Switching from Standalone ERP and CRM Solutions To a Platform
Approach

Even in 2021: one IT Solution never comes alone

In the past, using several IT solutions was the standard for companies. However, this is still a widespread phenomenon in the early 2020s. The individual solutions are often more or less separate from one another: each covers certain processes and boasts specific features. Doesn’t necessarily sound like a disadvantage at first, does it? And after all, it’s also super convenient to rely on the tried-and-tested processes. So why change anything?

Many Subsystems: works in Theory, but not in Practice

In fact, the whole game works perfectly well as long as your employees only use one of the subsystems, which would mean that all departments in a company are completely independent of each other. This may exist in theory - but not in practice. You have to imagine a company as an ecosystem: with many individual players pursuing a common goal. So the colleague from Sales can’t just say, “We have nothing to do with Controlling, no idea what they do.”. No, in “real life” your employees have to deal with many of these software solutions on a daily basis.

Front and Back End rarely go Hand in Hand

Some companies have even installed several ERP and CRM systems - one system for each division. Or for each country. Or for each industry. And sometimes in random order - thanks to M&A activity. And while these ERP solutions support your back-end processes, the CRM solutions cover the front-end - i.e. your current and potential customers. You probably know this all too well: it is not uncommon for the coordination between the front and back office to leave something to be desired. This not only affects your employees or departments, who have to deal with different technologies, user interfaces, logics and access requirements. But above all your current and future customers! Because if your company’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, this does not contribute to customer satisfaction.

Integrating ERP and CRM: Why you can increase
Customer Satisfaction
with the “2-in-1 Principle”

You are wasting Potential with Lone Fighters

This doesn’t just apply to ERP and CRM solutions, of course. Think about the (lack of) integration between these solutions and your office tools, your point-of-sale solution or your webshop. All of these solutions are lone fighters. This means you are wasting a lot of potential. We have known for some time that unexpected synergies can arise within a group. That’s why you should make your systems team players!

Replace your Isolated Solutions by a Platform Approach: this saves you Time and Nerves

Something else: which company doesn’t confidently describe itself as customer-centric? - always according to the well-known motto “customer is king”, which is so easy to say, but is it really true? If you want to be a customer-centric company, you need to get out of your comfort zone. It’s high time to move away from your current ERP/CRM island solution and switch to a platform approach! This will save you and your customers an incredible amount of time. So it’s worth tackling the digital transformation.

The Microsoft Platform connects Everything and Everyone - with little Effort

A brief digression makes sense at this point. Keep reminding yourself of this: digital transformation is all about speed, such as that of data, processes and employees. If you want to make faster progress, you can’t avoid networking everything and everyone. Because otherwise the competition will eventually leave you behind… and you definitely don’t want that! This is where integration comes into play again. With solutions that run on a single platform, networking is much, much easier. The Microsoft platform makes it easy because it makes networking so straightforward that you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it!

Business Central and Microsoft Teams: this is how Seamless Integration works

If you are looking for a prime example of successful software integration, you should definitely take a look at the combination Dynamics 365 BC and Microsoft Teams. You can integrate the online/SaaS version of Business Central seamlessly into Teams. Especially in times of remote work this is an advantage that should not be underestimated! At the moment, a large part of your coordination is probably also done via the Microsoft tool. And so you can also short-circuit information in the chat that is in Business Central without having to switch back and forth between the two applications every thirty seconds. This is “seamless integration”. 😊