If your company struggles with collecting and analyzing data from multiple channels, ERP integration offers a solution.
The Challenge of Multichannel Sales
Consider how many sales channels your company offers. Perhaps you have a sales team that calls on customers, but you also have a print catalog, a call center to take phone orders, and a website. If you add distributors into the mix, you’ve got an even more complicated situation in which data flowing from multiple centers adds complexity upon complexity, making it challenging to track orders, inventory, and fulfillment.
3 Ways in Which ERP Integration Offers a Seamless Multichannel Solution
When your sales data is out of step with inventory information, big problems can occur. The website may show a product is out of stock when a new shipment was just scanned into the warehouse. A salesperson calling the warehouse to find out when a customer’s order will ship may find they can’t get a clear answer.
All of these problems stem from the same source: different systems that do not communicate. The solution? ERP integration brings together multiple data streams to provide coherent, cogent information.
There are many ways in which ERP integration helps with multichannel sales, but a few of the most important points are:
Standardized product information
Nothing is more frustrating for your staff than finding out a product description differs in one system from another. Size, color, materials, weight, SKU, and availability should be consistent in every system. But if you are running separate systems, it might not be. Someone may have keyed the information into the computer incorrectly or failed to update product specs when the supplier revised them. There are many reasons why data isn’t standard, but the outcome is the same.
An ERP system shares information with all areas of the company’s technology. A change made in the inventory system is reflected in the front-end sales interface, the website, the call center, and any other technology connected to the ERP system. It enables secure, fast, and thorough standardization of all product information throughout the company.
Synchronized inventory details
Another common frustration in multichannel environments that lack integration is the shortage of information about inventory status. Suppose your company’s website displays an in-stock message, and customers purchase the product. In that case, they’ll expect to receive their items, not notification that a mistake has been made, and you are actually out of stock. They’ll take their business elsewhere—to companies with better communications and up-to-date software that can display real-time inventory status.
ERP integration enables data from your warehouse and distribution center to flow without interruption, ensuring constant updates to the warehouse of orders that need to go out and updates throughout all channels about warehouse stock. It’s ideal for companies with a multichannel sales model because of its ability to keep all channels updated simultaneously.
Updated customer information
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than to call a company and feel like their information has to be repeated to every person they speak with to solve a problem. “Doesn’t your company know who I am? Why doesn’t anyone have an update on my order?”
Although you may feel it’s typical for your industry to have to go to multiple places for updates on orders and shipping status, customers have been conditioned by companies like Amazon and others to expect fast and accurate information on their orders and shipment status. They’ve grown accustomed to clicking a link in a confirmation email to see where their package is or look on a company website for an instant update.
ERP integration offers the ease of such updates by synchronizing and linking customer information across all channels. This approach ensures that everyone from sales to service can access and use customer information to answer questions or solve problems. Customers never have to struggle for an answer about their order. Data is shared across all points in the ERP system, ensuring constant, continuous updates.
Are You Ready for ERP Integration? Speak With Emerald TC Today
It’s time for ERP integration. If you’ve been considering a new system that solves many problems and makes your company competitive, contact us. Emerald TC provides software and consulting for manufacturing companies. We can help you choose the right system for your needs. Contact us or call 678-456-6919 for more information.