Define system roles first
| System | Typical primary responsibility |
|---|---|
| CMMS/EAM | Assets, maintenance work, history and lifecycle context |
| ERP | Financial transactions, purchasing, vendors, inventory or enterprise master data |
| BMS/BAS | Building-system monitoring and control |
| IoT/condition platform | Sensor acquisition, condition analytics and event detection |
| BIM/document environment | Structured built-asset information and controlled documents/models |
Common identifiers are more important than massive synchronization
An alarm, invoice or sensor reading is hard to use if it cannot be linked to the correct asset and location. Establish cross-system identifiers and mapping rules before building complex workflows.
Integrate business events, not raw noise
Examples include approved purchase order, material receipt, persistent equipment fault, condition threshold breach or asset commissioning. Each interface should define retries, duplicates, ownership and monitoring.
APIs, files and messages
Modern systems often expose APIs, but scheduled files or message queues can still be appropriate. Choose the pattern based on timing, volume, reliability and vendor capability rather than fashion.
Integration needs an owner
A failed interface can leave systems apparently healthy while data is stale. Monitor transaction age, failed messages and synchronization exceptions, and assign responsibility for resolving them.