We are looking to implement CRM(dynamics 365 tops the list followed by creatio and salesforce) and sync it with epicor . This is what our sales expect with the integration any suggestions please .
"In terms of information flow between Epicor and a CRM system, my expectation will be that quoting will be done from the CRM system, with either orders being done directly into Epicor, or done in CRM which should match the requirements in Epicor and can then be pulled in.
I expect master customer data to be stored in the CRM system. Pricing master should remain in Epicor. Customer data existing in Epicor is related more to invoicing, than decision making on sales.
I would expect quotation to order data to flow to Epicor, and I would expect pricing, financial, supply chain and warranty information to flow out of Epicor back to the CRM."
I guess my first suggestion is to have the company (not just sales) discuss the pain points of intra-company communications. For a brief time, CRM was called XRM indicating that part of customer relationship management is managing the whole supply chain. If there’s a supply interruption, wouldn’t the sales people like to know this? If there are long outstanding invoices for a customer, it may give the sales team some pricing leverage - or at least know why they are not getting their commission checks. Customers often contact production directly for scheduling priorities and that should be tracked too.
The first issue with CRM is how to structure your contacts. Some people create only contacts and associate the company with it while others create a company record and make contacts under it. This is somewhat driven by the architecture of your CRM but it has implications on how that data may be shared with external systems like Epicor.
Think about compliance issues at the start. With privacy regulations, spend time up front knowing how you would comply with things like GDPR, California’s CCPA, etc.
Know how Email integrates. Capturing this communication is paramount. Dynamics will probably have the best Outlook Integration.
Do you want leads (prospects/suspects) in Epicor or only customers?
Don’t start with what lives where, start with what processes need to be defined:
Lead import (web contact forms, virtual seminars, etc.)
Qualifying Leads
Lead follow up and tracking
Cost of conversion (how’s my ad spending performing?)
Security: who’s responsible for what data and what access do others have?
Follow the relationship from lead to quote to order to fulfillment to billing to collection to support to gain the best insights and feed that information back into engineering.
CRM is just as complicated as ERP and it is just as companywide. Everyone wants their “own” system but a good ERP or CRM system belongs to everyone.
Agreed . We just went live on Salesforce and this was the biggest issue with the project in my opinion. We didn’t devote resources to it like we did our ERP go-live. This resulted in things being missed, setup being done wrong and needing to be redone, and blown timelines. Treat your CRM go-live like an ERP go-live. I wish we would have.
And syncing might get “interesting”.
Prior to E10, I ended up using a 3rd party connector from TIBCO to move the data between the an online version of Dynamics CRM and Vantage - via nightly scheduled exports/uploads. There are more tools/options now (and my opinion easier if both CRM and ERP are “on premise”) but regardless… I wouldn’t be surprised if your development hours start piling up once you get into the guts of this. It can quickly turn into a bottomless pit.
How did that process end up going for you ? We are currently using jitterbit to try to integrate kinetic → salesforce and continue to run into obstacles. Our main struggle is getting the pricelists over to sf as management wants Salesforce users to be able to create pricelists within the sf platform
. We just went live on Salesforce and this was the biggest issue with the project in my opinion. We didn’t devote resources to it like we did our ERP go-live. This resulted in things being missed, setup being done wrong and needing to be redone, and blown timelines. Treat your CRM go-live like an ERP go-live. I wish we would have.