Improve Business Processes with ERP Integration

What is an ERP integration?

ERP software is designed to support a variety of business processes, including inventory and order management, accounting, human resources, and customer relationship management (CRM). An ERP system's primary purpose is to automate these functions, facilitating improved resource management to drive efficient growth for the business.

With an ERP system being at the heart of a business’s operations and processes, it can take quite a long time to bring all the information together and have all departments using it effectively. What starts as a few functional modules can grow into a central ERP system functioning alongside a number of isolated applications. Businesses need to find an ERP implementation strategy that lets them integrate stand-alone applications, creating a united application architecture.

The need for ERP integration

Integrating your ERP system (which manages finance, inventory, receivables, etc.) with your CRM (which helps to manage sales, service, retention, etc.) is likely to produce ROI improvements on both fronts.

ERP and CRM integration enables companies to automate manual processes, such as data entry. This can also increase data accuracy and provide better insight into your customer base.

Common ERP integration pitfalls

While having an integrated business management system can make your business much stronger, companies can also come across some common pitfalls if they don’t follow a systematic approach.

Real-time vs. batch integration

Using a batch integration process used to be an effective and logical way of implementing ERP software and integrating it with systems used by various departments. However, with ERP systems housing so much crucial business information, this is no longer best practice.

As businesses have evolved to be more reliant on technology, the ERP software is required to provide data for other systems. If that real-time information cannot be provided due to batch integration, the ERP migration will make operations less effective.

Multiple modules to support

At the start of ERP implementation, businesses tend to install modules from the same ERP provider. As companies and their requirements evolve and grow, they can find themselves adding modules from different providers. Modifying the existing integrations and co-ordinating any additional data transformation can be a tricky and costly process.

Evolving technology

It’s important for businesses to choose an integration approach that’s future-proof and in-line with evolving technologies, such as cloud-based applications and mobile platforms. It’s valuable to have a roadmap for how evolving technology can be harnessed by your business to counter this integration challenge.

Achieve and ERP Migration

Make sure the ERP integration process is divided into steps, and each stage has specific timelines for completion. To guarantee a seamless migration, assign someone to be responsible for ensuring those deadlines are met.

The implementation process should be supported by documentation to minimise the chances of encountering delays. Such pre-worked documentation shared by the ERP provider ensures that, as a business, you can hit the ground running and hone in on new opportunities.

Enterprise Management software from Sage

Sage ERP software has been designed to help you perfect workforce and resource management. By tying all the key areas of your business together in one single system, including production, supply chain, and sales you can get reliable insights to ensure you always have the right level of staffing in every department.

We also offer tailored Enterprise Management solutions to businesses in discrete and process manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, and professional services.