Order Integration: Leverage Your Data - A Bridgepointe Technologies Success Story

Introduction

At RPM, we excel in handling commission data, however, our subscribers enhance RPM’s value by integrating with CRM systems. This post highlights a compelling use case featuring Bridgepointe Technologies, Equinix's Technology Services Broker of the Year and RPM subscriber.

Bridgepointe aims to provide its partners with top-notch tools and reports to enhance collaboration for mutual business growth. To achieve this, integrating data from its systems is a necessity.

This post is of interest to any RPM subscriber who manages their sales operations, in particular, their orders using CRM software systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.

The Core Problem of Multiple Systems

Subscribers using multiple software systems face challenges when data is scattered across platforms:

• Siloed Data: Data remains isolated, hindering comprehensive reporting.
  • Example: RPM stores commission data, while Salesforce houses CRM data.
• Manual Processes: Exporting and aligning data manually is time-consuming and error-prone.
  • Example: Downloading commission data from RPM to update Salesforce monthly.
• Scalability Issues: Manual workflows falter as data complexity grows.
• Business Impact: Inefficient data flow leads to missed opportunities, confusion, and delays across Sales, Finance, and Order Management departments.

The RPM Data Warehouse

To address the above data challenges, RPM developed the RPM Data Warehouse. This cloud-based solution uses Amazon Redshift to provide direct, read-only, exportable SQL access to commission data. The key benefits of the Data Warehouse are:

• Comprehensive Commission Data Access: Access detailed datasets, including Comm Items, Adjustments, and Referrals.
• Scalability: Handles large datasets and complex structures efficiently.
• Integration Flexibility: Connect with other tools via APIs.

Why a Data Warehouse?

Commission data in RPM involves many data tables, complex calculations, and flexible commission rules. By offering direct access to a database, the Data Warehouse ensures that subscribers have the clarity and depth they need for precise analysis, both historical and current.

Another key benefit of the Data Warehouse is the malleability of the data. Because it is in SQL format, database professionals can use the data and model it however they need.

For example, suppose your commission data spans a decade, as many RPM subscriber data do, supplier names may have evolved, e.g., Embarq becomes Time Warner and then Lumen. With SQL access, this data variation can be consolidated into a unified view, ensuring accurate analysis.

The Data Warehouse and API: Complementary Tools

The Data Warehouse offers direct access to your commission data, while the RPM API is the ideal solution for integrating custom processes like Orders or Service Locations. The API enables event-driven data transfers by triggering actions when specific conditions are met. For instance, a webhook can initiate an API call whenever an Order or Service Location form is updated in RPM, automatically passing the updates to your CRM. This functionality ensures collaboration between your CRM and RPM, keeping both systems synchronized and efficient.

Success Story: Bridgepointe Technologies

Our success story is one of order and commission integration across systems to achieve the business objective of having up-to-date, reliable orders with matching commission data to make data-driven business decisions.

The Old Way:

• Disjointed data between RPM and Salesforce.
• Segmented data impeded business operation collaboration.
• Manual exports led to inaccuracies and inefficiencies.

The Better Way:

• Data Warehouse: Automated data feeds into Salesforce, eliminating manual exports.
• API Integration: Enabled real-time order updates between Salesforce and RPM.

“Before the integration, our data was siloed between RPM and Salesforce, creating a significant disconnect. This manual data management was time-consuming and prone to errors, hindering our ability to make informed business decisions and effectively collaborate across departments.” Michael Sterl, COO - Bridgepointe

Sales Process and Order Workflow

Bridgepointe’s CRM is Salesforce, where their opportunities and orders are started. Once an order is Closed-Won and its locations are created, it moves from Salesforce to RPM. After the order is moved into RPM, RPM becomes the source of truth for any order updates, which are passed back to Salesforce.

Since RPM is where commission data is uploaded, it is where order management and revenue assurance should occur. For order management, updating the locations and products in RPM to the actual commissioning accounts and products received from the suppliers/TSDs ensures that the order is tracked correctly. Webhooks from RPM’s API provide the signal to send any updates made in RPM directly to those same orders in Salesforce, ensuring that they’re kept in sync.

“RPM became the source of truth for financial data, ensuring consistency and accuracy.” Frank Ahearn, Senior Sales Operations Business Analyst - Bridgepointe

High-Level Best Practices for Order Integration

To achieve effective order integration, the following high-level steps need to be executed:

• Identify Matching Fields: Use shared identifiers like Account Numbers or Customer Names.
• Custom Mapping: Track unique identifiers across platforms.
• Adapt to Variations: Ensure flexibility to accommodate unique business processes.

Key Point: A Unique Identifier

An order created in Salesforce is assigned a unique identifier (UID) of Order 123, while the same order created later in RPM is assigned a UID of 0001. Although both UIDs reference the same underlying order, neither system inherently recognizes the connection because their UIDs are unique to their respective platforms.

To resolve this, a shared identifier must be established to relate the orders across both systems. For example, if the order in both systems shares common attributes such as an Account Number, Customer Name, and Supplier, we can reasonably conclude they represent the same order.

By creating a custom property that tracks the UIDs from both systems (e.g., mapping Order 123 in Salesforce to 0001 in RPM), we can bridge the gap and ensure these orders are linked. This approach enables reliable data integration and alignment across platforms.

Conclusion: Leverage Your Data

RPM’s Data Warehouse and API empower businesses to integrate their data across platforms. By centralizing and automating workflows, organizations like Bridgepointe achieve enhanced efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.

“Accurate order tracking within Salesforce is critical for our success. It provides our sales team with a single source of truth for all order-related information, ensuring everyone is working with the most up-to-date data. This seamless integration has significantly improved our forecasting accuracy, streamlined our sales processes, and ultimately driven better business outcomes.” Michael Sterl, COO - Bridgepointe

Additional Integration Benefit - Partner Portal

Bridgepointe has developed a robust partner portal, The Signal, that provides customer buyer intent, a co-selling function, and product recommendations. RPM data is used to augment The Signal. Bridgepointe’s data integration efforts have reduced manual work, improved data accuracy, and enhanced partner engagement for its Signal tool.

“This integration has improved efficiency and strengthened our relationships with our partners by providing them with a more transparent and reliable experience.” Michael Sterl, COO - Bridgepointe

More information about Bridgepointe’s partner tools can be found in this Channel Futures article.

Learn More About RPM Products and Integration

Contact RPM to learn more about our Data Warehouse product and how our integration specialists can tailor solutions for your business needs.