Exchanging Data Automatically With Vendors, Customers and Other Outside Systems

Data is exchanged with outside systems by building an integration: software that sends and receives information in an agreed format on a schedule or the moment something happens. Depending on what the other party supports, that may be a direct connection between the two systems, an automated exchange of files, or a standard business format such as EDI. Every transfer is checked and logged, so a failure is noticed and fixed, not discovered weeks later.

Signs this is your problem

• Staff re-type orders or invoices from emails, PDFs or a customer’s website.
• A customer or supplier has asked you to connect to their system.
• A large customer requires EDI or data in a set format.
• Someone downloads a file from one system and uploads it to another every day.
• Errors appear because the two sides hold different information.
• You find out a transfer failed only when a customer complains.

What gets exchanged

• Orders from customers, arriving in your system already entered.
• Order confirmations, shipping notices and invoices going back to them.
• Price lists, catalogs and stock levels from suppliers.
• Shipment tracking from carriers.
• Payments and remittance details from banks and payment processors.
• Results, readings or status updates from equipment, labs or service providers.
• Data a large customer requires you to submit in their format.

The ways systems talk to each other

Direct connection (API). One system asks another for data, or sends it, over the internet in real time. This is the cleanest method when the other party offers it.

Automated file exchange. Files in an agreed layout are dropped in a secure location and picked up on a schedule. Old-fashioned and very reliable, and often what an older system on the other side can manage.

EDI. A long-established standard for orders, invoices and shipping notices, required by many large retailers and manufacturers.

A portal. When the other party has no system to connect to, give them a secure screen to enter or download the data themselves. See customer portals.

What makes an integration dependable

• Validation. Incoming data is checked before it is accepted. A bad record is held and reported, not loaded.
• Logging. Every transfer is recorded: what was sent, when, and whether it succeeded.
• Alerts. Someone is told when a transfer fails or a file does not arrive.
• Retries. A temporary outage on the other side does not lose anything.
• Mapping. Their customer and part numbers are matched to yours, in one place that can be maintained.
• Security. Encrypted connections and credentials that can be revoked.

How Keene Systems handles it

1. We find out what the other side can do. Their documentation, formats and test facilities.
2. We agree what is exchanged, when, and what happens on an error. In writing, with both parties.
3. We build and test against their test system. Before any live data moves.
4. We monitor it. With logging and alerts from the first day.

The next step is a short, no-pressure conversation. Book a call with Lance Keene or use the form on this page.