ERP and CRM are systems that automate and optimize business processes. While CRM manages customer contacts, ERP handles internal operations. They overlap, and some systems have both functions. Together, they streamline all business functions.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are systems designed to automate and optimize processes in a business. While CRM is a system for managing the front end of the business, ERP is involved in managing the back end. The relationship between ERP and CRM is that these are two systems that need to work together for the company’s front and back office to function effectively and efficiently.
Customer relationship management is the process of how a company manages its customer contacts. As the name implies, CRM focuses on how, when, where and why the company interacts with current and potential customers. It includes managing marketing activities to attract new customers and communicate with existing customers. Customer accounts, management of customer activities and customer support are the other main areas covered by this process.
Enterprise resource planning is a system that manages how the business is managed and operated and therefore handles the business functions of the enterprise. Some of the processes that fall under ERP are customer service, inventory management, planning for the production of the goods and services that the company sells, tracking orders and purchasing supplies for the company to operate. ERP focuses on automating processes in the project management, distribution, finance, sales, and manufacturing areas of small and medium-sized businesses.
ERP and CRM focus on slightly different parts of the organization. While customer relationship management tends to focus on the face of the organization and enterprise resource planning tends to focus on the internal operations of the organization, ERP and CRM systems have some overlap. Some ERP systems have CRM functions built into the software, and some CRM systems also have ERP functions. While most service providers and software programs between the two systems remain separate, some providers are working on creating a comprehensive system that encompasses both the ERP and CRM sides of a company.
By automating customer processes and internal business processes, ERP and CRM work together to streamline all business functions – internal or external. The bottom line is that these two areas of automation help keep important business factors from falling through the cracks. When the front end and back end of the business are communicating, it covers all the bases.
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