Because your current setup is costing you more than you think.
Here's the reality: most businesses run their customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning on separate systems. Sales teams work in one programme, finance works in another, and never the twain shall meet.
That disconnect isn't just inconvenient. It's expensive.
What Most Businesses Get Wrong
You've got customer data in your CRM. You've got financial data, inventory levels, and order processing in your ERP. Between them sits a gap that your people fill with manual data entry, phone calls, and the occasional frustrated email.
Sound like your people are using Excel for anything other than adding up? That's exactly the problem integration solves.
Here's what happens every day:
Your sales team closes a deal in the CRM. Great news. Now someone needs to create that customer in the ERP system. Re-enter contact details. Input the order. Check stock levels separately. Update delivery dates manually.
One deal. Multiple systems. Double the work.
The True Cost of Disconnected Systems
Time drain: Your people spend hours each week typing the same information into different programmes. That's billable time you're paying for data entry instead of revenue generation.
Error multiplication: Manual data transfer means human error. Wrong quantities, incorrect pricing, missed delivery dates. Each mistake costs money to fix and damages customer relationships.
Missed opportunities: Your sales team can't see real-time stock levels during customer calls. Your finance team doesn't know about pipeline deals when planning cash flow. Information sits in silos when it should be driving decisions.
How Integration Changes Everything
When your CRM and ERP systems talk to each other properly, manual processes disappear.
Customer creation: Add a new account in your CRM? It appears instantly in your ERP with all contact details, payment terms, and credit limits already in place.
Order processing: Your sales team creates a quote in the CRM? The ERP system automatically checks stock levels, reserves inventory, and sets realistic delivery dates. No more following your orders through multiple systems manually.
Real-time visibility: Everyone sees the same information at the same time. Sales knows what's in stock. Finance sees the sales pipeline. Customer service has complete order history.
The Dynamics 365 Advantage
Microsoft built Dynamics 365 specifically to solve this problem. The CRM and ERP modules share the same database, use the same security model, and work together out of the box.
For businesses considering their options, our complete guide to Dynamics 365 Business Central explains why it's become the go-to choice for UK businesses with 100-1,000 employees.
No complex integration projects. No ongoing maintenance headaches. No wondering whether your systems are talking to each other properly.
Power Platform takes it further. Need to connect to a third-party system? Power Automate handles the integration without custom code. Need custom reports across both systems? Power BI pulls data from everywhere.
A Real-World Example
Manufacturing business with 150 employees. Sales team used a standalone CRM. Finance and operations ran on a separate ERP system.
The problem: Every order required manual re-entry. Sales couldn't give accurate delivery dates. Finance couldn't forecast properly without sales pipeline visibility.
The solution: Moved to integrated Dynamics 365. Same interface for sales, finance, and operations. Single source of truth for all customer and order data. The kind of transformation we detail in streamlining finance processes.
The results:
- Order processing time cut by 60%
- Data entry errors virtually eliminated
- Sales team can quote accurate delivery dates on first customer call
- Finance has real-time pipeline visibility for cash flow planning
Why This Matters Now
Your competitors who've already integrated their systems are operating faster and more efficiently than you are. They're giving customers better service because their people have better information.
If you're thinking about growth through acquisition, integration becomes even more critical. As we explain in getting to one system after an acquisition, trying to merge disconnected systems creates cultural and operational disasters.
The gap widens every day you stick with disconnected systems.
Integration isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's table stakes for businesses that want to compete effectively.
The Bottom Line
Integrated CRM and ERP systems matter because disconnected ones are holding your business back. Your people deserve better tools. Your customers deserve better service. Your bottom line deserves the efficiency gains.
The question isn't whether you need integration. It's how quickly you can make it happen.
Ready to stop paying the integration tax? If your current ERP isn't giving you the data you need, our no-nonsense guide to ERP replacement shows you exactly what to do next. Come meet our people. Make up your own mind.
