How to Extend Your ERP

ERP systems enable businesses to bring together and manage core processes and technologies under one system. But the truth is, an out-of-the-box ERP system rarely fits a business perfectly, and even if it does, it is only temporary. 

A business’s challenges, needs, and strategies change and grow over time, and its tools must too. When an ERP’s functionality does not fully meet your business’s needs, it’s time to think about extending it. Often, this is needed as part of the implementation process, but it’s also an ongoing process as conditions change.

Need to extend your ERP? It's time to try DreamFactory.

Table of Contents

• Why Extend Your ERP?
• How to Extend Your ERP with DreamFactory

Why Extend Your ERP?

When an ERP is missing key functionality, businesses have three choices. 

They can choose to ignore the problem, settling for reduced productivity; they can replace their ERP system for another, at a significant cost of both time and resources; or, they can extend their ERP, connecting it to new systems as they need to ensure it grows as the business's processes do. 

It is this final option - extending the ERP - that makes sense in most scenarios.

There are many reasons why a business might want to extend their ERP:

• Changes in business strategy or focus - As business strategy changes, so do key processes. For example, a business may decide they need to bring certain ERP data, such as financials, into its CRM system to better enable its sales and customer support teams. You don’t need to invest in a new ERP or CRM system to enable this connectivity.
• Connect with SaaS - SaaS enables businesses to upgrade and change software quicker and cheaper than ever before. Fast-moving businesses can implement the latest technologies quickly, but to take advantage of the data, they will need a quick way to integrate them with their ERP.
• Connect legacy software - Legacy systems rarely play nice with ERPs without work, but it's worth it if a system still provides value and does not need replacing. Replacing legacy software will cost more, lead to needless re-training, and interfere with day-to-day processes.
• Connect with partners - It’s not just your own data that can be useful. When critical parts of the supply chain are outsourced, businesses may need to integrate data from their partners into their own system so that they can get visibility over the entire process. For example, this enables the ERP system to send a request to a supplier whenever a requisition is logged.
• Delay costly new systems - The average lifespan of an ERP is 7-10 years, but with technological innovation moving at a quicker pace than ever before, businesses are facing pressure to upgrade more often to stay relevant. Upgrading is expensive, takes months, and is a distraction from other tasks. By extending, businesses get extra functionality without the cost of upgrading.

DreamFactory is the easiest way to extend your ERP: Start your free 14-day hosted trial today.

How to Extend Your ERP with DreamFactory

DreamFactory is a best-in-class API-as-a-Service platform. With DreamFactory, businesses can generate instant APIs that are secure, reusable, and fully documented - without touching a single line of code.

With support for thousands of third-party APIs and more than a dozen databases, DreamFactory makes extending your ERP easy. Features include:

Easily Create and Automate New Workflows

Build, secure, and manage every integration workflow from one platform. Use DreamFactory’s call scheduler to transfer data between systems automatically and the event handler to validate and transform data automatically. DreamFactory is the quicker, easier, and more secure method to connect up your data.

Connect and Modernize Legacy Applications

Just because it’s legacy doesn’t mean it's useless. DreamFactory enables you to unlock your silos and breathe new life into old databases and software. With DreamFactory, you can connect legacy systems to your ERP using fully-featured REST APIs that enable you to retrieve and use siloed data in realtime - no matter what file formats or protocols they use.

Unify Data to Create a Single Source of Truth

Connect and make sense of data coming from a wide range of different applications in one central system. Customer data, for example, exists in point-of-sale systems, CRMs, finance systems, and more; with DreamFactory, that data can be combined in one place. Multiple databases? No problem. DreamFactory’s Data Mesh enables a single API call to respond with data from multiple connected databases.

Would you like to learn more about how DreamFactory can benefit your business and help you extend your ERP? Click here to start your FREE 14-day hosted trial or to contact our team for more information.