Batch, Live or Hybrid: How Do You Integrate eCommerce with Your ERP?
If your company does business online, then it follows that you have an eCommerce system in place. But does it fully integrate with your ERP? If not, you might be missing out on some powerful advantages. You might be hesitant to look into integration, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, integration can be accomplished in several ways—from simple to more complex. The idea is to choose which method is most appropriate for how your company does business. Consider this quick overview as a place to start:
Batch integration will reduce your system overhead while allowing use of master data in your ERP system. Batch integration is also typically the lowest cost to implement.
Live or real-time integration between your ERP and eCommerce platform will require a fast connection between the two systems and is more prevalent with the internet and bandwidth technology available today. Live integration is important for companies offering special pricing or discounts to certain customers, or if real-time inventory is important to the customer at the time they are placing the order. Live integration typically costs more than batch.
Hybrid integration is a combination of both batch and live integration. Why would you use a hybrid integration between your ERP and eCommerce? Bandwidth and a high number of site visitors could be potential bottlenecks. In a hybrid scenario, product and customer price information can be batch loaded into the eCommerce system, while business logic on the eCommerce side calculates discounts. Hybrid integration models are the most flexible, the most complex, and the most costly.
Regardless of which method is best for your company, integrating your ERP with eCommerce has tremendous benefits that should not be passed up.
Learn how you can gain operational efficiency for your online business with proper integration by downloading the whitepaper, “Integrating your eCommerce with ERP” from Dynamicweb.
Questions? Contact the experts at ArcherPoint to discuss your eCommerce/ERP integration strategy.