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What Is a Customer ERP Portal, and How Does Portal Integration Help?

Updated January 23, 2024

Key Takeaways
  • A customer ERP portal is an online platform that allows customers to access and interact with their account information within a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
  • It typically provides customers with real-time access to detailed information such as order status, shipping details, billing and invoicing information, and account balances.
  • The portal serves as a communication bridge between the company and its customers, providing a more transparent and efficient order and fulfillment process.
  • Customer ERP portals are secure and may offer additional features such as the ability to place orders directly through the portal.
  • The portal's functionality can be customized to meet the specific needs of the company and its customers.
Cloud ERP portals (enterprise resource planning) can improve business functions and reduce manual processes.

Benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning Integration

B2B customer portals often provide eCommerce companies with many to improve business processes. Customer portals enable client access to proprietary company information such as ordering history, customer account information, shipping addresses, past invoices, price quotes, credits, credit limits, and many other resources.

These ERP software connections include third-party integrations, product configurators, special catalogs, and product resources like white papers, materials information, supply chain details, special pricing tiers, detailed specifications, etc. A client portal ensures that everything B2B customers need is ready and easily available to expedite placing an order, researching a product, or managing their accounts.

ERPs and Marketing

Client portals can function as key pillars of marketing strategies that focus on customer acquisition, getting established customers to increase their orders, and countering competitors' efforts to solicit customers away from the company.

The portal system draws from enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software to provide each customer with the right online experience, level of access, customer service, and convenience that foster better user experiences and resolve problems instantly [1].

The benefits of client portals include:

  • Providing better user experiences for each customer that match or exceed what B2C companies offer
  • Managing multiple customer stakeholders and decision-makers including employees who are authorized to make purchases up to predefined limits
  • Designing intuitive features that help to track customer behavior and transform it into sales leads and other useful intelligence
  • Personalizing content for customers
  • Synchronizing information from a hodgepodge of internal systems and external resources
  • Enhancing the company's ability to up-sell, cross-sell, and provide custom quotes
  • Increasing real-time visibility to fuel sales and growth
  • Increase customer satisfaction with the use of an ERP payment system to streamline the process.

Improved Analytics

Customer portal implementations focus beyond simple, one-time transactions to provide an overview of everything that a customer has done or might want to do on a modern B2B eCommerce platform. The portals can provide quick, customized access to historical information in the company's ERP system to facilitate connections to reordering information, research, invoicing history, buying trends, stored ship-to addresses, and other critical customer intelligence.

These portals also provide B2B companies with better tracking of customer behavior for segmentation purposes, logging ERP payments, generating sales leads, identifying changed buying habits, and triggering timely marketing messages.

Cloud ERP solutions (enterprise resource planning) improve supply chain functions.

The ERP-Portal Connection

A client portal only works as well as its connections allow, so that's why B2B companies need full integration, updated SOA to handle internal and external links, and advanced business intelligence gathering. CRM system integrations are also important if developers want to create a comprehensive portal that can handle everything from customer service to producing real-time reports that provide an integrated view of multichannel company operations.

Typical ERP connections that can be accessed through portals—including SaaS ERP systems—include:

  • Calculating global shipping charges and taxes for customers
  • Administrative uses for integrating multiple systems and databases
  • Using native SEO tools
  • Importing business intelligence
  • Generating reports and customer analytics
  • Providing invoicing and account histories
  • Increasing front-facing functionality with integrated back-office connections
  • Getting faster answers to questions and handling many customer service issues through self-service features
  • Providing tips and best practices based on customer profiles, ordering histories, and searches
  • Connecting customers with vendors, third-party resources, and peer-to-peer support
  • Delivering a knowledge base on products, materials, and product interoperability and interactions
  • Managing content based on customer profiles
  • Giving customers a forum to express their opinions, suggestions, and concerns
  • Gaining direct customer feedback on new products and marketing promotions

If the customer portal doesn't connect to every allowable software resource, the company will inevitably end up with multiple databases, time lags between updates, slower performance, and fulfillment delays. Some B2B companies just don't bother offering their customers real-time information because of the practical difficulties of collecting, extracting, collating, and manually entering data in multiple areas.

Business decisions and even order fulfillment suffer as a result when enterprise resource management integrations aren't available to retrieve data and transmit it everywhere it's needed in real time. If companies assign employees to do the work manually, then the company isn't operating at its peak efficiency because people are called away from their core duties.

Your portal and site can be connected to your cloud ERP system to increase productivity.

Strengthening the User Experience with ERP Systems

Customers will experience greater empowerment when using portals, which strengthens engagement and loyalty. B2C customers have long integrated self-service across many channels, and B2B companies can meet their more challenging requirements with fully engineered ERP integrations for customer portals. A recent report found that the customer experience will overtake price and product quality by 2020 as the most important decision-making criterion, and customer portals deliver state-of-the-art B2B user experiences [2].

Making the user's experience better on each website visit means keeping track of customer preferences, making it easy to reorder, finding past invoices, recommending substitutions for out-of-stock or discontinued products, making intuitive recommendations, and supplying appropriate content choices based on the customer's progress in the ordering process or sales funnel.

Cloud ERP software (enterprise resource planning) improves the productivity of employees.

Delivering Dynamic Content with an ERP System

Every B2B company faces the same challenge when designing an online sales portal—figuring out how to deliver the right content to the right customer at the right time.

Most companies have hundreds of resources, PDFs, white papers, product demos, videos, and other resources, but choosing the right combination of supporting content becomes almost unmanageable when the material must be found and forwarded to customers within a short window of time. Strong ERP customizations automate the power of personalizing and delivering content to customers at the right stage of the sales process.

ERP Systems and Workforce Management

ERP systems play a pivotal role in employee management by streamlining various aspects of HR operations. Firstly, they centralize employee data, including personal information, performance records, and training history, ensuring easy access and accurate reporting. This facilitates efficient onboarding, performance evaluations, and succession planning.

ERPs also automate time and attendance tracking, reducing manual data entry and errors. This promotes fair and accurate payroll processing, which boosts employee satisfaction and trust. They can also assist in workforce planning by analyzing historical data and trends, aiding in demand forecasting and resource allocation.

ERPs support compliance with labor laws and regulations by automating the monitoring of policies and certifications. This helps organizations avoid costly penalties and legal complications. They provide self-service portals for employees, allowing them to update personal information, read pay stubs, and request time off, thereby enhancing engagement and satisfaction.

ERP systems also integrate with other business functions like finance and operations, providing a holistic view of the organization's performance. This enables informed decision-making regarding staffing levels, skills development, and talent acquisition. Overall, ERPs are instrumental in optimizing workforce management processes and enhancing efficiency, compliance, and employee satisfaction.

Cloud ERP software can deliver the latest ERP solutions to your community.

Portals: The Most Progressive Kind of Integration with ERP

Customer portals are usually among the most advanced uses of API integrations, so it's important to develop full ERP and CRM integrations. ERP connections are most critical because portals usually connect with catalogs, sales departments, stock management, pricing software or staff pricing specialists, existing price quotations from staff and salespeople, company credits and incentives, product informational resources, and third-party company stakeholders like vendors, shippers, and distributors.

...two-thirds of B2B customers actually prefer self-service...

A recent survey found that two-thirds of B2B customers actually prefer self-service over the complexities of explaining their problems to multiple company representatives over the phone [3]. The same article found that three-fourths of customers consider self-service more convenient than live service, and Forrester Research found that company buyers are now considering whether companies make their online experiences enjoyable and easy as a major factor in choosing with whom to do business.

Providing customers with 24/7/365 service and self-service options frees staff time, reduces operating expenses, and even fosters greater client satisfaction than providing staff members who often can't help but become harried and resentful when handling issues that could easily be automated.

B2B companies can reduce costs, deliver better customer experiences, and generate astonishing operating efficiencies by fully integrating ERP systems with their eCommerce platforms and providing customers with intuitive, highly functional customer portals.

What About Cloud ERPs?

A cloud ERP (enterprise resource planning) portal is a centralized platform that leverages cloud computing technology to streamline and integrate various business processes within an organization. A cloud ERP web-based solution enables real-time collaboration, data access, and management across different departments. 

Cloud ERP portals offer the advantage of accessibility from any location with an internet connection, promoting flexibility and remote work capabilities. Users can access the system through web browsers, eliminating the need for on-premises servers and extensive hardware infrastructure. This not only reduces IT overhead but also ensures scalability and easy updates.

Cloud ERP portals also feature robust security measures to protect sensitive business data. They facilitate data-driven decision-making by providing comprehensive analytics and reporting tools. The cloud-based nature of a cloud ERP ensures automatic updates and continuous improvements without requiring manual intervention.

Cloud ERP portals can improve community activity.

Choosing the Right Portal Development Team

The key criteria for developing a customer portal include implementing the right eCommerce platform that has a flexible middleware or API layer where ERP, CRM, and other business applications can easily connect in a modular, safe, and scalable environment. This allows for the most common integrations around, including WooCommerce, Stripe, BigCommerce, and Shopify ERP integrations.

The developer should offer development-cost transparency and willingly work with your internal IT team in the development process, whether you're adding the portal to a traditional eCommerce site, peer-to-peer marketplace, or auction website.

Choosing experienced consultants who specialize in B2B applications and collaborative development will ensure that you'll get custom-tailored ERP integrations that will drive customer portals that are functional, comprehensive, and easy to use.

Is it the right time to integrate your ERP? We offer a complimentary discovery session to help you make a plan for eCommerce integration with ERP. Get in touch today for a no-pressure call!

Cloud ERP portals with advanced security from Clarity Ventures.

Benefit from the Right ERP

We offer a complimentary discovery session to help you make a plan to develop an ERP software system, whether it's on-premises or a Cloud ERP. Get in touch today for a no-pressure call!

Web development.

FAQ

 

A customer portal is an online platform that allows customers to retrieve and interact with their account information within a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It typically provides customers with real-time access to information such as order status, shipping details, billing and invoicing information, and account balances. The portal serves as a communication bridge between the business and its customers, providing a more transparent and efficient order and fulfillment process.

Customer ERP portals are safe and may offer additional features such as the ability to place orders directly through the portal. The portal's functionality can be customized to meet the specific needs of the business and its customers, improving client relationships and business processes.

 

A portal serves as a centralized platform for clients to retrieve a range of information and services. This portal serves as a versatile platform offering access to account details, transaction history, support resources, communication channels, self-service options, exclusive content, sensitive information, and other documents, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience and strengthening the client-company relationship.

First, it provides account-related details, allowing customers to view their personal information, contact details, and preferences. They can also monitor their transaction history, including purchases, payments, and invoices. The portal often grants access to support resources, such as FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and knowledge base articles, enabling customers to find solutions independently.

Customers can submit inquiries or support tickets through the portal, facilitating communication with the company. They can track the progress of their requests and receive updates on the status of their cases. Some portals offer self-service options for tasks like order tracking, returns, and cancellations.

The portal may also provide access to exclusive content or offers, tailored to the customer's profile or purchase history. This enhances the personalized experience, fosters brand loyalty, and improves customer relationships.

In certain industries, like healthcare or finance, the most value is found by customers who can access sensitive information like medical records, insurance policies, or financial statements, ensuring privacy and data security. HIPAA law requires them to follow the industry standard for healthcare security.

 

Using a customer portal offers numerous benefits, including improved communication between a business and its customers, increased transparency in the order and fulfillment process, and faster access to important account information.

The portal provides customers with real-time access to information such as order status, shipping details, billing and invoicing information, and account balances, which helps them make more informed decisions.

Also, a customer ERP portal (enterprise resource planning portal) can help companies streamline their operations, reduce manual data entry, and improve client satisfaction by providing a more efficient and transparent ordering process.

Overall, a customer ERP portal can help companies build stronger relationships with their customers and increase their bottom line.

 

Yes, customer ERP portals (enterprise resource planning portals) are typically designed with strong security measures to ensure that customer information remains safe. The portals use encryption to protect data in transit and access controls to limit who can view and modify data within the system.

Companies that provide customer ERP portals typically implement security policies and procedures to prevent unauthorized access, such as requiring strong passwords and using multi-factor authentication. Healthcare ERP systems can be even more secure in order to protect patient medical information.

With these security measures in place, customers can be confident that their data is protected when using a customer portal.

 

Depending on the functionality of the portal, customers may be able to place orders directly through the business portal, or they may need to contact a sales representative to place an order. The company can change these interactions based on market conditions and business processes.

 

ERP portals can work in conjunction with business inventory management and warehouse management by providing customers with real-time access to inventory data.

The portal can display the current inventory levels for specific products, as well as any upcoming restock dates or backorder information. This allows customers to make more informed purchasing decisions and reduces the likelihood of out-of-stock situations.

The portal can also provide customers with the ability to track their orders and receive updates on shipping and delivery times, which helps them plan their inventory needs more effectively. By providing customers with a more comprehensive view of inventory data, an ERP software portal can help improve the overall efficiency of stock management for a business and increase client satisfaction.

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Author
 
Stephen Beer is a Content Writer at Clarity Ventures and has written about various tech industries for nearly a decade.He is determined to demystify HIPAA, integration, and eCommerce with easy-to-read, easy-to-understand articles to help businesses make the best decisions.

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