Questions about CS-CART and management software commercial (ERP/CRM)

Hi,



i would like to know if someone know a software (ERP/CRM) to synchronize Registered Members / Items / stock management / Orders with cs-cart ?



Some exemples but very expensive :

  • SAGE / CIEL …

We are getting to a point where we also start needing this. For example: we give free samples with every order, but do not want the client to get the same samples too often. So we make notes with their orders. But it would be much better if we could have a page where we can see all orders and notes from a customer at once. Of course it would be obvious to do this in the profile page of a customer.



A step further would be if we could also keep in touch with our customers from this page: collect and manage emails here.



Or would it be to use an external CRM / ERP program for this and make it connect with cs-cart?



Does anyone have ideas about this, or experience? I would love to hear it.

Part of my business that I'm actually unwinding is an order management system that integrates with various shopping carts and with various shipping carriers and payment providers. It's a lot of work to maintain so I've been slowly letting it fizzle. It has its own builtin CRM which can track emial opens and group mailings by “marketing program” and all email history and order history is readily available for each customer. You can look at who the recipients are for a mailing or look at a customer and see what mailings they have been included in, etc.



Using a 3rd party system like ACT or something and having it integrate via an API with cs-cart is definitely the way to go (thouh I would use something web-based rather than pc-based). The newer twigmo has some kind of an API for the cart as part of the addon (though I've not investigated it yet). I built one that was geared toward keeping inventory in sych and also downloading of orders in real-time as well as updating order status and tracking numbers once tracking info was entered into the order management system (usually automatically).



I personally think that the concept of a shopping cart should be viewed as a sales channel and not an order and customer management system. These are specialty areas and are best handled in a specialized manner versus trying to shoe-horn everything into a one-size fits all shopping cart. Cs-cart doesn't even log (by default, but we provide an addon for it) the emails it sends so there's no way to even know what it sends and to whom.



To me, the new Ultimate stuff should have been a separate application that could simply manage multiple stores and not have to have access directly to those stores databases (I.e. requiring everything to be on one server) but instead provide a rich API where it could be done and where other 3rd party applications could integrate. But alas it was not done that way.

Totally agree with you Tony… That would have been ultimate :)



I have my cs-cart mails setup very simple… the customer only gets an email when the order is paid (processed) and shipped. I do not use the other statuses… and I just use a simple google mail account with filters for all other client contact. But I wish I could couple the support emails to the customers in my database, see notes, and so on. And maybe even be able to print shipping labels from one admin system like Act, Chaos intellect, or well, anything… but preferably online.

Our company uses an erp called “Everest”. Its been working well for us for years. However… the e-commerce features are unsatisfactory. This is why I am working towards integrating our websites to use CS-Cart.



I have a programmer developing a custom Order Export, as well as Order Status, and Shipment Import. This way when a new order comes in CS-Cart it will import into our ERP. When we update the statuses in the ERP it will send the updates to CS-Cart. Its all been very complicated to get setup and figured out but once its done hopefully it will be smooth sailing.

If there was a strong enough demand for integration of the cart with ACT or similiar MAJOR CRM environment, I might consider doing an addon for it. Unfortunately, I've been burned many times by people telling me how important something is until it comes time to ante-up (not you Flow).



This type of integration (to be done right) is probably at least 40-60 hours of work and testing. At reasonable rates, it takes many sales of a $50-$80 addon to even recover the cost, not to mention the desire for a small profit.



Seems similar to my mailchimp addon needs:[list]

[]Ability to export customers/order_info from existing orders

[
]Abilityt to export existing customers (not already sent)

[]Ability to export new customers as they create their profile

[
]Ability to export ecommerce info when an order is placed

[/list]

Note: Right now, this is a sounding board. No commitment is being made to do such an addon. Just a discussion topic.

I'm gonna think about this… I'm a bit afraid of going the big-crm way since I've had so many issues with these programs and always came back to a much simpler solution.

Just found this. Wouldn't it be awesome to have something like this for cs-cart? http://wishery.com/



Super simple but oh so effective.

We've just dumped CS-Cart for Magento for this reason alone. Transition will occur within six months from CS-Cart / Quickbooks (Connector never worked for us) to Microsoft Dynamics NAV & Magento Enterprise w/ 3rd party connector.



Yes, it's VERY expensive.



DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CONSIDER 'FISHBOWL' or anything with 'Fish' in the name, $30,000 project failure.

Oh sorry to see you go Jesse… so BLE is going Magento? Djeez that sort of feels like a loss for the community…



I'm still sure i am going to find a good solution though… there must be a cheap simple solution for customer management!

Oh jesse, before I forget, you might want to check into http://www.brightpearl.co.uk/



It's a really good all in one solution and now links directly with magento. And darn cheap for what you get.

[quote name='JesseLeeStringer' timestamp='1328907897' post='131036']

We've just dumped CS-Cart for Magento for this reason alone. Transition will occur within six months from CS-Cart / Quickbooks (Connector never worked for us) to Microsoft Dynamics NAV & Magento Enterprise w/ 3rd party connector.



Yes, it's VERY expensive.



DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CONSIDER 'FISHBOWL' or anything with 'Fish' in the name, $30,000 project failure.

[/quote]



Jesse,



As much as anything else it appears as if you have really outgrown the capabilites of Quickbooks?



Nevertheless, sorry to see you go!



And yes, I have looked over that Fishbowl crap in the past, way overpriced!

[quote name='Flow' timestamp='1328894009' post='131028']

Just found this. Wouldn't it be awesome to have something like this for cs-cart? [url=“http://wishery.com/”]http://wishery.com/[/url]



Super simple but oh so effective.

[/quote]



This may be an option for you to check out Flow,



[url=“http://www.fatfreecrm.com/”]http://www.fatfreecrm.com/[/url]

Thanks Struck, but is that in any way able to connect to cs-cart? There are 100's good crm programs but the problems is getting them connected (live) to my shop.



I've been trying out a lot of programs - from assistly to zoho crm (hehe) - and thought about it a lot this week, and came up with the following solution that works well for now. I just love simple solutions… I've worked to much with bloated, time consuming systems.



I made an extra field on the customer page (with date and author) where I can read and write customer notes (not order notes!). This also appears on the order page, so can see everything at once on the order page - no extra clicks.



We manage inventory in cs-cart and that actually goes fine. I'm also using cs-cart for my wholesale customers since last week, so no more double inventory tracking. We also use cs-carts invoicing system together with seonids tax add-on and all this goes perfectly well… and without any extra work for us.



The only thing that I would still like to have at this moment, is a link between the support mails that come in and the customer in cs-cart… and that's how I found wishery. This really is exactly what i'm looking for at this moment - but it's only working with saas systems. I already use gmail with filters for support (which still beats many expensive helpdesk systems imho) so it would be awesome to be able to see who's mailing me and what they ordered.



Maybe this is possible through some kind of 3rd party crm like zoho crm (free for up to 3 users) and have that connect to my shop, since it already has a great connection to google apps (I can instantly get client info in my gmail pulled from zoho crm).



Come to think of it… maybe Brightpearl would be even better since they have an all-in-one system for inventory, accounting (hooray!), and crm… and they already do exactly what we are looking for with their own cart system and magento.



Tony, like you are saying… data transfer wise it does sound a lot like your mailchimp add-on. Would it be possible to hook up cs-cart with something like brightpearl? I actually had a log talk with them and they seemed to be very open to co-operations.

Looks a little spendy for most folks here (from what I've observed anytime anything related to cost surfaces in the forums).



If you want to have them drop me an email with their integration guide (I didn't see a way to get to it from their menus), I'd be happy to take a look.

Yep, it's pretty expensive. then again, it's all in one:[list]

[]Accounting

[
]Contacts & CRM

[]Ecommerce

[
]Help desk

[]Inventory

[
]Point of Sale

[]Purchasing

[
]Quotes & Invoices

[]

[
]Buying those tools apps separately would be much more messy and more expensive.

[/list]

I think it might look expensive for some startups (which i am - only live for 3,5 months with my more important shop) but i think running a serious business with growth potential can't be done without making some investments (and I plan to grow like crazy this year!).



And it's still a lot better then blowing 30k on blowfish! Ehm I mean fishbowl!



Here is their API: http://brightpearl.c…veloper/latest/



Anyway, I also don't really, really need something as extensive as this. I'd already be more then happy with something like wishery - for now

I’m still looking to see if I can integrate my 3 cs-cart stores with one crm and inventory management system and shipping stuff. If anybody knows a solution or wants to work with me on creating one… we have some budget and are interested.



http://www.vtiger.com looks promising :)

I tried to post an update the other night but the stupid forum would get stuck on “saving post” and never post it.

I'd be happy to work with you on any backend integrations if you can generate a reasonable list of requirements and provide specs for the various integration points (suppliers, vendors, shopping aggregators, etc.).



Obviously, like payment providers, everyone has different specs for integration so each “point” would probably have to be a separte project…

Well. this is weird. I wrote a long answer here this morning and it's gone. Maybe I forgot to press post but I can't imagine. Will write it again later.

Interesting topic. I've recently been working with elaborate webform integration from our clients WordPress CMS sites to the low cost Zoho CRM to expertly track and manage incoming sales leads. It was remarkably successful, easy and relatively inexpensive. (under $2,000)



However I also have other clients running CS Cart Pro sites we've built. I and a specialist Zoho developer are investigating how we could similarly link CS Cart Pro to Zoho CRM in a similar way, extracting and utilizing key data from a sales and customer management perspective. There are several quick and dirty ways to do this sort of thing almost immediately using existing Zoho toolsets. But coming up with something more robust through the Zoho/CS Cart API and offered as an addon would be ideal for the CS Cart community.



Will keep you informed of developments and perhaps ask for feedback as the project proceeds.