“Oh, how I wish my business software could do this,” is a sentiment expressed by many retail business leaders in meetings. Even businesses that are very similar often have significantly different processes. Creating client-specific automation options typically requires custom solutions or the adoption of new software. Without the necessary resources, companies must adapt their processes to the software’s standards, which often reduces efficiency.

As the only Gold-level partner of Erply, we develop applications on Erply’s software and have also invested in several solutions. We help merchants extend their business software capabilities flexibly to meet their specific needs:

Real-time information display: Data can be shown directly from the ERP in the online store, modified in a user-friendly view, and sent back.
AI-enhanced automation: Information can be adjusted during the process with artificial intelligence, enabling automation.
External data integration: Easily create interfaces and display information from various external databases.
User-friendly management: Employees can manage new functionalities within Erply (or a simpler custom view) without needing to learn a new program. If needed, a straightforward configuration panel can also be created.

What Does This Mean for Erply Clients?

Here are some general examples of problems solved and opportunities created with Lumav’s help:

Price Overview and Adjustments

Making informed pricing decisions requires good insights into key numbers. Category managers need to find a balance between market-aligned prices and sufficient profit margins. Although Erply already provides pricing management and powerful configurations, gaining a competitive edge may require more.

Lumav develops custom solutions where sales managers can see current product prices alongside other important information in real-time or at intervals, make decisions, and implement changes with a single click.

Potential data sources:

Purchase prices in Erply
Market prices (e.g., competitive analysis)
External sources (e.g., weather data, material prices on stock exchanges)
AI-generated or modified data
Any other information accessible via APIs or scraping

The interface can display data in tables, set up alerts, and more. For predefined adjustment rules, simple automation can also be created.

Sales Process Management and Reports

Sales management tools often seem to outnumber salespeople, yet each tool only covers specific functionalities. These tools are typically designed for long-term sales activities requiring multiple client interactions, detailed client history, numerous offers, and proper record-keeping during meetings.

Although advanced tools exist for client account overviews and automations, implementing standalone programs in large organizations is time-consuming and expensive due to scattered data (e.g., CRM for client data, ERP for products, Wikis for sales notes).

Solution: A highly customized sales program built on Erply, showing all related client account data, service history, products, offers, and custom fields for additional information. This eliminates the need for multiple programs or windows, allowing all relevant data to be accessed and used in a single view/report.

Automating Orders/Offers and Procurement Offers

Creating procurement offers is time-intensive because suppliers send them in different formats (email, Excel, PDF, etc.). Valuable time is wasted searching for the right products in the database and compiling offers.

Solution: A custom AI-powered solution can analyze input (in any format, including audio), find suitable matches in Erply’s product database, and create draft offers or orders. If uncertain or incomplete (e.g., missing color), the system suggests alternatives. It can be trained to improve accuracy over time.

Options can include conditions like stock quantities, preferred alternatives, upselling, and more.

AI-Driven Product Information Enrichment and Translation

Product information is the gold of e-commerce. The more detailed and high-quality the product data, the better the conversion rate. Products not properly displayed online cannot be sold.

For Erply PIM users, we can create a user-friendly custom view that displays product text fields based on the merchant’s preferences. Buttons like “Generate/Translate Text with AI” allow easy enrichment. The AI’s output can be rated, enabling the system to learn and improve automatically. Lumav offers additional tools for improving texts for different target audiences/channels, maintaining brand voice, and more.

Feedback and Client Communication Evaluation

Feedback is essential, but it’s often provided in unstructured formats. Managers need measurable insights into feedback and quality factors, but subjective evaluations can vary widely.

Using AI, any data coming from or going into Erply can be numerically evaluated and categorized. For instance, product reviews can be analyzed, and if both numeric and textual feedback are provided, their consistency can be checked. This data enables reports and the identification of issues within large volumes of client feedback.

Custom Digital Order Forms and Voice Command Orders

Salespeople working outside the office often take orders over the phone and need confirmation or payment. Responsive ERP mobile views can be time-consuming, requiring manual input. Many resort to paper notes, later transcribed by a manager.

Solution: A simple custom order form allows voice commands to identify clients and generate preliminary orders with AI. The client can then confirm or pay conveniently on-site via payment links.

B2B Ordering Environments

One of the most high-potential ways to maximize Erply is by creating a B2B environment. These environments are typically expensive due to numerous integrations (stock, products, client price lists, credit limits, offers, orders, invoices, user-specific access, addresses). However, these are pre-built and synchronized in our solutions, enabling quick, cost-effective setups.

Examples of clients we’ve supported:

Anna Karin Karlsson, a luxury eyewear brand
Corpowear’s B2B ordering environment
Bestor’s product catalog

Read our previous post on B2B e-ordering environment functionalities using Magento as an example for additional B2B insights.

Conclusion

Small, quick wins should be seized immediately if their benefits are clear. In contrast, large-scale analyses, software procurement, and implementation often drag on, with changes in the environment or personnel by the time they’re complete.

Custom solutions on Erply represent low-hanging fruit. Calculating the time saved by automating one small process has often been decisive for our clients.

The solutions highlighted above are just a few examples of addressing business challenges and creating new opportunities. It’s worth having a quick meeting with different departments to explore which processes would benefit most from automation and what solutions they envision for creating new possibilities. Feel free to invite us to participate in these discussions. 😉

In summary, these solutions can save you:

Software licensing costs: Build exactly the solution you need, tailored to your requirements, without adopting a massive system you don’t actually need.
Integration costs: The system we develop is already integrated.
Software implementation costs: Users don’t need to learn new software; knowledge of Erply is sufficient. Additionally, we can create a simple configuration panel for each application as needed.

Start automating your business processes with small, incremental steps today. Especially in a struggling economy, every efficiency counts! 😉