Sales reps turn into admins
Instead of selling, they are forced to manually key web orders into the ERP.
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Why web solutions must stop guessing and let the ERP decide.ERP First!Integration as a Business Strategy
Executive Summary
In B2B operations, the ERP system is the heart of the organization. Yet, digital sales and service channels are often treated as isolated islands, disconnected from business reality. This is a strategic error that costs money every single day in the form of manual rework, synchronization errors, and frustrated customers.
ERP First! is Glanser’s methodology for stopping the construction of fragile "connections" and instead creating cohesive business flows. This whitepaper explains why integration is not an IT issue but a profitability issue, and how to move from data chaos to a "Single Source of Truth."
Integration isn’t an IT issue. It’s a profitability issue.
Many B2B companies bleed money on manual order handling and sync errors. Read how to reverse the trend and automate your business with the ERP First methodology.
Part 1: The High Price of the Isolated Island
Many companies live with information gaps within their operations and between their systems. On one side, you have the ERP with correct stock levels and complex, customer-specific price lists. On the other side, you have the website, which is often a polished product catalog with no connection to reality.
When these two worlds don't speak the same language in real-time, friction occurs:
Insight: According to research from Forrester and McKinsey, today’s B2B buyers expect the same speed and transparency as in B2C. If they can’t see their correct contract prices, stock levels, and delivery times instantly, they often choose to contact their sales rep, inside sales, customer service—or worse, go to a competitor. Furthermore, manual order handling has an average error margin of 1–4%, creating costly return flows.
Customer dissatisfaction
Customers order items that turn out to be out of stock, or receive the wrong pricing because the web doesn’t handle their contract discounts correctly.
Data duplication
Product information must be maintained in two places, doubling the workload and the risk of errors.
Part 2: Why Integration is a Boardroom Issue
Historically, integration has often been parked on the IT department's desk. This is wrong. Integration isn't about APIs or file transfers; it’s about how your business model functions digitally. Without deep integration, your processes are broken. With the ERP First! methodology, we let the ERP system (e.g., Monitor G5, Dynamics 365, Jeeves, or Pyramid) do the heavy lifting. The ERP owns the truth—the web visualizes it.
Three business-critical wins with ERP First:
Future-proofing and Adoption: Weak integration leads to both customers and internal teams lacking access to correct and complete information. This creates friction and reduces platform adoption over time. Without this fundamental data harmony, your ability to take the next, more advanced digital development steps is blocked.
Reduced Manual Work (Operational Efficiency)
No double entry of orders. The order goes straight into the flow for pick and pack. This frees up time for sales and customer service to work proactively.
Real-Time Data (Customer Experience)
The customer always sees their unique price and actual stock balance. This builds trust and increases the rate of self-service.
Strategic Harmony (Scalability)
The web becomes a direct extension of your business engine. When you grow, the web grows with you without the need to hire more administrators.
Part 3: The Logic Lives in the ERP. The Experience Lives on the Web.
A common trap in digitalization projects is duplicating business logic. Agencies often try to rebuild complex pricing structures, tiered pricing, or discount matrices directly in the e-commerce platform. This creates a maintenance nightmare with two conflicting truths. If a sales rep updates a price in the ERP on Tuesday, someone has to remember to update the web on Wednesday. We don’t do that. Our philosophy is strict: The ERP calculates. The web presents.
When a customer logs in, the website asks the ERP: "What is the price for this customer on this item?" The ERP calculates it using its existing rules, and the web displays the result instantly. This means you can change a pricing rule or add a campaign in the ERP, and it reflects on the web immediately. No code needs to be rewritten. No servers need to be restarted.
Part 4: Map First. Code Later.
Most integrations fail because people start guessing. Assumptions are made about data structures, only to realize three weeks before launch that reality looks different. That is why we always start with an ERP First! Analysis. Before technical integration experts begin their work, we map out your data flows in detail. We ask the necessary questions that reveal process gaps: After the analysis, we deliver a technical and functional map ensuring that your IT team, your product owners, and our developers are pulling in the same direction. This minimizes risk, eliminates the "guessing game," and guarantees that the final solution supports your actual business processes.
Which system owns the customer card and delivery addresses?
How are returns and deviation reporting handled in the flow?
What happens if stock is zero? Should we allow backorders or extend delivery times when dropping below X units, or always maintain a minimum safety stock?
How often should product data sync?
Which system owns the customer card and delivery addresses?
Conclusion
Integrating the ERP system is not a technical cost. It is an investment in an automated business. With ERP First!, your product web or portal becomes your most effective sales and service channel, rather than a digital brochure.
Is your data ready for reality?
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