Your systems, joined up, not sitting side by side.
Most businesses do not need to replace their software. They need the systems they already run to agree on the same figure, so that an order, an address or a payment is entered once and then turns up correctly everywhere else, without anyone copying it across.
- No systems replaced
- Data entered once
- Fixed price after the consultation
Four everyday signs that something is missing between your systems.
The same detail, typed twice
An address in the shop, the same address in the accounts. Every day, by hand, and sooner or later the second copy picks up a typing error that only the customer notices.
Shifting files every week
Friday comes: export a list, reshape it in a spreadsheet, import it somewhere else. That is work a machine can take over, and the machine never forgets that it is Friday.
Three systems, three truths
The online shop says one thing, the till another, the accounts a third. At the end of the month somebody hunts for the difference instead of working.
The API nobody plugged in
Your supplier, your accountant or your till software has offered an API for years. It sits there in the documentation, and nobody has ever connected it.
The systems that most often drift apart in a Swiss business.
Swiss accounting
Bexio, Abacus, Sage or Banana. Invoices, payments and customer records travel by themselves to where your accountant expects them, rather than arriving as a file by email once a month.
Online shop and till
Orders from the shop and sales over the counter feed the same stock figure. What has gone online is no longer on the shelf to sell, and the other way round too.
Stock, dispatch and logistics
Labels, consignment numbers and stock levels between your system, the warehouse and the carrier. The customer gets the tracking number without anybody retyping it.
CRM, email and calendar
The contact from the web form lands in the CRM, the appointment in the calendar, the confirmation in the inbox. Nobody writes the same name into three places.
Payments and banks
Stripe, Datatrans, Twint and the bank statement in camt format. Incoming payments are matched to the open invoice, and whatever does not match cleanly goes on a list rather than nowhere.
An API of your own
So that partners, customers or a portal can collect data from you without ringing first. With access keys, a log of what was fetched and documentation an outsider can follow.
Even without a proper API, something is usually possible
Not every system offers a clean way in, and older trade software often offers none at all. Then there are detours. They work, but they are more fragile than a real API, and we say so beforehand rather than afterwards.
The route through files
The system can export, and that is all it takes. We collect the file on a schedule, read it and carry the contents onwards. Reliable, as long as the supplier does not change the format.
The route through a mailbox
Some systems only ever send their documents and lists by email. A service watches that mailbox, recognises the attachment and processes it, without anyone opening it.
The route through the screen
As a last resort, software operates the on-screen form the way a person would. This is the shakiest route: one update from the supplier can break it. We propose it only when nothing else remains, and we say what it will cost in upkeep.
Nothing is lost and nothing is posted twice
Every connection fails at some point: the other side is unreachable, the network stalls, a record arrives incomplete. What matters is not that this never happens, but what happens in that moment.
It tries again by itself
If the answer does not come, the connection retries on its own, leaving a longer gap each time. Most disruptions sort themselves out this way before anybody notices them.
A queue rather than a loss
Whatever does not get through waits intact in a queue. As soon as the other side is back, the queue works through in the order it came in.
Each transaction once only
Every record carries a unique mark. If the same order arrives a second time after a broken connection, the connection recognises it and does not post it again.
A connection that stops without telling anyone is worse than none at all
As long as figures keep appearing, nobody suspects a problem. Once the manual work has been switched off, an outage is noticed only when the damage is already two days old. That is why monitoring belongs to the connection and not to some later project.
One view of the state of things
For every connection: when it last ran, how many records went through and what got stuck. Readable by you as well, not only by us.
The alert reaches someone
If the queue stops moving or the same transfer fails repeatedly, an alert goes by email or chat to where somebody can do something about it. Not into a log file nobody opens.
Silence is watched too
If not a single order comes in on Monday morning, that is rarely a good Monday. So we monitor not only the errors but the absence of traffic.
Four stages, and the first consists of listening and counting.
- 1
An inventory of the systems
Which software is in use, who works with what, and which detail does somebody type twice today? It ends with a list of the systems and of the data held in two places. That list is usually longer than everyone expected.
- 2
Field map and precedence
Which field belongs to which, what happens when the spelling differs, and which system is right when two disagree? We put those rules in writing before anything is built, because nobody can reconstruct them later.
- 3
Build and test on real data
The connection is built and runs alongside the existing route at first, on your real data. You can see in black and white whether both sides produce the same result, before the business depends on it.
- 4
Go live with monitoring
Only when the figures agree does the manual work stop. The connection goes into service with monitoring and alerts, and we watch the first days more closely than the ones after.
The route follows what the other side offers, not our preference.
Connections
REST, GraphQL, webhooks, legacy SOAP
Swiss accounting
Bexio, Abacus, Sage
Commerce and payments
Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, Datatrans
Engine room
Node.js, Python, message queues, Docker
What does an integration cost?
It depends on how many systems are involved and on whether each of them brings a usable API with it. Connecting two modern services is one thing; a piece of trade software from 2009 is another. That is why we do not name a figure before we have seen your systems. At the free initial consultation we look at them, and you then receive a fixed price for exactly that scope.
Free initial consultationDo we have to change our software for this?
As a rule no, and that is rather the point. An integration leaves in place everything your people already know how to use and builds only the bridges between them. We advise replacing a system only when it is so closed that every bridge ends up costing more than the software itself.
Our system has no API. Is anything still possible?
Usually yes, by a detour: scheduled exports as files, a mailbox that is read automatically, or in the last resort software that operates the on-screen form the way a person would. These routes work, but they react badly to updates from the supplier. We tell you beforehand which route is open to you and how stable it will be.
What happens when a connection fails?
It first tries again by itself. If the other side stays away, the transactions gather in a queue instead of being lost, and work through later in order. At the same time an alert goes to whoever is responsible. Nothing is posted twice: every record carries a mark by which the connection recognises it.
How long does the old route keep running alongside?
Until both sides show the same result. We do not switch off the manual work on day one; we let the new connection run in parallel on real data and compare. Only when nothing differs any more does the double entry stop.
Is the integration ours afterwards?
Yes. The source code, the access details and the documentation are yours, and the accounts with the services involved are in your name. If you later want to hand the upkeep to somebody else, that is a handover and not a rebuild.
Tell us which detail gets typed twice in your business.
At the free, no-obligation initial consultation we look at your systems and tell you honestly what can be connected cleanly, what needs a detour and what is not worth doing at all. We reply within 24 hours.
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Tell us about your project. We reply within 24 hours with an honest assessment. Free and without obligation.
hallo@aurphi.chAurPhi MoukrimMarktstrasse 18, 8853 Lachen SZ, SwitzerlandPostal address, no walk-in service. Appointments by arrangement.