Understanding the Concept of Route Planning Integration with ERP or CRM

Companies are undergoing a massive digital transformation. 

Most tasks that seemed difficult or time-consuming are now done in a fraction. 

Something similar is happening in the process of route planning as well. 

Route planning is considered to be one of the critical business processes.

Scheduling deliveries, route planning, re-routing, and real-time tracking have become a matter of hours for most companies. 

Moreover, companies have started prioritizing customer satisfaction. 

This is where ERP and CRM integration has gained importance. 

What is route planning integration with ERP or CRM, and why are they on the minds of every business owner?

Let’s find out.

What is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)?

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software is not just a chart tool for logistics companies; it is a system that collects vital business information and organizes them for strategic operations in favor of the business. 

To be precise, ERP integration is more like linking software for automating specific business processes.

It offers control over the user insights concerning order management, sales, marketing, customer communication, and more. The market size of ERP in North America has estimated around over $10 billion.

The purpose of ERP software is to add visibility to inefficient manual operations. As a result, the companies get the time to work and rectify the loopholes for streamlined operations.

ERP System and Route Planning

The route decisions impact the jobs’ cost and schedule.  

Some companies plan to use time and motion statistics to make the right estimates for delivery routing. And ERP integration just makes things easier. 

With the ERP routing integration, businesses tend to look after their supply chain management efforts as a priority. 

Your ERP under the route planning integration will do more than just rectify your supply chain management. It will help the business combine procurement, compliance, accounting, and other crucial processes for streamlining the delivery outcome. 

With the seamless ERP system integration for route planning, your logistics business will improve in various fields, such as:

1. Order Fulfillment

   The customers will get timely information about their orders. ERP integration would also ensure that the orders are dispatched and delivered swiftly. The logistics business can seek complete automation of order fulfillment with ERP systems. 

   The customers will get complete tracking updates on the delivery driver’s progress. Hence, it will help build trust among your customers for your brand.

2. Dispatches

   ERP integration can help the dispatching processes with information tracking and updates related to incoming orders and driver scheduling. With this, the dispatching processes will keep up with the efficient flow. 

   Integrating with the delivery software, the ERP systems will send instant notifications to drivers when packages are ready for dispatch. It also shares the same information with the central database, which keeps the customers in the loop with the progress.

3. Time Management

   Automation to route planning and other delivery operations will promote better time management. The employee workload will lower as most order fulfillment operations will be set to automation.

4. Customer Satisfaction

   The customer interactions will gradually improve, and so will the satisfaction levels. Better tracking of route plans and order management practices will ensure faster customer deliveries. 

   ERP also pulls out the important routing and delivery data that customers might need to track their deliveries. Hence, the ERP systems promote customer interactions with the company’s services.

What is CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a proactive technology that seamlessly connects a  brand with customers. 

The goal of CRM system integration is to build a better business. It does not just help companies in interacting with their customers but also streamlines operational processes. 

Every business following the strategies will need CRM to meet the goals. 

The logistics or the field sales companies often have their profitability targets. And the CRM technology is all set to help them achieve it. 

When you integrate CRM into your business management software, you will better understand your customers. 

Every crucial customer data will be on a central dashboard. You will have a track of your interactions with each customer in the past. 

Following that, you can check their order status, complaints, and other service issues. Hence, this will help you tailor your delivery or business process to meet the customer’s demands.

CRM System and Route Planning

The perfect route planner software is incomplete without a proper CRM system. The purpose of such integration is to bring all of the documents and records of the business to a central console. 

It gives liberty of accessibility to the entire team, anywhere and anytime. The route planning initiatives with advanced-CRM solutions have put up significant service efficiencies. 

A CRM software proposes data synchronization, limits manual labor, and streamlines the error-free collection of data. 

CRM integration helps you upgrade from traditional to intelligent route planning. 

The traditional route planning method involves the calculation of distance between two points to predict driving time. But, intelligent planning by integrating CRM with customer data helps companies predict customer demand and act in real-time. 

CRM integration in route planning helps bring traffic and weather data to support the route decisions. Moreover, it also calculates the connected destination points to speed up the delivery of packages and meet sales goals.

Ways of Scheduling Optimization with Intelligent Route Planning

Here are a few ways to optimize delivery and scheduling aspects of CRM integration with a route planning software:

1. Data Connectivity for Better Productivity and Low Costs

   Route planning software with CRM features helps manage the complex planning of routes. It picks up efficient routes between various locations. Hence, this adds up to the productivity of the company’s workforce. 

   CRM with routing software can work to appoint multiple delivery vehicles to destined locations quickly, without manual intervention. 

   Moreover, it also accumulates the data with specific consideration during rush hours, traffic delays, and unexpected circumstances to optimize the last-mile delivery routes.

   Hence, with such statistics, the sales team of a logistics company can work on their time management and customer satisfaction concerns.

2. Route Designing upon Capacity and Priority

   Route planning software integration with CRM allows you to visualize the business customers on a delivery map. 

   It will help the company plan out the location of allocating the stocks at respective warehouses. As a result, the delivery process will speed up. 

   And this will eventually help you earn customer satisfaction!

3. Making Decisions on the Go

   The cloud-based route planning software with CRM offers the team real-time access to crucial information. 

   The drivers and delivery managers can check customer data, traffic updates, and weather patterns to make the day even more profitable.

What are the Key Benefits of Integrating ERP and CRM?

The logistics and eCommerce businesses now understand the importance of ERP and CRM software. Many small and medium businesses use CRM and ERP systems to automate their operations and improve their management. 

Therefore, if you are new to CRM ERP integration, here are some key benefits for you to relate: 

1. It eradicates the possibility of data duplication. 
2. The potential of sharing data will be easy and quick with CRM and ERP integration.
3. The order and quote management aspects experienced improvement. 
4. The cost of IT support is reduced. 
5. There will be better visibility and better forecasting of customer demand. 
6. Easy access on the go, with any mobile device.

What is Route Planning Integration?

Route planning integration is a dependable transportation plan. Regarding action, using external software to cut costs and save time. 

Moreover, it works by imposing proper utilization of the available resources. With its help, you can eventually omit manual efforts and streamline business processes. 

The core business processes around the logistics sector need it to ensure customer success. 

The integration of route planning software will feed necessary algorithms into the process. It will help the business operations to pick the most-efficient delivery route. 

As a result, the entire team or multiple departments will be able to work in sync. It will eventually streamline the customer’s journey with your company. 

Route planning integration minimizes human errors and promotes accuracy in service execution. 

The logistics business can expect to enter a completely automated ecosystem with this. 

Today, it becomes more important for logistic businesses to perfect every job objective. 

The number of delivery destinations is increasing every day. And, even with the most proficient management, some loopholes tend to exist in route decisions. 

Therefore, the industry is responding to the urge for route planning integration. It will help the companies take another step towards achieving proper customer relationship management.

What are the Challenges Involved in Integrating ERP and CRM Systems?

CRM and ERP integration is part of the digital transformation of logistics or field delivery business. Its purpose is to enhance business profitability by adding high visibility to specific processes. 

ERP and CRM platforms are different from one another in terms of applications. But, they serve the purpose of streamlining business operations and as dedicated supply chain management tools.

So far, you know the benefits of ERP CRM integration architecture for the logistics business. But, there are still challenges that one needs to overcome for effective integration. Let’s find out the challenges that need your attention:

Challenges with ERP Integration

Here are some challenges you may face while imposing ERP integrations:

1. Costly Modifications to Support Multiple ERPs

   The organizations prefer to initially install the modules from the same vendor that offers the route planning software. 

   But over time, they prefer to purchase ERP modules from different vendors. Hence, this forces the business to change the current integrations to support the newer modules. 

   So, if there is a tight coupling between the existing software integrations, this modification will eventually be expensive.

2. Upgrade from Batch Integration to Real-Time Integration

   ERP integration was with batch orientation technology. It worked well in the past because most transactions were based upon inbound integrations. 

   But today, there is a need for providing outbound data from ERP to all other enterprise systems. Hence, most outbound systems, such as mobile devices or web portals, demand real-time details. 

Therefore, real-time integration needs to be imposed, which is not feasible to be handled by the traditional ERP implementations.

Challenges with CRM Integration

Here are some challenges you might face while integrating CRM software into your route planning:

1. Lack of Involvement from Senior Management

   In most companies, the CRM initiative is handled solely by the IT team. And the management gets no complete information on the proceedings. 

   As a result, the benefits of CRM remain unclear for the management, and they fail to pass it on to the end-users. As a result, proper utilization is not guaranteed in such scenarios. 

   Therefore, after utilizing or integrating CRM into the route planning software, the entire workforce of all grades should be informed and educated about the same.

2. Compatibility or Supportability Issues

   Some web services are not compatible for integration with existing systems, which gradually hampers CRM productivity. 

   There might be issues with data integrity, and vendors of current systems might not offer support for CRM integration.

Let Upper Route Planner Change the Way you Handle Your Deliveries!

Upper Route Planner is a perfect route planning integration software that seamlessly accommodates ERP and CRM integration patterns. 

It allows you to save most of your planning time when deciding on the delivery routes. Every hour you save with proper planning will lead you to serve more customers. And this platform can help you serve the exact purpose on priority! 

Such  integration process can help you streamline your business operations and ensure you can access all your data from a single point of control.

Conclusion

Since the route planning integration came into effect, integrating two systems is easier than ever. Thanks to route planning software that has made transferring of data quicker and safer. Therefore, ERP or CRM software can be integrated easily with a route planner to extract information anytime. Plus, you don’t have to manually add the entire details from scratch. 

Similarly, Upper brings you smooth and faster integration with its API key. So, if you want to find optimized routes, you don’t need to manually add delivery stops. Just drop the CSV file or use the integration process to extract the data from any other software. Upper now also offers integration via Zapier which means you can connect your route planner to 500+ apps.

Book a free demo with us and check out what Upper has in store for you.