eCommerce has accelerated the growth of many companies, allowing smaller businesses to compete with larger ones, and access the wider market, having grown from companies that just supplied their local town to now supplying nationwide. But with growth and expansion comes teething pains, many of which are related to efficiency and integration. While software helps a business to be more efficient, if core systems aren’t integrated this can be a headache for all involved. This is where eCommerce ERP integration becomes important.
Why eCommerce ERP Integration is Required
eCommerce systems are the lifeblood of the sales and order cycle, while ERP systems manage the inventory, and back office including accounting. In a perfect world these two systems talk to each other updating each other. The eCommerce system knows what inventory is currently available. The accounting system tracks and logs every eCommerce sale. But in reality, this is rarely true as there are so many variables.
There are many eCommerce systems and some businesses have to use several of them at any one time because of their vendor networks. Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and Amazon systems are common but there are other smaller ones as well. Whereas on the ERP front a corporation might us Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Intuit QuickBooks, Acumatica, Xero or a combination of two of these, one for accounting and one for supply chain management.
If you can integration these two systems you cut of the need for manual data entry between the two systems, saving time and money on labor. You also ensure that both systems have the most up to date information. Try working out your current monthly profit and loss situation when your accounting system hasn’t been updated with the most recent sales figures and the delivery of goods has yet to be entered. Whereas in an integrated system the data is live between all systems.
Are eCommerce ERP Integration Solutions Available
So here’s the good news, ERP eCommerce Integration systems are available as cloud solutions. They are software systems often SAAS with monthly subscription fees which plug in both ERP and eCommerce systems into one integrated system. They provide dashboards for ease of use and reporting purposes allowing you to make decisions and manage your business a lot more effectively.
Obviously you could pay to have bespoke software built for you to integrate your systems, but these SAAS solutions have already built and tested integration between the major ERP and eCommerce systems so that you are ready to plug in yours and reap the benefits. Any updates to the ERP or eCommerce systems will be addressed by the Integration provider to ensure you have little or no downtime between updates.
Because these are Cloud systems you will also have access to your key data remotely, whether on your tablet, laptop or smartphone, you can log into your dashboard to check sales, inventory and delivery information. If you use drop ship vendors you can also integrate them so that your whole business will run smoother and more efficiently.
