Who Owns the Broadest Customer Relationship System?
Who Owns the Broadest Customer Relationship System?
discover | Saturday - 15 / 03 / 2025 - 11:41 am
Today, with the amount of data being generated at the speed of light, business owners are experiencing a more complex working environment than ever before. On the one hand, they are under pressure to keep up with rapid changes in order to maintain their market share in the long term. On the other hand, customers have become more demanding and are finding better responses from “new players” in the business world.
All of the aforementioned factors are driving competition to a whole new level.
If you don’t have a comprehensive system that covers all your business needs, and your budget doesn’t allow you to build one from scratch; there are other options to improve your efficiency. For example, the integration between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can contribute to discovering new growth pillars for your company. Today, we will delve into the main benefits that this integration can bring and the challenges it poses.
Why do I need integration if everything is working fine?
Using two separate systems might be enough for you. Converting them into a single system doesn’t seem to be very important. Besides, standalone Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can better cater to the needs of sales and marketing professionals: such applications were initially designed to follow best practices that specialists are more likely to adhere to due to their prior experience.
On the other hand, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems deal with data related to “operational” activities, making them unsuitable for customer management.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems work with data from different worlds:
– CRM systems handle the customer-facing part of your business.
– ERP systems manage the business operations that are typically behind the scenes.
So, these systems can’t perform each other’s tasks, but you can make them share overlapping data. Integrating CRM and ERP enables the automatic synchronization of consistent information generated by both systems. This helps gain a clear view of how current business operations impact the customer experience.
Benefits of Integrating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems:
Eliminating Data Redundancy and Duplication:
When your systems aren’t synchronized, there’s a high likelihood of duplicate customer data, such as contact information. Besides increasing labor costs due to the need to enter the same data twice, this can complicate further analysis and increase the probability of errors.
With a comprehensive system, employees from different departments can have a real-time view of the currently available data at the enterprise level. This, in turn, reduces miscommunication and minimizes data redundancy.
Comprehensive Overview:
The integration between the two systems allows you to have a comprehensive overview of all your company’s operations. All information, from production capacity and marketing campaigns to a specific customer’s phone number, will be just a few clicks away.
Speaking of Market Demand:
Integrating a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (powered by AI) can transform your data into a source of valuable marketing insights. Your system can automatically analyze all your information and identify invisible patterns. Let’s say your marketing team decided to launch an email discount campaign for Eid al-Fitr. In this scenario, your CRM system can find the correlation between the timing of previous campaigns and actual purchases, and project this data onto the upcoming period. This ensures that you have enough items in stock, informs you of potential problems based on customer feedback, so you can improve logistics.
Streamlined Workflow:
If your organization involves multiple departments, clarifying certain data can be time-consuming. With an integrated system, you can expect better collaboration among employees. Having access to a system that provides real-time data frees you from the need to send emails to find out how many products are currently available and 1 whether the company can produce a certain number of them by a specific deadline. Automatic notification systems are an added benefit to ensure everyone is kept informed.
Unfortunately, everything comes at a price, and the integration of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is no exception.
The first challenge to consider relates to the data itself:
While ERP and CRM systems are similar and overlapping in the type of information they record, they are fundamentally different platforms. This means that the type of data stored in each may be different and may require clear definition before integration.
Stale Data:
One of the most common problems with integrating ERP and CRM data is the presence of old data that is then synchronized across platforms. Synchronizing old information can create more problems than it solves.
Some studies indicate that 91% of customer relationship management system data is “incomplete.” To avoid this, be sure to exclude, clean, or archive data before starting the integration. Otherwise, you may end up with a system that is not easy to navigate!
Cost vs. Value:
Finding the right balance between cost and value has never been more important in today’s business environment. Companies can be tempted by cheaper customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, overlooking the lack of necessary features for long-term success. Neglecting to consider the scalability of a CRM solution is a problem faced by those who prioritize free or cheaper CRM solutions, which stifles growth. This may lead companies to quickly outgrow the solution and have to completely uproot their systems!
Using the Wrong Integrations:
Even if your company implements integrations to eliminate data silos, you may still be using the wrong integrations (i.e., those that do not align with your company’s needs). This can pose a significant issue. For example, many integrations offer only one-way communication, where one system triggers an action in another but does not synchronize both systems in both directions. If a company needs two-way synchronization between its CRM system and other tools, it may require a two-way integration.
In conclusion, when it comes to tackling the challenges of customer relationship management integrations, choosing a CRM system that supports you makes a significant difference. Logix’s comprehensive CRM system provides your team with the necessary tools for overall organizational success. This is thanks to CRM features such as sales automation, advanced reporting, and contact management.
