An order from the shop reaches the warehouse without re-typing, and stock levels return to the shop before someone buys what isn't there. The most common first step in retail.
ORDERS · STOCK · RESERVATIONSSYSTEM INTEGRATION — SOURCE · FLOW · CONTROL
SYSTEM INTEGRATION
ERP, shop, warehouse and accounting start speaking one language. You enter data once — the rest is handled by a flow, not by a person with a spreadsheet.
01
THE HUMAN AS THE INTEGRATION
In most 20–200-person companies system integration already exists — it just happens to be a person. Somebody exports data from one program, fixes the format and pastes it into another, every day at the same hour. That works as long as that person is at work and as long as nobody mixes up a column.
2×
HOW OFTEN THE SAME RECORD IS TYPED IN A COMPANY WITHOUT INTEGRATION
3
VERSIONS OF THE SAME NUMBER WHEN EVERY DEPARTMENT HAS ITS OWN SOURCE
1
PERSON WHOSE HOLIDAY STOPS THE DATA FLOWING
WHY THIS DRAGS ON FOR YEARS
Because moving data by hand is never quite painful enough to become a priority. It takes twenty minutes a day in four different places — nobody adds it up, so nobody raises it. The problem appears only when the company grows and those twenty minutes become two hours.
02
WHAT WE CONNECT MOST OFTEN
System integration isn't about connecting everything to everything. It is about identifying the few places where data genuinely changes hands and closing them into an automatic flow.
A sales document is created once and reaches posting by itself, with its description and project allocation. No more reconciling at month-end what was actually sold.
INVOICES · PAYMENTS · SETTLEMENTSA production order sees what is in stock and what was promised to the customer, and progress flows back to the system sales uses. The account manager stops phoning the shop floor.
JOBS · MATERIALS · DATESOne dashboard instead of assembling a report from three sources. The numbers come straight from the systems, so there is no argument about which version is true — there is only one. More: reporting and data.
MARGIN · SALES · UTILISATIONAn invoice pulled straight from the national e-invoicing system enters the workflow in a standardised form, with no reading from a PDF. More on that under document workflow.
PURCHASE INVOICES · APPROVALSA quote is built on the current price list and current availability, and its outcome returns to the CRM without manual logging. Customer history stops living in one rep's inbox.
OPPORTUNITIES · QUOTES · PRICING
03
HOW WE DO IT
Direction
of data
first
The first question isn't „how do we connect this” but „which system is the source of truth for this piece of information". Without that decision, an integration creates two systems overwriting each other — a problem worse than typing by hand.
For every type of data — customer, product, price, stock level — we establish one place where it is changed. The other systems read that information rather than editing it.
Through APIs,
not the
database
We connect through documented interfaces rather than by reaching into somebody else's database. The latter is quicker to build and breaks reliably at the first update of the system, usually without warning.
If a system has no API — still common in older software — we say so before quoting, because the workaround costs more and lasts less. Sometimes that is precisely the argument for building a system of your own.
What happens
when it
breaks
An integration without error handling is a delayed-action bomb: data stops flowing on Thursday and the company notices on Monday. Every connection has retries, a queue of failed events and a notification to a human when the automation can't cope.
That is usually a third of the work in an integration project and the first thing left out of cheap quotes. It is worth asking every supplier about it.
Integration is rarely an end in itself — most often it is the prerequisite for process automation or for sensible AI delivery, which needs data in one place. If you don't know where to start, start with an IT audit.
04
FREQUENTLY ASKED
How long does integrating two systems take?
A straightforward connection over an existing API — say a shop with a warehouse package — usually goes live in 3 to 6 weeks. It takes longer when one of the systems has no interface, or when the data has to be cleaned up first because the same customer exists in three versions.
We don't connect everything at once. The first connection goes into production and starts working before we begin the next, so any problem affects one flow rather than the whole company.
What if our system has no API?
It happens, especially in older software, and we say so before quoting rather than after. Workarounds exist — file exchange, database-level integration, interface automation — but each is less durable and more expensive to maintain than a plain API.
Sometimes the honest answer is: this system is blocking you and building your own will cost less than working around it indefinitely.
Is integration safe for our data?
Connections run on accounts with minimal privileges — the integration reads and writes only what it needs rather than having full database access. Data in transit is encrypted and every event leaves a trace in a log.
For personal data we apply the same principle as in document workflow: the fewer copies, the easier they are to control. An integration should replace copying, not multiply the places the same data sits.
What happens when a supplier updates their system?
With integration over a documented API, changes are usually announced and backwards compatible. We monitor connections, so you hear about a failure from an alert rather than from a customer whose order never arrived.
This is one reason we don't plug directly into somebody else's database. That kind of integration works until the first update and then breaks without warning.
Could integration replace an ERP for us?
Sometimes yes, and that is a perfectly sensible route. Several well-connected tools can be cheaper and more comfortable than one large system the whole company has to bend around.
The line runs where the number of connections becomes harder to maintain than one shared system. With six tools and a dozen flows it is worth costing both options — we help do that during the audit.
WE REPLY WITHIN 24 HOURS
LET'S START WITH A TALK
A free 30-minute consultation. No commitment and no sales rep — you talk to the person who will run your project.
JET LARK SP. Z O.O.
3 MAJA 22 / 2C
40-096 KATOWICE, POLAND
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