Can Salesforce Be Used as an ERP?

Digital transformation is changing how businesses today operate. Whether it is a small or medium enterprise (SME) or Fortune 500 company, every business is moving towards automation. Businesses are spending more and more on automating their day-to-day tasks.

According to Statista, companies in different sectors spent around $10.9 billion on intelligent process automation (IPA). Most notably, CRM and ERP have now become an integral part of the business's operations. These systems allow them to streamline their tedious tasks and manage the data more effectively.

Most companies today are using Salesforce because of its robust functionalities. However, most of them have this question in their mind: can Salesforce be used as an ERP? We'll resolve this query for you in this article. So, without further ado, let's get right into it.

What is an ERP System?

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is a system that the organization uses for integrating various business operations into one place. It can handle a wide range of activities, such as:

• Project management

• Order management

• Inventory

• Human resources

• Compliance

• Accounting

The system has a shared database, allowing all the people throughout the business to access the same data. Therefore, it acts as a "universal source of information," for every business employee. Since all the data is in one place, companies can leverage the ERP system to simplify their process.

Can Salesforce Be Used as an ERP?

No, Salesforce cannot be used as an ERP. Undoubtedly, Salesforce has become one of the top CRM (Customer relationship management) platforms for businesses globally, but it can't be considered an ERP. It provides a wide range of features to efficiently manage your sales and customer services.

However, Salesforce lacks the basic services that you have in an ERP system, such as supply chain management, inventory management, financial management, etc.

Not so long ago, many companies had to come up with complex systems to link their Salesforce CRM with the ERPs to synchronize the data. Furthermore, it was also necessary for passing the transactions. But, there isn't a need for these integrations anymore since companies can now develop ERP solutions on the Salesforce CRM.

Additionally, the companies can integrate CRM with the Salesforce platform to get all the information in one place. That said, Salesforce cannot be used as an ERP, but you can run your ERP system with the Salesforce platform by integrating them.

Click here to learn how you can use the Salesforce automation tools to make your sales processes more efficient.

How can Integrating ERP and Salesforce CRM Help Your Business?

CRM and ERP both play a critical role in running your day-to-day business operations. The Salesforce CRM allows businesses to access data related to sales and services through a single place. On the other hand, the ERP helps you with managing inventory, finances, production, etc.

With their integration, your business can have a comprehensive idea about its financial performance and customers' data in a single place. Plus, there are various benefits that your business can enjoy with the integration of ERP and CRM systems. Here are a few of them.

1) Reduces the Chances of Data Duplication

When working on the ERP and CRM, you might be managing customer data on both of them. However, this can lead to possible inaccuracies and outdated details. Even if it is accurate, there is a great chance of data repetition.

Not just that, but it can also be difficult to find out which one is the master record. However, integrating both these systems will reduce the chances of data duplication since there would be only a single record.

2) Improves Collaboration between the Employees

Your employees can have easy access to all the crucial details about the customers. Even employees that don't work in the sales or customer service team can access this data.

As a result, it can improve the collaboration process between the employees since they won't have to send the data back and forth to each other. Additionally, it also ensures that the organization takes decisions based on complete facts and figures.

3) Lowers the Cost While Speeding Up the Sales Approvals

Having two different systems can increase the workload and expenses of managing both. But if you have one system to handle, then it will lower your IT support cost. Apart from that, you would also have to train your team to manage one platform.

In addition to lowering the cost, it can also help you speed up the sales and operations processes. Employees and teams speed up their approval process much more quickly if they have real-time customer data by their side.

How to Integrate Your ERP System with Salesforce CRM?

Many business owners struggle to integrate their Salesforce with their ERP system. Nowadays, it's more than easy to integrate both these tools and improve overall business efficiency and productivity. Not long ago, businesses would use complicated systems for this integration.

But today, the modern cloud-based ERPs make integrating with Salesforce CRM more than easy. Some providers can build the ERP on the Salesforce platform, allowing you to use the ERP and CRM.

The most critical element of Salesforce that allows you to have seamless integration is its billing. It converts the lead-to-order data of the Salesforce CPQ (Configure, Price, and Quote) into transactional data. As a result of this conversion, the ERP systems learn about matching data.

The system can use this for managing their accounts and the financial aspects of the business. Nevertheless, many business owners might not be tech-savvy or couldn't afford to have an in-house team to help them with the ERP integration with the Salesforce CRM.

Therefore, they can take assistance from Cloud Sylla to help them with the CRM and ERP integration. With years of experience, we have been in the market helping businesses streamline their business operations. Therefore, you can get in touch with us and we'll be more than happy to assist you.

Wrapping Up

We hope you now have the answer to your question: can Salesforce be used as an ERP? Integrating both these systems will allow you to reap various benefits for your business. And if you don’t know how to proceed with it? Then, you can take assistance from some professionals.