Integrations: connecting your services to each other

Why integrate your services

A small company usually has a website, a CRM or a customer spreadsheet, an accounting system and a couple of messengers. While there are few requests, data is moved by hand. When there are more, mistakes begin: a request never reached a manager, a payment was not marked, the stock on the site does not match the warehouse.

An integration removes the manual transfer. Every service stays what the team is used to, and data moves between them by itself, under rules we write down together in the estimate.

Common service links

Every task is different, but a few links come up more often than others. Any of them can be the starting point, extended with your own rules: which manager gets a request, which fields are required, what to do with a repeat request from the same customer.

• A site request into the CRM, an alert to the manager in a messenger
• A paid order into a spreadsheet and the accounting system
• Stock and prices from the accounting system onto the site on a schedule
• Customer messages from several channels into one queue

Integration through APIs and webhooks

Most modern services offer an API, the official way to read and write data, and webhooks that report an event as soon as it happens. That is what we use, not a browser imitating a person: the link stays stable and does not break when the service changes its design.

If a service has no API, we say so before the estimate and suggest a fallback: a scheduled file export, email notifications or an intermediate spreadsheet.

What happens when a service does not respond

Any outside service is sometimes down. A good integration survives that: it remembers what it failed to send, retries after a pause and creates no duplicates once the service answers again. You learn about a failure that did not clear by itself from an alert, not from a customer.

• A queue of unsent events and retries
• Protection against duplicates on resend
• An exchange log that shows what went where and when
• An alert about a failure that did not clear by itself

Keeping data and access secure

An integration works with access keys to your services. We ask for keys with the minimum rights the task needs, keep them only on your server and send data nowhere except the services named in the estimate.

Customers' personal data goes only where the work needs it. If that calls for changes to your data processing policy, we say so upfront.

Where the integration runs

The link can run on your server, on the server that already hosts your site, or as a plugin inside the site if the exchange is small. We hand over the code, a guide to running it and a description of which data goes where, so any developer can find their way around it.

How much an integration costs

The price depends on the number of services and exchange scenarios, the quality of their APIs and whether the data needs tidying up first. A simple “site request into the CRM” link often fits into one stage; an exchange with an accounting system we price after looking at its exports.

Every stage in the estimate comes with its own price and timeline. Only the stage we are about to start is paid, and you accept the result with one click in your account once you have checked the exchange on live data.

Where to start

List the services you use and describe what is moved by hand now and how often. If your plans with those services include API access, check that it is switched on, or ask us and we will point you to where to look.

It helps if you attach an example: a screenshot of a request, a row from the spreadsheet, an export from the accounting system. It shows right away which fields exist, which are missing and where data will need matching.