As customer expectations rise around the entire shopping experience, from discovery to delivery, the competition has also closed in, making it difficult for mid-market and enterprise organizations to get by with disparate legacy commerce and ERP systems.
Leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC has pinpointed ERP and digital commerce systems as two key integrations that will facilitate agility and maintain resilience. They also stress that platforms that are SaaS and with open APIs are the most successful in helping organizations ensure that their customer-facing applications are deeply integrated with systems of record.
When it comes to the specific technology solutions for achieving these goals, IDC has highlighted the partnership between BigCommerce’s digital commerce platform and Acumatica’s ERP software in its latest Technology Spotlight white paper.
The Problems with Legacy Commerce and ERP Systems
According to IDC, both B2C and B2B markets have shifted. B2C ecommerce has seen exponential growth over the past year, and more and more B2B buyers, particularly millennials, are showing they want to buy online. However, legacy systems and weak integrations have created challenges with operational efficiencies.
IDC also indicates that ERP and digital commerce systems have traditionally been relegated to opposite sides of the business and thought of only on an as-needed basis. This decentralized approach creates silos between teams, which ultimately leads to miscommunication, lags in order processing, and an overall bad customer experience.
From a technical perspective, IDC states that many providers are on-premise, and not truly “in the cloud.” They are also monolithic with complex functionality that causes headaches with testing and installing updates.
Successful Digital Businesses Select Tightly Integrated Systems
According to IDC, the most successful digital businesses have an overarching digital transformation strategy and select unified digital commerce and ERP systems.
To learn the specific characteristics IDC recommends B2B and B2C organizations look for when selecting and assembling their ERP and digital commerce systems, as well as how the partnership between BigCommerce and Acumatica meets these qualifications, download a complimentary copy of the IDC Technology Spotlight white paper.
