Why Integrate ERP and Marketing?
ERP and Marketing Integration
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software does a great job of linking many pieces of your business puzzle together seamlessly. It connects finances, logistics, manufacturing, and human resources to create the most cohesive back-end operation possible, but on the surface, it doesn’t do much for marketing. That’s a missed opportunity. If you’re reading this and wondering why the two would need to be linked, let’s dive a little deeper.
While most organizations use ERPs for their backend and CRMs (customer relationship management) for their front-end, the majority of them are missing the real magic that comes into play when these two things are integrated together. When combining the power of the ERP and your CRM, you create a customer-centric organization that has the ability to provide a truly seamless experience to and from the back-end operations side of your business.
Get Your Workflow Truly Aligned
It makes no sense for the powerful and targeted data obtained by your ERP to stay on the operations side of your business. That information can be extremely powerful when it comes to marketing and customer relationship planning. When that data flows seamlessly from system to system, you have a fully-informed organization that can put customers first from a data-driven perspective – and that’s incredibly valuable.
For the Love of Data
Often, ERP and CRM systems duplicate data. They collect similar information but use it for different purposes. CRM tracks customer preferences whereas ERPs track pertinent info like credit history and billing information. There’s redundancy in keeping these systems separate and maintaining two different databases. Integrating these systems together not only unifies this data, but it also makes for a more comprehensive database from top to bottom.
The back-end data that your ERP collects can help create more accurate and targeted marketing campaigns. Instead of guessing or relying strictly on market research to determine which products will sell best, you can inform marketing decisions with the real data that says which products are selling right now, and which are not. This provides your marketing team with powerful information to help lean into trends or identify places where marketing efforts may need to be amped up. On the flip side, it allows product development and operations to understand, more clearly and at an easy glance, how customers are reacting to certain campaigns and certain feature highlights, allowing them to discover new opportunities for future products and services.
If you haven’t integrated your CRM and ERP systems yet, what are you waiting for? From forecasting to campaign delivery to the incredible operations-side information and automation you’re used to getting from your ERP, integrating these systems offers you more power and insight than ever before. And that? Well, that’s just a recipe for greater success.
If are looking for ERP implementation and integration, please give us a call or schedule a free consultation.