What are the best practices for integrating an e-commerce site with a backend ERP or inventory management system?

OK this is important, you're going to get a ton of responses from salesguys pitching their specific product - so that's the value of that advice. From a product agnostic standpoint, there are two approaches - 1) Big ERP to handle everything and 2) Best of Breed - Integrated. I used to think only the biggest companies would approach Big ERP - but what I found as I worked with them was they use Big ERP as a baseline, and usually add on best of breed solutions in mission critical areas anyway. Some smaller companies adopt a version of this, and look for a mid-sized ERP package that promises to do everything - and this can be moderately successful, but there are always trade-offs - make sure you identify the trade off going in and are prepared to live with it. Best of Breed integrated says you buy the ERP package that handles back office best, link it to an ecommerce package, you may have other WMS, inventory or supply chain tools that also need to integrate - so each piece works as well as your systems integrator performs. I've also seen really great results delivering the one-version-of-the-truth with Business Intelligence pulling data from all the systems, again, as real time as your integrator develops it. The right team can do amazing BI with Ofc365, SharePoint Server and MS SQL - or there's packages like QlikView that are pretty affordable and give you that same consolidated view. Those are just two options that seem to get traction in the SMB market. But my advice boils down to find the right system integration team and go with whatever tools they're comfortable delivering.

Hi. I have written down few answers related to your question. They might help you out.

More of a guiding principal than a best practice, it's most important to consider Process.  In this case the processes your teams will be employing to operate your business.  The more efficient and simple you can make the operations, the more time you will have to focus on your core business and the more cash you will have to do so.  How software facilitates good process can be difficult to attain through the typical sales cycle.  You cannot rely on feature lists and buzzwords to determine if there is a good fit.  The SaaS solution we created, http://retailops.com, was born from this principal after working at a rapidly growing e-commerce retailer and being frustrated by not finding systems that worked for how we did business.  It is designed from the ground up around processes that work for retailers.

UPDATE: Meanwhile we published our detailed guide about ERP Integration: http://aionhill.com/magento-erp-integration-planning?source=quora———-I found a very professional article for you about Ecommerce + ERP integration:http://findaccountingsoftware.com/expert-advice/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-erp-and-ecommerce-integration/(Disclaimer: This is not our website / content but i love to promote really useful articles from other blogs)If you want to read more about Ecommerce / Magento develelopment, i suggest to check our blog too for step-by-step guides and eCommerce platform comparsion articles, we update it every week with 2 new, very detailed posts:http://aionhill.com/ecommerce-blog?source=quoraBest Regards, Gábor / http://aionhill.com/?source=quora

As far as I know, ERP software is usually provided along with main website construction tools. What platform do you use? Probably, you’d better have a look at ShoppingCart.Elite and its tools. Since we’ve been working with this solution our sales increased up to 50% as they made our online stores fully automated. Their monthly fees are quite affordable even for small companies like ours. We have ERP functionalities included to our package. We are always notified about order status and can affect deliveries, if something goes wrong. Have a look at other users’ feedbacks about this company. I’m sure that you will find lots of good reviews about their Threat and Engagement Analytics (TEA) Software, Easy Data Feed, Omni Channel Hub, Hypersonic CDN Technology and much more. TEA is a free add-on that tracks visitors’ mouse movements and mouse and keyboard clicks on a website allowing understand shoppers’ preferences. They use a secret SEO formula to check keywords used on your website and recommend changes based on their internal SEO algorithm. Believe me it is better to use hosted platforms as a single team takes care of your business and you get A-Z services 24x7. For more details, you should probably contact them personally. Disclaimer: I have used this company.

for integration's with columbus- warehouse andhttp://columbusapp.co/see the link how to do http://columbusapp.co/integrations/ 30 seconds to signup. Simple to use. Beautifully designed interface. Handle simple to complex supply chain scenarios.Features in columbusIntuitive Dashboards, thoughtfully designed for every type of user provides real time view into every aspect of your business including sales, procurement, warehouse management, inventory management, quality control, finance, and more.100% Secure cloud based Warehouse and Inventory Management Software saves you lots of money and time when compared to traditional install based softwares.

I am working with such a solution. It’s ShopingCart/Elite, and it has the really comfortable and flexible inventory management system. I’m exited from its features it alert to keep you in the loop when it comes to your inventory; helping you prevent problems before they start. With depletion and replenishment alerts.I can replace things before my inventory is gone, and can order exactly when I need them. And what about ERP. You can choose APIs Acumatica, Infor Sx, Expandable. As for me, its great example of what you want to implement in life. They offer very favorable conditions for cooperation with leading developers.Disclosure: I'm software developer and used this solution.

IMO, you should check out http://Fulfil.IO. The software is built for multi channel retailers and it lets you sell more with less effort on different marketplaces like ebay, Amazon, Facebook store, Etsy etc. Powerful features: Robust order management system veith seamless Channel integration. Smart inventory management software with stock visibility bscross the supply chain. Strong purchase management to help you send PO in SKU which you vendor know better. Integrated shipping & payment methods Ease of automated drop shipping Accounting app out of the box. And a lot moremore here - http://fulfil.io/product Sign up for a free demo now and we will help you get a single view of customer :) http://www.fulfil.io

Based on the project that we ran followed by a case study on this (http://www2.elastic.io/en/case-study-fabric-house/), I would also like to add that you need to think in advance about a CRM system for your shop, which you’ll need to connect to your ERP. You might not see any value in that right from start, but you probably should think in advance about your future sales process including lead management, opportunities management and correspondence with end customers as well as controlling and customer care. Some ERP systems have an out-of-the-box CRM module (e.g. MS Dynamics NAV https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/erp-nav-overview.aspx), but as for example our customer found out, with the steady growth of your business such a module will probably be not enough. Most of the times, CRM offers most comprehensive ways to evaluate marketing and sales efforts offering a complete overview of objectives, budget management, transformation of new leads into opportunities, the origin of new leads and which marketing campaigns generated them. When choosing the right ERP for your eCommerce business, you might also want to think about the integration of your ERP and eCommerce software with Logistics, e.g. so that delivery (offers and orders) can be registered directly from your ERP, or so that any changes in order status can be sent straight to the shop. Gene Hammons already mentioned best-of-breed systems, and based on our experience as integrations services provider, I would recommend just that. Only make sure that the systems you choose can be easily integrated with each other (ideally via their APIs) and offer a flexible way of comprehensive data migration in case you one day decide to exchange one system for a more suitable one. Disclaimer - I work with elastic.io http://elastic.io/ and have, therefore, no personal interest with respect to the parties involved)