6 Points to Consider for Prophet 21 Ecommerce Integration

Ryan Horvath Strategy, Ripen P21 Commerce

Last year presented a unique challenge to many B2B businesses, especially those that either lacked an online presence or those whose current e-commerce solution didn’t meet the standards today’s users have come to expect from an online experience.

Here are 6 points to consider when integrating Epicor Prophet 21 into an e-commerce platform:

1. Processes
2. Platform
3. Resources
4. Scalability
5. Ownership
6. Long-Term Cost

Processes

Before working with an agency to build or improve your e-commerce and/or integration, understand your business workflows. Talk to your team and learn how customers interact with your business. Document these interactions. Know how you want to engage with clients online.

Platform

Not all platforms are equal. When talking with an agency, ask if their recommended solution is open source or SaaS. How are updates and security handled? What is the community around the platform like? Is it easy to update content yourself, or do you have to go through someone to make changes?

Resources

Consider how involved you want an agency or solutions provider to be, not only during initial project development but also in post-launch support for your web store. At RIPEN, we are as hands-on or hands-off as you need us to be, offering strategy and marketing advice as well as design and development services. This flexibility gives you the operational efficiency that will support long-term growth.

Scalability

How will the solution you choose adapt to your business as it grows? How scalable are the solutions, both e-commerce and P21 integration, and will they be able to meet your business needs in the future? How customizable is the solution? How flexible is the API? Is the product updated regularly?

Ownership

Sounds simple, right? The products, the content—everything on the website should belong to you. However, a number of P21 solutions are SaaS/Multi-tenant solutions that make it difficult or even impossible to migrate your data to another platform. If you become dissatisfied with your solutions provider, you cannot simply switch to another one. You’ll have to start over from scratch and reinvest in a new solution. That’s why RIPEN recommends Magento 2 Open Source, giving you 100% ownership without any software licensing fees.

Long-Term Cost

Most businesses expect their new e-commerce platform to last at least the next 6 to 10 years. Your solution should be as future-proof as possible. Some solutions cost the same or more year after year, while others decrease in cost over time while still delivering the same value and performance.

Interested in discussing RIPEN P21 Commerce? Whether you’re looking for guidance in strategy or execution at every level - including marketing, development, photo or video, Ripen can help. Let’s talk.