Enterprise resource planning is needed more than ever now. Every industry is looking at technology hopefully to help improve their business operations. ERP or enterprise resource planning evolved from the material requirements planning software. It came in practice in the 1960s for large companies. But today, every business, irrespective of size is using an ERP system to manage its resources better.
Resource management helps in the identification, allocation and tracking of resources such as raw material, parts, ingredients, labour and more. As the technology evolved and has become more and more accessible, vendors started going for customized ERP solutions. Custom ERP solutions help you in getting a tailor-made solution for your needs and require very little investment. A lot of small and medium-sized industries are using it.
Role of ERP in Ecommerce
Running an e-commerce business is no child’s play. You need an online presence powered by an e-commerce system such as Magento and to make the management on the backend seamless you need to efficiently manage the inventory, supply chain, procurement, and finances. ERP software very much fits the bill.
You can integrate the ERP system into your Magento website and sort out your resource planning needs. The success of ERP implementation depends largely on the integration between two systems.
A poorly integrated ERP software can lead to mismatching and duplication of the data. This can intrude on your business operations. Quality integrations are rather exhaustive and bring more profit to your business.
The efficiency of Magento with the ERP system
1.Time saved on automated data flowing
Integration of Magento and ERP software ensures that business data is not entered twice in both systems. This brings seamlessness to the operation. It offers you a bi-directional approach, and data does not mess up or cause hindrance in the working. The ERP draws customer data, payments and order information from Magento and sends the information back about the inventory levels, price, order status and return.
2. Improved Customer Experience
An integrated Magento ERP system allows data accuracy and better resource visibility. It also helps in better organization of the daily activities of your team. The effectiveness of the solutions is unparalleled. The solution gives you full control over your inventory, features such as timely procurement and prompt order shipments make this end-to-end process highly efficient and improves the customer experience on your application. Down the line, these added benefits reward you with customer loyalty and increased ROI.
3. Effective handling of Demand Fluctuations
Consumer demand rises, and so do the product prices. When you gain visibility over your inventory and sales, you are able to procure these products at the time when the prices are low and get benefitted when product prices rise high.
Quality integration of ERP systems into Magento helps in taking control of the consumer demand and responding to the market highs and lows timely.
4. Prompt Customer Support
The ERP system is not just a tool handy for you but also helps your customers by updating them on the order status. Customers would always want to know about their product status and rather than calling you each time you can just integrate this efficient tool to make their tracking easy.
Also, further development in technology has made the software more feature-rich. Today people are using it more than just to track the order. With inbuilt customer support features, users can ask for prompt resolution of their issues. Your customer support agents get all the data needed for the resolution of problems regarding orders.
Best ERP Systems to use with Magento in 2021
The efficiency of ERP systems along-side Magento is immense. However, it is necessary that you use reliable solutions to improve efficiency and attain a sharper edge over your competition.
Also, don’t completely avoid the possibility that as time changes, you might have to shift to a custom-built ERP solution to meet your unique business needs. A lot of businesses usually avoid it because they find it expensive. However, custom-built solutions are able to get you better ROI. Now, let’s see what the leading ERP systems you can use with Magento in 2021 are.
1. Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most popular resource planning tools. It comes with all the necessary features to manage finance, human resources, and supply chain operations. Each app is built with integration in mind, and so the convenience in the integration with the Magento-based website is impeccable.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 also comes with multiple plans, depending on your business needs you choose the right plan for you and also get a discount with each app you purchase.
2. Oracle
Oracle ERP Cloud is a cloud-based ERP software. It is efficient in handling finances, human resources, supply chain, and more. The deployment and integration with other apps within e-commerce technology are quite easy. If you are planning to build or migrate the application to Magento 2, hire Magento 2 developer to integrate the ERP system into your application.
The deployment and integration with other technology apps within your e-commerce technology are quite easy.
3. SAP
SAP offers a range of ERP tools. It is one of the most sophisticated solutions, and thus you should expect everything extraordinary within the software. It offers you process automation, machine learning, and AI capabilities. It also provides a number of integration endpoints which makes it leagues apart.
How to integrate your ERP with Magento in 2021?
Now that you have a general idea about ERP systems, what benefits they hold, and what is the efficiency of their solution, let’s talk about integration.
As mentioned in the blog earlier, Magento or any other technology stack, integration of ERP has to be quality-rich. It is only the quality implementation of the solution which would help you in the long run. In other words, you must look out for experienced resources to ensure it.
Here is a step-by-step guide for you to understand the process end-to-end.
1. Make yourself known to the process
First things first, you must get yourself known how order management works in Magento, how to add and manage products.
In Magento, you can control the product data attributes, and using that you can also process other important information that is relevant to the one that is passed to ERP.
Thus, understanding how your data is organized, and how you want it to reorganize is the primary step towards successful integration. Data includes product types, attribute sets, attributes, and data you would need to send to your ERP platform.
Wrapping up, the first step you have to create is a workflow design you want your entire system to work on. The more complex the workflow, the more complex the integration process would be.
With time you would be integrating other systems too into the application. POS or PIM are the most commonly used tools that further make your operations seamless. Consider all the possibilities.
2. Configuration
Next, while integrating ERP and Magento, you have multiple inventory management configuration options. These options give the opportunity to import orders through one single channel as well as developing separate pathways for orders received online.
3. Automation
Automation improves the efficiency of the system and also brings down operational costs significantly. Some ERP features are built to bring more efficiency in the operations and also automates most of the things in the process.
4. Define the ERP and Magento interact
Different integration methods are used to integrate the ERP system and Magento. In the blog, we are only discussing the most commonly used methods.
- Point-to-point
- Custom-built
- Multichannel
To decide between these methods of integration, you must look into the advantages and disadvantages of each.
- Point to point solutions
It is best for smaller traders, and they would not fit the needs of fast-growing businesses. It is a very affordable platform. It offers a point-to-point connector, which means the ERP system and Magento are connected to both ends. The connection results in synchronizing data.
But you would need an additional operational platform in between. Also, it is not very scalable as it doesn’t allow much flexibility in adding sales channels.
- Custom-built
It is one of the most recommended integration methods. This works well for both APIs and synchronizing needed data.
Since the custom integration becomes more complex, it is recommended that you hire a Magento 2 developer that is knowledgeable and experienced. This might increase your development cost, but the benefits are immense. It is best for organizations that are looking for managing specific resources and requirements. Yet, SMBs must not use this method as it is quite expensive.
- Multichannel
The multichannel solution is a platform specifically designed to integrate systems such as Magento and ERP systems. The option already includes an operational hub to store and manage your data. It is good for the synchronization of primary data types.
The platform uses connectors that can make configuration easy. This solution is more expensive than point-to-point solutions, but it is more efficient and scalable. This makes it perfect for SMB and Enterprise sellers.
This was it, guys!
The blog contains all the necessary information you require for the integration of an ERP system to Magento.
Magento and ERP systems are widely used technologies in the e-commerce industry. But not many people are able to leverage the benefits of the combination well. By integration of these two systems, your company can gain a sharper edge on the market and would be very beneficial.
An efficient Magento would be able to help you with the integration process. We recommend you hire Magento 2 developers with years of knowledge, a good reputation, and experience.
