System Integration
The layer that decides whether your systems are a stack or a mess.
Every business eventually runs more than one system. The difference between a connected business and a fragile one is whether the connections were designed - with owners, contracts, error handling and monitoring - or accumulated one urgent fix at a time.
At a glance
- Typical connections
- CRM to ERP, marketing to CRM, ERP to finance, ecommerce to inventory, logistics and portals.
- Design principles
- One owner per object, idempotent operations, visible failure, reconcilable counts.
- Typical handover
- Documentation, mappings and runbooks written so your team can maintain the integrations.
Architecture
What a connected architecture looks like.
Systems do not need to talk to each other directly. They need agreed ownership of each business object and one controlled layer moving it between them.
One owning system per business object
Lead, customer, product, order, invoice and document each get a single system of record. Everything else holds a copy with a defined update rule, so nothing has to be reconciled by hand later.
One controlled layer, not point-to-point wiring
Field mapping, transformation and retry behaviour live in one place instead of being scattered across ad hoc connections that nobody can trace when something stops.
Exceptions surface for a person
Records that fail validation route to a reconciliation queue with the source data attached, rather than disappearing quietly between two systems.
Scope
What integration work actually involves.
The connector is the easy part. The durable value is in the decisions and controls around it.
System of record decisions
For every shared object - customer, contact, product, price, order, invoice - one system owns the truth and the others subscribe. Most sync failures are ownership failures, not technical ones.
Data contracts and mapping
Field-level mapping, required values, transformation rules and validation documented before build, so both sides agree what a record means.
Sync design
Event-driven where the platform supports it, scheduled where it does not. Idempotent operations so a retry never creates duplicates.
Error handling and retries
Failures are captured with payload and reason, retried with backoff where safe, and escalated to a person when not. Nothing fails silently.
Monitoring and reconciliation
Throughput and failure alerting, plus periodic reconciliation counts between systems so drift is detected before finance finds it.
Migration and cutover
Historic data aligned to the new contracts, trial runs, reconciliation and a documented rollback position.
Integration debt
Why existing integrations quietly stop being trustworthy.
If nobody can say which system owns a field, reporting disagreements are inevitable.
What goes wrong
Integration debt
- Point-to-point connectors nobody documented
- Two systems both editing the same field
- Silent failures discovered at month end
- Duplicate records created by retries
- Credentials and logic held by one departed person
What we build
Maintainable connective tissue
- Documented ownership per object and field
- Idempotent, replayable operations
- Alerting with actionable error context
- Reconciliation reports finance can run
- Handover documentation and access you control
The difference
Every business eventually runs more than one system.
The difference between a connected business and a fragile one is whether the connections were designed - with owners, contracts, error handling and monitoring - or accumulated one urgent fix at a time.
Common integrations
The connections Australian businesses ask for most.
Each of these has its own data model, failure modes and ownership decisions. Start with the one causing the most manual work.
Xero integration
CRM, ERP and operational systems into Xero - customers, invoices, payments and credit notes, with the system-of-record decision made explicitly.
MYOB integration
Environment-led scoping first, then customer, invoice and purchase flows designed around what your MYOB product actually exposes.
Shopify integration
Ecommerce into ERP, inventory, 3PL and finance - with one stock master, explicit refund handling and reconciled payouts.
EDI integration
B2B trading documents mapped into your ERP with validation, exception queues and a repeatable trading-partner onboarding process.
Delivery
How we deliver an integration programme.
01
Landscape map
Every system, the data it holds, who edits it and how information currently moves - including the manual steps and exported spreadsheets.
02
Ownership model
Agree the system of record per object and the direction of flow. This is a business decision we facilitate, not a technical default.
03
Contract design
Field mappings, validation, transformation and failure behaviour specified per interface.
04
Build and test
Implemented against sandbox environments with edge cases, volume and failure scenarios tested explicitly.
05
Cutover
Backfill, parallel run where practical, reconciliation, then switchover with rollback criteria defined in advance.
06
Operate
Monitoring, alert routing, documented runbooks and a review cadence as volumes change.
Map your systems before you add another one.
A landscape map and ownership model usually pays for itself by preventing one avoidable rebuild.