What is ERP integration?
ERP integration is the automated connection between your ERP and the other apps your business runs on: eCommerce, CRM, marketplaces, POS, accounting. Once connected, an order, stock change, new customer, or invoice created in one system appears in the others without anyone re-entering it.
Most growing businesses run five-plus disconnected systems. Teams retype data, stock counts drift, orders slip. Integration removes that manual bridge and makes the ERP the single source of truth.
How does ERP integration actually work?
Four mechanics explain it. A system of record decides which app owns each data type (usually the ERP for inventory, pricing, financials). Triggers fire the sync when something happens, like a new order. Data mapping matches fields between systems. Sync mode sets whether data moves in real time or scheduled batches, with every transaction logged and errors surfaced instead of lost.
What does disconnected data actually cost?
More than most teams assume. Gartner estimates poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million a year. MIT Sloan Management Review puts the loss even higher, finding companies forfeit 15 to 25 percent of annual revenue to bad data. Every rekeyed order risks a wrong quantity, price, or shipment, and those errors compound as order volume grows.
What are the three ways to integrate an ERP?
Point-to-point connects two apps directly. Simple for one connection, but it breaks and multiplies as you add systems. Middleware/ESB routes data through a central hub, suited to larger IT teams on-premise, though heavier to run. An integration platform (iPaaS) uses prebuilt connectors and workflow logic in the cloud. For mid-market businesses connecting an ERP to eCommerce, CRM, and marketplaces, iPaaS is usually the most scalable option since it avoids the cost and fragility of custom code.
Why does this matter now?
As businesses add sales channels, the manual-entry model runs out of room first: overselling, stockouts, late warehouse orders, finance teams reconciling numbers that should already match. That is not a staffing problem. It is an architecture problem, and it scales the wrong way as a company grows.
Real deployments make the shift measurable. Across APPSeCONNECT's ERP integration rollouts, businesses connecting SAP Business One to Shopify Plus and WooCommerce report fulfilment cycles improving by up to 80 percent and bulk order accuracy reaching 99 percent.
The takeaway
ERP integration turns disconnected tools into one connected business. The right approach depends on how many systems you run and how much engineering you want to own long-term. For most growing teams, an ERP-first integration platform delivers the widest coverage with the least ongoing maintenance, keeping the ERP as the single source of truth as the business scales.v
