Solution
Customer portal with ERP integration
A customer portal gives your customers self-service access to orders, delivery status, documents and invoices, and takes reorders and enquiries in structured form. It is connected to ERP and CRM, so the information is correct. Your sales support team gains time for the cases that really need a conversation.
Who it is for: For manufacturers, service providers and fiduciaries with recurring customers and many status enquiries.
Starting point
How the process runs today
Customers phone and email to ask about delivery dates, invoice copies, certificates and the progress of their orders. Sales support looks it up in the ERP and replies. Documents are sent as attachments and then hunted for again at the customer's end. This ties up staff and looks dated next to digital competitors.
What it costs
- A large share of calls are questions the ERP could have answered long ago.
- Documents are sent several times because the customer cannot find them.
- Reorders arrive informally and have to be interpreted.
- Key accounts demand a portal as a condition of doing business.
Process
What the process looks like afterwards
01
Sign-in
Your customer signs in securely and sees only their own company's data.
02
Overview
Current orders, delivery dates and open invoices on one page.
03
Documents
Invoices, delivery notes and certificates are available to download.
04
Action
Reorder, report a complaint or upload documents.
05
Synchronisation
Everything ends up in the ERP or CRM and with the person responsible.
Integrations
Which systems are connected
The portal holds no truth of its own. Orders, documents and customer data stay in the system of record and are read and written there.
- ERP and accounting
- Abacus
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- SAP Business One
- proALPHA
- bexio
- CRM and communication
- HubSpot
- Calendar and collaboration
- Microsoft 365
- Documents and archive
- DMS and archive
Make or buy
Off-the-shelf or custom?
Off-the-shelf software is enough if
- Your ERP's portal module shows what your customers need to see.
- All that is needed is access to invoices.
- Few of your customers need a portal.
Finished products for this case: Portal modules from the ERP vendors, helpdesk portals and the customer accounts of common shop systems.
Custom is worth it if
- Data from several systems should come together in one view.
- Your customers have their own roles, sites or cost centres.
- The portal should carry your branding and fit your offering.
- Orders, approvals or uploads need their own workflows.
Effort
Price range and duration
- Price range
- CHF 25'000 to 80'000
- Duration
- 10 to 24 weeks
Non-binding estimate, excl. VAT.
What drives the effort
A portal with an order overview, documents and one ERP integration sits in the lower range. Additional customer groups, roles and systems increase the effort.
The price becomes binding after the fixed-price discovery phase.
Customer portal with ERP integration
Frequently asked questions
How secure is customer data in the portal?
Each customer sees only their own data, enforced at the level of the database queries and verified with automated tests. On top of that come two-factor sign-in, encrypted transmission, access logging and hosting in the EEA.
Will our customers actually use a portal?
If it saves them work, yes. Portals get used when they answer the most common requests faster than a phone call: order status, documents, reordering. That is why we start with two or three functions and measure usage before adding more.
Can users sign in with their existing company account?
Yes. Portals can be connected to Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace or other providers using OpenID Connect and SAML. For external customers we set up a sign-in with two-factor authentication.
Let us talk about your case.
20 minutes are enough to find out whether a custom solution is worth it for you.