Clarity Connect enables the following integration capabilities for Sage 500
When organizations assess the benefits of an ERP integration to their ecommerce website, there are several key factors to consider. Below, is an outline of recommended considerations and steps to complete:
Security
This is always a major concern for two-way integrations. ecommerce platforms and public facing storefronts typically have complex security constraints. Clarity has developed a middle ware layer called Clarity Connect that allows customers to securely push data to the Clarity Connect middleware that interfaces with Sage 500 APIs. This allows data to go past the company firewalls, and isolate the data that needs to be sent and received from the public facing storefront. Clarity connect dramatically reduces the surface area for a potential security issue and creates an intermediate clearinghouse confirming data is securely pushed and pulled between the internal ERP platform and the external ecommerce storefront.
Performance
Sage 500 instances are usually secure and housed in a different physical location than the public facing website. Without a middle ware layer, this would potentially cause major lags in data load times and other performance metrics. Clarity Connect enables a rapid load time and intelligent refreshing of the externally facing data to reflect internal updates in real time. By effectively pushing updates on a real-time basis, details that would otherwise take minutes to load on the site now load within milliseconds as they're cached on the external interface. In addition, specific customer data that needs to be pulled from the ERP system in real-time is pulled in dynamically using AJAX loading techniques to dramatically improve performance.
Shipping and Freight
Due to the nature of Clarity's past projects we have extensive experience with not just the standard UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL and other standard carrier integrations for shipping costs and package tracking and returns but we also specialize in helping setup and configure the pick list and label printing, scanning and implementation of the physical packing stations and picking process to improve internal workflows as well. In addition to being able to provide support for the actual order management and processing of orders for different carriers we also specialize in working with freight carriers to automate the quotes, pricing, bill of lading setup and processing, obtaining customer specific pricing, and dynamically providing freight shipment status as well.
Taxes, Customs and Duties
Many companies operate abroad, but few currently operate with fully automated processes for their international transactions. Clarity delivers in domestic taxes and integration with internal ERP tax tables, custom tax tables, and setting up external API integration but also offers extensive specialization in international taxes, customs and duties as well. Specifically, Clarity delivers customs and duties integration to dynamically pull this information from the ERP platform or enable third party integration for this component as well to pull the most up to date customs and duties data in real-time for global payments and ordering.
integration to Line of Business Applications
Most mid-large sized businesses integrate several, if not dozens, of LOB applications to streamline their workflows. Some clients prefer a simple web interface for their sales team. This allows sales team members to focus just on their quotes and orders. In addition to Sage 500 ecommerce integration, Clarity offers full customization capabilities to tightly integrate other LOB applications such as order fulfilment tools, support and ticketing tools, CRM and service tools, email and newsletter/marketing applications, etc.
Quotes and Workflows
Many business find their processes run smoothest with a streamlined human interaction to facilitate the process. Clarity Connect is able to pull in the Sage 500 sales order documents and help streamline the quoting workflow. From helping with notification e-mails and embedding quotes, Clarity's Sage 500 Sales Documents integration directly pulls quote status and allows the ERP system to trigger workflow steps. This reduces the chances of human error. Connect’s middle ware tool updates your ERP system seamlessly.
Clarity and Sage 500 integration
As a final consideration, we highly recommend a full internal audit of the prioritized list of requirements as well as an external review by an expert, like Clarity. This is vital to ensure your desired outcome. In addition, it's critical to establish timeline criteria if there are hard deadlines. Setting clear objectives for prioritized deliverables with clear contingency plans will help smooth the process significantly.
Sage 500 ecommerce integration has the ability to boost your ERP and ecommerce operations to new heights. Clarity is an expert in helping deploy over 600+ successful projects, and optimizing clients’ processes. To learn more about how your team can take full advantage of Sage 500, please speak to a Clarity consultant today.