What does integration mean?
A business usually runs more than one program: an online store, an accounting program, a CRM (customer relationship management) program for tracking customers, the shipping company's panel, and perhaps a marketplace store. When these programs work without knowing about each other, people build the bridge between them. An employee copies the order details from the site into accounting, enters the same information again in the shipping panel, and then sends the tracking number to the customer separately. This manual work takes time and produces errors; a mistyped address, an order entered twice or a forgotten invoice usually comes about during this copying. Integration means the programs do this carrying work between themselves. Information is entered once and reaches every related system on its own. The aim is not to put anyone out of a job, but to remove the burden of typing the same information over and over.
What is an API and how does it work?
An API is like a door that lets two programs send information to each other. One program sends a request to the other program's door in a specific format: 'Save this order', 'Give me this customer's balance' or 'Tell me the shipping status of this parcel'. The other side checks whether the sender is authorized and sends the answer back in the same format. You can compare it to a restaurant's order window: you do not go into the kitchen, you place your order through the window in a set way, and what is ready is handed to you through the same window. This door is for programs, not people; you see nothing on screen, and the information flows in the background. The rules of the door are set by the company that develops the program, and which information can be taken or given is limited by those rules. That is why whether an integration is possible depends largely on whether both programs offer such a door. Today, a large share of accounting programs, e-commerce platforms, shipping companies and marketplaces allow this kind of connection.
Which connections do businesses set up most often?
- E-commerce and accounting: when an order is completed, the invoice is created and recorded in the accounts.
- Accounting and e-Fatura: an issued invoice is sent as an e-Fatura or e-Arşiv invoice (Turkey's electronic invoice formats) without being typed in again.
- E-commerce and shipping: the order is passed to the shipping company automatically, and the tracking number comes back to the site and the customer.
- Website form and CRM: a request from the site lands in the customer tracking system without being typed in, and the right person is notified.
- CRM and accounting: an accepted quote turns into a customer account entry and an invoice.
- Marketplace and stock: a product sold on a marketplace is deducted from stock, and stock levels stay the same across all sales channels.
- Payment and notification services: an online payment is matched to the right order, and the customer gets an SMS or email.
What does integration give you, and what should you watch out for?
The gains fall under three headings. Because there is less manual data entry, the team can spend its time on the real work. Because the same information is not typed several times, copying errors go down. Because information flows instantly, you get back to customers faster, and stock, order or payment information is the same on every screen. The difference becomes clearer as the business grows; when the number of orders rises, the number of people doing manual transfers does not have to rise with it. The thing to watch is that the connection does not end up with no one responsible for it. When one of the connected programs is updated or changes its rules, the connection can break. Failed or incomplete transfers need to be logged, and someone needs to know about them; an integration that breaks silently can do more harm than having no integration at all. The access keys for connections should be stored as carefully as passwords, and each program should be given only the permissions it needs.
Where should you start?
First, for one week, note down the information your team carries by hand from one program to another: which information, from which program to which, and how many times a day? This note also gives you a rough idea of how much time integration will save you. Put at the top of the list the transfer that is repeated most often and causes the most trouble when a mistake is made. Then ask the providers of both programs whether they offer an API for this connection. For connections that can be solved with a ready-made plug-in, it makes sense to look at those first. If there is no ready-made solution, or if several programs need to talk in the same flow, you need a custom integration. Whichever route you choose, make clear from the start who will be responsible for the connection and who will be notified when a transfer fails. Adorb develops integrations that connect systems to each other and to outside services, including e-Fatura, payment, SMS, maps, marketplace, artificial intelligence and legacy system services.