Polling
Best when the ERP controls timing. Use stable cursors, bounded pages and stored checkpoints.
Reusable technical evaluation kit
Pressure-test the integration before anyone writes middleware.
A public field-sales integration checklist for developers, IT teams and advisers evaluating ERP, accounting, CRM, order and inventory workflows.
Source-of-truth matrixFailure test planVendor claim check
Email the kit and five technical follow-ups
Get the worksheet now, then concise implementation guidance on days 2, 5, 9 and 14. The full public checklist remains below.
1. Assign one source of truth per field
“Two-way sync” is not a conflict policy. Every shared field needs one owner and a documented direction of travel.
| Business object | Recommended owner | Integration rule |
|---|---|---|
| Customer identity | CRM or ERP | SalesPro Hub stores the immutable external system + ID |
| Product and SKU | ERP / warehouse | SKU is the integration key; names are display values |
| Price and discount | ERP or approved price list | Choose whether field overrides are allowed |
| Order capture | SalesPro Hub | ERP acknowledges and returns its fulfilment reference |
| Available stock | ERP / warehouse | Push absolute quantities; reconcile after failure |
| Fulfilment status | ERP / warehouse | Return status to SalesPro Hub with a defined state map |
2. Choose a recovery-friendly sync pattern
Real-time does not mean “webhooks only.” Reliable integrations usually combine event delivery for speed with cursor-based polling for recovery.
Webhooks
Best for low-latency signals. Verify signatures, deduplicate delivery IDs and retry safely.
Hybrid
Use webhooks to wake the worker, then poll the authoritative API to reconcile state.
3. Run the failure-mode test plan
A successful demo proves the happy path. A useful proof of concept proves recovery.
- 1Send the same order acknowledgement twice and verify one external reference.
- 2Replay an inventory update with the same idempotency key.
- 3Resume customer polling from a timestamp-and-ID cursor after an interruption.
- 4Reject an unknown SKU without partially corrupting the rest of the batch.
- 5Verify an invalid or stale webhook signature is rejected.
- 6Hit the documented rate limit and honour Retry-After before resuming.
- 7Disable the ERP for an hour, restore it, then reconcile every missed change.
- 8Confirm one tenant can never read or mutate another tenant’s records.
4. Separate native connectors from integration capability
An API can make an integration possible without making it one-click. Ask who owns OAuth installation, mapping, middleware hosting, monitoring, retries, upgrades and support after launch.
Use a native connector
The standard mapping fits, credentials are self-service and the vendor owns upgrades.
Use middleware
The workflow needs transformations, approvals, legacy interfaces or multiple systems.
Build direct
The scope is narrow, your team owns operations and the API contract is stable enough to maintain.
Validate the public contract against a real workflow
Review the exact endpoints first. If the boundary fits, use the trial to test orders, inventory, CRM identities and signed delivery with representative data.