Why the ERP is different
A shared drive holds documents. The ERP holds the truth: invoices, debts, stock, prices, margins. Connecting an assistant to it brings three risks:
- Wrong answers — an invented figure repeated to a client.
- Wrong actions — a change in the books nobody asked for.
- Wrong eyes — margins or another company's data reaching someone who shouldn't see them.
Each has a concrete safeguard. Here they are, in the order we'd check them.
1. Read-only by default
The connection should read, not write, using a dedicated account with the least privilege needed to answer questions.
Ask: Does the assistant connect with its own read-only access? Can it write anywhere at all?
emily: Reads Cegid PHC — every version — and Ahora ERP. Nothing she answers changes your books.
2. Know every write, and what confirms it
List every action the assistant can take — emails, meetings, CRM changes, orders — and for each one, who confirms it and where it lands.
Ask: What can it do without a person's yes? Do writes land as drafts or as final documents?
emily: Emails to others, meeting changes and orders all wait for a confirmation. The only write to the ERP is a confirmed order on Cegid PHC, which lands as an unsigned draft invoice for your back office to finalise. See ERP, voice and human approval.
3. Grounded answers, and an honest "I don't know"
Find out where figures come from: a query over your data, or the model's general knowledge. Then test it.
- Ask about a client that doesn't exist. A safe assistant says it can't find them.
- Pick five figures from your ERP's own reports — sales for a month, one client's balance, the overdue list — and compare.
emily: Answers from your data and says so when it isn't there. In our own checks, client debt figures matched the ERP's overdue-accounts report to the cent. See reliable numbers, and the glossary entries on text-to-SQL and AI hallucination.
4. Access by person, company and topic
The assistant should never widen what someone can see.
Ask: Can access be set per person? Per company, in a group with several? Per topic — sales, margins, purchasing?
emily: Yes, all three. A rep limited to sales who asks about margins is told it's outside their access. See access by person, company and topic.
5. An audit trail
Ask: Is every change recorded with who, what, when and from which channel? Can I see it?
emily: Every CRM change is logged that way, and deletes are restricted to admins and managers. See the audit trail.
6. Data protection
Ask: Is there a data processing agreement? A list of subprocessors? Is your data used to train models? Where can data subjects exercise their rights?
emily: A DPA on request, a published subprocessor list, and your conversations and meetings are never used to train third-party models. See security and GDPR and AI.
7. Choose the connection that fits the questions
Not every question needs the same access. With emily there are two options: a standard connection that covers sales, invoices, balances and client and product records, and a direct connection that adds live stock and purchasing. Your IT team decides how access is granted, and it's set up once for the whole team. See connecting your ERP.
8. Start small, verify, then widen
Start with a few reps and with finance in the loop. Verify figures in the first week. Widen access only when the answers have earned it.
The checklist
| Check | Good answer | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Read-only, least privilege | "It needs admin rights" |
| Writes | Few, listed, confirmed | "It just does it" |
| Where writes land | Drafts for review | Final documents |
| Missing data | "I don't know" | A confident guess |
| Permissions | Per person, company, topic | Everyone sees everything |
| Audit | Who, what, when, channel | No log |
| GDPR | DPA, subprocessors, no training | Vague answers |
Take this table into every demo — including ours.