How to integrate BigCommerce and SAP Business One: A 'real-life' example...
Tuesday, August 22, 2017Lauren Macdonald
How to Integrate and Connect BigCommerce and SAP Business One
We’ve helped many clients integrate BigCommerce and SAP Business One over the years. We’re also getting dozens of new requests every day to integrate these two important business systems.
To help you decide if a BigCommerce and SAP Business One integration is right for your business, we’re summarizing when, why, and how, one eBridge client decided to ‘take the plunge’ and implement an integration solution that would better their business forever.
When is the Right Time to Integrate BigCommerce and SAP Business One
Deciding when to implement an integration solution between BigCommerce and SAP Business One depends on each unique business and the resources they have available to them.
However, typically speaking, we find that the ‘breaking point’ where merchants can no longer keep up with manual rekeying of orders and other data, typically happens when sellers start seeing about 250+ orders a month. This is when most sellers will decide that manual data entry is no longer an efficient way of doing business, and they’ll turn to an integration solution provider for help.
For our client, (a leading liquor, wine, and gift basket store from Florida), this ‘breaking point’ came in 2015 when their ECommerce Marketing & Operations Manager reached out to eBridge with a problem: Too many orders and a rapidly growing business with over 13 stores in Florida meant that manual data entry was far too time-consuming and a more automated process was necessary if the business was to continue growing.
Why You Should Integrate BigCommerce and SAP Business One
There’s countless reasons why companies such as this Florida-based wine and liquor company decide that integration between BigCommerce and SAP Business One is the best option for their business.
Here’s a few reasons why choosing an integration solution provider to help is the best way to go:
- Accuracy—leave the data entry in the capable hands of an integration solution provider who will pass your data back and forth between systems using carefully coded business rules and translations that will eliminate the possibility of costly errors typically made by human mistakes.
- Speed—increase the speed of data exchange and keep your customers happy with orders that are processed and shipped, fast.
- No maintenance required—update or change your business systems with ease, knowing that your integration solution can be fully managed and maintained on your behalf. If you change systems, your solution provider will add or remove the connectors as you need.
- More free-time—liberate valuable resources like time and money and get back to focusing on what’s important for growing your business. Hint: Data entry need not be your priority anymore!
For our friends the wine sellers, an integration solution between BigCommerce and SAP Business One meant that they could continue to sell online and in-store in more places without needing to worry that human error from manual data entry could be costly for their business. Another benefit? Inventory across their 13+ stores would always be properly tracked and recorded and they’d never sell more of a product than they actually had in stock.
How an Integration Implementation for BigCommerce and SAP Business One Works
There’s always the option to develop an integration solution in-house that will pass data back and forth between
BigCommerce and
SAP Business One, however we caution against this because these kinds of solutions require a great deal of maintenance during upgrades. If you ever decide to upgrade your SAP Business One accounting package or add more online stores (i.e. Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Magento, 3dcart, etc.) you’ll need an integration solution that can grow and scale along with your business.
With an integration solution provider like eBridge, here’s how you typically go about integrating your business systems:
- Hop on a call with a smart and knowledgeable representative from eBridge that will help you decide if integration will solve the challenges your business is facing
- With the help of your representative, outline the details of your integration solution and the specific data you need passed in each direction (i.e. Orders from BigCommerce into SAP Business One, Inventory from SAP Business One updated in BigCommerce, shipping and tracking information from SAP Business One shared with your BigCommerce customers, etc.).
- Discuss timelines and budgets keeping in mind that integration solutions are complex and can take time. Remember that customizations will cost you more as well.
- Appoint a main contact person on your end that knows the data and will be able to help your integration solution provider understand which data needs to be passed where. This will speed up the entire implementation process.
- Once fully implemented and tested, your go-live date will be set and you’ll be ready to sit back and let your order automation process take over. If you come across any hiccups or need additional help, you’ll have access to a 24/7 support response that can assist you.
A BigCommerce Integration Success Story
In order to improve efficiency for their very successful BigCommerce store that sells hunting and fishing gear, the folks at RealTree were eager to find a way to flow sales orders, inventory, and shipping updates to and from their Realtree online store and their back-office MS Dynamics GP ERP system.
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We make integrating and syncing SAP Business One with BigCommerce easy.