Integrations: your systems should exchange data on their own
A website enquiry should reach a sales rep, a shop order should reach the CRM and accounting, a calendar meeting should sit against the contact. No retyping. The CRM partner does not know WordPress, the web agency does not know the CRM. Here one person knows both.
What I connect
Website or shop with the CRM
Form enquiries as leads or cases, assigned to a rep with a notification. WooCommerce customers and orders in the CRM, purchase history against the contact.
Outlook and Microsoft 365
Emails, meetings and contacts visible in the CRM, calendar both ways, sign-in with a Microsoft account. More in the article on connecting Outlook to a CRM.
Google Workspace
Gmail and Google Calendar connected to the CRM, form submissions in Sheets, Drive files against records, appointment bookings.
Invoicing and accounting
A closed sale creates an invoice or an order in the finance system. Payment status comes back to the CRM.
Project and HR systems
From my own work: closing an opportunity in Salesforce creates the project in Kantata and Workday through Workato.
Other company systems
Warehouse, in-house tools, databases, data warehouses. Through APIs, files or an integration platform.
Repairing an existing integration
It stopped after a plugin update, a password change or an expired key. Diagnosis, fix, and an alert for next time.
Looking after an integration
Monitoring, alerts when things stop arriving, fixes after changes on either side.
How it goes
Analysis
Which data, in which direction, how often, what happens on an error and who should know about it. An hour of conversation and access to both systems.
Quote
A fixed price for the integration after the analysis. You know up front what is in scope and what would be a separate job.
Build on a copy
A staging copy of the site, a CRM sandbox or a test account where possible. Tests on real cases: a normal enquiry, a duplicate, an error on the other side.
Go-live
One direction or a subset of data first, then in full. A short guide and a note on what changes for the team.
Care
An alert when nothing has arrived for a few days. Fixes after updates. Scope changes as the business changes.
What I connect with
Built-in connectors and plugins, when they are enough. Cheapest to run, but somebody has to watch them after updates.
An integration platform (Workato and similar), when there are several systems and the rules keep changing. Changes can be made without a developer.
Custom code against the API (REST, webhooks, a script on your hosting or in the cloud), when running cost matters or no connector exists. With an error log, retries and an alert.
I choose for the task and for what you already have. Experience: Workato, REST APIs, Kantata, Workday, NetSuite, Snowflake, WordPress and WooCommerce with Salesforce.
Whichever way we go
- Source. Every record stores where it came from: website, shop, email, campaign. Six months on, you know what brings customers.
- Owner and notification. A lead nobody has seen for a week is lost. An assignment rule and an alert in Outlook or on a phone.
- Consent and GDPR. Consent to contact stored against the record, with date and wording. Personal data only where it is needed.
- A silence alert. If nothing has come in from the website for three days, somebody gets an email. You find out about an outage before your customers do.
Questions about integrations
How much does an integration cost?
A fixed price after a short analysis, depending on scope. A simple form-to-CRM connection is a few hours of work. A two-way exchange of orders and invoices is a project of a few days.
What if the integration stops working?
Every integration I build has a log and an alert. With monthly care I fix it from the pool of hours; without care, as a single job.
Do we have to pay for an integration platform?
Not always. For a single connection, a connector or custom code is usually enough. I suggest a platform when there are several connections and the rules change often.
We have an integration from a previous vendor and nobody knows how it works.
I start by writing it down: what is connected to what, on which account, where the keys are, what happens on an error. Then a decision: repair, simplify or rebuild.
Have you worked with our invoicing system?
If it has an API or a file import and export, it can be connected. Put the system’s name in the form and I will check before we talk.
Which account does the integration run on?
A separate technical account with minimal permissions, not an employee’s login. When somebody leaves, the integration keeps working, and if a key leaks, the damage is contained.
Your developer has vanished and the list of changes keeps growing? Tell me what needs doing.
I reply within one business day. The first call is free of obligation.
Describe what you need
No technical names needed. Tell me what does not work, or what you wish worked on its own. I reply within one business day.