E-commerce optimization through ERP integration

Enterprise Resource Planning

An ERP-type system is a tool for effective business management. It is a sophisticated software that enables control and effective management of resources and processes in various company departments. Using an ERP system, a company integrates many crucial areas, such as finance, sales, workflow, warehouse, HR and payroll, reporting, analysis, production, and budgeting and planning.

The comprehensive ERP system helps collect, store, and analyze data from different areas of the company. One of the essential features of this software is the concentration of all data in one central database. In addition, it is possible to customize the system by adding dedicated solutions, allowing it to be perfectly tailored to the company's specific needs.

ERP system manufacturers look after security in business conduct by ensuring compliance with current legislation, which is an additional benefit for businesses.

ERP integration is crucial for e-commerce

Integration with the ERP system allows you to automate many business processes. As a result, information is transmitted in real-time, automatically, eliminating the need for manual data entry. This speeds up the work and minimizes the risk of errors. Integration with ERP is essential for many other reasons as well:

Data centralization

ERP integration collects and stores data related to orders, inventory, payments, invoices, customer information, and other essential business aspects in one central place. This minimizes the risk of incompatibilities or discrepancies between different systems while making accessing and managing data easier.

More efficient inventory management

Integration of ERP with e-commerce enables automatic synchronization of stock levels. When a customer makes an online purchase, the ERP system immediately notices a reduction in the number of products available in stock, which prevents situations where the customer orders a product that is no longer available.

Efficient price management

Price lists are also integrated. If the price changes in the ERP system, this information is transmitted to the e-commerce in real-time.

Streamlining business processes

Many key business processes, such as order processing, delivery management, returns handling, and invoicing, can be automated. This leads to greater efficiency and less time spent on manual tasks.

Better customer service

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is like a company's business card, recording every contact with a customer and keeping a history of transactions, preferences, or interactions.

It is an invaluable treasure trove of knowledge that allows you to understand your customers' needs, adjust your offer, and build stronger relationships with them.

With the development of e-commerce and its dynamic growth, it is also necessary to integrate data from the sales platform with the ERP system, which offers an excellent solution for collecting and harmonizing customer information between the e-commerce and the system.

This integration enables automatic and instant invoicing of the end customer or verification of data, which significantly speeds up and simplifies business processes. Once CRM and ERP are integrated, a company can gain a consistent, complete, and up-to-date view of each customer.

This allows you to better segment your customer base, personalize communication, and even forecast their behavior. With such data at their fingertips, the company can make more accurate and effective business decisions, improving the quality of customer service.

Precise analysis and reporting

Integration with ERP allows you to collect data from multiple sources, making it easier to perform advanced analyses and generate detailed reports. This, in turn, enables you to better understand sales performance, market trends, and customer needs, which provides valuable support in strategic decision-making.

Ensuring compliance and security

In the e-commerce industry, it is crucial to ensure compliance with regulations on personal data protection, online payments, and tax regulations. Integrating with an ERP that meets these requirements provides greater security and trust for both customers and the enterprise.

In addition, the advantage of modern ERP systems is the presence of a built-in module for SAF-T settlements, which enables the automation of processes. Thanks to the integration with the e-commerce system, data from the sales platform is seamlessly transferred to the ERP, which significantly speeds up the generation of the SAF-T file, which is necessary to provide information about transactions to the tax authorities.

Integration with WMS – efficient data flow

The ERP system can also work with the WMS system, enabling logistics planning by generating waybills and parcel tracking links. This information can be communicated to the end customer through the e-commerce platform, which increases customer trust and shortens the information path regarding the shipment. Thanks to such coherence of systems, the entire logistics process becomes more fluid and effective.

Stock levels and product availability

The current stock level is a crucial piece of information that influences the purchasing decisions of potential customers in an e-store. Outdated or incorrect product availability information can cause frustration and discourage customers from shopping in your store.

When integrating an ERP system with e-commerce, it is worth focusing on several important issues:

1. Retrieving stock levels
   It is worth determining whether the stock levels will be taken from one warehouse or many. Can the stock of a given product depend on several warehouses, and if so, how to manage the reservation of a product when a customer orders a larger quantity than is available in one warehouse?
    
2. Data Synchronization
   If your brick-and-mortar store and e-commerce store share the same warehouse, it is essential to determine what data synchronization mechanisms will be used between these systems.
    
3. Product Reservations
   Determining whether the reservation of the product for the order will take place immediately after the order is placed or whether it will be reserved only after the synchronization of data between e-commerce and ERP.
    
4. Building Inventory
   If the inventory of a product depends on many other stocks, such as partial products, you need to determine how this information will be communicated to e-commerce, especially for kits or sets.
    
5. Order cancellation support
   Define whether order cancellation should release inventory reservation and what procedures should be used to do so.
    
6. Visibility of out-of-stock products
   Decide whether out-of-stock products should continue to be published and visible in the store.
    
7. Warehouse turnover management
   It is worth considering introducing a safety buffer that blocks the possibility of purchasing products when their stock is low or there is a high risk of damage.

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Ensuring proper integration and addressing the above issues is crucial to avoid customers encountering misinformation or unavailability of products. This reduces the occurrence of order cancellations and loss of customers.

Proper inventory management is beneficial for customers and for the success and image of an e-commerce store.

Invoices & Orders - Improve Your Cash Flow

In an ERP system, invoices and orders play an essential role, enabling the smooth and effective management of the company's commercial processes. Invoices are generated in response to orders placed, recording transaction details such as product quantities, prices, discounts, and other trade terms.

The integration of these two elements in the ERP system offers numerous benefits, enabling the automatic creation of invoices based on placed orders, which min

imizes the risk of human error and speeds up accounting processes. In addition, the integration of invoices and orders allows for visibility and control over the sales process.

As a result, the company can track the status of order fulfillment, monitor payments from customers, and manage inventory. Order information is reflected in invoices, ensuring data consistency and making it easy to identify any differences or inconsistencies.

In addition, the ERP system enables effective management of the lifecycle of invoices and orders. The ability to monitor payments and payment dates, remind customers of overdue payments, and analyze sales data allows you to optimize financial processes and improve cash flow in the company. This is especially important for customers in the B2B sector.

Effective integration with ERP. How to do it appropriately?

When integrating with ERP, it is worth paying attention to:

1. Correctness of data
   Ensuring that data between systems is consistent to avoid errors.
    
2. Data Updates
   Set up synchronization mechanisms to keep you informed.
    
3. Warehouse management
   Ensuring that inventory is appropriately preserved and updated.
    
4. Pricing
   Integrate to provide up-to-date information to e-commerce in real time.
    
5. Business Processes
   Tailoring the integration to the needs of the company.
    
6. Safety
   Ensuring adequate security of data and transactions.
    
7. Data analysis
   Ensure that data is appropriately collected and available for analysis.
    
8. Tech support
   Setting up support and monitoring mechanisms after integration.

Integration with SAP

SAP is a comprehensive platform that integrates essential business processes, enabling enterprises to operate effectively in a dynamic and competitive environment. With SAP software, companies gain an unparalleled ability to monitor and optimize their processes in real time.

Automated functions and intelligent algorithms support activities in areas such as finance, HR and payroll management, logistics, manufacturing, and many more. All this allows you to make precise decisions based on solid data and analysis.

SAP also offers innovative customer relationship management (CRM) tools that allow you to track customer interactions on multiple levels. This enables businesses to better understand their customers' needs and adjust their marketing strategies, which translates into increased loyalty and increased profits.

The availability of cloud solutions, mobile applications, and intelligent analytics make SAP a flexible and scalable tool for different sizes of companies and industries.

How can we help you?

At Ideo Software, we specialize in the integration of online stores with sales support tools, including ERP systems. Our experience and knowledge allow us to tailor the integration process to each client's individual needs. We work with various ERP systems, including m.in SAP, OPTIMA, SubiektGT, and Navireo. With our solutions, you can focus on what matters most - growing your business.

Our Technology Partner ASISTON implements ERP systems. In this way, we provide comprehensive support in the field of enterprise resource management.