One of the most powerful aspects of a CRM system is how it bridges information gaps between your inside sales, outside sales and service teams by serving as a central information hub. This allows you to improve customer service; note and capitalize on competitor mistakes; and ease employee on-boarding, just to name a few (read The Value of CRM Part 2: Bridging Islands of Data for more benefits).
But even companies with modern CRM may suffer from inconsistent pricing, incomplete specs, undocumented revisions and wasted time that result from the data disconnect between their CRM and ERP. What’s more, when their systems aren’t linked, companies miss out on a 360-degree view of their businesses. Visibility into every corner of your business on one platform can be powerful.
While ERP integration increases system complexity, it is well worth it for at least five reasons:
You can more easily measure the success of sales efforts. When sales team expenses, quotes and orders are all tracked within the same system, you can quantify the return you’re getting on your sales investment. This analysis will allow reps and managers to invest time in the most profitable places.
You can identify cross-selling opportunities. If a customer has changed up their product mix on a recent purchase, that customer may be working on a new project. When outside reps have visibility into order histories, they can follow up with customers to find out what else they might need.
You can spot customer service errors (and correct them). Sales reps can monitor customer order records for changes in frequency; if they’ve seen regular orders up until a certain date, then fewer or no orders, your company may have disappointed the customer somewhere along the line, or a competitor may have introduced a new product or service you weren’t aware of.
You can increase buy-in. If you’re like most companies that haven’t yet linked their CRM and ERP, your team is either ignoring your CRM entirely or begrudgingly performing double data entry as they input the same information into each system. When you integrate your CRM with your ERP, reps will be less likely to see CRM as a nuisance, and because of integration’s other benefits, more likely to view it as a useful tool.
You can reduce pricing and other errors. If your CRM and ERP are linked, pricing will sync automatically and will be reflected in new quotes and orders without manual effort. Customer contact information will be synced, as well, eliminating the time-consuming and error-prone process of updating information separately in each system.
These are just a few of the benefits from linking your ERP and CRM systems. Generally, linking these systems will give you much greater visibility into your business processes and profitability, and will enable more accurate predictive analytics.
Because we believe in the power of ERP and CRM integration, we’ve designed Selltis CRM to integrate simply and seamlessly with many popular systems, including Prophet 21, Tribute, JD Edwards and more. Learn more about Selltis CRM, and request a demo today.