Ecommerce has never been a more popular way of doing business. Thanks to its ease and convenience, as many as 87% of UK households bought something online in the 12 months leading up to October 2020.
Many businesses have adapted, creating ecommerce websites so they don’t get left behind. However, what many don’t realise is that to get the most of their ecommerce site they need to integrate the front-end web store with a backend Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, like Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, to make things run smoothly and to ease the workload. Make sure your business doesn’t miss out.
The integration seamlessly joins your ecommerce website with a backend ERP system so that they don’t have to be handled separately. If there’s an order in one system, it will automatically appear in the other system without the need for any third-party services or the importing/exporting of files.
Whether your ecommerce platform is B2B, B2C, a customer portal, a sales portal, a vendor portal or mobile commerce, Dynamics can connect them into one unified system to make your business run smoother.
Why integrate?
Maintaining finances, sales, purchases and the inventory of any ecommerce website can be a lot of work, so it’s vital that you don’t do this manually.
As an example, let’s say your business sells electrical goods and has a promotion on a popular TV. Now let’s say that TV was receiving 300 orders per day. If you had to take those orders and re-enter them into the accounting system, this would add hours of needless maintenance work each week.
Other benefits of integrating include:
- Higher efficiency. Inventory levels automatically update, meaning you don’t offer items you’ve not got stock of.
- Real-time data flow. With Dynamics 365, data is transferred in real-time without the need for human input. With this you can set up alerts for when your stock is running low.
- Improved employee efficiency. Getting rid of these unnecessary tasks saves time, freeing up employees so they can be more productive. For example, they could respond better to customer enquiries.
- Deliver on time. Shipping and packaging are also immediately notified of new orders so they can fulfil them as quickly as possible without any delays.
- No more data entry errors. Accurate data taken care of by the integrated systems.
- Customisable. Flexible to your ecommerce needs.
- Increased sales revenues. All these efficiency improvements would lead to increased sales in the long run.
Why choose Dynamics for the ecommerce integration?
If your company is serious about developing its ecommerce capabilities then it will need a system in place to keep on top of all the processes involved e.g., tracking orders, expenses. Dynamics 365 Business Central is the fix-all solution to these questions. This ERP system connects all departments with a single, shared, easy-to-access database.
Dynamics 365 offers one of the most secure integrated systems on the market. Effective ecommerce integration will see flows of data travel from your e-commerce website to your backend ERP system (financial operations) in secure, encrypted files, keeping your business’s data safe and secure over the internet.
It’s very easy to use. Dynamics has a familiar, user-friendly interface so new users can get to grips with it in no time. It also offers out-of-office accessibility through its mobile app so employees can access this information remotely.
Dynamics Business Central will use the data gathered from the webstore and other areas of your business to produce charts, reports and dashboards to give you a complete picture of your business. They are produced in real-time so you can spot trends early and adjust your webstore accordingly.
If you’ve already purchased Dynamics 365 Sales or Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics Nav) then you’re ready to integrate.
What data can be integrated?
Microsoft Dynamics can be integrated with your whole ecommerce operation so there isn’t any dataset that couldn’t be used.
This could include:
- Customer catalogues
- Products
- Your stock levels
- Your shopping cart technology
- Sales orders
- Prices and taxes
- all the other key data found on your ecommerce website.
24/7 synchronization of key data is enabled between the two systems. This data integration will let you:
- Display personalised, customer-specific pricing, potential discounts and payment terms based on the existing customer data found in the Dynamics Business Central database.
- Display real-time inventory on the web store
- Display customer payment history and allow payments on existing invoices
- Create data on Dynamics Business Central to be shared across all relevant platforms
How does the integration work?
It’s simple. An online connector seamlessly joins your ecommerce platform to your Dynamics 365 database.
If you would like a demo, feel free to call us on 01422 824831 or email us at hello@allmysystems.co.uk
If you’ve already invested in one of these market-leading ecommerce systems, you can find out more about the specific integrations below.
