I believe I solved my own problem. Below are the steps.
1) From the database table in the Crystal report, I placed a field onto the report.
2) I right clicked on the field and click "format object."
3) In the "Hyperlink" tab I select "A File". In the "hyperlink information:" I clicked the formula button, "x-2." In the formula I entered the below code. You can see, in the below code, I call a bat program which accepts a value. This value is sent by the bat file to an external program using a command string "programname.exe value". The external program takes the value (which originated from the report), looks up the record in a database table and populates a form containing textboxes which display the values from the record. Now, the user can edit the records values from an external program, a windows form, after the user clicks the customer number on the Crystal report. Notice below that the command string is executed after it is declared. It is executed by just typing str on the line immediately after the string declaration.
stringVar str := "C:\ACAPPS\tasks\TestArg.bat " + {DUPLICATEPOLICIES_NOTES.CustomerNum};
str
Below are the bat file contents.
"C:\Users\chrisk\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\AppTest\bin\Debug\AppTest.exe" %1