ERP and CRM (Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management), are two products that go great together. While either product can work well on its own, their true potential is realized only when full ERP and CRM integration is achieved.
Today, with all the data that is created with the “speed of the light”, business owners are witnessing a more complex business environment than ever. On one hand, they are pressured to respond quickly to the changes in order to keep their business healthy in the long run. On the other hand, customers are becoming more demanding, the new business “players” are adapting faster to the change, and all this factors are driving the competition to a complete new level.
Many more companies are now realizing the need of ERP and CRM integration into one solution. Many small-to-midsized organizations use integrated ERP and CRM solutions to automate and improve the management of their operations. While, ERP systems automate and manage back-office business activities, such as accounting, HR, purchase, manufacturing… and streamline business processes, CRM is a front-office system that should simplify and standardize customer interactions, manage sales pipeline, support, up-sells, track customer information and create dashboards and reports on this data.
Why integrating ERP and CRM from different vendors is a bad idea?
The need for ERP and CRM integration is obvious, but it is difficult to integrate this systems because of the vastly different architectures and the lack of standards for exchanging data between the systems. The ERP and CRM integration from 2 different vendors will most probably be costly, complex, and a risky decision. Even when a company does integrate these systems, future ERP or CRM upgrades may lead to inoperability. To avoid these obstacles, many companies choose an integrated ERP and CRM solution, as one system. VIENNA Advantage ERP and CRM is one of the best integrated solutions on the market. It is modern, flexible and open source solution fully scalable and customizable to every business need.
Key benefits of ERP and CRM integration into a single solution:
#1 Terminate data entry and storage duplicates.
Both ERP and CRM systems contain contact and account information for different purposes. The ERP is focused on billing and shipping addresses and CRM on prospects and sales/support. The ERP and CRM integration removes the duplication of data entry, and provides same rules for each system. In this way any change made in the database in the ERP will reflect to the CRM system and vice versa. The same principle applies for adding/removing custom fields, products database and a few more.
#2 Ability to share data easier and in a more timely matter.
Productivity of the sale team increases when products are integrated in the both ERP and CRM systems. In this way a sales representative can access, view, or even order from bills of materials. It cuts duplicates, saves time and makes the sales team more productive!
#3 Improved Order and Quote Management
With ERP and CRM integration, a company will turn proposal generation (created in the CRM) into actual orders (executed and tracked at the ERP level) using one system. This saves a lots of time.
#4 IT support cost is reduced.
When there is just one system to maintain instead of two, and there is no need for interfaces to be built nor integration required, your IT support cost will significantly drop.
#5 Training cost is reduced.
When full ERP and CRM integration is achieved, there is less training and support required for your employees. Your employees will be trained on just one system, and additional courses and updates will cost less.
#6 Increased Visibility and Improved Forecasting
From experience, the majority of sellers don’t have access to their ERP systems. This is a problem! The ERP and CRM integration will lead to Product/Order/Invoice Repository creation. In this way a sales representative would have better visibility into the status of the order, and would be able to make and track changes. Additionally, fully implemented ERP and CRM integration will give your team a real-time data that will improve forecasting.
#7 Mobility
VIENNA Advantage ERP and CRM is accessible from any mobile device. This is especially important for your field team. When they are in a middle of a selling conversation they must have updated content at the point of interaction, not at the end of the day. With our mobile application your team will be up-to-date with any change occurring in the customers, products, inventory or other database. In this way the system will improve the way your field team engages customers and will help them make better decisions based on product availability, order information, historical purchases; all accessible with just a swipe and a tap.
#8 Software upgrade a few clicks away
VIENNA Advantage ERP and CRM is connected to our innovative and one of a kind app market, VIENNA Market. You can easily upgrade to the latest version of an installed app just with a few clicks. To do that you will only need to navigate to the VIENNA Market, find the installed app and click on the “Upgrade button”. The app will be upgraded to the latest version and will not affect in any way, the seamless integration of your ERP and CRM.
#9 Profit margins will increase
When ERP and CRM integration is achieved, your company’s departments will find it easier to work together. Streamlining of information makes it simpler to keep everyone on the same page. Managers will be able to easily check all operations with simple-to-navigate streamlined data. This will lead to overall increase in productivity and increased sales, which in the end, will positively affect the profit margins.
VIENNA Advantage open source ERP and CRM solution will help you achieve your strategic business goals
