Glossary & explainers
Plain-English explainers of the concepts behind Factory Labs: ERP-native CRM, lakehouse-native data, MCP, Delta Sharing, and more.
10DLC Brand Score
10DLC Brand Score is the credit-style rating US mobile carriers assign to a registered business sender, determining SMS throughput and deliverability. Brand registration and a high score are mandatory for any business sending application-to-person SMS in the US.
Read definitionAI Voice Agent
An AI voice agent is a software system that handles voice phone calls end-to-end using a large language model and speech models. In B2B distribution it covers inbound order calls, customer service, and structured handoff to human reps when the conversation needs it.
Read definitionApache Iceberg REST Catalog
The Iceberg REST catalog is the open API specification that lets tools discover and query Apache Iceberg tables without a vendor-specific catalog client. It is how Snowflake, Databricks, Trino, and Spark all read the same Iceberg tables.
Read definitionAvailable-to-Promise (ATP)
Available-to-Promise is the calculation an ERP performs to tell a sales rep how much of a specific item it can commit to a new order without breaking existing commitments. Live ATP is the difference between a useful CRM and a brochure.
Read definitionCTI (Computer Telephony Integration)
CTI is the wiring between a phone system and a software application (commonly a CRM) so that calls trigger UI events (screen pops, click-to-dial, call logging) and the CRM can drive call control. Modern CTI runs over WebRTC and SIP rather than serial cables.
Read definitionDelta Sharing
Delta Sharing is an open protocol from Databricks for live, secure sharing of Delta Lake tables across organizations, clouds, and tools without copying the data. It is the outbound half of a lakehouse-native data sharing strategy.
Read definitionDrop-Ship Order
A drop-ship order is a sales order where the distributor takes the order from the customer but the goods ship directly from the supplier to the customer, bypassing the distributor's warehouse. It is one of the most common B2B distribution patterns and a frequent ERP integration gotcha.
Read definitionERP Gateway
An ERP gateway is the service inside a CRM that translates each supported ERP's wire format into a normalized JSON shape the rest of the CRM consumes. It is the architectural piece that makes live ERP reads (and an ERP-native CRM in general) practical.
Read definitionERP-Native CRM
An ERP-native CRM treats your ERP as the source of truth for operational data, reading it live at request time instead of holding a synced copy. Here is what that means and why it matters.
Read definitionFederated Query
A federated query is a single query that reads from multiple data sources at runtime, joining or combining the results without copying the data into a central store. It is the architectural opposite of ETL and the pattern that makes lakehouse-native CRMs possible.
Read definitionHeadless CRM
A headless CRM is a CRM where the data, automation, and integration surface are decoupled from the user interface, exposed through APIs and protocols so downstream surfaces (custom apps, AI assistants, voice agents, embedded portals) can drive the CRM as a backend.
Read definitioniPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service)
iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) is the category of cloud middleware products like Boomi, MuleSoft, Workato, and Celigo that move data between SaaS systems on a schedule. It is the standard "CRM + ERP" architecture and the one Factory Labs's ERP-native model replaces.
Read definitionLakehouse-Native CRM
A lakehouse-native CRM treats your Databricks or Snowflake estate as a first-class data source, reading from it via MCP and exposing its own data via Delta Sharing, without a sync engine in between.
Read definitionModel Context Protocol (MCP)
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI assistants discover and invoke tools from external systems. It is the bridge that lets a CRM assistant query a lakehouse, place an ERP order, or run any sanctioned operation in another system.
Read definitionMulti-Tenant SaaS
Multi-tenant SaaS is the architecture where a single instance of a software service hosts many customer organizations (tenants) with strict logical isolation. It is the dominant pattern for cloud business software and the model Factory Labs uses, with schema-per-tenant Postgres isolation.
Read definitionNetSuite SuiteTalk
SuiteTalk is the umbrella name for NetSuite's web services API surface, including the REST + SuiteQL endpoints used by modern integrations. Token-based authentication, rate governance, and the SuiteCloud ecosystem all sit on top of SuiteTalk.
Read definitionQuote-to-Cash (Q2C)
Quote-to-Cash is the end-to-end business process from creating a quote through receiving payment. It spans the CRM, the ERP, accounting, and often a separate CPQ tool. In an ERP-native CRM, the whole process can run from one surface without sync windows.
Read definitionWhatsApp Business Platform
The WhatsApp Business Platform is the API surface Meta provides for businesses to send and receive WhatsApp messages at scale, governed by templates, conversation pricing, and business verification. It is how distributors do compliant WhatsApp outbound.
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