Benefits of Integrating Your Epicor ERP With Your Commerce Network (eCommerce & EDI)
Wednesday, November 11, 2020Eric Zegarski
Benefits of Integrating Your Epicor ERP With Your Commerce Systems
Integrating your
Epicor ERP has long term positive effects on your business. It’s an investment that streamlines your organization, allowing for agile business decisions. Businesses are no longer relying on just one sales channel. Now brands have a multi-channel approach selling through their own eCommerce store, on online marketplaces, and retail outlets.
Businesses that have eCommerce or retail operations create a lot of data that must be processed and organized. This data processing and organization needs to be done FAST! Entry of this data has an impact on how fast a business can operate. Orders need to be packaged, labels need to be printed, and retail orders need to be sent in a timely manner. Done the traditional way, ample amounts of hours must be dedicated to manual data entry. With the rise of eCommerce over the last couple of years, commerce has become a 24/7 operation. As a result, orders pile up during non-business hours and can cause a bottleneck the next business day.
Epicor Integration for eCommerce
The eBridge Connections platform powers eCommerce integration with Epicor and major eCommerce platforms (
Shopify,
BigCommerce,
Magento,
WooCommerce,
Amazon). With an eCommerce integration solution from eBridge Connections, customer and sales order information from your online store is automatically entered into your back-office Epicor ERP. In turn, product information, inventory, and shipping details are updated automatically on your eCommerce platform to provide customers with essential and up-to-date information.
Epicor Integration for EDI Trading Partners
eBridge allows you to connect your Epicor ERP with over
800 different trading partners. Our integration platform supports EDI transaction processing through the eBridge Connections ePortal. With the ePortal you receive the benefits of having a translator and mapper without the headaches. ePortal also removes the need for 3rd party communication by enabling connectivity with any trading partner using the method that is requested by that trading partner. All communication protocols are supported, whether the trading partner requires AS2, FTP or VAN communication. Features include:
- A repository of trading partner EDI document maps
- Strict adherence to trading partner EDI transaction implementation guidelines
- Data mapping
- Trading partner testing
- Compliance monitoring
Overall Benefits of Integrating Your Epicor ERP
- Eliminate manual and duplicate entry: Integrating your Epicor ERP mitigates the risk associated with manual data entry such as dual entry.
- Improve speed of data exchange: By eliminating the time-consuming manual data entry process, the eBridge Connections integration platform greatly increases the speed of information exchange, resulting in improved customer service efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Improve data accuracy: Each time data is manually entered into your ERP, there is the chance of errors being introduced. Data passes through a validation layer, resulting in a decrease in costly errors and chargebacks.
- Streamline business processes: Integrating your Epicor ERP will help to create an efficient workflow between departments and functionalities in your organization. An integrated flow of data will provide you with the insight you need to make strong decisions that align with your business strategy and objectives.
- Liberate valuable resources: Focus your resources on other high priority work, instead of tedious manual data entry to and from your Shopify store and ERP system. An integration solution will automatically schedule and process data without human intervention.
Departmental Based Epicor ERP Integration Benefits
Data from your Epicor ERP is required by multiple departments for your business to function properly. Transparency is key to building an agile operation that can adapt to changing market trends. Different teams need data so they can work together. Here’s how integrating your Epicor with your commerce systems benefits different departments:
Impact on Marketing and Sales
Modern marketing departments are driven by data. With integration, marketing can have almost real-time statistics. Marketing can effectively identify which products are selling well and if their campaigns are having a positive impact on the bottom line. If you’re diversifying your sales channels with a multi-channel approach and distributing through big box or independent retailers, account managers have real time updates on orders through automatic EDI document flow. Therefore, they can effectively manage retailer relations.
Impact on Operations
The operations team is responsible for all the behind the scenes “magic” that ensures orders are shipped and there are no stock outs. An integrated network with your Epicor ERP allows your team to manage inbound and outbound orders effectively. Whether you have an in-house or outsourced manufacturing team, inventory needs to be ordered in a timely manner to account for lead times. Having your Epicor ERP connected to your commerce systems, allows your ops team to have almost real-time numbers. Furthermore, if you’re selling on marketplaces like Amazon or Walmart, you could face hefty penalty fees if your orders are not shipped according to their standards.
Impact on Finance and Accounting
Integration allows finance to have accurate and almost real-time numbers at their disposal. As a result, finance can pre-plan for future promotions by working with marketing to identify well performing products and establishing profit margins. If you’re running a multi-channel strategy, integration allows finance and accounting to see all incoming orders and payments. Therefore, managing accounts payable and receivable is easier as some sales channels do not provide payment right away.
eBridge Makes Epicor Integration Easy
Our integration solution is universal! You can add or remove systems with ease as your commerce operations grow and your needs change. Our integration platform has pre-built connectors for leading eCommerce platforms including but not limited to
Shopify,
BigCommerce,
Magento,
WooCommerce,
Amazon, and marketplaces like
Walmart. Our platform can also integrate with hundreds of EDI trading partners. As a result, we can implement an integration solution in a timely manner. Need more convincing, explore the full benefits of integration as well as how to calculate the
ROI of integrating your commerce network that’s supported by
Epicor.
In addition, eBridge is hosted on Microsoft Azure, therefore ensuring an almost 99.9% uptime and industry leading security. With an integration solution from eBridge, you can ensure that your commerce network is connected and communicating data bi-directionally.
Integration Allowed Cookshack to Flawlessly Send Data Between Their Shopify site and Epicor ERP
Over the last few years, Cookshack has been modernizing systems. One system, their ERP or accounting system, moved to Epicor on the Cloud. Epicor is a well-known and robust ERP that allows business to track products, costs and count their money at the end of the month. However, with this change they question of how to integrate their Shopify website with their Epicor on the Cloud ERP. Learn More