.
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Integrating with Intention
Your intention behind the process of eCommerce ERP integration should be clear and crisp. Your expectations should be quantitative and not qualitative. You should be ready with a clear set of quantifiable expectations such as sales growth numbers, the increased percentage in growth, and improved customer experience. Be ready with a fitting picture of your organization’s ultimate goal.
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Lack of Clear Understanding of Requirements
Most often, business owners/representatives spend almost negligible time with their ERP integration partners. This is the reason why the understanding of the business integration requirements is often pretty unclear, which may lead to project delays, cost overruns, and an increase in efforts. A clear understanding of all the requirements is an essential part of successful eCommerce ERP integration.
The integration partners should have a clear picture of all the ERP integration challenges they have to address along with the objective behind the integration.
It is a good practice for all the stakeholders to map the entire business flow using proper workflow management. Having a pictorial representation of the business process will lay out a concise understanding of the process and its requirements.
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Insufficient Testing for eCommerce ERP Integration
Testing is an essential step, but it also happens to be one of the most neglected processes involved in successful eCommerce ERP integration. It is common for projects to get delayed, and every time a project is running late, the worst affected area is testing.
Testing is carried out to check whether the software is working fine and to see if the system can meet the business needs or not. Testing takes place to ensure the intention behind the entire eCommerce ERP integration process goes well. So it is very important to properly plan and execute the testing phase for successful integration.
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Training and Support
The management should refrain from using the integration system until and unless they have not provided adequate training to those who are going to use it. Generally, training comes after the testing phase; so, it involves a very small phase with a severe time crunch. This is why it gets very difficult for end-users to work with the tool.
Now, even if the entire business process is flawlessly integrated, if the users who would be running the tool are poorly trained, the tool will result in a bad investment. This can further lead to the failure of a rather successful project. Therefore, proper training and support for the end users should be mandatory for a successful and sustained integration system.
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Integrate for the Future
You need to have a long-term view for a successful eCommerce ERP integration. While short-term goals are great when they are achieved, this shortsightedness may turn dangerous for the future. You need to have clear intentions about what should happen after the short-term milestones are fulfilled.
Organizations that often integrate and work without considering the upcoming events often find themselves in an unwanted situation in the future. Therefore, planning for the long term will help you determine how well the eCommerce ERP integration will roll out for your company’s future.
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Stiff Integrations
Another most overlooked aspect of such an application integration process is how intertwined an application can be. All the applications that are so closely assembled with other operating systems remain well-linked but are also highly dependent on each other.
It can get difficult to carry out a migration process for such applications. Plus, the closely combined applications do not react well to any updates or changes, are very brittle, and are costly to modify.
Ensure your eCommerce and ERP system has a few independent aspects to avoid any such future troubles.
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Limited Capabilities
There are several ERP applications that are not well integrated within an enterprise’s IT environment. This can directly affect how quickly and well a company can interact with its customers.
Usually, a customer’s response time lags every time an employee tries to work across different applications or business processes, which are not effectively equipped to work together.
Don’t forget, every time an enterprise falls behind in its response time, they are at risk of violating SLA and subpar customer service scores.
Tips for ERP Ecommerce Integration
A lot has been said about ERP in eCommerce integration. But to reap its maximum benefits, it’s crucial that the integration is done in the right way.
Here are some of the ERP eCommerce integration best practices.
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Consider Future-Focused Approach
Combining your ERP system with an eCommerce site requires a framework that will ensure the smooth functioning of the two as a unified system.
While integrating, consider the fact that the system should accommodate not just present needs but also future plans. Eventually, you might plan to expand your operations, the software system should be prepared for any feature.
In short, take a future-focused approach so that you don’t have to worry about changing your systems again.
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Choose SaaS Systems
a SaaS system as these systems use API that is required for easy integration. It saves a lot of time during the eCommerce ERP integration process and makes it easy to implement. Besides, SaaS-based eCommerce software syncs in real-time across all devices.
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Choose a Two-way Integration
Another ERP eCommerce integration best practice is to implement bidirectional integration. Yes, there are several ways to integrate eCommerce and ERP systems depending on the system as well as the number of repositories. But a bidirectional integration will ensure that you can update data both ways in real-time.
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Training and Support
Train your team on how to use the software before they start using it. After all, your employees will be using the system on a daily basis. They must understand the function of the system so that they can ensure proper synchronization between the ERP system and the eCommerce site.
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Plan to Test
Before launching eCommerce ERP integration, you should test the program. Many businesses often forget to include this critical stage in their first schedule.
The testing phase is a great way to know whether there are any bugs and be fixed before going live. Furthermore, make sure that these tests are done by your employees only. This will also help you know whether your employees know the tool and find it useful or not.
Top 5 eCommerce ERP Software you need to know about it
The market is flooded with several ERP solutions to operate eCommerce business processes effectively. Let’s take a look at some of the leading ones right here.
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Sage
Established in 1981, Sage is designed to provide ERP specifically designed for small and medium-sized firms. You can enjoy Sage’s ERP in three different products:
- X3 for enterprises
- 100 for small and mid-sized light manufacturers
- Sage 300 for small and mid-sized businesses with multiple locations
Sage 100 offers modules for core distribution, manufacturing, accounting, business intelligence, customer relationship management, as well as human resources. X3 is pretty much web-based, and it is specifically designed for mobile devices. You can also configure it to your company’s specific user roles, requirements, and preferences.
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Oracle Netsuite
For over 20 years now, organizations have used Oracle NetSuite to grow, adapt to change, and scale in business. With NetSuite, you can enjoy a suite of cloud-based applications, including professional services automation, financials / ERP, HR management, and omnichannel commerce.
The software is used in over 203 countries and dependent territories by more than 15,000 customers. Oracle NetSuite ERP allows users to consolidate in real time.It also includes foreign currency translation and automated intercompany eliminations. It is a web-based solution that runs on a range of Internet browsers. The company ensures full safety with its built-in security controls and data center.
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Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft offers ERP software to companies of all sizes with its Dynamics 365 platform. The platform consists of six separate products mentioned here- Microsoft AX, GP, SL, NAV, CRM, and RMS.Microsoft Dynamics was started in 2001 after the acquisition of Great Plains Software, Soloman, Navison; and Axapta in 2002.
Combining all these technologies make up the Microsoft Business Solutions Group (MBS), which is a major supplier of ERP solutions worldwide. While Dynamics GP, NAV, and SL are used by small and medium enterprises, Dynamics AX, on the other hand, is best suited for larger companies.
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Batchmaster
BatchMaster Software presents users with process manufacturing software solutions involving the chemical, nutraceutical, food, and pharmaceutical industries.
You can run the manufacturing application using QuickBooks, Sage 100 & 300, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and SAP Business One financials. also choose to upgrade to an end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that supports financials, supply chain process manufacturing, CRM, and more.
Some of its impressive supported process manufacturing capabilities include R&D, recipe, and formula management, packaging BOM management, scheduling, warehousing, analytics, reporting, etc. With the optional mobile application, you can perform production and warehousing tasks using smart devices.
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SYSPRO
SYSPRO is an ERP solution designed for manufacturers and distributors, and it can be deployed, on-premise, in the cloud, or through a hybrid model. It is easily accessible from any device. You can license SYSPRO through either a perpetual or subscription pricing model.It offers an end-to-end, fully integrated business solution including order management, planning and scheduling, supply chain management, accounting, inventory management, warehouse management, production, and much more.
SYSPRO focuses on delivering tools for integrating technologies such as ML, IoT, AI, cloud, and consumer-grade user experience (UX) into your eCommerce business’s ERP system.
Final Thought
By flawlessly integrating eCommerce and ERP together, you can promote your business to the next level. Just ensure it is planned well and executed properly.
While the process is not difficult or risky, you need to have a clear intention right at the beginning so that you can easily work around it. Get a seamlessly set integration by planning your project and overcoming these basic challenges.
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