Q: How important is it to integrate your existing business systems with your website?
A: It really depends on what you are trying to do with your site, but for many of clients this has become a key to making a really useful site and one that is worth the money that you put into it. By integrating into your existing business systems you can communicate with your customers and your distributors easier and you can also increase sales.
Some examples of integrating your site with existing business systems:
1) Tying the web site to a Point of Sale system so that users can see their account balances (this may help ease the number of phone calls you get from clients to get this type of data). This might also lead to allowing customers to pay for their balances online which would streamline your receivables.
2) Tying the web site to an existing accounting system. This type of integration could allow outside sales people to enter invoices or print receipts. This also could reduce double entry of information by allowing clients to pay for their products online and having this info link directly to your accounting system.
3) Linking your site to your Customer Relationship Management System may allow an ease of contacting and communicating with new customers. Tying the web to a ticketing system may streamline customer support issues.
I will follow up on this article next time with some real-life examples of integration services we have performed for some of our clients.
