Begin with the business handover
A sales team may record a customer in one system while operations creates the same customer again elsewhere. The practical problem is duplicate work and inconsistent information. Start by identifying where a lead, order, invoice, or service request changes hands. Document what each team needs at that point.
Give each record a home
CRM commonly supports customer relationships and sales activity, while ERP commonly supports core operational and financial processes. Product boundaries vary. Agree which system owns each field, who can change it, and how other systems receive the update. A shared customer identifier is more reliable than trying to match records by a typed company name.
Clean before connecting
Integration can spread errors as efficiently as it moves good data. Review duplicate customers, inconsistent product codes, missing contact details, and inactive records before migration. Preserve a mapping between old and new identifiers so that teams can trace transactions during the transition.
Design for exceptions
What happens when a record fails validation or a connection is unavailable? Define a visible exception queue, a responsible person, and a way to retry without creating duplicates. Decide whether updates must be immediate or whether scheduled synchronisation is sufficient. The simplest reliable approach is often the most useful.
Test one complete journey
Test from the initial customer enquiry to the final operational outcome, using realistic scenarios and permissions. Include cancellations, corrections, and partial information. Start with one clearly defined handover, confirm the result with both teams, and expand from there. Successful integration should reduce uncertainty for the people doing the work.