Sage ERP X3 Tackles Sage CRM Integration

So here we are at Sage Summit among customers, partners and our software publisher and we are hearing lots of buzz words and promises. The Sage ERP X3 community is flying high with the announcements that during 2013 the next version of Sage ERP X3 will be optimized for complete cloud or on premise deployment.

Sage also outlined where they are making investments and their core set of products receiving those investments. One of those key areas for Sage is CRM integration. Previously we outlined their direction with Sage SalesLogix and that integration continues to develop as we speak. In this post I wanted to provide a heads up on what we are hearing with regards to the newest integration project with Sage CRM.

As many people are becoming more familiar with the Sage ERP X3 internal CRM options we are receiving more and more questions about the options outside of Sage ERP X3 as well. Now they are hearing about Sage’s commitment and asking us to outline the differences between Sage CRM and SalesLogix. Without getting too technical SalesLogix is more of a development platform and Sage CRM is a customizable and configurable solution with an internal workflow engine.

With Sage announcing integrating their Sage 100 and Sage 300 products to the SageCRM.com platform as the first part of their new “hybrid” strategy the Sage CRM integration in the first release will likely be on premise to on premise and then shortly available for either on premise or cloud editions of the ERP and CRM solutions.

While the details are somewhat light at this point we do know that Sage is focusing on the delivery and configurability of the first version of the integration to be simple and easy process. What this also probably means is that the more complicated functions of quote and order management are some time off in the future beyond the initial release.

In their session at Sage Summit, Sage has also communicated that it is their intention to provide CRM users the visibility to drill down through quote and order detail without leaving the CRM user interface. In addition, we are hearing that all Contacts and Customers will stay synched using Sage’s SData provider.

Of the more exciting news is that Sage is looking to take a new step with a set of Groups in Sage CRM built with Sage ERP X3 data using this provider. Moreover, the Sage CRM team is envisioning editable SData feeds from CRM that can enable literally any set of data from X3 that has been enabled with the integration contract.

We anticipate working heavily with Sage on this new integration so stay tuned for more. Who knows, we might even be contacting some of you to get your ideas as we work through this with Sage. If you have some ideas or thoughts or want to see Sage CRM or discuss your CRM needs please give us a call.