Customisation CRM, CMS and Magento. Practical case.

Published: May 22, 2012 3 min. read
Svitla Team
By Svitla Team
Web Development
Customisation CRM, CMS and Magento. Practical case.

Working e-commerce business is the set of many parameters. How to make the online part works right? We discussed it in interview with our Team Lead, Seniour PHP Developer Oleh Koval.

How have you entered the IT industry?

I started from System Administrator in Pension Fund and was involved in pioneer project results of what were established to the whole country. After that I’ve been a software engineer in Oil-Gas Company for several years. My friend, who worked for Svitla, invited me to interview. I passed it succefully and nowadays I’m a team leader and Head of Lviv office.

Tell us about your ongoing project. What are specificities of it and how did you start?

The company, which came to us, was organized by a University Professor. He suggested to bring lectures and other teaching materials online. Students log in and can read or order paid printing copy of lectures. Some time later, even literature publishers came to them and asked their online shop to use for their publishers’ needs.
Nowadays it is a huge service company on selling any kind of educational literature.

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Initially, when we started, there were only php website on Alfresco CMS with 500 000 literature catalogue and the customers wouldn’t like to change that mechanism. They asked us to choose the right e-commerce solution. We’ve done a great analysis from all existing platforms and made a choice – Magento. Also they used Sugar CRM when it was free of charge and then when it started to bring money, they switched to paid version.

Alfresco CMS + Magento + Sugar CRM were integrated together and now sales people from customer side can syncronise every update from CRM system only with one click. For example, when a manager wants to add new client or product, he clicks only one button – “Syncronize” and info gets to Magento and CMS. And if somebody buys a new book from website, this info automatically gets to Sugar CRM and Magento.

What difficulties were with customers?

We were lucky to have a great, mostly ideal customers. People from technical department, with whom we are in contact, actually started as developers and they understand all technical issues. We used to use planning poker for task estimating at the beginning of work with them. And now, when we receive new tasks for estimation, we may prove our vision if the customer has another one and they need 15 minutes to agree with our point of view.

And what is the situation inside the team?

Every person in team is responsible for its particular part of project. Thus, Andriy is responsible for Sugar CRM, Ruslan specializes in Alfresco CMS and me in Magento. Being a specialist in 3 systems simultaneously is impossible. Now we all know 3 systems but speciality is the same: Andriy knows all updates and trends from Sugar CRM, Ruslan is a back-end hacker.

Thank you for your time and all the best!

Written by
Svitla Team
Customisation CRM, CMS and Magento. Practical case.

FAQ

What are the main reasons for customizing CRM, CMS, and Magento platforms?

The major causes of customization in CRM, CMS, and Magento are integration and an easy workflow between different systems, such as client and product data synchronization with a single click. Through customization, businesses can mold the platforms according to their particular requirements, automating sales processes, or supporting unique business models. This type of approach makes the system user-friendly, streamlines operations, and helps grow the business.

What are the typical challenges faced during the customization of CRM, CMS, or Magento?

Usual challenges involve ensuring that integration between different platforms proceeds smoothly, allowing for accurate and efficient data synchronization. Teams have to strike a balance between the peculiar requirements of each system and stability and performance across the whole setup. Another challenge is coordination between specialists working on different platforms since high expertise is demanded in each. Clear communication from the development team to the client, both technically and otherwise, about evolving needs and expectations is also a requirement.

How can custom integrations between CRM, CMS, and Magento benefit a business?

Custom integrations of CRM CMS and Magento help in the streamlining of business operations since it supports automatic data synchronization. For example, client or product information can be updated in all systems by performing a single related operation. This reduces manual work and the possibility for mistakes while ensuring that sales, content, and customer data are always up to date. Businesses get a chance to offer better service provision, responding faster to customer needs, hence supporting growth with more efficient processes.

What best practices should be followed when customizing Magento or integrating it with CRM and CMS?

When customizing Magento and CRM, as well as CMS integrations, responsibility should be clearly assigned to team members who are experts in those systems. Analyze well and plan the solutions you choose so they can fit perfectly and scale efficiently. Constant communication between the technical team and stakeholders will keep expectations real and sniff out any problems early enough. Automate data sync, stay updated with each platform, and track trends to boost efficiency and long-term success.

Can you provide a practical example of successful customization and integration of CRM, CMS, and Magento?

A use case is that of an educational literature business that utilizes CRM, CMS, and Magento to manage a large online catalog in conjunction with the sales process. With custom integration, any update to client or product information in the CRM can be done with a single click of a button across all systems. New orders from the website will automatically be reflected in both the CRM and Magento. This workflow reduced manual effort and increased data accuracy, enabling students and publishers to be well-served by the business through a single, unified online platform.