Integrate your
Microsoft Business Central ERP with HubSpot.

There are more versions of Business Central (BC) out there than plug-in integrators like to admit. They come from the age of database based integrations, from the age of APIs, and everywhere in between. 

The choice of integration technology is important here, and depends on several factors — the specific version of BC being the most critical. Don’t believe everything you read, and make sure you understand how things will work before you make your move.

Getting Started

 

All ERP integrations have at least some unique requirements and BC is no different. So it’s important to begin with the end in mind and a clear understanding of the division of labor between Marketing Automation, CRM, and ERP. Where does each process live? The answer to this question will vary depending on the business and sales model.
In many companies, the ERP system is the ultimate source of truth and is also used for quote generation. When foreign exchange rates may impact prices and stock levels can impact availability and delivery time, it may make sense to use the ERP for quoting, even if it is cumbersome to do so. In other cases, the CRM handles the entire sales process and hands over closed-won orders to the ERP for fulfilment and invoicing.
Let’s explore three basic variants, each of which can be built upon by including further data, such as profit centre synchronisation or live warehouse stock level information. 
The guiding principle is relevancy.
If the company acquires a few new customers per month, it may not need automatic synchronization from CRM to ERP. On the other hand, if the company has dozens of new customers each month, automatic synchronization makes perfect sense. In this case, the CRM is the leading system and passes the data to the ERP.    
Suppose the majority of orders are placed online. In that case, it makes sense to integrate the order data from the eCommerce system or ERP into the CRM to enable behaviour-based marketing to the customer base. The potential for cross- and upselling, replacement sales, and tracking cancelled orders is significant and can substantially increase revenue. In this case, the ERP is the leading system and passes the data on to CRM and marketing automation solutions.
When trading physical goods stored in warehouses, the salespeople need to see each SKU's stock level and location in real-time. 
CRM-ERP-1

Due to the complexity and variety of products, a bidirectional interface is necessary in many companies. For example, to have a direct overview of stock levels when making offers, quotes, and orders are often created in the ERP. New customers, on the other hand, often come from the marketing automation solution or CRM. 
CRM-ERP-2

Software or consulting firms do not have physical stock and often have a manageable service and product portfolio. Here, offers creating  orders in the CRM makes sense, but they should also be available in ERP for service provisioning and billing. 
CRM-ERP-3

If various distribution channels exist in parallel, things become more complex.. This happens when the business also sells parts of the products or services directly online. In this case, orders also come directly from the shop system into the ERP. However, to maintain a complete customer overview, it is necessary to either transfer this data from the commerce system or fetch the order data, including e- commerce contacts, from the ERP. 

Old Data Can Mean Big Money

Often, an ERP system is already in place and contains historical data that can be of enormous value for CRM and marketing automation. This data can enable automated customer classification or targeted promotion. With respect to up-sell, cross-sell, and re-sell, this historic data can be an absolute goldmine.     

Technical Integration Tips

Any good integration is built on top of good foundations such as a well defined data map (i.e. which object and property in BC matches which object and property in HubSpot) and set of data flows (what data goes where, and what is the trigger for that). These decisions reflect business processes, and are typically our first step in planning an integration.
BC systems are typically accessible via API. This method enables communication with other systems subject to business logic, access control, and other subsystems. In these cases, we typically use a middleware between both systems to bridge the two APIs. We most often use AWS based middleware.
In other cases, BC does not have an API that’s available. Our default approach here is to use a custom script in the BC server which connects to the database using a purpose-created user, and pushes data into HubSpot. In these scenarios, one way integrations are typically sufficient (push customer IDs, product catalogues and sales orders to HubSpot, for example). Other options include file transfers, but imply necessarily a slower rate/cadence of transfer of data.
The data flow is key to maintaining integrity and avoiding duplicates. For example, if you assign customer numbers in the ERP, you must first create the customer in BC. Once you do this, you can use the customer numbers as a shared key, and the integration process can create contacts, offers, and line items and assign them to the newly created customer.

Increase efficiency

Greater transparency and a better cross-departmental flow of information within your company increases efficiency, avoids duplication of work, and allows employees to access high-quality and complete information faster.

Better customer experience

By integrating HubSpot and SAP data, you get a holistic view of your customers. The comprehensive information helps you make better decisions, avoid mistakes, and provide personalized customer care.

Boost Sales

Knowing exactly who bought what and when can help you identify upsell, cross-sell, and re-sell potential. You can also use this information to segment customers and execute very targeted marketing campaigns.

Improved data quality

When you integrate your CRM and ERP, you no longer have to transfer data from one system to the other manually. Not only will you reduce workload, you’ll also minimize errors and improve data quality.

Save license fee

By moving some processes from ERP to CRM, we’ve seen our clients realize significant savings on license fees. The ROI on these savings can be just a few months.

At Periti we have done several of HubSpot <-> Business Central integrations across varied industries.

Contact us to request a case study or have a free consultation call.

Let's talk about Business Central!