Sales Analysis Needs (ERP Integration)
- The need for Sales and potentially Inventory data is critical for these manufacturers. We will definitely need to integrate to their ERP. The good news is, that this is doable for almost any ERP built after 1995!
- For older or non- API’d systems, we would make the disclaimer that the integration would likely be one way – from ERP to Salesforce, but using various methods from SQL views to flat file integration, we can likely get the data out of their ERP. Right now, this data is in their ERP, but:
- Reporting is convoluted and locked down
- Reporting cannot be defined or manipulated by users
- Signing in to ERP and finding reports is not convenient
- And it’s not Mobile usually
- We can solve for all of this by bringing that data into Salesforce and using basic reports and dashboards as a start
How can we Help?
- With Enterprise Edition, we could integrate to their ERP and pick up critical Sales and if necessary, inventory information.
- By using this information in Salesforce Reports and Dashboards, we could deliver this analysis to the Account Reps’ pocket. They can use this information to analyze sales by Product, by time (This Year/Last Year), by category – really anything we can get from ERP. We can do Gross Margin Analysis if the cost of goods can be sent in the integration, we can analyze product mix if the category can be sent. Really anything they want to see, if they can get us the data, we can draw at the account level, and then for the company/rep/time period.
- We believe that we can do most integrations for between $12K and $15K one time (not counting the rest of the project).
- Mulesoft is a possibility, but the pricing typically removes the tool as a possibility. We can and have used Middle ware to do the integration, BUT, in our opinion, we are better served writing APEX code to do the integration. Middleware such as Jitterbit or Informatica can START at $20,000 a year.
Questions to Ask
- What is your ERP System? Is it the same as your Accounting System?
- What other systems/solutions do you have in place? – i.e. BI tools, Project Management, Home Grown Applications?
- How do you analyze Sales data? (ERP, Spreadsheets, PDF Reports, etc
- What kind of data do you need on the road? Is the data in ERP? Outlook? Spreadsheets?
- Is your ERP data in good shape? Do you have tons of dups, old or dirty data (we can sometimes fix – but usually need something like Cloudingo to help on the Salesforce side or some other way to clean after integration)