Is Your Business Ready for Sage ERP to eCommerce Integration?

3 min read ● Silk Team

Signs Your Business Is Ready for Sage ERP to eCommerce Integration

Timing is everything when it comes to integrating ERP with eCommerce. In other words, you don’t want to implement eCommerce integration too soon and add too much complexity to your existing system, but you also don’t want to wait until it’s too late and limit your business’ growth potential.

So, what does the timing look like? Here are some practical signs that will let you know whether your business is ready for Sage ERP eCommerce integration, and therefore ready to receive real benefits from it.

Manual Order Entry Is Hurting Your Business

The last thing you want to happen is to have your staff spend countless hours re-keying orders received in email form, spreadsheet, or even through an online platform into your ERP.

Here are some common indicators that your business has reached the point of no return and needs to integrate its systems:

• Order backlogs occur frequently during peak periods.
• There are frequent errors in the data entry process.
• Staff members are constantly correcting orders rather than providing excellent customer service.

By automating the order entry process through the integration of your eCommerce platform with your ERP, your staff will be able to provide better service to your customers and free themselves up to perform more strategic tasks.

Your Customers Want More Control

In today’s world of B2B buying, customers want to be able to make their own purchasing decisions. Therefore, if you find yourself answering “yes” to any of the following questions, then your customers expect more self-service options from your company:

• Online ordering capabilities?
• The ability to view previous orders and reorder easily?
• Real-time access to information regarding your current stock levels or prices?

Integrating your eCommerce platform with your Sage ERP will enable you to provide these self-service capabilities without requiring your staff to manually enter information from one system to another.

Your Pricing and Inventory Are Becoming Increasingly Difficult to Manage

As your product catalog grows and as you begin to offer customized pricing to certain groups of your customers, the amount of effort required to manage this data across separate systems will increase dramatically.

Some examples of when you may be ready for integration include:

• When price changes are not immediately reflected across all of your systems and/or web sites.
• When inventory levels vary significantly depending on the sale channel.
• When sales teams regularly over-ride online orders due to incorrect pricing or inventory levels.

By integrating your Sage ERP with your eCommerce platform, you will ensure that your pricing and inventory rules are maintained centrally and consistently wherever you sell your products.

Order Volumes Are Outpacing Your Staff Resources

While it is great to see your business growing rapidly, you should be concerned if the number of orders you are receiving is out-pacing the growth rate of your head count.

Indicators that your business is experiencing this type of rapid growth include:

• Hiring additional order entry personnel to keep up with increased volumes.
• Longer lead-times for order fulfillment.
• An increase in the number of errors related to the operational aspects of taking orders.

By automating the order flow through the integration of your eCommerce platform with your Sage ERP, you will be able to grow your business more efficiently without having to hire additional staff to handle the volume of orders.

You Are Adding New Sales Channels or Brands

Adding new sales channels, brands or portals creates significant amounts of complexity. Without an integrated eCommerce solution, each new sales channel or brand will require additional manual effort and will generate more inconsistencies in your data.

Examples of when your business may be ready for integration include:

• Selling through multiple sales channels.
• Planning to launch new brands or portal(s) in the near future.
• Reporting and analytics across sales channels is challenging.

By integrating your Sage ERP with your eCommerce platform, you will establish a single operational foundation for your business and provide the flexibility to accommodate different sales channels and brands.

Your Data Is Accurate (Or You Are Willing To Clean Up Inaccuracies)

Integration will expose data inaccuracies, not hide them. Companies are typically ready to integrate when they:

• Understand which systems contain the most accurate core data.
• Have created standardized product and customer records.
• Are committed to cleaning up inconsistencies.

If senior management understands that maintaining data accuracy is a top priority, then integration will be much more likely to succeed.

All Teams Agree On Improving Processes

ERP to eCommerce Integration is not just an IT initiative; it impacts sales, operations, finance, and customer service.

You’re ready if:

• All stakeholders agree on the types of automation you want to achieve.
• Teams are willing to adapt to the changed workflow.
• Senior Management supports cross-functional collaboration among teams.

Cross-functionality minimizes conflict and maximizes the likelihood of successful implementation.

Final Thoughts

Sage ERP to eCommerce integration produces the most value for businesses that are operationally prepared to leverage it-not just technically interested. Manual processes, rising order volumes, customer expectations, and expanding sales channels are all clear indications that integration will produce value.

When the signs are clearly evident, integration is less about creating new complexity, and more about eliminating friction, and developing a scalable, customer-centric foundation for continued growth.