Integration
Systems integration, so nothing gets typed out twice
Most small businesses do not need new software. They need the software they already pay for to talk to itself. The website, the accounts package, the CRM and the scheduling tool each hold a piece of the same job, and a person moves information between them by hand every afternoon.
- No new systems to learn
- Usually the cheapest fix
- Built on real APIs
The most expensive person in your business is a copy and paste
An enquiry arrives through the website. Someone reads it and types it into the CRM. When it becomes a job, someone types it into the scheduling tool. When it is finished, someone types it into the accounts package. The same name, the same address, the same job description, entered four times by three people.
Every one of those steps takes minutes, and every one is a chance for a digit to change. The reconciliation afterwards, working out why the accounts and the job list disagree, costs more than the typing did.
Integration removes the retyping. The enquiry becomes a CRM record automatically, the CRM record becomes a job, the completed job becomes an invoice. Nobody learns a new system and nobody changes how they work. The handovers just stop being manual.
Integration is usually the cheapest form of custom software development.
What we connect most often
If a system has a documented way in, it can normally be connected. Where one does not, there is usually a workable alternative.
- Website forms and enquiries into a CRM, with the source and the page recorded rather than lost
- Bookings and orders into the calendar, job list or production schedule they actually need to reach
- Completed jobs into an accounts package, so invoicing stops being a weekly re-entry exercise
- Stock levels shared between a shop and wherever stock is genuinely counted
- Customer records kept consistent across systems, so a change of address happens once
- Reporting pulled together from several systems into one view somebody can act on
- Alerts and notifications routed to the people who need them rather than to a shared inbox
Integration is usually the cheap answer
When a business tells us its systems are a mess, the instinct is to propose replacing them. That is usually the wrong call and always the expensive one. The systems are generally fine. The gaps between them are the problem.
Connecting two systems is a fraction of the cost of replacing either, it requires no retraining, and it can normally be done in weeks rather than months. We would rather do that first and let you decide later whether anything genuinely needs replacing.
- No new software for anyone to learn
- Delivered in weeks, not quarters
- Reversible, unlike a migration
What we check before quoting
The honest answer on any integration depends almost entirely on what each system will let us do, so that is the first thing we establish rather than the last. Some products have a well-documented and stable route in. Some have one that is rate-limited or missing the exact field you need. Some have none at all, and the answer is a different approach or a frank conversation about whether that product is worth keeping.
We check that before giving you a price, because an integration quoted on an assumption is the classic way these projects double in cost. If a connection turns out not to be practical, you will hear that at the quoting stage rather than a month in.
Where the gap between two systems is a judgement rather than a field, that is often AI automation.
Start with the handover that annoys everyone
There is usually one obvious candidate: the report somebody rebuilds every Monday, the list that gets exported and re-imported, the inbox that acts as a filing system.
Tell us what that one is. It is normally the cheapest thing to fix and the one that makes the case for everything after it.
Get in touch
Talk to us about systems integration
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
What is systems integration?
Connecting the software you already run so information moves between it automatically instead of being retyped by a person. An enquiry becomes a CRM record, a completed job becomes an invoice, a sale updates stock, without anybody copying anything across.
How much does an integration cost?
Far less than replacing a system, and normally the cheapest useful software work a small business can buy. A single connection between two systems is typically a matter of days rather than weeks. You get a fixed price once we have confirmed what each system allows.
What if our software has no API?
It happens, particularly with older products. There is often still a route through scheduled exports, a database connection or a supported file drop. Where there genuinely is not one, we will tell you plainly and set out what the alternatives would cost, including leaving it alone.
Will it break when one of the systems updates?
Integrations do need looking after, which is why we monitor the ones we build and fix them when a provider changes something. An integration nobody maintains is a fault waiting to happen quietly, and quiet is the dangerous part.
Can you connect systems you did not build?
Yes, and that is most of this work. The great majority of what we integrate is off-the-shelf software the client chose long before they met us.
