Everybody and their biz-tech partner seem to be singing the praises of CPQ integrated with CRM, and it’s easy to see why.
They’re both about sales, sales, and sales. They complement each other, with CRM helping nurture a prospect, and CPQ helping close that prospect. They are simply a natural fit. (Like one brilliant blogger once put it, “CRM & CPQ go together perfectly. Not like peanut butter and jelly; more like peanut butter and more peanut butter.”)
But what about other business systems? Namely, what about the finance and accounting systems that are often the bedrock of a business, the systems that help a business work off of recognized revenue rather than CRM-style forecasts, the systems that store critical inventory and HR data, the systems that centralize and secure info that relates not just sales and marketing (like most of a CRM) but to everything in the enterprise?
What about ERP systems?
For some businesses, integrating CPQ with ERP makes a ton of sense, and here are a few reasons why.
Inventory insights
At the core of every CPQ system, there’s a product and pricing configuration engine, a feature that, on the front end, helps salespeople put together quotes more quickly by showing only optimal bundles and pricing.
Used in conjunction with an ERP system, however, this feature is as much about the back end, serving more as an inventory management system, and dynamically presenting only products-in-stock to anyone building a quote.
This inventory data can also be “back-tracked” and merged with CPQ data (e.g., closing rates), thereby helping an organization better know what products lead to more sales closing and (through its ERP systems) making the proper supply chain modifications to ensure that stock remains solid.
Definitive data
It’s all, and always, about the data. Now, first a disclaimer: we’re not saying the data in your CRM is always unreliable, but we are saying that it’s often unreliable.
This isn’t a systems thing, though — it’s a people thing. The salespeople using your CRM are usually moving at a pretty quick pace (which means errors often abound), and, for most SMBs, there are often anywhere from 5 - 50 people in the CRM, entering data on leads, sales, quotes, etc. Data in a CRM can get dirty in a hurry.
But in an ERP system, the data is almost always more accurate as 1) there are far fewer people accessing the system data, and 2) the people who are accessing the system are typically your finance and accounting people who — let’s be honest, here — are more careful about keeping data clean than your average sales rep.
This is critical as the data in your ERP is your invoicing and accounting data: an error therein could mean not getting paid, having the wrong info presented to the IRS, etc. And while we insist on data accuracy in CRM, too, the truth is that an error therein usually only results in a headache for your marketing and sales staff, not a violation of US tax law.
Supreme security
In addition to data often being more accurate in ERP than in CRM, another hard truth is that data is often kept more secure in ERP than in CRM.
One reason is the same as above: people. Fewer people accessing the system means fewer inroads for those with malintent to access the system’s data.
Another reason is that CRMs are known for being easily or often extended by various applications, both during and after deployment. This, of course, is a great fit for the speed of doing business: a solution fully customized to your needs.
But… as is the case with more users accessing the system, it also means more inroads for the ill-intentioned.
Each app has its own path into the system, and over the course of a year or two of updates and upgrades, some paths can be forgotten, some doors left open, and your CRM is left with its apps hanging out.
ERP, while customizable, is rarely customized to the extent a CRM is, which means fewer gaps. And it’s all about the nature of the systems. The way every business sells is often very different, but the way every business invoices and handles accounting tasks is often identical. So ERP requires fewer modifications… beyond adding CPQ ; )
The best case scenario? The best of ALL worlds: CRM integrated with ERP; CPQ integrated with both; cleaner customer info, safer data, and more sales closing more quickly. CRP + ERP + CPQ for the win!
