How can you justify CRM integration and alignment costs?

I've been integrating CRMs with ERPs, e-commerce, specialized marketing platforms, on-prem software, etc., since 2013. Integrations fail or succeed on two factors: the vision and the execution of the integration strategy. If your vision is short-sighted, you will struggle with downstream integration projects and delay ROI. If your execution has too many points of failure between endpoints of your integration strategy - you're not going to get buy-in from the broader audience (decision-makers and end users). Integrations can be expensive and taxing to your organization. Don't do it unless you've got a clear path. All considerations must be made regarding the vision, and you must have a seamless execution plan that minimizes risk.

There are hard and soft costs/benefits. Calculating hard costs (things you can easily measure) is far easier to accomplish than soft costs. You should easily be able to calculate that employees are producing more, struggling less (losing less and less time), and increasing the number of transactions in each respective system. Calculating soft costs (abstract metrics of success) is trickier. NPS-style surveys or something similar that allows anonymous participation will help flush out whether you're getting consistent employee buy-in. Be sure to measure both over time - 1 month after going live and again at 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. It will provide you with proper assessments of the outcome and how adoption progresses over time.

Before proceeding with any integration, you must assess its potential impact. What privacy laws and regulations must be considered? What are the other system's security policies, and what consumer data protections must be considered? Beyond compliance risks, you must consider requirements to set up an integration. Will the integration be a direct system integration, or will it require an IPaaS layer? What are the compliance considerations for the IPaaS layer? Do your research on the vendors that you select (if using external resources), and ensure that you have a reliable strategy for integrating safely. Sandbox environments or trial environments are helpful for testing with a safety net without impacting live data or copies of live data.

A better way to frame this point is "Know your value proposition." If you can clearly articulate what you're trying to achieve AND you can paint a clear path to your stakeholders AND you can address risks and how they were mitigated AND speak to any preliminary testing successes you've had... THEN you can ease any anxieties or apprehensions to the project. That applies to showcasing the integration project before it begins, after it begins, and upon conclusion. You will instill a completely different level of confidence in your end users and customers (internal and external) by participating in the most transparent approach possible.

Integrations are complex. Considerations must be made and re-made over time to ensure that you can clearly explain what you're trying to do and validate why you're trying to do it. Not all systems need to be integrated. There are always clear metrics for integrating systems. Still, organizations that want to integrate systems rarely stop to think about the full gamut of ramifications that stem from something as innocent-seeming as connecting System A with System B. We live in a very aware world. If you don't feel confident in your plan to the point that you'd feel comfortable putting it in front of your lawyer or explaining it to your parents (and have them understand, not simply smile and nod) - you will want to adjust your approach.