Problems When JDE and Salesforce Aren't Integrated

Your business has a million moving parts. You rely on your JD Edwards, your ERP system, to handle the nitty-gritty of your operations. Your Salesforce CRM is your go-to for customer interactions and data. Both are crucial elements of your company operations, but sometimes, it can seem like they’re two ships passing in the night. Orders might not ship on time, your sales team is missing vital data, or you’re simply frustrated that these two systems—both critical to your business—aren’t talking to each other.

Many companies struggle with this disconnect, which can be a huge limiting factor. If your ERP and CRM aren’t talking, besides losing daily operational efficiency, you could also be missing out on untold data insights that could further improve your business.

At ERP Suites, we’ve seen this struggle firsthand, and in this article, we’ll walk you through the most common problems businesses like yours face when JDE and Salesforce aren’t integrated. We’ll also give you a better idea of how you can fix these problems and start making your systems work for you instead of against you.

This article will cover six problems caused by disconnected systems.

Disjointed Data Leads to Missed Opportunities

JDE handles your day-to-day business operations—everything from production schedules to shipping orders. Salesforce, on the other hand, manages your customer relationships—who your customers are, what they’re thinking, how they’re interacting with your brand. Imagine the power of that combined data – the insights, the business acceleration.

In a world where your systems are communiccating, you’re coming out on top, every time. Let’s say your sales team is trying to land a big client. Thanks to synced systems, they’ll be up-to-speed on that client’s order history and shipment timelines, information that all comes courtesy of CRM-gathered data.

System integration has impacts long after you close the deal, too. When your systems are holistically integrated, you’ll have access to the rich insights that come from blending operational data with customer behavior. Are customers leaving because shipments are consistently late? Are products being returned at higher rates from certain regions? 

You can make strategic decisions that resolve or even prevent unwanted scenarios, all because you have the full picture. Customers are satisfied, sales increase, and churn rates drop because you’re meeting your customers’ expectations.

Master Data Misalignment Means Syncing Issues

If your customer data in Salesforce isn’t synced with your ERP system, you could end up with mismatched or outdated records. This leads to communication breakdowns between departments, which can be damaging when critical decisions are being made.

For example, what happens when a major customer moves their headquarters, but the address isn’t updated in JD Edwards? Or worse, pricing information changes, but that update doesn’t make it to Salesforce, leaving your sales team quoting outdated numbers. Now you’ve got unhappy customers, delayed shipments, and wasted resources—all because two systems couldn’t sync a simple customer update.

Syncing master data, such as customer information, addresses, and pricing, is fundamental to keeping your business running smoothly. An integrated system ensures that updates made in Salesforce automatically flow into JD Edwards and vice versa. This not only eliminates errors but also gives you a single source of truth across your business.

Losing Critical Insights with Customer Activity Blind Spots

Another significant problem is the lack of visibility into customer behavior when your systems don’t communicate. Salesforce is excellent at tracking customer interactions—emails, calls, purchases, feedback. But without syncing this data with JD Edwards, your operational team is blind to what’s happening on the front lines.

Imagine a customer who has consistently bought from you for years stops placing orders. Your sales team sees this in Salesforce, but JD Edwards doesn’t have the same data, so the operations team has no way of forecasting a potential drop in demand. Without the ability to tie customer behavior data to operational data, you lose the opportunity to predict trends, fix issues before they escalate, and, most importantly, maintain customer satisfaction.

For your business to thrive, you need a full picture of your customers. When your CRM and ERP systems are aligned, the sales team knows if orders are delayed, and the operations team understands how customer demand is shifting. You can respond to problems faster and make data-driven decisions to boost your overall efficiency.

Order Fulfillment and Shipment Tracking Errors

One of the most frustrating issues that arises when JD Edwards and Salesforce aren’t integrated is poor visibility into order fulfillment and shipments. Let’s face it: customers don’t care how complex your internal systems are—they just want the supply chain to work as promised and their orders delivered on time.

If your sales team in Salesforce can’t access real-time information from JD Edwards about an order’s status, they’re left in the dark. This leads to awkward customer interactions like, “I’ll have to check and get back to you”. Your team’s lack of knowledge does not instill customer confidence.

With integrated systems, the moment an order is placed, your ERP system should be updated so the warehouse can fulfill it immediately. Without integration, it’s like playing a game of telephone—some information gets passed along, but crucial details get lost in the process.

Pricing, Commissions, and the Cost of Not Integrating

Another significant problem that arises when JDE and Salesforce aren’t integrated is the issue of pricing and commissions. These two systems often handle different aspects of sales data—Salesforce tracks customer interactions and deals, while JDE manages order fulfillment and payment.

Without integration, you might end up with inconsistencies in your pricing models or commission structures. For example, a salesperson could close a deal in Salesforce, but if the pricing information in JD Edwards isn’t up to date, the customer could be charged the wrong amount. Similarly, commission payouts might be based on outdated sales data, leading to disputes or inaccurate payments.

The cost of not integrating goes beyond just dollars and cents. It’s about the time lost to manual processes, the errors that slip through the cracks, and the missed insights that could help you grow your business. The longer you go without integration, the more these problems compound. And at the end of the day, it affects your bottom line.

Governance, Scalability, and Technical Barriers

If you’ve ever tried to manually sync data between two systems, you know how time-consuming and error-prone it can be. When JDE and Salesforce aren’t integrated, you face governance issues—meaning there’s no clear way to manage and control how data is updated and shared between the two platforms.

For example, JD Edwards might store an address in one format, while Salesforce uses another. Without proper governance, something as simple as a mismatched address can cause major issues down the line, from incorrect shipments to tax reporting errors. And let’s not even get started on the scalability problems. As your business grows, the manual processes you’ve been relying on simply won’t keep up.

Then there’s the technical side of things. JD Edwards and Salesforce don’t natively integrate, and while there are tools available to bridge the gap, they require a deep understanding of both platforms. Even so-called “plug-and-play” solutions aren’t as simple as they sound because the data structures between JDE and Salesforce are vastly different. Without the right expertise, trying to connect the two can cause more harm than good.

Governance, scalability, and technical challenges are major roadblocks, but with the right planning and expert guidance, they can be overcome.

Experts to Help Integrate

It’s obvious by now that integrating JD Edwards and Salesforce is not a “nice-to-have” but a “must-have” if you want to streamline your business and stay competitive. The challenges are real, but they’re not insurmountable.

At ERP Suites, we help businesses design and implement custom integrations that connect these systems in a way that’s tailored to their unique needs. We’re here to guide you through the entire journey—from design to testing to implementation—ensuring your integration is seamless and sustainable.

We can help you make your data work smarter. Drop us a line to chat.