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Acumatica and BigCommerce are a force to be reckoned with, according to a new IDC Whitepaper. Combining their ERP and digital commerce expertise into a comprehensive eCommerce ERP solution, the two powerhouses are helping B2C and B2B organizations grow.
As a business operating in the new digital economy, you know that being able to offer your customers a full-service, high-quality, onminchannel commerce experience is largely dependent on the efficacy of your business management technology. IDC knows this too, which is why the premier global market intelligence firm has released a new and complimentary Whitepaper on the benefits of integrated retail ERP solutions.
Integrating cloud ERP and SaaS digital commerce platforms
In Better Together: SaaS Digital Commerce Platforms and ERP Help Organizations Grow Past Legacy Limitations, IDC analysts highlight the pressure B2B and B2C organizations are under to provide customers with products/services quickly, easily, and seamlessly in an online society. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the pressure and customer expectations exponentially.
“The global COVID-19 crisis heightened the importance of customer experience and operational systems,” they write. “In 2020, IDC saw a dramatic shift toward digital commerce as organizations moved business models overnight and accelerated the adoption of digital commerce levels previously expected for 2024.”
IDC research statistics show that:
- 61% of organizations are likely to increase B2B digital commerce purchases in the next three years
- 49% of organizations are working to future proof their business
- 41% of organizations are investing in new systems (e.g., retail software solutions) to close their digital technology gaps
Interwoven within the accelerated adoption of digital commerce is the need to provide exceptional customer service. If customers are not satisfied, they have plenty of platforms on which they can express their dissatisfaction. They are able to reach infinitely more people than they previously could by word of mouth (WOM). On the flip side, satisfied customers can do the same, but statistics show that unhappy customers are more likely to share their negative experience than are those with a positive experience.
According to IDC, organizations trying to meet growing expectations (and dodging those negative reviews) while simultaneously growing their business must “ensure that their customer-facing applications are deeply integrated with systems of record so that they are resilient, digitally enabled, and agile enough to tackle future commerce trends.” In other words, implementing a complete digital business platform that seamlessly connects their finance, purchasing, inventory, and inventory management information system (ERP) with their website and customer relationship/revenue-driving system (digital commerce platform).
The Whitepaper lists six characteristics both B2B and B2C organizations should look for when choosing between their ERP and digital platform options. The characteristics include deep native integrations, open APIs, and scalability. The other three, which you can read for yourself, are just as important. The Whitepaper also explains why Acumatica cloud ERP and BigCommerce through the native Acumatica for BigCommerce Connector meet all the criteria.
Acumatica for BigCommerce Connector
Together, Acumatica and BigCommerce are considered a “single package solution” by the IDC analysts. “The connector is a native interface that integrates BigCommerce web stores with financials, inventory, operations, and reports running on Acumatica. To further support the partnership, Acumatica Commerce Edition enables merchants to manage products, orders, customers, inventory, shipping, suppliers, and accounting in a single place.”
The benefits of integrating front-and-back-office systems include:
- Faster time to market
- Easier integration
- Agility
- Modularity
- Business intelligence
- End-to-end visibility
Additionally, the analysts write, “The most successful digital businesses are those that have an overarching digital transformation strategy and select ERP and digital commerce systems that are tightly integrated or coupled. For instance, IDC’s April 2020 SaaSPath Survey found that the top drivers for adopting investments in SaaS applications include guaranteed service levels, ease and speed of deployment, and improved features among SaaS applications. Individual applications that make up digital business platform leverage APIs for integration and shared intelligent service.”
Acumatica customer Saddleback Leather, a company that manufactures and sells quality leather products primarily on their eCommerce website, is the perfect example of an organization that has discovered the many benefits of implementing an integrated cloud ERP and eCommerce solution.
Before becoming an Acumatica customer, Saddleback operated on Oracle NetSuite for six frustrating years.
“Nothing worked fresh out of the box,” says founder and CEO Dave Munson in the company’s customer success story. “It took 14 developers and systems staff just to make it work. It was proprietary, so anything you wanted changed took 10 times longer than necessary to implement.”
These issues and more convinced Dave and his team that they needed a new ERP solution. They wanted a cloud-based solution that included efficient inventory management.
Says Dave, “Everyone kept pointing us to Acumatica because of its pricing, aggressive development, and how user friendly it was.”
With Acumatica’s cloud ERP software, Saddleback saved millions of dollars and made Dave’s “million ideas” become reality. The only negative was their connector from eCommerce provider Magento to Acumatica. They made the decision to switch to BigCommerce, and it was a good one if the review by Saddleback’s Shawn Wyatt is anything to go by:
“Acumatica’s Connector with BigCommerce takes the best eCommerce website solution to the next level for any business that needs a full ERP solution. It didn’t take long to get it set up and we’ve been able to make a few customizations to fix any order sync issues due to orders missing customer information. With the ability to go in and check on stuck orders ourselves we can ensure things are shipped out the same day and aren’t delayed like we had with our previous connector from Magento to Acumatica.”
Savvy organizations succeed with integrated applications
The conclusion the IDC analysts come to is that tightly integrated front-office and back-office applications are critical if B2B and B2C organizations want to succeed in the rapidly changing global and digital economy. “Savvy organizations understand that their customers dictate business needs going forward. IDC recommends that they select SaaS-based ERP and digital commerce platforms with native integrations, such as those provided by BigCommerce and Acumatica.”
Download IDC’s free Whitepaper, Better Together: SaaS Digital Commerce Platforms and ERP Help Organizations Grow Past Legacy Limitations, to learn even more about how Acumatica and BigCommerce are taking eCommerce businesses to the next level and how to future-proof your eCommerce business. The analysts also include an overview of the current ERP and digital commerce landscape as well as their observations on five trends in commerce and operations.
For questions about Acumatica’s B2C and B2B eCommerce software solution, contact our team today.
