Stop Typing the Same Data Twice: Connecting Your Business Systems

Count how many times one order is typed in your business. Once by the customer, once into the order sheet, once on the courier's site, once in the accounts. Each retyping costs a few minutes and now and then a wrong digit in a phone number.

Connections that pay for themselves

• Payment gateway to orders: a paid order is marked paid automatically
• Orders to courier: the parcel is booked and the tracking number saved
• SMS gateway: confirmation and delivery messages go out on their own
• Sales to accounts: each sale posts to the ledger
• Website and shop counter sharing one stock

Check this before promising anything

Two systems can be connected only if at least one of them offers a way in, usually an API. Ask your existing vendors whether they have one and whether it costs extra. Some older or locked-down software offers none, and then the honest options are a file export and import, or replacing that system.

What separates a solid integration from a fragile one

• It retries when the other system is down, instead of losing the order
• It never creates the same order or payment twice
• It keeps a log, so a missing parcel can be traced
• It alerts a person when something fails

Start with the busiest retyping

You do not need to connect everything. Find the one step your staff repeat most often each day and connect that first. Tell us which systems you use, and we will check which of them can talk to each other.