Are you missing out on 80% of the ROI from Salesforce? There is an easy way to change that. You see, more than half of the ROI opportunities come from integration, collaboration, and extension, according to a study done by Nucleus Research. Could it be time to consider integrating Salesforce with your ERP?
When you integrate Salesforce with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system you extend the power of both systems. Employees across departments – sales, customer support, executives, and finance – gain access to the same information, which helps ensure alignment across teams.
Benefits of Integrating Salesforce with ERP
Integrating Salesforce CRM with your ERP keeps the data synchronized between the systems. What does this mean for your everyday operations?
Well, think of what happens after entering a new customer into Salesforce. That customer’s data and won opportunities need to show up in financials, invoicing, and performance management reports. ERP manages these functions.
With integration, no one will have to re-enter the customer’s information into the ERP system for any of these reports. Once the sale is entered into Salesforce, the integrated systems will automatically create an invoice in SAP or another integrated ERP. What was once a manual process of entering a sale and sending that information to finance is now automated.
This is just one of the reasons to integrate Salesforce with your ERP. Here are six more benefits.
1. Provide All-In-One Access from Either System
Some employees may know one system better than the other. The sales team is more likely to master Salesforce, while the people on the financial planning team are pros at using the ERP system. Integrated systems allow users to work within their preferred system.
Because the data is synchronized, everyone on staff has all the information they need without switching systems – that goes for C-level, customer support, and anyone else accessing data.
2. Improve Communication
An integrated system also can enhance communication across teams. For example: The finance team works in the ERP. When they communicate with the sales team, the ERP has all the information finance needs, including the data that lives in Salesforce.
This allows finance and sales to have more effective discussions. Neither feels like there is a piece missing because they lack information. They also contact each other less often because they have access to the same data, regardless of their system of choice.
3. Deliver More Insightful Information
Since the information from all integrated systems is shared, each system has more data it can use in its calculations and reporting. As a result, employees get more detailed and relevant information. This helps them make smarter decisions faster and know what actions to take. Higher-level management has a clearer picture of the company’s operations.
4. Prevent Costly Errors
Any manual data entry can lead to mistakes, even when using copy and paste. Often, when companies depend on several systems, employees must enter the same data into each one. This increases the likelihood of errors and data duplication. When someone discovers the mismatched data in two systems, it takes time and effort to figure out which system has the correct information.
A well-implemented integration project contains automated checks and balances to make sure all integrated systems have the same information. Reducing data duplication helps keep the data clean. Employees will no longer do multiple data entry or waste time on data errors. These alone are huge time-savers, allowing users to spend their time on more valuable tasks.
5. Automate Workflows Without Coding
With integrated platforms, no one needs to request programming to set up workflows. Since workflows can be created with simple point-and-click, anyone can use business logic to move data, create processes, and automate data manipulation.
A CRM alone can automate many everyday tasks. Add an ERP system to the equation, and you can automate even more. This allows employees to focus on what they do best while the integrated system takes care of the tedious stuff.
The ERP is king of all things involving customer payment and product information. Salesforce is boss for customer contact information and sales activities. When these two are not integrated, salespeople may have out-of-date pricing and product information and the company cannot send automated payment notifications to the customer.
In this case, interested customers may walk away when they find out a quote is inaccurate. And the company may have uncollected payments on its accounts receivables, which impacts cash flow. That could lead to serious trouble.
With Salesforce and the ERP system working together, everyone knows what is going on with every order and customer. The finance department stays on top of unpaid invoices and ensures they are paid on time. This positively affects the all-important balance sheet and profit and loss statement. As a result, a frustrating and complex process becomes an effortless closed-loop process.
6. Enhance Customer Service and Satisfaction
Uniting multiple systems provides you with a complete view of your customers: everything from buying habits and preferences to order history and payments. These insights will help your organization build and maintain strong relationships with customers.
By integrating systems, data moves faster between them. If a customer contacts support, your support team will not have to search multiple systems for answers. They will find what they need within one system. This speeds interactions with customers and improves efficiency. For example: A sales rep enters a sale into Salesforce. The data is synced with the ERP, where an invoice can be created for the finance team.
In sum, integrating Salesforce with your ERP system automates data management tasks, speeds processes and workflows, boosts data accuracy, and increases operational visibility. These together lead to massive time savings and maximized ROI opportunities.
How to Integrate Salesforce with ERP Systems
The decision to integrate systems should be an easy one. However, what often holds companies back is the actual process of making the integration happen. The typical organization may want to have a Salesforce administrator or two to help. Although the Salesforce admin knows Salesforce inside out, the knowledge does not include managing the integration project and setting up the process.
An integration project requires a different set of expertise and skills. Most companies do not need full-time or even part-time employees who have integration experience. Integration projects are few and far between. The project ends once a system is integrated with Salesforce. A company will only have another integration project if it adds a system that needs to be integrated.
Achieve the largely overlooked 80% ROI on your Salesforce — just integrate it.
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