API integrations
Two systems that finally talk to each other, without typing someone in between.
What is an API integration?
An API pairing allows two systems to automatically exchange data, without anyone being in between to type over. Your webshop sends an order to your accounting system, your ERP sends stock stocks to your webshop, your CRM retrieves data from three sources at once.
Almost every company has a manual step somewhere that shouldn’t be there. An export from system A, an import into system B, and a colleague who does that every Friday afternoon. It works, until someone is on vacation, or until the export goes halfway through and nobody notices.
Linking systems takes that step away, and more importantly, it removes the mistakes you’ll only find when the report is already out.
Common integrations.
These are common automation questions within organizations.
From your online shop to your accounts
Orders that automatically land as a sales invoice, with the right VAT rule per country. No more monthly export round, and no double bookings in the declaration.
ERP and webshop in sync
Stock, prices and orders that run in two directions. If you sell something in the store, it is no longer available online.
Data from multiple sources
One dashboard that brings together numbers from your books, hours of registration and your CRM, so you don’t have to look into three systems.
Malfunctions must be immediately visible.
A reliable link requires thoughtful error handling, monitoring and management.
Reliability
- Retry logic: Failed to call, then a new attempt follows
- Error handling that distinguishes between “not even” and “really wrong”
- No double processing if a message enters twice
- Queues, so that a spike doesn’t knock anything over
- Alert when something goes wrong structurally
Understanding
- Logging of every message: what went in, what came out
- A screen where you can see for yourself what’s come through
- Manual re-offering of what got stuck
- Reporting on volumes and error rates
- Clear reports instead of a silent malfunction
With what
- REST and GraphQL APIs
- Real-time transfer webhooks
- File exchange where that’s the only thing that can
- Accounting packages, web shops, ERPs, CRMs and PSPs
- Own APIs so others can connect to your system
Two links we built earlier.
Webshop to accounting package. An e-commerce company processed orders by hand in the accounts, including figuring out the correct VAT rule per country. We built a link that does that automatically. It was about twenty hours of manual work per month and got the overtyping errors from the VAT return.
ERP and webshop, two directions. A legacy-ERP package that wasn’t built to talk to a modern webshop. Stock, prices and orders are now bidirectionally synchronized, with retro logic and logging so that a malfunction is immediately visible instead of just at the next inventory count.
A link is rarely an end in itself. Often it belongs to a custom application, one customer portal or a dashboard that Replace a spreadsheet.
Clear answers to frequently asked questions.
How much does an API link cost?
A simple link between two systems with a neat API is a clear route. It gets wider when one side doesn’t have a good API, or when there are many exceptions. After one call we know which one it is and you get an estimate within a week. See sample paths and build up your quote.My old system has no API. Can it still be connected?
Usually. There is almost always a way: a database link, an automated file exchange, or an intermediate layer that converts the data. Less elegant, but it works, and it still takes out the manual work.What happens if the integration fails?
And then he tries again, and if it goes structurally wrong, you get a report, and everything is logged, so you can see back what’s come through and what’s not, and offer stuck messages again, and a silent malfunction is the scenario we’re building hardest against.Do you also work with existing links from others?
Yes. We regularly take over existing integrations or repair them. Starting point is then usually a short technical audit: what is he really doing, where is he stuck, and is repairing cheaper than rebuilding?Can you also build an API for our own system?
If you want others, such as customers, suppliers or an app, to be able to connect to your system, we will build that API including documentation, authentication and version management.Who’s building it?
Altena, a Dutch software company owned by Marcel Altena.Get your systems to work together reliably.
Which two systems should talk to each other? Name them, plus what happens manually now. You get a clear answer about what is possible within one working day.