Abstract
Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) have been exponentially discussed in the research literature. However, existing studies do not reach a complete agreement on the CRM/ERP integration method, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Generally, this paper proposed a new method of CRM/ERP integration approach, i.e. consistently using associative feature technology. A new feature type, Real-time Data Link Board (RDLB) is suggested and detailed as a generic information carrier solution for multi-system integration between CRM and ERP packages. Useful data elements are mapped into such data boards (sheets) dynamically and synchronized across different data sources, structures and databases. The ultimate contribution of this work is to provide a well-defined and generically reusable data carrier definition and related methods for consistent data modeling during the system integration phase of different digitalization engineering implementation projects. With this proposed approach, data integration among complex systems can be managed consistently throughout application lifecycles supported by the object-oriented software engineering foundation.