Should you integrate your eCommerce and ERP systems?

Integrating an eCommerce system to a comprehensive ERP system is seen by many as one of the hardest challenges to take on. As with all hard tasks, it comes with many rewards, not least of which is a seamless movement of data. Most commonly, businesses, especially B2B ones, duplicate the data and leave the two systems separate, opening themselves up for many possible errors and not taking advantage of what integration can do. Some companies today take the middle road in which the two systems share some data points, which reduces the margin of error.

To decide if integration could work for you, let’s first take a quick look at some of its benefits. Integration:

1. Reduces manual error by cutting duplication of efforts like data entry.
2. Tracks and streamlines data on inventory to ensure you’re not under or overselling.
3. Automates notifications to customers and enables them to track their orders, improving customer experience.
4. Simplifies management internally and brings greater flexibility to your sales channels.

Here are a few signs that your business might benefit from integrating your eCommerce and ERP systems:

1. You’re finding it hard to keep up with online order volumes and the time it takes to pull orders from your website and re-enter them into your ERP system is enormous.
2. Your labour costs are increasing as a result. Cost saving is one of the biggest benefits of integration. The more your orders are, the longer they take to fulfill and the more people you need; unless you are automating some of your processes.
3. You are making more mistakes since manual processes are more prone to error. The tiniest typo can mean shipping to a wrong address, processing the wrong quantity or even completely losing a shipment!
4. Your inventory needs help! When your data is synchronized, your inventory is automatically updated.

If you think your business would benefit from integration, here are a few overarching rules to keep in mind as you embark on the project.

1. Follow best practice. Any integration comes with many steps and a period of flux. To keep things simple, allow for an efficient phase of planning and organizing. A documented strategy will go a long way in making your integration successful.
2. Data is of paramount importance so start with an approach that gives careful thought to your data needs. Many data points are duplicated in the two systems. Be sure to attribute the ownership of each data point to one system or another. Once the data lives somewhere, decide which function owns it and how it will be shared.
3. Pick an integration methodology that best suits you from the multitude available. When selecting tools, remember to think about those that already exist within your organization to make for greater consistency and more efficient support by the development team.

Quite simply, fully integrating your eCommerce sales channels with your ERP system brings greater efficiently to a business. Primary data like customer information, order details, inventory and shipping will be communicated between your two systems, reducing labour, cutting costs and overall making for much better customer experience.