Many businesses do not have a software problem. They have a between-the-software problem: the shop knows one number, the accounts package another, and someone reconciles the two by hand.
This article explains why business systems stop talking to each other, and what a lasting fix looks like.
Key PointThe gap between systems is usually an architecture decision that made sense at the time, not a technology failure.
Why systems do not talk
- They were never meant to connect. Each package is built to solve its own problem. Every system you add creates new gaps with the ones you already have.
- Point-to-point connections break quietly. A CSV export, a scheduled sync or a one-off connector works until a field name or format changes. Then the data stops and nobody notices.
- Each system keeps its own copy. A customer has one address in the CRM and another in the accounts, so every decision starts with a negotiation.
Where those records are about people, accuracy is a legal duty too: the ICO's accuracy principle requires personal data to be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
Watch OutA connection that fails silently is worse than none, because it looks like it is working.
Start with the flow, not the technology
Middleware, an API layer or a data warehouse can all be right. None of them is the starting point. Start with the information your business needs:
- which data needs to be where, and when;
- who has to act on it, and how quickly;
- which flows cause the most manual reconciliation today.
Principles that make integrations hold
Our integrations page sets out how we approach the work:
- Read the API first, not the brochure. Vendors describe capabilities; APIs have limits, and the gap is where projects overrun.
- Every hop is acknowledged. A record that leaves one system must be provably received by the other.
- Failures surface, they do not accumulate. A rejected record raises something a person will see.
Microsoft's guidance on the retry pattern covers one part of this: handling short-lived faults so a temporary failure does not lose data.
Pro TipWrite down one flow today: what data moves, from where, to where, and what happens by hand in between.
What the fix looks like
- Map the flows that matter. Pick the three or four that cause the most friction or risk.
- Choose one source of truth for customers, products and suppliers, and have other systems read from it.
- Build connections that confirm, not ones that assume.
- Test for failure, not just success.
For VAT figures there is a compliance angle too. HMRC's VAT Notice 700/22 says it does not consider copy and paste to be a digital link.
What doing nothing costs
Work it out with your own numbers: the hours spent re-keying and checking each week, what an hour costs you, and what the last error cost to put right. Our article on what an integration actually costs walks through the method.
Our guide to what breaks when systems don't talk covers the symptoms in more detail. To talk through your own systems, book a free call.