An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a key pillar in any business. It is integrate into all departments, whether it is supply management, finance, customer service or the eCommerce platform.
All companies looking to grow and become more efficient in their operations know the importance of integrating Magento into their ERP system. This action provides a smooth customer experience while unifying the efficiency of your sales and logistics departments.
The main advantages of an ERP integration with Magento
By integrating your Magento Commerce platform with your ERP system, you benefit from an increase in your productivity, better profitability and higher business performance. Here are the main benefits of a successful integration between Magento Commerce and an ERP.
- Data synchronization. You will have an accurate view of important business information such as inventory levels, prices, customer data, order status and more.
- Reduce inventory cost. Integrating Magento with your ERP allows you to automate your processes while providing you with updates on your inventory level of your online and offline sales channels. Thanks to this visibility, you ensure better planning of your purchases and you have an easier time tracking all of your stock. In short, this contributes to a reduction in the costs associate with inventory management.
- Improve customer experience. You have a precise vision on your data across your departments which promotes effective collaboration between the different business departments. Better communication between your departments such as customer service and shipping have a positive effect on the customer experience.
- Optimization of working time and reduction of errors. The information does not need to be enter twice and follows a two-way flow between Magento and the ERP. Thus, the risk of errors is reduce and the manual updating and transfer of data from one system to another is reduce, saving you time.
- Financial transparency. Integration between Magento and your ERP allows you to produce financial statements that provide real-time figures from your eCommerce sales and your financial information in the ERP.
4 best practices for integrating Magento with your ERP
Integrating Magento with an ERP is a complex process that requires careful planning and evaluation of several variables. To ensure a smooth and hassle-free integration, we share four best practices to follow that will help you avoid common pitfalls and minimize the challenges of integration.
1. Define the right flows.
Set up one flow for product synchronization, one for inventory and orders, as well as one flow for invoices and another for Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA). All of these flows should be determine before starting the integration process.
2. Choose the right method
There are a multitude of approaches to synchronize data between your ERP and Magento (Webservice, direct access to the database, CSV files, XML files, etc.). Although each method has its advantages and disadvantages, the best solution has three parameters: speed, robustness, and availability. In concrete terms, efficient synchronization will prevent your out-of-stock items from being sold.
3. Better to plan than to suffer
Nothing is more frustrating than being aware of a problem without being able to identify the source of the problem. Setting up notifications and alarms allows your business to anticipate likely errors and prevents your website from losing potential sales.
4. Test, test and test again
As each ERP system has unique specifications, it is essential to carefully check each step of the integration process to avoid possible interruptions in synchronization.
