Hi,
I'm looking for advice and maybe some "war stories" about CRM data change management policies and best practices.
I'm building an integration in which my application requests data via website form from the end user, and then attempts to match that data to an existing customer record in the CRM. Initially, the primary key to be matched is the end user's email address (once the end user validates that it's his). When checking the CRM, if the email address matches an existing record, then the other fields my application collects are inserted into that customer's record in the CRM (and then I write the CRM GUID back to my application so that becomes my primary key going forward.)
Say later on the user comes back to my application and changes their email address. Should my application change the email address on record for the end user? Recall that the email address in the CRM pre-dates the connection between my app and the CRM. If my app overwrites the existing email address, couldn't that mess up other applications? E.g. if other apps match on email address as primary key, if I change it, they'll break. Or if other apps write email address and then I change it, then we could get into a contention issue...
Anyway, I'm looking for best practices and advice. If not overwrite the email address update, where should I store it?
Thanks in advance for your insights.
-- Jsp