ERA Group & Tinx. Loyal partners since 2014

ERA Group has been a loyal partner of Tinx since 2014. With an in-house consultancy department, ERA Group facilitates integrations between Dynamics NAV/Business Central and Magento through the Tinx Magento Connector and B2B extensions. ERA Group and Tinx have more than 10 mutual clients, and this number is steadily growing. Florian Schmitt, E-commerce Director and Architect for Groupe Conseil ERA (ERA Consulting Group), shares insights about ERA Group, the collaboration, integration projects, and his experiences with Tinx and the Tinx e-commerce connector.

“Since 2016, I have been working for Groupe Conseil ERA, initially as an E-commerce Consultant and currently as the E-commerce Director and Architect. During my time as a consultant, I was closely involved in Magento integration projects. In 2021, I started building an e-commerce team at ERA, and currently, the team is operational and ready to deliver both simple and complex successful B2B and B2C e-commerce solutions.”

ERA Group as a Company & Core Business

“We are a Canadian-based company founded in 2004. Our core activity is the implementation of ERP systems. We work with our clients as partners, and our primary goal is always to improve our client’s business processes and everything related to their IT ecosystem. Assisting with ERP is one aspect, but it also involves everything around it: from production and marketing to EDI, CRM, and nowadays, e-commerce.”

“The ERP systems we work with are mainly Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Business Central (BC), and JD Edwards. Our clients use various e-commerce platforms, with Magento being the most popular at 85%. Additionally, we also work with platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.”

What’s unique about the ERA Group?

“Without a doubt, it’s our offering: as one of the few companies, we provide both ERP and e-commerce solutions. We offer comprehensive IT ecosystem advice tailored to the client’s needs. We prioritize the Magento open-source offering, and we don’t push Adobe Commerce, as most companies do.”

“Customers running a Magento webshop have no licensing costs except for maintenance and updates. They also don’t need to reinvent the wheel, such as pricing logic, since the rules are already in Business Central.”

“Furthermore, we offer customers an express approach, where we provide a ready-to-use, well-timed solution built for Business Central and Magento. This solution includes both basic functionalities and any custom modules from ERA, depending on the customer’s needs.”

“With a Magento open-source webshop and a partner like Tinx, the provider of the software that synchronizes everything related to B2B price logic, 75% of our customers’ goals in such projects are achieved. Add our expertise, and you can’t miss your targets. Our customers’ goals may include increasing visibility, improving the ease of online transactions for their customers, and streamlining order processing. Others may have more ERP-focused requirements.”

“We want our customers to choose a sustainable solution that they have control over and that allows for customization. In addition, the cost savings for the customer are enormous. Some customers showed me quotes from agencies that offered a B2B plug-in, even though they already had the same functionality in NAV. Why not connect that to the existing ERP logic with Tinx software? Customers prefer to work with one partner rather than two or more. Because we know their business model, and we have often worked together for a long time, we know what they sell and what challenges we face during an integration. Large Magento agencies may have more experience in marketing and graphic design, but we still lead the way when it comes to business processes and types of pricing. What customers want is not always found as a standard feature in Magento, and that’s where we come in.”

Integration streams of the Tinx Connector

“Our customers usually use simple and configurable products in BC. Sometimes, they are bundles and virtual products. We use everything related to PIM (Product Information Management), such as images, categories, attributes, videos, inventory updates, etc. Some customers use a separate PIM platform like Akeneo. They create the product in Akeneo, and we download the product IDs into the webshop items table.”

“In terms of pricing, most of our customers probably use B2B prices. Therefore, we usually include the Tinx B2B Discounts and Pricing extension. Even if it’s just about changing currencies, they are better off with Tinx’s plug-in.”

“Some customers want to synchronize customers, others only want contacts, and some want both with multiple accounts per company (sub-logins). From complex to simple, a wide range of solutions are possible for sales orders, shipments, invoices, and changing customer statuses. As for inventory, we have started using Multi Source Inventory (MSI). We also work in multiple languages.”

Benefits of the Tinx Connector

“The fact that it is fully customizable, and that, at least with the old Magento API: SOAP, we have made many messages work right away. This has shortened the time to build these kinds of synchronizations for customers. Of course, we can always adjust some things, but usually, it works with SOAP out of the box. Moreover, the connector allows us to customize everything, such as messages. Our customers come to us with different ideas and different business models. By using the Tinx Connector, we maintain control.”

“This allows us to meet 90% of our customers’ requests. We customize the remaining 10% or use a web service. I also love that Tinx still supports customers using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 up to Business Central SaaS. This way, we are compatible with a wide range of customers.”

What would you tell another company about Tinx?

“I think the Tinx connector is probably the most complete solution on the market. We have several success stories about upgrades done with Tinx and our customers. If you don’t want to be stuck with middleware, go for Tinx.” “And then I would probably tell them about the fun things that the Netherlands (Tinx’s home base) has to offer, like cycling and footpaths, and then I would end with bitterballen 😊.”