Is it just enough to have ERP software to run your ecommerce business?
Not anymore. Being an industry that plays with data, it’s crucial to cut down the bottleneck and ensure bi-directional data flow. When it comes to Epicor ERP, you know that Epicor ERP being a powerful ERP platform leaves a gap when it’s not leveraged to its best through integration. No matter what ERP platform you choose, it’s imperative to bring collaboration across departments through integration to make the most out of it.
Speed is the essence of time! So if you want to reap the maximum out of your business processes, make sure you are ensuring bi-directional data flow between your ERP and other legacy systems.
What is Epicor ERP Integration?
ERP integration involves connecting the ERP, Epicor Prophet 21 for example, to other business systems like the ecommerce platform, CRM, PIM, EDI, others, or even other ERPs. Epicor ERP Integration allows businesses to ensure timely data flow between their ERP and key systems, negating the need for manual updates (that can be pretty error-prone), and ensuring real-time access to data as its updated in one system to another.
Epicor ERP Integration Methods: Based On Your Need
To achieve the maximum benefit through integration, organizations have several options at their disposal. Let’s dive into some of the integration scenarios and techniques commonly employed:
Point-to-Point (P2P) Integration
For companies with basic systems and only a few APIs, a manual point-to-point integration process can be employed. This method involves human coding and implementation, relying on manual support. While P2P integration can work for smaller businesses, it can become slow, inaccurate, and unreliable for larger enterprises requiring more complex integrations.
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
ESB provides a more structured and systematic approach to integration than P2P. It offers a centralized hub for data exchange and message routing. While ESB can be an inexpensive solution for smaller businesses with less complex operational models, it still requires significant manual support and configuration for each unique instance. ESB does not support smart automation or rapid integration.
API Management
Modern ERPs, including Epicor, often come preconfigured with various APIs and system integration capabilities. This simplifies and standardizes API management, enabling faster and more reliable outcomes. However, API management still requires manual support and does not facilitate rapid integration and automation, hybrid data flows, or data synchronization. It may also lack reconfigurations for event-based architecture.
iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service):
iPaaS tools offer comprehensive integration capabilities, supporting hybrid data models and enabling cloud deployment for automated updates and security fixes. Low-code/no-code components make it usable to a broader range of users. iPaaS significantly reduces or eliminates barriers to cross-functional systems integration, providing a robust solution for Epicor ERP integration.
Read More: Epicor Prophet 21 and Salesforce Integration Explained [+Case Study]
Types Of Epicor ERP Integration
Epicor ERP offers a wide range of integration scenarios that enable businesses to connect and synchronize their data with other systems, applications, and platforms. These integration capabilities empower organizations to streamline processes, enhance data accuracy, and improve overall efficiency. Let’s delve into some of the common Epicor ERP integration scenarios and the benefits they provide:
1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration
By integrating Epicor ERP and CRM systems, businesses may gain a consolidated picture of their customers’ data, including contact information, purchase history, and interactions. This connectivity enables sales and customer support teams to communicate more effectively, allowing them to create more personalized experiences and increase client satisfaction. Organisations can break down data silos and receive actionable insights for focused marketing campaigns, lead management, and forecasting by synchronising data between ERP and CRM platforms.
2. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Integration
Integrating Epicor ERP with SCM systems enables businesses to optimize their supply chain operations by providing accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels, procurement, and demand forecasts. This connection improves collaboration between suppliers and internal teams by streamlining the procurement process, and automating order fulfilment. Businesses can accomplish efficient inventory management, minimize lead times, and improve overall supply chain performance by harnessing the combined capability of Epicor ERP and SCM systems.
3. Integration with eCommerce Platforms
Integrating Epicor ERP with ecommerce systems creates a continuous flow of data between the front-end customer experience and back-end operations. This interface offers real-time inventory updates, order processing, and product catalogue synchronization. Organizations can improve customer happiness, minimize manual errors, and improve order accuracy and fulfilment speed by automating ecommerce procedures. Integration with ecommerce platforms also allows businesses to increase their online presence, reach new customers, and profit from the rising digital economy.
4. Integration with Business Intelligence (BI) Tools
Epicor ERP integration with BI tools enables organizations to visualize the entire value of their data by transforming it into actionable insights and relevant reports. Organizations can analyze historical trends, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), and make data-driven choices by linking ERP data to BI tools. This interface gives stakeholders at all levels access to real-time dashboards and insights, supporting proactive decision-making, finding possibilities for process changes, and building a culture of data-driven innovation.
5. Human Resources (HR) Integration
Integrating Epicor ERP with HR systems provides considerable benefits in personnel data management, payroll, and workforce planning. This interface reduces the need for redundant data entry, assuring consistency and accuracy across many HR procedures. Organizations can use synchronised employee data to automate payroll calculations, track attendance, manage benefits, and improve onboarding and offboarding procedures. This integration improves HR efficiency, eliminates administrative hassles, and enables real-time workforce planning.
Relevant Reading: What is Epicor Commerce Connect?
Benefits Of Epicor ERP Integration
Integrating your Epicor ERP with the rest of your technology stack can make a noticeable difference in how efficiently your company operates.
Here are some of the biggest benefits you can expect:
Stop Wasting Time on Manual Data Entry
When Epicor is integrated with your CRM, eCommerce platform, shipping software, or accounting tools, data flows automatically between systems. That means fewer mistakes, less rework, and more time spent on activities that actually grow your business.
Get a Real-Time View of Your Business
Instead of piecing together information from multiple systems, you’ll have access to accurate, up-to-date data across sales, inventory, production, purchasing, and finance. When you can see what’s happening in real time, you can make decisions with confidence.
Process Orders Faster
Every delay in order processing can impact customer satisfaction. By connecting Epicor with your sales channels and customer-facing systems, orders can move directly into your ERP without manual intervention. Your team can fulfill orders faster and customers get their products sooner.
Improve Inventory Accuracy
Nothing frustrates customers more than ordering products that aren’t actually available. Integration helps keep inventory levels synchronized across warehouses, sales channels, and fulfillment centers, reducing stockouts, overselling, and excess inventory.
Deliver a Better Customer Experience
When your sales and customer service teams have instant access to order history, inventory availability, pricing, and shipment status, they can answer customer questions quickly and accurately. Better information leads to better service.
Increase Team Productivity
Your employees shouldn’t spend their day moving data between systems. By automating repetitive tasks, your team can focus on sales, customer relationships, operations, and strategic initiatives instead of administrative work.
Gain Better Financial Control
Integrated systems help ensure that invoices, payments, purchase orders, and financial transactions are automatically recorded and updated. This gives you clearer visibility into cash flow and makes financial reporting much easier.
Strengthen Your Supply Chain
If you work with suppliers, distributors, or trading partners, integration can streamline purchasing, inventory replenishment, shipping, and EDI transactions. The result is a more responsive and efficient supply chain.
Make Smarter Business Decisions
Good decisions depend on good data. When Epicor is connected to your business intelligence and reporting tools, you can generate more accurate reports, track KPIs, and identify opportunities for growth faster.
Scale Without Creating More Complexity
As your business grows, disconnected systems become harder to manage. An integrated Epicor environment allows you to add new customers, products, locations, warehouses, and sales channels without creating additional operational headaches.
Reduce Operating Costs
Manual processes, data-entry errors, and inefficient workflows all cost money. Integration helps eliminate these inefficiencies, allowing your business to operate more effectively while reducing overhead.
Create a Competitive Advantage
At the end of the day, integration helps you move faster than competitors who are still relying on disconnected systems. You can respond to customers quicker, fulfill orders more accurately, and make decisions based on real-time information, all of which contribute to stronger business performance.
Relevant Reading: Epicor eCommerce Integration Explained [Steps, Methods & Use Cases]
Top Tool For Epicor ERP Integration: DCKAP Integrator
Most integration platforms are generic, built with a simple “connect application A to application B” mindset that treats the ERP as just another software endpoint.
DCKAP Integrator is built different. It is a cloud-native, low-code integration platform built specifically for distributors and manufacturers. It views the Epicor ERP not as a mere endpoint, but as the absolute single source of truth for the entire business operation.
Here’s what makes it stand out:
Universal Epicor Ecosystem Expertise
Unlike generic connectors that struggle with the nuances of legacy vs. modern ERP architectures, DCKAP Integrator offers deep, native-level synchronization across the entire Epicor family. Whether an organization runs Epicor Prophet 21, Kinetic, Eclipse, or BisTrack, DCKAP understands the underlying data structures, tables, and business logic natively.
ERP-First Integration Architecture
In high-volume B2B environments, data mismatches are costly. If an ecommerce platform and a CRM sync directly without prioritizing the ERP, inventory counts drift and order processing struggles.
With DCKAP, all data that flows, whether from ecommerce (Shopify, BigCommerce), CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), PIMs, or WMS platforms are anchored back to Epicor. This ensures that real-time inventory, complex customer-specific contract pricing, and multi-warehouse logistics match perfectly across every front-end and back-end system.
Built-In B2B EDI Functionality
For modern B2B business owners, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is non-negotiable for handling major trading partners (like Home Depot, Walmart, or industrial buying groups). DCKAP stands alone by incorporating built-in EDI translation and integration directly aligned with Epicor workflows, eliminating the need for a separate, costly third-party EDI middleware vendor.
Multi-Platform Integration
With DCKAP Integrator, organizations can connect Epicor ERP with as many platforms as required. The solution provides simple yet sophisticated flow designers and pipe builders, enabling organizations to design and implement integrations with ease.
Advanced Mapping and Transaction Logging
B2B supply chains require complex logic for handling units of measure conversions, fractional quantities, and tiered tax structures. DCKAP’s intuitive, drag-and-drop Flow Designer allows non-developers to configure advanced data modifiers and field mapping easily. Crucially, the platform features robust Transaction Logging and detailed loggers. If an API limit drops or a data payload fails, IT teams aren’t left guessing; they receive clear, step-by-step debugging insights to correct the transaction instantly.
Reporting & Analytics
DCKAP Integrator offers comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, providing valuable insights into operations. Organizations can gain visibility into key metrics and performance indicators, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Flexible Schedule
Organizations have the flexibility to choose between scheduled data synchronization or real-time updates, depending on their specific requirements. DCKAP Integrator allows users to define the frequency and timing of data communication with Epicor ERP.
Recommended Reading: Fast & Secure Salesforce Epicor Eclipse Integration: A Quick Guide
Epicor ERP Integration Success Story
Integrating & Automating Magento with Epicor Prophet 21 ERP for Marysville Marine Distributors
Marysville Marine Distributors is a prominent player in both the B2B and B2C realms, offering an impressive range of 100 product lines and maintaining a strong network of 5,000 dealers across the country. Their extensive distribution system supplies marine distributors with generators, parts, accessories, and engines.
Challenges
- Catering to both B2B and B2C consumers: Marysville Marine Distributors needed to provide a seamless experience for both B2B and B2C customers while managing their extensive product lines and dealer network.
- Ensuring PCI compliance and security during the migration: The migration to Magento 2 Commerce Cloud edition required careful handling of customer data and transactions to maintain compliance and security standards.
- Automating and optimizing workflows between Magento and Prophet 21: The previous manual data entry process was time-consuming, tedious, and prone to errors. There was a need to integrate and automate processes between the ERP and eCommerce systems.
Disconnected ERP and eCommerce systems: Marysville Marine Distributors faced challenges due to the lack of integration between their ERP system, Epicor Prophet 21, and their eCommerce platform, Magento.
Solutions
- ERP Integration with DCKAP Integrator: DCKAP implemented their Integrator solution to connect Magento 2 Commerce Cloud edition with Epicor Prophet 21 ERP.
- Customer Sync: DCKAP Integrator facilitated the synchronization of customer data between Magento 2 and Prophet 21 ERP, ensuring that customer information is up-to-date and consistent across both systems.
- Products Sync: The integration allowed for seamless synchronization of product information from Prophet 21 ERP to Magento 2, ensuring accurate and real-time product availability and details on the eCommerce platform.
- Inventory Sync: DCKAP Integrator enabled the synchronization of inventory data between Prophet 21 ERP and Magento 2, ensuring that stock levels were accurate and reflected in real-time on the eCommerce platform.
- Order Sync: The integration facilitated the automatic transfer of orders from Magento 2 to Prophet 21 ERP, streamlining the order fulfillment process and reducing manual data entry.
- Offline Order Sync: DCKAP Integrator allowed for the synchronization of offline orders from Prophet 21 ERP to Magento 2, ensuring a unified view of all orders across both systems.
- Order Processing Sync: The integration enabled the synchronization of order processing information between Prophet 21 ERP and Magento 2, providing real-time updates on order status and tracking information.
- Dynamic Fetch Customer: DCKAP Integrator provided the ability to dynamically fetch customer data from Prophet 21 ERP to Magento 2, ensuring that customer information was always up-to-date on the ecommerce platform.
Results
By implementing DCKAP Integrator and integrating Magento 2 with Epicor Prophet 21 ERP, Marysville Marine Distributors achieved the following results:
- Streamlined processes: The automated workflows and data synchronization provided by DCKAP Integrator streamlined business processes, saving time and reducing manual efforts.
- Improved customer experience: The integration ensured that customers had accurate product information, real-time stock availability, and seamless order processing, leading to an enhanced customer experience.
- Cost reduction: By eliminating manual data entry and matching work, Marysville Marine Distributors reduced labor costs and improved operational efficiency.
- Data accuracy and real-time insights: The synced data between Magento 2 and Prophet 21 ERP allowed for accurate and real-time insights into business processes, helping to identify areas for optimization and decision-making.
Overall, the integration and automation of Magento with Epicor Prophet 21 ERP enabled Marysville Marine Distributors to provide a better customer experience, optimize their business operations, and improve efficiency and data accuracy. To read about another Epicor integration instance, click here!
Leverage Your Epicor ERP Investment Through Integration
Automation is the new normal. Integrating your Epicor ERP system can greatly enhance its capabilities and maximize the return on your investment. By streamlining processes, improving data accuracy, and enabling seamless communication between systems, integration unlocks the full potential of your Epicor ERP solution.
To leverage your Epicor ERP investment through integration, it’s crucial to work with a trusted and experienced integration partner. DCKAP Integrator team specializes in providing best-in-class integration solutions tailored to your unique business needs. Our team of experts understands the intricacies of Epicor ERP and can simplify your integration requirements, ensuring a seamless and efficient integration process. Book a strategy call to know more.
Curious about the role your ERP plays? Listen to Frank Heenan – Group Vice President, Distribution and LBM at Epicor:
