As a business grows, it requires more monitoring and maintenance. Different parts of a system need to share data with other parts and there is a need to maintain high data records. Manual labour completes a lot of this work but a majority requires automation to ensure reliability and zero-error. This automation comes in the form of ERP (Enterprise resource planning) tools.
ERP tools are basically a software that businesses implement to automate and simplify its functionalities. These functions include the management of human resources, monitoring of data, and keeping data available everywhere amongst other things.
The main appeal of an ERP system lies in its ability to improve communication between the different modules of an entire organization.
A study conducted in 2016 suggests that over 57% of prescriptions had errors. The risk of an error varies within businesses and is fatal sometimes.
Benefits of ERP and eCommerce integration
- Data consistency and data centralization
In a large scale business, there are a lot of components that interact with each other. So monitoring a single component of the system does not necessarily show the whole picture. For example, to check when a parcel will arrive, information regarding the order confirmation date, the shipping company, the mode of shipment, and many other things play a vital role.
This data is usually present in different components of the system. An ERP system provides a view of all the data in these different components through its data centralization. This makes the job of, as in this example, tracking a package very easily.
2. Automation
In a modular system, different modules share data with each other. Traditionally, a staff performs this task manually. The manual process, however, is time-consuming and prone to error. An ERP system automates most of the workflow. This saves a lot of time for the company and minimizes errors. Errors that are sometimes fatal to a company stay in check.
Only 5% of businesses say ERP systems don’t improve business processes.
- Shorter order fulfilment cycle
There are two steps in the completion of order; order placement and delivery. After the placement of an order, the information regarding the order details, like its destination, extend the date of arrival, and other such things transfer to the shipping company.
An ERP system transfers this data to the shipping company in real-time. This reduces the order fulfilment time.
- Enhanced customer service
ERP systems allow a company to cater to its services to the specific needs of its customers. Collecting and tracking data of customers in real-time makes this possible. Processing this data helps understand the customers better and improves their services.
Better ecommerce development services by Brainvire reflect in better customer experience. This allows businesses to retain more and more customers. ERP systems create a better life for both customers and service providers.
67% of companies described their implementations of ERP systems as successful or very successful.
Here are some of the top ERP systems to integrate with your eCommerce website
- Oracle ERP
Oracle ERP is one of the most popular ERP solutions available. It offers great support for managing finances, risk management, and supply chain management. The cloud-based giant also offers support for procurement.
It is also very secure and highly scalable with the Gen2 cloud infrastructure from Oracle. Performance and speed are also respectable on this ERP tool.
- SAP
SAP is a German tech giant with SAP S/4HANA as the SAP tool it provides. It covers customer relationship management, human capital management, and product lifecycle management. With great customer support, it offers great procurement solutions, logistics management, and increases sales and reduces cost.
Small or medium-sized businesses are the general customers of SAP S/4HANA and the pricing for its different services is not public.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamic 365 is not a singular software but a suite of ERP applications. It provides functionalities, like intelligent sales and marketing, proactive customer service, logistics, HR management, inventory, billing, and others. The ERP suite integrates natively with Dynamics 365 Commerce. Microsoft also allows the connection of other ERP tools with Dynamics 365 ERP.
According to Forrester, cloud-based ERP systems will account for $170 billion in revenue by 2020.
Conclusion
Integrating a business with an ERP system is one of the best decisions that a business can make. A streamlined workflow makes the life of both the employer and the employees very easy.
Different ERP systems have different solutions to a single problem and businesses should look into different systems and see which solution works best for them.
