Choose CRM or ERP according to the work you need to organise. CRM is usually the first candidate when enquiries, proposals and customer conversations are difficult to track. Consider ERP when purchasing, stock, delivery or financial records need to work together. If sales staff need reliable delivery and payment information, connecting the two may help. A single product can include both groups of features.
Start with a task that causes problems and the software you already use. The decision about a CRM and ERP system may then be to enable an existing module, connect two applications or develop a missing feature. Headcount alone does not determine the choice.
What do CRM and ERP do, and where do they overlap?
CRM means customer relationship management. For a sales team, it can record a contact, the reason for an enquiry, a proposal and the next agreed action. A colleague should be able to continue the conversation when the person responsible is away.
ERP stands for enterprise resource planning. It connects business processes and their records. Depending on its modules, it may cover purchasing, stock, work orders and finance. Ask to see the functions of the particular product: ERP systems do not all cover the same work.
The categories overlap. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, for example, includes quotes, orders and invoices, while Business Central includes contacts and sales opportunities. A category name alone cannot tell you whether a feature is available or whether you need another application.
Which problem should you solve first?
Take a recently completed job, or one that went wrong, and follow it through the business. Where did someone retype information, wait for an answer or correct the wrong version? Those points give you more specific requirements than a list of modules.
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| Problem | What to consider | What the trial should demonstrate |
|---|---|---|
| An enquiry receives no reply | CRM, an assigned person and the next action. | Who sees the enquiry and takes over when a colleague is absent. |
| A proposal uses the wrong price | The price list source and its connection to sales. | Where the price comes from and who approves an exception. |
| Sales promises stock that is unavailable | ERP or an existing stock system with data exchange. | The distinction between physical stock, reservations and available quantity. |
| One customer has several separate records | Shared data rules and connections. | Who assigns the customer identifier and how duplicates are resolved. |
| Staff assemble a job status manually | Data from sales and delivery processes. | Which system supplies each status and how current it is. |
If the problem concerns one form or report, first check what the existing software can do. A business moving beyond spreadsheets can also use our guide to when Excel becomes a limitation.
How might this work for one customer job?
Imagine a business that sells equipment and arranges installation. This is a hypothetical planning example, not a report of results achieved for a particular client.
A salesperson receives an enquiry, records the requirements and sends a proposal. They need the conversation history, a responsible person and the proposal version. Before promising a date, they check equipment availability and an installation slot. That information may belong in the existing business system.
After acceptance, an order and a work order are created according to the agreed process. Warehouse staff prepare the equipment, the installation team records completion, and finance tracks documents and payment. The salesperson needs the relevant status, with permission to view rather than freely change stock or payment records.
First decide what “proposal accepted” means. Does it reserve stock or start an internal check? If equipment is unavailable, who confirms a revised date with the customer? These rules determine the required software and how its parts connect.
Do you need both systems immediately?
A sales team may be able to introduce CRM while keeping its existing invoicing or stock software. That approach can work when the remaining information is reliable and the manual workload is acceptable. Otherwise, the next step may be exchanging only the few fields the team needs.
Check whether your ERP already has a usable contacts and quotations module. The demonstration should follow an employee's task, with their required fields and permissions. This lets you assess whether the existing module is sufficient or a separate CRM makes the work easier.
Before replacing a system, record what works well in it. Our comparison of off-the-shelf and custom software helps once you have identified requirements that existing products do not cover.
What should you agree when connecting CRM and ERP?
For each field, decide where it is edited and how it is transferred. For example, the stock system may maintain availability while CRM records the customer agreement. For a delivery address, specify when a change takes effect and what remains recorded against an already confirmed order.
Microsoft's Business Central and Dataverse integration documentation describes field mappings and the direction of data exchange. It illustrates the need to agree what records mean; it does not establish that a particular integration will work without further checks.
Include transfer frequency, failure handling and responsibility for monitoring errors in the API integration plan. Check what happens when the same order is sent again. Agree the expected outcome in advance, with protection against unwanted duplicate entries.
What should you prepare before implementation?
List existing applications, user roles and the data you want to transfer. Use a small set of fictional or appropriately anonymised records for the trial. Include a routine job and an exception that regularly causes problems.
Assign someone in the business to decide how duplicate customer records are resolved and which history must remain available. Agree export access and the existing supplier's role. Data preparation, staff training and the changeover day should appear as separate tasks in the proposal.
How do you check that the first phase is ready?
For our hypothetical example, an acceptance trial could begin with an enquiry and finish with a view of the completed work order. Sales and delivery staff carry out their steps using the assigned permissions. They then repeat the process with unavailable stock or a failed transfer.
Record the expected and actual outcome, who reports a problem and when the trial will be repeated. Before launch, agree a temporary way of working if the connection between systems stops. A stored backup and a tested recovery procedure serve different purposes; include both in the support plan.
How do you request comparable proposals?
Give suppliers the same process description and first-phase scope. Ask for separate items covering licences, configuration, connections, data preparation, training and support. Identify what has already been verified and what needs a technical trial. Additional user costs and data export terms also affect the later decision.
For a free project estimate, describe one job that currently passes through several records and name the applications you use. We can use that information to work through the scope of a CRM/ERP solution and the checks needed first.