Home Help & Support Integrations Integrations – Linking Customers & Suppliers

Linking Customers / Suppliers in OCAT

OCAT is an order processing system with connections to CRM, ERP and online shops but it can also function as a standalone system. It’s because of this that OCAT requires it’s own list of customers and suppliers

In order to manage and update the links between all the systems that OCAT connects to OCAT maintains an internal table. Unlike other software OCAT does not use email addresses, names, company names etc because these can change. So for example if a customer changed their email address subsequent orders would no longer be ‘connected’ to the same customer in OCAT. Bad idea!

OCAT uses the hidden, internal Ids to link customers, suppliers and address book entries. You don’t need to know this Id but you have the option of seeing it if you need to

Here we will be using Maximizer CRM & Woo Commerce to explain how to manage the linking of customers and suppliers to CRM Address Book entries & online shoppers

Creating an order using our CRM integrations

When an order (sales / purchase) is created using one of our Integrations OCAT checks to see if there is a corresponding customer / supplier linked to the address book entry. If there is a link then OCAT will make sure the new order uses the correct customer. If there isn’t a link to an existing customer / supplier OCAT will create a new one and automatically create a link

If you want to create the customers / suppliers in advance of any orders you can do this using the CRM Tools button:-

Clicking on this button shows a popup up like this:-

Use the yellow customers or blue supplier button to manage their relationship with the CRM Address book entries

Functionality may be limited if OCAT doesn’t have a service account to access the integration

Pulling an order from a shop

When you connect to an online shop and pull the orders down OCAT Checks to see if it has a corresponding customer for the online shopper. If a customer exists then OCAT automatically links the order to the OCAT customer. If the customer doesn’t exist then OCAT Will create a new customer and then automatically link to it

Please Note that OCAT cannot create customers if your shop does not have the ‘customers must be registered’ setting enabled. These anonymous customer orders will still be visible in OCAT but they will not have a customer linked to them.  This can also make linking them to the CRM address book more complicated

Maintaining links across integrations / platforms

For orders form an online shop to show up under the address book entry in Maximizer the linking table in OCAT must be correct. Thankfully there are tools and mapping utilities in OCAT to make this a relatively simple task. When we set-up your system for you we will discuss and train you accordingly

When creating new customers / suppliers in a multi integration / platform system it’s important to decide on which system is the authority / owner of the data. And the process to follow when this happens. Here are some common scenarios:-

Scenario 1 – New order, new customer on shop and no CRM entry

This is a new online shopper and the customer doesn’t exist in OCAT and there is no corresponding CRM Address Book entry

  1. OCAT Will automatically create the customer and link it to the online shopper
  2. Use the OCAT CRM tools to create a new contact in Maximizer
Scenario 2 – New order, new customer on shop and existing CRM entry

This is a new online shopper and the customer doesn’t exist in OCAT but there is a corresponding CRM Address Book entry

  1. OCAT Will automatically create the customer and link it to the online shopper
  2. Use the OCAT CRM tools to link the OCAT customer to the Maximizer address book entry
Scenario 3 – Existing CRM entry, OCAT Customer & admin creates customer on shop

This is a new online shopper but the customer exist in OCAT and there is a corresponding CRM Address Book entry linked to it

  1. Maually create the online shopper (customer)
  2. Using the platform mapping tools to link the OCAT customer with the newly created shop customer
  3. Email the new customer a link to the shop’s change password page so the can activate their account

There are many other scenarios which we will help you with. To avoid pain and confusion please make sure you contact us so we can set up your system and train you so it fit’s you business processes

Note on importing customer / supplier data

GDPR can make life difficult if you want us to import customers in bulk as we would need to process the data on your behalf. We would require the data owners permission to do this. It’s often easier and quicker to copy, paste and link using OCAT tools. It’s because of this that we rarely import GDPR ‘protected’ data.

We will be working on software updates that will enable give our users the ability to import this data themselves. Please contact us for information about this planned feature

Help & Support for linking – Just ask!

Upfront planning and analyzing your existing / future business processes is absolutely essential

Please always ask for our help in advance +44 1491 220082