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Why SAP and Salesforce Integration Needs to Be a Priority Project

 

Integrating SAP and Salesforce must be a top priority for any company that’s truly invested in increasing productivity and ROI

Most of your company’s departments live by the data in your SAP ERP system. Your ERP plays an essential role in everything your business does on a day-to-day basis — whether on-premises or in the cloud. However, your sales team doesn’t make a move without Salesforce CRM. The CRM gives them ready access to the customer data they need — and all the information required to generate bids and close sales.

The problem is, some of that all-important sales policy data is stored and maintained in SAP, and the ERP is the only system with real-time insight into supply chain details like inventory availability.

Marrying these systems together is the only way to assure seamless integration of your sales, production and logistics processes. The integration needs to be done with an eye to comprehensive data availability and real-time, on-the-go interoperability.

What SAP data does your Salesforce-using team need to access?

Selecting the precise data that Salesforce users will require from your SAP ERP is crucial.

  1. If your sales staff doesn’t have the data to formulate accurate quotes and deliver as promised after a successful close, then the integration was all for nothing.
  2. Redundant data in your integration bogs down data flow, consumes additional network resources, and makes for poor interoperability.

Understanding exactly what ERP data your salesforce needs to access in your CRM system is key to ensuring they can be as effective as possible.

Even if you’ve been using SAP and Salesforce for years, improving the integration is important

Your sales team is full of motivated go-getters who will work around any bottleneck to close the sale. There may have been grumbling over the years about the extra work generated by having to manually sync two systems that won’t talk to each other. However, the sale is the point, and most salespeople won’t spend too much time on anything that gets in the way of achieving the ultimate goal.

But extra work that doesn’t produce revenue is wasted effort on the part of your sales team. These tasks cost you money in the long run:

  • Cross-referencing systems to make sure quotes and bids comply with the latest sales policies
  • Once again, going back and forth from SAP to Salesforce to determine current prices for the specific customer in question
  • Dual data entry — how much sales time do you lose to salespeople entering the same information twice to complete a transaction? Or maybe you’re paying someone just to enter orders from salespeople into SAP?
  • Dealing with data discrepancies generated by dual data entry
  • Being unable to incorporate the latest, most favorable sales and pricing policies that may end up sinking deals

True bi-directional integration enables your sales team to process Salesforce quotes and orders with real-time SAP product pricing, inventory, and sales policy data.

What integrations will make your sales team most efficient?

The effectiveness of many IT projects has been compromised by not tapping into the best source of information on workflow issues and usability requirements: The actual users who do their work with the software in development. They are your best source for all the small and large details that will make or break your integration project.

Ignore your sales team’s advice at your risk. They know better than anyone what features and information they need to maximize sales numbers, satisfy clients and promote repeat sales. Give them what they need. Get them involved in the integration process and do it early.

The sales staff is also your go-to resource when the time comes to validate the integration. Get their input on how successful the data integration is at taking the kinks out of the sales process. Make adjustments are needed. You may also find that some of the best improvements to the new integration come from suggestions made during this phase of the process.

Let enosix help you harness the full power of your IT investment

Actual bi-directional integration of SAP and Salesforce can be one of the best IT infrastructure investments you can make. With enosix, you remove the obstacles from your sales force, making them more efficient at giving customers what they want and closing sales.

We’re creating the new standard for SAP integration by leaving the “middleware” philosophy behind and providing real-time access to your ERP data in all of your front-end systems. This is next-generation integration technology that delivers on the promise of the intelligent enterprise. Learn more about how enosix can bring SAP and Salesforce together to enhance the productivity of your sales organization. Connect with Enosix at 844-436-6749 or request a demonstration of our integration solutions today.

 

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