The e-commerce platform has grown recently like anything and now most small businesses are online. And as the e-commerce business is rising so is the rise in the use of platforms designed for handling the e-commerce business. Magento has been the most used e-commerce platform to date as it is very flexible and superior in many features, and this is the prime reason to hire Magento developers the companies and businessmen. Now the integration of Magneto-base online companies with their ERP is quite a critical process. But nowadays ERP has become the core of the companies which manage all the business processes, and it is mandatory to integrate it with the e-commerce platform.
Magento Development Company has come up with several ways and processes to smoothen the integration process which creates transparency in the lines of business and helps the users to get the information whenever they feel it is required. Now let’s first look into exactly the role of ERP, as this will help us to understand the importance of its integration with the Magento platform.
WHAT IS ERP AND WHAT IT IS FOR?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, and it refers to software that any organization needs to manage all their business processes most effectively. Many companies hire a developer to develop the ERP software as per the needs and requirements of the business. It helps to automate many businesses processes and back-end operations. It is not an easy task to keep control of the growing business volume or manage the on-time deliveries or resolve the customer queries within a given time, hence ERP comes to the rescue to resolve these issues.
The role of ERP in e-commerce is that it helps to streamline the huge inventory and manage the sales accordingly. Below is a glimpse of how e-commerce will work once it is integrated with the ERP:
a)When the customer place the order then ERP automatically generates and sends the shipping label to the respective customer.
b)This integration enables them to keep the tracking record of the shipment and also allows them to see how much discount they got from the sale.
c)Ease the process of adding the products in the basket and then checking out conveniently.
ENSURE THE COMPATIBILITY OF ERP WITH YOUR CURRENT E-COMMERCE BUSINESS PROCESSES:
Now, the ERP and the current business processes of your e-commerce must be compatible with each other because then only they can merge smoothly, or else the processes will have the adverse effect in the form of delayed orders, etc. This will ultimately affect the number of visitors to your e-commerce website. Hence, one needs to ensure that the given ERP covers the basic modules as given below:
a)Module to manage the production
Production is all about planning and controlling the flow of raw materials to ensure that the assembly line is on continuously without hindering the production processes.
b)Module of Human Resource
A module that manages the record of personnel in the company, their leaves, attendance, salary, and other issues related to the employees.
c)CRM Module
This is a module for Customer Relations Management that keeps records of the number of projects which are on or complete, what is the status of the ongoing projects, and a module that can interact with the clients, solve their queries and make sales.
d)Module for Finance
This module is to handle the Invoicing, taxation, further financial planning
e)Module for Analytics
This module is to generate the overall reports, evaluate the business processes, and present them in graphs and reports form, getting a clear picture of the performance indicators.
STEPS TO FOLLOW DURING INTEGRATION OF MAGENTO WITH AN ERP:
To have the successful integration of the e-commerce platform, Magento, and the company’s ERP, one needs to follow the below-mentioned steps:
1)Understand the Order Flow of E-commerce as well as the set-up of Magento
The first crucial step is to develop a clear understanding of the order management process of hiring Magento developers and how the products are added and managed. One needs to understand how the product-related data is managed using the specific attributes. Along with it, one can also process the other order, parallelly running along with it.
It is very important to identify what needs to be integrated actually and also analyze the whole business process, the complete journey of the customer, and the goal of the brand. The primary step would be to understand how currently the data is organized and how you want it to be organized and this can lead to successful integration.
2)In-depth understanding of the ERP and Magento
Every ERP is customized as per the requirement of the business, so one needs to understand the settings, specifications, and parameters of the ERP currently running in the system along with the specifications of Magento. One should also consider the timing of how different processes of the business are triggered. Now, the retailers have different ways to manage the inventory which also facilitates importing the order through a single channel only.
One needs to make sure that the business processes of the company are more and more aware of both, the Magento Development platform as well as the ERP, then it can lead to a smooth integration.
3)Ensure the back-and-forth exchange of data between Magento and the ERP
One of the best examples here can be that if a customer makes any purchase from the e-commerce platform, then ERP will process all the shipping details, Invoicing and sets up a tracking order number of the client, but this data should be sent back to the Magento as well so that they can send all these information to the customer over mail. This sort of data integration will enlighten their customer and they will be visiting and shopping from the site more often.
The important data which should necessarily flow between Magento, and the ERP are shipping details, customer details of their order, inventory, a database of the products as well as the past clients, and others.
4)Take full advantage of the complete integration process
With the ERP, the store owners have no more to do the manual entry to keep the records of the item sold or how much is left in the inventory, details of customers, etc. Overall reduces the front-end work and fulfills the requirements in a simple as well as speedy manner.
5)Make a selection among different kinds of ERP integration
Usually, the integration is of two types. One is the type where the pre-built features are enabled and the other one is more comfortable and customized as per the business processes. And the third option is also available which is a mix of two, some of them are the prebuilt features in this integration and some are customized as per the requirement of the business. Hence, there are various options one can opt for to get the best result out of this integration process.
CONCLUSION:
The above points reflect how the integration of Magento and the existing ERP helps to increase the efficiency of every business process. Also, it streamlines the workflow of data among the whole business which ultimately helps the company to grow. Lots of flexibility also comes along with it which gives a chance for a better understanding of the various elements of the given ecosystem. Hence, Have a happy and successful integration everyone.
