How integration between erp and crm improve your business performanc1

How integration between ERP and CRM improve your business performance?

CRM and ERP have different architectures and core functions and moreover can be used independently in a business organization. Then, why to integrate them? This is because the integration can help to improve business performance. CRM, as we know is primarily used to find leads, increase customer base, maintain customer loyalty as well as manage customer relationships. On the other hand, ERP is helpful for streamlining various backoffice business processes. Now, although CRM and ERP have been designed

for different purposes, their integration can be beneficial to your business organization in a number of ways. They are discussed below:

No Manual Data Entry Without integration, you need to manually enter data from CRM into your ERP system. For instance, any order received via the storefront is processed in the CRM system. This order information has to be manually entered into ERP, if it is not integrated with CRM. In general, any customer information received by the CRM system will require manual entry in the accounting system, which in most cases is managed by the ERP application. The manual intervention required every time to transfer data between the two systems substantially increases the risk of errors and duplicate entry. As a result, your company is bound to face a lot of processing issues, which can hamper the growth of your business. All this can be avoided by integrating your CRM with ERP, which will automate the transfer of data between the two systems.

Access to Inventory Items When you are creating a sales quote using the CRM sales quoting tool, you need to have direct access to inventory items that are located at the back office ERP system. This will allow you add items directly into your quote.

However, with the two systems working independently, quote management can become a daunting task.

No Data Discrepancy Manual entry of data from one system to another often leads to data mismatch in both systems. However, since ERP integration with CRM automates various business operations, any changes in customer data in CRM are automatically updated accurately in the ERP system. In other words, the integration will ensure synchronization of updates from CRM to ERP and vice-versa.

Improves Sales Forecasting When ERP and CRM are working as a standalone systems, information is spread across different applications. In such circumstances, retrieving information that is not readily available can be difficult to generate sales reports for forecasting. No wonder, experts say that an easy way to improve your sales forecast accuracy is to integrate your CRM with ERP solutions.

Although by nature sales forecasts are flighty and imperfect, the CRM-ERP integration is a crucial step in predicting a more accurate sales forecast.

Improves Productivity CRM integration with ERP will ensure that the information is not available at different application and your staff no longer has to switch between two systems. In short, information can be easily accessed from a centralized database, which is not at all time consuming. This will allow your sales team to focus more on target marketing, thereby contributing to improve productivity of your organization. Also the drastic reduction in errors and duplicate entry due to automated workflow is bound to increase productivity of your sales team.

Reduced Operational Cost Although CRM and ERP have different purposes, the integration is sure to contribute in keeping your business away from huge operational costs. As CRM-ERP integration will decrease duplication, allow access to customer information from one system and automate workflow, the organization is sure to experience greater efficiency and better control over operational cost.

Also CRM-ERP integration creates centralized database, which can be accessed by all departments from a single point. A single version of internal information is available to all departments, which makes it easier for further processing and planning.