http://www.ebridgeconnections.com/ ERP is business management software that typically takes care of the back end processes of an organization. It is helpful in gathering, storing and managing data from various activities that are undertaken to run the business. Ecommerce store on the other hand, has two parts. First is the front end of the store that allows your visitors to shop online, whereas the second is the back end of your store that provides information like inventory and sales figures. Connecting ERP/SAP with your ecommerce store is critical for growth of your online business. Yes, your ecommerce business will run even without integrating it with your ERP system. However, this means you will have to manage your sales information manually, which can be quite frustrating. Benefits The E-commerce integration with ERP prevents the tedious task of manually entering the data between the backend system and ecommerce platform. Manual entry process is extremely time consuming and carries a high risk of costly errors. Data transfer errors are one of the most common mistakes that occur in online business dealings. For the business to run efficiently, you simply cannot overlook these mistakes that can put you in financial loss. All these errors can be eliminated or significantly reduced by integrating ERP with your e-store. The synchronization between ERP and e-commerce applications is important to ensure error-free transfer of data between the systems. An end-to-end integration will save a lot of your time as it will ensure continuous flow of data flawlessly between the systems. This means information such as sales order and inventory will move seamlessly behind the scenes, thereby eliminating duplicate data entry. The integration will help to maintain all your attention on your business objectives – your sales and earnings targets. In short, in order to run your business with more focus, connected systems is the need of the hour. The integration is two-way from e-store to ERP and vice-versa. This means data flows in both the directions between the systems. With integration, an order created through online shopping cart gets recorded in the ERP system without any manual intervention. This not only keeps human error from occurring but also saves wage costs. Similarly, availability of stock stored in ERP is communicated to the online store. Thus, the customers visiting the site can get to know what products are available and can be purchased from the online store.