Business Systems & Workflow Automation
Software Development · From £2,200
Business Systems & Workflow Automation
Software Development · Service 04
API & Systems Integration Development
Making separate systems work as one: dependable, monitored connections in place of manual exports and re-keying.
Business problems we solve
The situations that bring people to this service
If more than two of these describe your organisation, the conversation is usually worth having.
Orders re-typed from one system into another every morningTransferred automatically within seconds of being placed
Customer details differing between CRM and financeOne source of truth, with defined precedence and reconciliation
A nightly export that fails silently and is noticed days laterMonitored transfer with alerting, retries and an exception queue
Reporting delayed because figures live in separate placesData consolidated on a schedule you can rely on
A partner asking for a data feed you cannot provideA documented, secured API they can consume themselves
Integrations built ad hoc by different suppliers over the yearsA mapped, versioned integration layer that can be changed safely
What we can deliver
Deliverables for this service
Not every engagement includes every item. Your quotation lists exactly what is in scope and what is not.
- 01Integration assessment
What each system genuinely supports, the practical options, and an honest view of the limitations and risks in each.
- 02Field mapping specification
An explicit, agreed statement of how a record on one side becomes a record on the other, including formats, code lists and precedence rules.
- 03API development
REST or JSON interfaces on your own systems, with authentication, versioning, rate limiting and written documentation.
- 04Third-party integration
Connections to CRM, ERP, accounting, e-commerce, payment, logistics and communication providers.
- 05Data synchronisation
One-way or bidirectional synchronisation with conflict rules, deduplication and idempotent processing.
- 06Error handling and retries
Failures queued, retried with backoff, escalated when persistent, and never discarded quietly.
- 07Monitoring and alerting
A dashboard showing flow health and volumes, with alerts routed to the people who can act.
- 08Reconciliation reporting
Scheduled comparison of both sides with differences reported for review.
Visual model
How the work is structured
Drawn for this page in SVG. Nothing here is stock imagery.
Common use cases
Where this work typically applies
Practical examples rather than industry categories — the pattern matters more than the sector.
E-commerce to back office
Orders, stock levels, customers and fulfilment status kept aligned between the storefront and the systems behind it.
CRM and finance alignment
Accounts, contacts, quotations and invoices consistent across sales and finance without duplicate entry.
Payment and banking
Payment providers connected to invoicing and reconciliation, with webhooks handled safely and idempotently.
Partner and supplier feeds
Secure, documented interfaces for third parties to exchange data with you on agreed terms.
Legacy system connectivity
An API layer placed in front of an older system so modern tools can use it without changing it.
Consolidated reporting feeds
Data drawn from several systems into one place for reporting, on a dependable schedule.
Our approach
How we work on this specifically
The parts of the method that matter most on this kind of engagement.
- 01Establish what is actually available
Documentation and vendor claims are a starting point, not a fact. We verify the interface, its limits, its rate caps and its behaviour before committing to a design.
- 02Agree the mapping in writing
Most integration disputes are really disagreements about meaning. Writing the mapping down and having it approved prevents that.
- 03Assume failure
Networks drop, services rate-limit, and messages arrive twice. Every integration is built to be retried safely and to recover without duplicating data.
- 04Make it observable
If nobody can see whether an integration is working, it will fail unnoticed. Monitoring and alerting are part of the deliverable, not an addition.
- 05Prefer a layer to a web
Where several systems are involved, a defined integration layer is easier to reason about, change and hand over than a set of point-to-point connections.
Project stages
The sequence from enquiry to delivery
Each stage has a defined output and a review point. You always know where the work stands.
01
Assess
Systems, interfaces, data volumes, ownership and constraints established and documented.
02
Specify
Field mapping, direction, frequency, precedence and error behaviour agreed in writing.
03
Build
Integration developed against test environments wherever the platforms provide them.
04
Prove
Volume testing, failure simulation and reconciliation against a known dataset.
05
Deploy & monitor
Controlled release with monitoring, alerting and a supported first period of live running.
Technical capabilities
What we bring to this work
Capability relevant to this service. We do not list technology we would not actually recommend.
Interfaces
- REST and JSON API design
- Webhook publishing and consumption
- OAuth 2.0 and API key authentication
- Versioning and deprecation strategy
- Rate limiting and throttling
- OpenAPI documentation
Data movement
- Real-time and scheduled synchronisation
- Bidirectional sync with conflict rules
- Idempotency and deduplication
- Transformation and code-list mapping
- Bulk and delta transfer
- CSV, XML and fixed-format exchange
Reliability
- Retry with exponential backoff
- Dead letter and exception queues
- Health dashboards and alerting
- Reconciliation reporting
- Secure credential storage
- Audit logging of every transfer
Who this service is for
Typical clients for this work
We work with B2B companies, organisations and private clients. The requirement matters more than the size of the buyer.
Businesses
- Companies running several core systems side by side
- E-commerce operations with separate fulfilment
- Businesses growing through acquisition
- Teams currently re-keying data between platforms
Organisations
- Bodies reporting from several data sources
- Providers exchanging data with partners under agreement
- Organisations replacing a system in stages
Private clients
- Individuals connecting a product to payment or delivery services
- Professionals linking specialist tools they rely on
Related services
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Service FAQ
Questions we are asked about this service
We look at supported alternatives: import and export formats, scheduled file exchange, database access where the vendor permits it, or an interface layer built alongside. We will not use an undocumented or unsupported route without telling you clearly what the risk is.
Through matching rules agreed with you, a stored correlation between the two systems’ identifiers, and idempotent processing so that a repeated message updates rather than duplicates. Reconciliation reporting then confirms both sides continue to agree.
Messages queue rather than fail. When the service returns they are processed in order. If the outage persists beyond an agreed threshold, an alert is raised so someone can act rather than discovering the problem at month end.
Yes, and it is a common request. Placing a documented, secured API in front of an existing system lets modern tools, portals and partners use it without changing the system itself — which is often the lowest-risk route to modernisation.
You do, directly to the provider, in your own account. Some platforms charge for API access or higher rate limits. We identify those costs during assessment so there are no surprises after the integration is live.
Have a project in mind?
Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will come back with a clear view of the scope, the approach and the cost.