CRM and Sales Agent App integrated with the ERP for a distributor’s sales network
A hardware and housewares distributor links CRM, Sales Agent App and LIGEST ERP with Labinf Sistemi: orders, payments and customer data, even offline.
The client
An Italian company distributing hardware and housewares products, with a wide catalogue and a sales network working directly at customers’ premises.
Agents need up-to-date information on customers, products, prices, promotions, orders, deliveries and account status. During a visit they may need to check invoices and outstanding payments, record payments, look up previous orders, handle returns or plan follow-up activities.
Key results
- Centralised view of customer information
- CRM integrated with the company ERP
- Orders collected directly during the visit
The starting point
The requirement was a Sales Force Automation solution connecting the sales network with the company information system, built on two integrated components: a CRM with a complete view of the customer and a Sales Agent App designed mainly for collecting orders and payments in the field.
A key requirement: agents had to be able to work without mobile coverage, with data kept on the device and synchronised with the ERP once the connection returns.
The project covers installation and configuration of the CRM and Sales Agent App integrated with LIGEST ERP, with customisations to both components and changes to the ERP, creating a continuous process between customer, agent, CRM and ERP.
Key challenges
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01
A complete customer view
Agents must be able to see customer records, contacts, order history, invoices, payments, products purchased and unfulfilled order lines.
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02
CRM and ERP without duplication
Customers, items, orders and administrative data must stay consistent across the different systems.
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03
Working offline
Visits may take place in areas without a stable connection: agents still need to consult data and enter orders and payments.
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04
A complex catalogue
Products must be searchable by code, description, family, brand, barcode and other criteria, taking into account availability, variants, promotions and quantity discounts.
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05
Account data during visits
Outstanding payments, open invoices and payments are part of the customer relationship and must be available to the agent during the visit.
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06
A role-based sales network
Sales manager, area managers and agents need different levels of access and visibility over customers and activities.
The solution
Labinf Sistemi developed and configured a CRM designed as the commercial access point to the information already held in the ERP. At its core is a single customer record, fed directly by the information system, which brings data together for the sales network and management and keeps sales, administration, credit control and logistics aligned.
From the record, agents can see order history, invoices due, pending payments, products purchased, unfulfilled lines, contacts and activities. When placing an order, an alert flags outstanding or overdue payments, so the customer’s account status is known immediately.
Areas covered
- Single customer record
- Quotes, orders and invoices
- Alerts on overdue payments
- Sales Agent App on tablet
- Offline mode with synchronisation
- Multi-criteria item search
- Product availability indicator
- Promotions and quantity discounts
- Payment recording
- Sales planning
- Roles and visibility for the network
- Returns management (RMA)
- Integration with LIGEST
- Cloud migration
Promotions take into account validity, products, minimum quantity and amount, prices, discounts and the customer’s price list: if the threshold is not reached the system flags it and applies the standard conditions. During a visit, agents can record a payment with amount, method, invoice and whether it is a deposit or final balance; the data then passes to the central system for administration.
The CRM includes sales force planning, with manual activities, activities assigned by management, recurring appointments and visits generated from orders placed on site, as well as returns management (RMA) with customer, product, quantity, reason, images or documents and reference order, then passed on to LIGEST. Agents see their assigned customers, area managers their own group and the sales manager the whole network.
Orders at the customer’s, even without signal
The Sales Agent App, used on tablets during visits, covers customers, catalogue, orders, payments, quotes, promotions, invoices and unfulfilled lines. A copy of the required data stays on the device: agents keep entering orders and recording payments offline and synchronise with the CRM and ERP as soon as the network is back.
An order starts with choosing the customer and continues with searching items by code, description, family, supplier code, new arrivals, brand or barcode, with an availability indicator and the first available delivery date. When LIGEST consolidates the order and assigns the final number, the information returns to the CRM: the agent → App → CRM → LIGEST → CRM flow requires no manual re-entry.
CRM and Sales Agent App on cloud infrastructure
In 2024 the CRM and Sales Agent App were migrated to cloud infrastructure, keeping the integration with the company information system.
- Application and database servers
- CRM installation on PostgreSQL
- Network configuration
- Customisations carried over
- CRM data migration
- Web services and App adapted
The benefits
- Centralised view of customer information
- CRM integrated with the company ERP
- Orders collected directly during the visit
- App usable without a connection
- Promotions and sales conditions applied in the order
- Outstanding payments and unfulfilled lines visible to agents
- Payments recorded in the field
- Planning of visits and activities
- Returns linked to customers and orders
- Less manual re-entry between sales network and ERP
Sales and administrative data shared more easily across business functions, on an architecture that can evolve in the cloud.
In short
The CRM connects sales management to the information system: the sales network consults customer data, collects orders and payments in the field and synchronises with the ERP, while management, administration and logistics share a common information base, even when agents work offline.
