Your ERP manages your financial flows, your stocks, your orders. Perfect. But where did the PDF invoices go? The contracts signed? Delivery notes? Scattered in shared folders, mailboxes, USB sticks. The result: you waste a lot of time looking, you flirt with audit risk, and your teams complain. EDM (Electronic Document Management) fills this hole in the racket. Concrete explanations.
Key things to remember for busy readers
The problem: Your ERP manages your business data, but not your documents. Result: 18% of working time lost looking for scattered invoices, contracts or delivery notes.
The solution : Integrate a EDM software (Electronic Document Management) to your ERP creates a direct link between the data and its proof. Invoice in the ERP = PDF accessible in one click.
Concrete gains:
• Accounting entry automation (OCR → automatic injection into ERP)
• Accelerated validation via mobile workflows
• Secure legal archiving (10 years+, GDPR compliant)
• ROI in less than 12 months
How to make your project a success:
1. Technical choice: Native connector (2-4 weeks), API (4-8 weeks) or Middleware (8-16 weeks)
2. Pilot: Start with A simple process (ex: supplier invoices)
3. Human: 50% of the project = change management (targeted training, visible gains in 15 days)
4. Tests: Realistic volumes + error cases before deployment
Pitfalls to avoid: Big Bang, dirty data, botched training, lack of business users in the framework.
Full reading time: 6 minutes
What exactly is an ERP?
One ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is your central information system: it manages your purchases, your sales, your accounting, your stocks, your human resources. Everything is linked in real time.
Concretely? You create a customer order in the ERP, it updates the stock, triggers the invoicing, records it in the account. Automatically. It is the engine that makes your daily business run.
The best known? SAP, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo, Cegid Solutions that range from 50 to 50,000 users, depending on the size of your structure.
Separating your data (ERP) from your evidence (Documents) is organizational schizophrenia. In 2026, tax audits or customer disputes no longer forgive imprecision.
EDM: The nervous system that your ERP lacked
La Electronic Document Management is not a simple “digital closet.” It is a capture and indexing engine.
- Smart capture: EDM sucks up your invoices, recognizes amounts and suppliers via OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
- Automatic indexing : No need to name your files "Facture_V2_FINALE.pdf” anymore. The ECM classifies everything according to your business rules.
- Instant response : You type a name, the document comes out in two seconds.
ERP-ECM integration, it's the end of the “hole in the racket”: the data in your software points directly to its irrefutable proof in the ECM.
According to several sector studies, 73% of companies equipped with an ERP admit to under-exploiting their tools. Often because the documentary component is missing.
Why integrate EDM and ERP?
Because separating your business data in the ERP and your supporting documents elsewhere is organizational schizophrenia.
Do you have a supplier invoice encoded in the ERP, but the original PDF? Lost. Good luck with the tax audit. A customer dispute over an order? Do you need to find the signed delivery note somewhere between the shared server and the sales representative's mailbox?
On average, an employee spends 18% of their working time looking for documents. That's almost one day a week where he doesn't produce anything.
Integrate ECM and ERP, It's creating a direct link between the data and its evidence. The invoice in the ERP points to the PDF indexed in the EDM. The customer contract is accessible in one click from the customer file. Traceability, compliance, productivity: everything benefits.
The concrete advantages
Automating accounting entries : with integrated OCR, your supplier invoice is automatically read. The data is injected into the ERP without re-entering. No more typing errors and duplicates.
Accelerated validation : workflows automate validation circuits. Is the order form waiting for validation from the manager? He receives a notification, valid in one click from his smartphone. No more documents sleeping in Outlook trash cans.
Secure legal archiving: your invoices, contracts, pay slips must be kept for a minimum of 10 years. The EDM solution takes care of it with timestamp, access traceability, RGPD-compliant digital safe. You sleep peacefully.
Mobile access and teleworking: Does your CFO on the go need to validate an urgent invoice? He connects from his phone, consults the document in the ECM, valid. The payment is part.
At CM-CIC Factor, an Efalia customer, the integration of EDM plus the factoring process has divided the processing time of files by three. Less paper, less back and forth, fewer mistakes.
How to integrate ECM and ERP in concrete terms?
This is where it all comes into play. Technical integration is only part of the puzzle. The real difficulty is to bring together three dimensions: technique, profession and human.
The three technical integration options
Native connectors : most modern EDM tools offer pre-packaged connectors for SAP, Sage, Cegid, Divalto, Odoo. You plug in, configure, it goes. The connector manages bi-directional synchronization: creating a customer in the ERP = automatic file in the EDM, scanned invoice = direct accounting entry. Integration time: two to four weeks.
REST or SOAP API : for more exotic ERPs or specific needs. EDM and ERP exchange in real time via API. More customizable, but specific development required. Allow four to eight weeks.
Middleware/ESB : for large groups with several heterogeneous ERPs. Talend or MuleSoft orchestrate exchanges between systems. Heavier, but essential if you have five different ERPs depending on the subsidiaries. Allow eight to sixteen weeks.
The concrete steps of an integration project
As Christophe Bastard, EDM-ERP Expert at Efalia, recalls: “Technical integration generally takes two to six weeks depending on the complexity of your IS. What takes time is mapping business fields and managing change.”
The 4 points of attention for successful integration
1. Field mapping: defining business rules
Let's take the integration of supplier invoices between an EDM and Sage 100. You map each metadata extracted by the OCR to the corresponding Sage field: supplier SIRET → supplier account, amount including tax → transaction amount, invoice date → document date.
Simple on paper. But in reality: what if the supplier does not exist in Sage? Auto creation or manual blocking? If OCR misreads an amount, systematic human validation or only beyond a threshold?
These business rules are defined during the scoping phase with users. The accounting manager validates the management rules, the controller validates the control thresholds, the CFO validates the validation circuits. It's a transversal project, not just an IT project.
2. Real-time bidirectional synchronization
Good integration works both ways. Creating a customer in the ERP? Its documentary file is automatically created in the ECM. Contract scanned in the EDM? Accessible in one click from the ERP customer file.
The connector listens to events in real time. No night-time sync. If the system is slow or laggy, users bypass the tool and go back to old habits.
3. Tests on realistic volumes
Test with borderline cases: invoices without numbers, intra-community VAT, foreign currencies. Verify that OCR withstands the shock, that workflows are triggered, that the system collects five hundred invoices on a Monday morning without rowing.
Also test the cases of error: ERP unavailable for one hour, pending documents, automatic resumption. These resilience scenarios are crucial. Before integrating, clean up your ERP repository: duplicate customers, misnamed suppliers, inaccurate entries. If you inject brothel into the ECM, you will have indexed mess.
4. Change management: 50% of the project
You can have the best technical integration, if your teams do not adopt it, you have lost. 80% of EDM project failures are related to the human factor, not to the technique.
Engage real users from the start. The accounting assistant, the controller, the purchasing manager. Organize participatory workshops. Build your specifications on their real pain.
Train by role with concrete cases. The accounting assistant needs to know how to deal with an anomaly invoice. The controller must be able to validate fifty invoices from his smartphone. Count on two to three days of training followed by intensive field support the first week.
Show the benefits quickly. Choose a pilot process where the benefits are measurable quickly. Supplier invoices: measure the processing time before and after, report the results every week. If people don't see a real difference in the first 15 days, you've lost.
Don't do a big bang. Start with a simple process, the one that hurts you the most. Prove the value in three months. After, extend gradually.
Checklist before starting
☐ Identified and committed management sponsor (DAF, DSI or CEO)
☐ Project manager appointed (not just IT)
☐ Pilot process chosen (the one that generates the most frustration)
☐ ERP data quality audit carried out and cleaning plan defined
☐ Validated budget including licenses + integration + training
☐ Realistic planning avoiding accounting closing periods
☐ Internal resources available (not 100% on other projects)
☐ Training plan defined by business role
☐ Fixed success indicators (example: -50% time processing invoices)
☐ Established documentary governance (rights, retention periods, naming)
Conclusion: take action intelligently
Integrating an EDM into your ERP is not a disconnected IT project. It is a direct driver of business performance. Less time lost, fewer mistakes, more compliance, more peace of mind.
The ROI is fast if you frame the project well: a pilot on a simple process such as supplier invoices or customer contracts, targeted training, field support. On average, businesses see a return on investment in less than 12 months.
At Efalia, we have been supporting this type of project for fifteen years. We know the pitfalls, the shortcuts that work, the mistakes to avoid. If you want to discuss your specific case, we offer a free and non-binding demo.
Our initial advice, as Christophe Bastard, ECM-ERP Expert at Efalia, says: “Start with a pilot on a simple process, the one that hurts you the most today. Prove the value in three months. Afterwards, the adoption will happen naturally.”
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