Service page • Enterprise systems • ERP / CRM integrations

ERP / CRM Integrations: Integrating Enterprise Platforms Like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP

ERP / CRM integrations connect the systems that run your revenue and operations—so customer data, orders, invoices, inventory, and reporting stay consistent across teams. SHAPE specializes in integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP using secure APIs, event-driven workflows, and governed data models that reduce manual work, prevent revenue leakage, and make automation reliable.

Talk to SHAPE about ERP / CRM integrations

ERP / CRM integrations are the operational backbone between sales, finance, fulfillment, and analytics.

Table of contents

• What SHAPE’s ERP / CRM integrations service includes
• What is ERP integration (and how it connects to CRM)?
• Benefits of integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP
• Integration patterns: API, iPaaS, batch ETL, event-driven
• Data mapping, security, and governance
• Use case explanations
• Step-by-step tutorial: deliver reliable ERP / CRM integrations
• Call to action
• Technical SEO elements

What SHAPE’s ERP / CRM integrations service includes

SHAPE delivers ERP / CRM integrations as a production-ready engineering engagement. We don’t just “connect tools”—we define source-of-truth rules, build stable integration contracts, and implement monitoring and reconciliation so integrations stay correct as your business changes.

Typical deliverables

• Current-state assessment: systems map, data owners, pain points, failure modes, and manual work hotspots.
• Target integration architecture: recommended patterns for integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP (API, events, batch, or a hybrid).
• Data mapping specification: field mappings, transformations, validation rules, dedupe strategy, and ID strategy.
• Sync strategy: latency expectations (real-time vs scheduled), conflict handling, retries, and backfills.
• Security design: auth method (OAuth/service identities), least privilege, secrets management, and auditability.
• Observability: dashboards, alerts, logging/tracing, and runbooks for operations.
• Release plan: phased rollout, cutover approach, rollback plan, and post-launch stabilization.

Reliable ERP / CRM integrations aren’t “data pipes.” They’re operational agreements: shared definitions, accountable ownership, and predictable behaviors under failure.

Related services (internal links)

ERP / CRM integrations work best when your API layer, infrastructure, and data model are aligned. Teams commonly pair integrations with:

• API development (REST, GraphQL) to standardize integration contracts across Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, and internal services.
• Database design & data modeling to define source-of-truth rules and prevent cross-platform data drift.
• DevOps, CI/CD pipelines to automate deployments, secrets, and integration testing.
• Cloud architecture (AWS, GCP, Azure) to run integration workloads securely and reliably at scale.
• Legacy system modernization when ERP / CRM integrations must interface with older systems and fragile interfaces.

What is ERP integration (and how it connects to CRM)?

An ERP integration connects an enterprise resource planning system to other software so operational data—orders, invoices, inventory, procurement, finance—moves accurately across the business. A CRM integration connects customer and revenue systems—leads, accounts, opportunities, subscriptions, renewals—to the rest of your stack.

ERP / CRM integrations bring those worlds together. When you’re integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, you’re aligning revenue activity with fulfillment and financial truth—so sales outcomes, billing outcomes, and delivery outcomes match.

ERP vs CRM: the practical distinction

• CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot): manages customer relationships, pipeline stages, and customer-facing processes.
• ERP (SAP): manages back-office operations like finance, supply chain, inventory, and billing.

What “integration” means in real workflows

In production, ERP / CRM integrations typically include:

• Data synchronization (accounts, contacts, products, pricing, orders)
• Workflow orchestration (quote-to-cash, approvals, provisioning, returns)
• Event propagation (order created, invoice paid, shipment completed)
• Reporting alignment (shared definitions for dashboards and forecasts)

If CRM says a deal is “Closed Won” but ERP can’t invoice it, you don’t have a pipeline problem—you have an integration problem.

Benefits of integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP

Organizations implement ERP / CRM integrations to eliminate friction between teams and systems. When you’re integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, the payoff is fewer manual processes, better data trust, and more predictable revenue operations.

Business outcomes ERP / CRM integrations enable

• Reduce manual re-entry by syncing customers, products, and order details across platforms.
• Improve quote-to-cash accuracy with consistent pricing, taxes, discounts, and invoicing rules.
• Faster fulfillment when operations receives timely, validated order data.
• Cleaner forecasting because pipeline and billing definitions match across systems.
• Stronger customer experience when sales and support can see real operational status.

Common ERP / CRM integration issues we resolve

• Brittle point-to-point scripts with silent failures and no alerting
• Duplicate customers created across CRM, ERP, and billing tools
• Conflicting ownership (two systems updating the same field differently)
• Partial automation where exceptions create constant manual work
• No reconciliation, causing month-end “data hunts” in finance

A phased roadmap turns ERP / CRM integrations into controlled improvements instead of a risky “big bang.”

Integration patterns and architecture options

There’s no single “best” approach to ERP / CRM integrations. The right pattern depends on latency requirements, volume, change frequency, and operational maturity. SHAPE selects patterns that stay maintainable when integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP.

API-based integration (real-time or near-real-time)

APIs are ideal for transactional workflows: create customer, push an order, update an invoice status. This is commonly the core of ERP / CRM integrations for quote-to-cash.

• Best for: immediate handoffs, validations, and user-triggered actions.
• Design requirements: retries, idempotency, rate-limit handling, and clear error models.

iPaaS / middleware orchestration

Middleware can speed up delivery through connectors and mapping tools. It’s often useful when integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP and you need faster iteration on standard connectors—without sacrificing governance.

• Best for: standardized SaaS connectors and orchestrated multi-step flows.
• Watch-outs: connector sprawl, inconsistent standards, and limited versioning without discipline.

Batch ETL / ELT (scheduled sync)

Batch sync moves data on a schedule (hourly/daily). This is common for analytics, reconciliations, and large backfills—often alongside real-time APIs.

• Best for: reporting, backfills, and high-volume data moves.
• Watch-outs: stale data, late arrivals, and duplicated transformation logic.

Event-driven integration (webhooks, pub/sub)

Events reduce coupling by broadcasting changes, such as “Opportunity Closed Won” or “Invoice Paid.” Mature ERP / CRM integrations often use events to decouple side effects from core transactions.

• Best for: decoupling systems, scaling workflows, and avoiding point-to-point growth.
• Watch-outs: schema governance, ordering, retries, and exactly-once expectations.

Practical rule: Use APIs for transactional steps, events for decoupling, and batch for analytics/backfills. Most production-grade ERP / CRM integrations use a hybrid.

Data mapping, security, and governance

The hardest part of ERP / CRM integrations is rarely “connecting systems.” It’s aligning definitions, ownership, and permissions so the integration stays correct. SHAPE treats governance as core to integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP.

Define the system of record (who owns what)

Every field needs ownership rules. Common examples:

• CRM owns: leads, opportunities, contact preferences, sales stages.
• ERP owns: invoices, payments, inventory availability, GL mappings.
• Shared/mastered: customers, products, pricing (requires explicit governance and conflict rules).

Data mapping and transformation: make meaning consistent

We create mapping specs that define:

• Field mappings (source → destination)
• Normalization (currencies, time zones, enums, formats)
• Validation (required fields, referential checks, ranges)
• Deduplication (matching rules, merge strategy, canonical IDs)

For deeper modeling work, pair with Database design & data modeling.

Security: least privilege, auditability, and safe secrets

When integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, security must be end-to-end:

• Authentication: OAuth2 where possible; service identities where necessary.
• Authorization: least-privilege scopes, role separation, environment isolation (dev/stage/prod).
• Secrets management: vaulted secrets, rotation, no credentials in code.
• Audit trails: trace what changed, when, and by which system identity.

Reliability: retries, idempotency, and reconciliation

• Retries with backoff for transient failures.
• Idempotency keys to prevent duplicate orders/invoices on retry.
• Dead-letter handling to isolate failures for triage without blocking the entire pipeline.
• Reconciliation jobs to continuously confirm ERP and CRM remain aligned.

If you can’t reconcile, you can’t trust it. Monitoring plus reconciliation is what makes ERP / CRM integrations operationally safe.

Use case explanations

1) Quote-to-cash is slow because systems don’t agree

Sales closes deals in Salesforce or HubSpot, but finance can’t invoice without cleanup. SHAPE implements ERP / CRM integrations that synchronize customers, products, pricing, and contract terms—integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP so handoffs become automated, validated, and auditable.

2) Duplicate customers and contacts are breaking reporting

When the same customer exists multiple times across systems, forecasting and support become unreliable. We implement canonical IDs, matching rules, and controlled merge workflows as part of ERP / CRM integrations.

3) Order and invoice status isn’t visible to customer-facing teams

Support and account management often need fulfillment and billing status without logging into ERP tools. ERP / CRM integrations can push status updates back into CRM (or a portal) so teams have accurate context.

4) Month-end close requires manual heroics

Closings become painful when invoices, credits, and payments diverge across platforms. We design reconciliation and auditability into ERP / CRM integrations so finance can close faster with higher confidence.

5) Integrations exist, but they’re fragile and undocumented

One-off scripts and connector sprawl fail silently. SHAPE replaces brittle links with standardized contracts, monitoring, and runbooks—often paired with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines and API development (REST, GraphQL).

Step-by-step tutorial: how to design and deliver ERP / CRM integrations

This playbook reflects how SHAPE executes ERP / CRM integrations—from discovery to secure rollout—while integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP in a maintainable way.

1. Step 1: Define the workflows that must be correct
   • Document critical flows (lead → opportunity → order → invoice → payment).
   • Define what “correct” means: timing, SLAs, and error tolerance.
2. Step 2: Map systems and assign system-of-record ownership
   • List involved platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, billing, warehouse, data warehouse).
   • Assign ownership per entity and per field to avoid conflicting updates.
3. Step 3: Create a field-level mapping and validation spec
   • Define IDs, required fields, formats, currencies, and enumerations.
   • Include dedupe logic and handling for missing/invalid data.
4. Step 4: Select the right integration pattern (API, events, batch, iPaaS)
   • Choose the smallest pattern that meets the need.
   • APIs for transactional steps, batch for heavy loads/analytics, and events for decoupling workflows.
5. Step 5: Implement security and environment separation
   • Set up OAuth/service identities, least-privilege scopes, secrets management, and audit logging.
   • Mirror production assumptions in staging for realistic testing.
6. Step 6: Build reliability into the integration
   • Design for partial failure.
   • Implement retries with backoff, idempotency keys, and a dead-letter path so failures are contained and triageable.
7. Step 7: Add observability (dashboards + alerts + runbooks)
   • Track success rate, latency, error types, and backlog.
   • Alerts must be owned and actionable, with runbooks that explain how to respond.
8. Step 8: Roll out in phases (backfill, dual-run, cutover)
   • Start with a subset of records and validate outcomes before scaling.
   • Use backfills and reconciliation to ensure ERP and CRM remain aligned during transition.
9. Step 9: Operationalize change management
   • Document contracts, mapping rules, and ownership.
   • Establish a process for schema updates and workflow changes so ERP / CRM integrations remain stable over time.

Practical tip: If a sync can create money-impacting records (orders, invoices), it must have idempotency, audit logs, and reconciliation—always.

Call to action: build reliable ERP / CRM integrations with SHAPE

If you need to connect revenue and operations—or your current integrations are fragile—SHAPE can help you implement ERP / CRM integrations that are secure, observable, and maintainable. We specialize in integrating enterprise platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP to reduce manual work and improve accuracy across the business.

Start an ERP / CRM integrations engagement

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