Transform the Way You Do
Business with a Unified
Platform for ERP and CRM
Are you looking to increase your company’s annual revenue
through the implementation of ERP and CRM? Look no
further. With a single unified platform you can break down
the classic delineation between ERP and CRM to deliver a
cohesive user experience across different business
applications. Read on to learn more.
Contents
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| Executive Summary
| Overview
| Benefits
| Business Case
| The Magic of Unifying ERP and CRM
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| Create a Customer-Centric Environment
Executive Summary
ike coffee and donuts, cookies and milk, some things are good by
themselves, but so much better when they’re matched together. Did you
know that by integrating disparate systems, businesses enjoy an 88%
greater year-over-year increase in annual company revenue? While ERP
systems integrate back-end functions like production, finance, and delivery
into a unified software application, CRM systems bring together various
front-end, customer-facing functions. By embracing a unified platform, your
business applications can work together seamlessly across ERP and CRM
and you can manage specific business processes in a single platform. You
can enjoy numerous benefits at cloud speed like increased efficiency,
improved collaboration, and enhanced visibility that can further augment
productivity. In this ebook, we dive into an overview of a single platform for
ERP and CRM, and discuss why you need it for business growth along with
the benefits that can be realized from this dynamic duo.
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Overview
veryone is looking to expand their top-line revenues while optimizing
their operations to enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs; most
IT leaders and CFOs look toward IT to reach this goal. Why? Because you
can instantly gain access to real-time information that fuels business
growth, improves collaboration, and enhances employee productivity and
satisfaction.
What does your ERP do? It aligns distinct functions such as purchasing,
production, inventory, finance, accounting, and HR into one single cohesive
system offering real-time views and control of financial information and
efficient project accounting and budgeting. The outcome? Better
management of finances and improved business decisions. You will also
enjoy the benefits of superior supply-chain visibility, streamlined logistics,
effective inventory monitoring and task scheduling resulting in enhanced
inventory and logistics management. The effects can be mind-blowing!
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Then you look at your CRM system, which provides insight into marketing,
sales, and customer service functions, enabling better channel
management and client relationships. Such insights help you in
understanding customer buying behavior, trends and preferences, enabling
you to deepen customer relationships and effectively take care of the sales
pipeline. Moreover, automated analytics and reporting aids you in having
end-to-end visibility and control of customers, facilitating superior customer
service.
How about having just one application that provides a seamless experience
across applications and devices, so you can start with what you need and
easily adapt as your needs change in future?
The Magic of Unification
et’s imagine the following scenario, a sales team that lacks access to
the ERP data, so they aren’t able to track order production or fulfillment.
This leads to sales professionals spending more time sending data back
and forth between applications and departments since they lack a 360º
view of customers, decelerating the sales processes. This compels the
decision to employ a robust unified ERP and CRM solution to streamline
business processes, in order to have sufficient control over forecasting and
sales reporting, and to effectively track customer interactions. What would
you consider most important to any and every business? Connecting
different business silos and making better use of resources may be a key
objective of most enterprise systems, but improving customer experience
lies at the heart of every business.
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Empowering customers and
providing them with more
information leads to an increase in
revenue and a reduction in costs,
while at the same time meeting their
every precise need and want. A truly
customer-centric business becomes
a reality when it has an ERP and
CRM platform that supports top
notch business processes. It
provides greater control over your
operations and finances, while
delivering the insight you need to
improve and maintain customer
relationships. You will certainly
experience improved productivity,
reduced IT costs, lower total cost of
ownership, and able to position your
business for growth.
Benefits
xperience has shown that ERP
and CRM systems independently
offer substantial benefits to
businesses. However, when you have
two that communicate and work
together, there are additional
advantages like higher visibility into
business functions, enhanced sales
lifecycle management, and improved
collaboration and communication. A
single organizational-wide view of
processes and profitability assists in
maximizing shareholder value and
enables you to:
1. Strengthen Business: Seamless
access and distribution of
information between frontend and
backend systems along with
improved visibility into business
functions allows for simplified
business processes. Various
integration tools and connectors like
Azure logic app help integrate
disparate systems, without having to
develop, maintain or manage
complex code. With ERP and CRM
communicating in unison, you can
develop automated workflows that
span across applications, enabling
efficient processing of orders.
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Additionally, with timely access to information, you can deliver products rapidly
and satisfy customers through superior customer service, maximizing
performance and improving bottom line results.
2. Get a 360º View of Processes: Synchronization of data assists in automation of
processes and creation of seamless connectivity between ERP and CRM systems.
With a unified ERP and CRM, you can get deep insight into processes, and create
a single, 360-degree view of organizational and departmental profitability.
Functional integration and a comprehensive view of how processes affect overall
performance can be crucial for long-term success.
3. Eliminate Duplication of Data Entry: With a unified ERP and CRM system, you
can centralize your accounts and contacts as quotes and orders need to be
created only once in a single system. The information is captured at once and
distributed to all the relevant departments through the system. Your employees
can reduce work and data duplication and improve inter-departmental
communication through efficient collaboration and information sharing. This way
you can eliminate errors, and save substantial administrative costs.
4. Improve Employee Productivity: The absence of an integrated or unified
solution makes business processes complex, costly, and time-consuming,
compelling employees to spend a lot of time entering, fetching, and sharing data.
A unified solution, on the other hand, streamlines business processes, automates
workflows, and enhances employee productivity. With a single interface, your front
and back office employees can get access to the most accurate and up-to-date
information, enabling them to convert data into actionable insights.
5. Get a Holistic View of Customers: Only 35% of companies currently have a
unified view of customer data, which hampers business productivity in the long
run. By using a unified ERP and CRM application, you can get a holistic view of
your customers and make efficient, data-driven decisions to meet distinct needs,
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in addition to understanding their buying behavior, order history, and preferences.
This knowledge not only aids in understanding customers better, but also helps
build lasting relationships with them that help determine the potential for future
growth.
6. Enable Superior Future Visibility: ERP and CRM unification makes various
technological and departmental silos work hand-in-hand, helping you anticipate
and forecast customer demand and accordingly devise strategies to meet that
demand. It provides a good foundation to build future roadmaps, by giving an
insight into your supply chain and inventory levels, enabling you to build and
manage strong relationships with channel partners. Organizations with customer-
centric ERP are 70% more likely to be able to plan and forecast demand.
7. Boost Sales: While ERP systems store company’s finance and accounting
details, CRM systems store customers’ buying behavior and marketing trends. By
merging these two sources of customer data, you can offer personalized products
and offers and eventually boost sales. Having information that spans across
finance, operations, and sales allows you to direct marketing costs to your most
valuable customers and prospects. Additionally, you can reduce customer care
costs by 12.1% annually and pave the way for increased profitability.
8. Offer Improved Access to Critical Information: A fully unified ERP and CRM
solution lets your employees have access to critical information in real-time that
fuels performance. With a simple touch of a button, employees can instantly
retrieve information related to order history, customer financials, shipments,
inventory levels, payment schedules, and more. Quick access to important
information that they need, exactly when they need it, will empower your
employees to work more efficiently.
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Create a Customer-
Centric Environment
usinesses today are
incorporating ERP and CRM systems
and making the most of the distinct
advantages they offer. By adopting
an application which integrates the
two systems, you can make
information easily available across
the enterprise and reap substantial
benefits. A customer-centric
approach is a key enabler that
provides a timely and seamless view
of customer interaction history
across all channels, facilitating the
delivery of personalized and
consistent messages. Do you know,
organizations with customer-centric
ERP enjoy an 83% customer
satisfaction rate on average?
Improved visibility into customer data
boosts productivity and improves
time to market. Optimizing the
business process as a whole, rather
than in individual silos, is the
cornerstone of a successful
integration project through which you
can support end-to-end business
processes and create a truly
customer-centric environment.
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B Business Case:
Building materials product manufacturer
automates business processes by implementing
Dynamics 365
Business Needs:
The manufacturer required a solution that could
automate business processes, handling
everything from marketing to service, and
streamline and standardize the workflows
associated with sales and installation.
Game Changing Solution:
After exploring several options, the manufacturer
decided that Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM
Online) was an ideal fit for their needs.
Implementing Dynamics 365 at their
organization, would allow them to integrate CRM
with their already existing Dynamics AX solution.
An easy-to-use, mobile-ready business
management portal was built with various
modules like sales, marketing, and field service.
The system was also integrated with their
website.
Getting Results:
The Dynamics CRM and Dynamics AX ERP
integration provides the manufacturer a single
repository for all their business and customer
information. Increased visibility using the
combined systems allows them to interpret
customer buying preferences, patterns (CRM),
and payment history (Dynamics AX).
T: +1-630-424-1800 | +91-79-6682 4700
W: www.indusa.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/indusa
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About Indusa
For global midmarket organizations, Indusa is an innovative technology partner
that provides end-to-end enterprise software solutions and services to deliver
business results: improve productivity, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
With offices in the United States and Asia Pacific, Indusa has a global team of
experts to deliver transformative technology solutions to meet all of the needs
of our clients from consulting to maintenance, in our core practices – Microsoft
Dynamics 365 (AX ERP, CRM), Cloud, BI and Predictive Analytics, SharePoint,
Enterprise Mobility, QA/Testing, Office 365 + Project Pro, and Custom
Application Management.
Quick Facts
• Established in 1989: over 28 years of experience
• Headquartered near Chicago, USA with delivery centers in India
• Anyshore: onsite, offsite, offshore, blended. You call the shots.
• Operate globally; served 500+ clients in over 14 countries
• Implemented 1500+ successful projects
• Over 90% of team (250+) working on Microsoft-related technology projects
are certified
• Deep midmarket expertise
• Microsoft partner with 14 gold and silver competencies
