Access to information empowers your employees to do their jobs. When they get accurate data in real-time, proposals close faster and customers receive their orders sooner. And in turn, the timeline to “turn prospects into cash” is accelerated.
The keys to enabling this access to information are the data integrations among your enterprise applications—with connecting CRM and ERP at the top of the priority list. Customer data needs to automatically flow into the ERP system so accounts can be set up and orders fulfilled as quickly as customers expect. And customer account and order data needs to flow into the CRM system so customers can be kept up-to-date on order status.
CRM and ERP Cloud Platforms Accelerate Cash Flow
Many businesses take on the challenge starting with two of the leading CRM and ERP platforms that operate in the cloud—Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) and Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (F&SCM). CE is known as a suite of solutions (Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Marketing, Dynamics 365 Field Service, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service) while F&SCM is the latest evolution of the Dynamics AX ERP platform.
Integrating Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM) with F&SCM helps you accelerate the timeline for turning prospects into cash by streamlining the process to convert leads into customers and then invoicing them to generate revenue. Dynamics 365 Sales handles the lead qualification, account management, and proposals to create a 360-degree view of customers. Meanwhile, Dynamics 365 F&SCM transacts purchasing, order fulfillment, inventory, billing, banking and financials.
Data Mapping Creates Smooth Integrations
It takes some know-how to make the workflows between CRM and ERP function smoothly. But there’s a handy tool available called Microsoft Dataverse, which uses the Microsoft common data model to set up the mappings.
With these mappings, Sales and F&SCM play very well together in the cloud. The sales team uses D365 Sales to manage accounts and take orders while the Operations team uses D365 F&SCM to fulfill orders. Sales automatically populates data into F&SCM while the ERP platform does in Sales so the sales team can see what is happening with accounts and orders.
Watch a Demo of Data Synchronization
To show you how the two systems synchronize data, Western Computer offers an on-demand webinar. We take you through the steps of how each system creates and owns entity data sets and then syncs the data to the other system. With both systems running in the cloud, all the data is accessible from any device, and your internal teams benefit from several capabilities:
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Lead management from qualification to opportunities and wins.
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Account creation that pulls in legal entity data and allows for adding customer attributes.
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Automatic synchronization of account data from CRM to ERP to kick off credit checks.
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Origination of proposals in CRM that turn into sales orders in ERP.
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Fulfillment process that directs the warehouse team on how to handle orders.
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Sales order data flows into CRM so Sales and customers can track progress.
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Invoice generation in ERP that creates accounts receivable entries.
With synchronized data and visibility across all of these functions, your internal teams gain complete views into what is going on with every customer.
Learn More About CRM and ERP Integrations
To learn more about the benefits and how to integrate CRM and ERP platforms, check out the Exploring Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Integration with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management webinar today. And for more information on how Western Computer can help you integrate your enterprise applications, contact us today to start the conversation.
About the Author
More Content by Cady Jackson