7 Signs Your Acumatica ERP Is Slowing Down Ecommerce Growth
3 min read ● Silk Team
The way an eCommerce company sets up its Acumatica ERP is going to either fuel that company’s growth or silently hinder it. The best way to determine if there is a bottleneck in your eCommerce growth is to look at how your operations and reporting function today.
In many cases, your operations and reporting functions will be the first to identify a bottleneck in your eCommerce growth. The reason for this is because your operations and reporting functions have to deal with the day-to-day activity of your business. They see what happens behind the scenes of all of your growth. Here are some common warning signs that indicate that your Acumatica ERP setup has become a bottleneck:
1. Order Sync Delays During Peak Volume
If your order volume increases during peak volume periods, your ERP should be able to easily handle that increased demand. If orders from your online storefront (Shopify, BigCommerce etc.) do not appear in Acumatica in nearly real-time, it will slow down your ability to fulfill those orders.
Impact:
- Shipping delays
- Customer complaints
- Increased customer service calls
Your ERP integration should be able to process orders in near real time, allowing you to provide faster shipping and improve the overall customer experience.
2. Frequent Inventory Discrepancies
You should never have to guess about your inventory levels. Common signs of inventory discrepancies include:
- Over-selling items that are currently out of stock
- Negative inventory levels
- Repeated manual inventory adjustments
If you find yourself constantly adjusting inventory levels, there is a good chance that your ERP integration is not synchronizing correctly and/or in a timely manner.
3. Manually Creating Workarounds Increase
Creating CSV files, adjusting prices manually, fixing order errors manually etc., all point to the fact that your ERP integration cannot meet your growing business needs.
Manually creating workarounds will not scale, will cost you more in labor dollars and will introduce errors into your business.
4. Reporting Takes Longer Than Expected
As your business continues to grow, you need real-time access to information regarding:
- Revenue Performance
- Margin Analysis
- Channel Profitability
- Inventory Turnover
If you are having to manipulate data outside of your ERP to generate accurate reports, you are dealing with fragmented data.
When you do not have access to centralized, automated reporting, decision making will be slowed.
5. Changing Prices or Offering New Discounts Will Cause Problems
Often times, growing eCommerce companies will begin to offer:
- Tiered Pricing
- Subscription Models
- Bundle Discounts
- Channel Specific Discounts
If changing prices or offering new promotions cause problems such as:
- Integration issues
- Complex workarounds
- Slowdowns
- Errors
It is likely that your ERP integration does not have the necessary flexibility to accommodate your changing business strategies.
Your ERP should be able to adapt to your business strategy and help you grow your business — not limit it.
6. API Or Connector Issues During High Traffic
Many eCommerce companies use standardized connectors to connect their online storefront to Acumatica. These connectors are effective for small volumes of transactions; however, they can fail under larger volumes.
Be on the lookout for:
- Failed sync logs
- Data duplication
- Poor system performance
- Missed Webhooks or Incomplete Transactions
These are just a few examples of how an architecture designed for low transactional volumes will not be able to handle high transactional volumes.
7. Operations/Finance Teams “Put Out Fires” All Day Long
If your operations/finance teams spend most of their days resolving issues such as:
- Duplicate orders
- Incorrect tax calculations
- Fulfillment routing errors
- Reconciliation Mismatches
Your ERP is no longer being used to drive the growth of your business – it is limiting it.
An optimized ERP integration should eliminate the majority of operational friction in your business – not create it.
Why This Happens
The majority of ERP integrations are created to address immediate needs. As the volume of orders, number of products and number of sales channels grow, the original configuration of the ERP integration will typically not be able to keep pace.
Root Causes Include:
- Batch based synchronization vs. event driven
- Poor data governance
- Lack of scalability planning
- Limited automation in critical workflow areas
As your business grows, the limitations of your ERP integration design will become apparent.
Actionable Steps To Take
If several of the warning signs listed above are evident in your business, then your Acumatica ERP integration is probably not the issue — the integration strategy probably is. By identifying and addressing potential bottlenecks early in the development stage, you will be able to:
- Improve order speed and accuracy
- Eliminate unnecessary manual processes
- Strengthen reporting integrity
- Scale your business without operational constraints
Your ERP should be an enabler of eCommerce growth — not a hindrance. Conducting regular integration audits and implementing architectural improvements will allow your ERP to develop and scale along with your business.