Patent ID: 8762422

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: in a configuration mode during an installation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system: extracting optional data fields included in each of a plurality of data table structures used by various modules of the ERP system at runtime to access enterprise data; presenting a user with a consolidated list of non-duplicate extracted optional data fields; responsive to a selection of at least one of the optional fields from the consolidated list, identifying from those data structures scheduled for creation during the installation of the ERP system, a subset of the data structures containing either a mandatory data field or at least one of the selected optional fields; generating, using a processing device during the installation, only the identified subset of data structures for use at runtime, each generated data structure including only any mandatory data fields and any selected optional fields specified by the ERP system as associated with the generated data structure and excluding other fields specified by the ERP system as associated with the generated data structure; linking similar fields appearing in more than one generated data structure; and in a runtime mode of the ERP system after completing the installation, loading data associated with the data fields included in each generated data structure into a memory as determined by the ERP system, wherein data associated with data structures other than the identified subset of data structures and the excluded other fields are not loaded into the memory in the runtime mode, wherein non-selected optional fields are not supported by the ERP system in the runtime mode, wherein an initial populating of the generated data structures occurs in the configuration mode and any subsequent modification of data in the generated data structure occurs in the runtime mode.