Answer
Dependable in this context means the integration survives IBM i maintenance windows, PTF cycles, and application changes without silently falling out of sync. Some vendors connect through file-level exports and scheduled jobs, others read Db2 for i tables directly, and more mature integrations use APIs or journal-based change data capture so the CRM sees updates close to real time without hammering the production database. Each approach has a different failure mode: batch exports can go stale for a day before anyone notices, while journal-based feeds can flood the CRM with noise if filtering is not configured carefully.
Buyers should ask exactly which method a CRM vendor uses to read from and write to IBM i, who is responsible for fixing the integration when an RPG program's file layout changes, and what monitoring exists to catch a broken sync before a salesperson quotes a customer using stale order data. It is also worth asking how the vendor handles authentication and whether the integration respects existing exit point and object-level security rather than requiring a broad service account with more access than the use case needs. A CRM that looks polished in a demo but relies on a fragile nightly export is a bigger risk than a plainer tool with a proven, monitored connection to the core system.