Bidirectional synchronisation
Quick answer
Two-way data exchange between systems, with explicit precedence rules defining what happens when the same record changes in both places.
Key takeaways
- Owning system wins - recommended for reference fields (price, stock)
- Last write wins - acceptable only for descriptive fields
- Manual escalation - for fields with financial impact
What it requires
Correct bidirectional sync has three mandatory elements: a stable shared identifier, a per-field precedence rule, and a conflict log a human can read.
Conflict resolution strategies
- Owning system wins - recommended for reference fields (price, stock)
- Last write wins - acceptable only for descriptive fields
- Manual escalation - for fields with financial impact
The main risk
Update loops: system A writes to B, B triggers an update back into A, and the cycle repeats. Prevent it by tagging the origin of each change and ignoring your own writes.
Real-world example
A connector syncing balances both ways generated 12,000 useless writes a day until origin tagging was added; afterwards the volume dropped to 400.
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Frequently asked
When is one-way sync enough?+
When a single system creates and edits the entity and the other only displays it. For stock and price, one-way is usually the right choice.
What should be logged?+
Every sync attempt with result, duration and, on failure, the rejected payload. Without a log, diagnosing a conflict becomes guesswork.
Where CRMconnect fits
Related terms
CRM-ERP integration
Controlled data exchange between CRM and ERP with a single owning system per entity, so no duplicates or contradictory values appear.
TechnologyMaster data
Core reference data - customers, products, prices, organisational units - for which a single source of truth is defined across the application landscape.