You type it once, the system copies it everywhere else
When a new client has to go into three programs, this is the answer. The record gets filled in at one point only and the system copies it over identically into the others, opening the screens the way the person who goes back and forth today would
The work you do now is always the same. The details arrive in an email from a sales rep, in a form filled in on the site, in a company registry search, in a message written in a hurry, and then somebody retypes them into the business software, into the shipping program, into the sheet the back office uses, maybe into the quoting system too
On the first screen you're careful, on the second a little less, and by the third you're copying from memory a VAT number you read two minutes ago. That's where a digit goes missing
The real cost turns up when the three programs disagree
Entering a customer record by hand takes a few minutes, and taken once it doesn't look like something worth a project. The real cost comes later, when the three programs hold three versions of the same client
An address updated only in the business software sends the goods where the client no longer is. A wrong VAT number lands straight on the invoice, and the invoice then has to be redone. A company name shortened in one place and written out in full in the other makes it impossible to tie the data back together when you want a total per client
That's mostly what automating customer records is for. The data comes out identical everywhere, which never happens when you copy by hand, not even with a good and careful person, and the minutes saved follow on as a consequence
How it's tackled, and what the system checks before saving
The data comes in at one point only, which you choose, usually the place where a new client really comes into being, and from there it travels out to the other programs, never the other way round, because if two screens can change the same field then sooner or later they contradict each other and nobody knows which one is right
Before it writes anything the system runs the formal checks, the ones a person in a hurry skips, and that part counts for more than the speed
- the VAT number and the tax code have to be written in a valid form, not just any number of the right length
- every field the business software requires has to be there, otherwise the record starts off half done and somebody finishes it months later
- the client must not already exist, because entering him twice spelled two different ways creates a duplicate, and that's a problem you then have to clean up separately
- anything that doesn't add up isn't guessed at, it stops and stays with you
Stopping at the doubtful cases is what makes an automation of customer records trustworthy. One that invents a value when the data is unclear fills your programs with polite rubbish, one that stops leaves you ten rows to look at and everything else already in place
It works on programs that have no direct integration with the outside as well, because the screens are there all the same, and that's the case with almost every business system installed in a company. It's the work on programs with no direct integrations