How many systems need connecting?
Systems Integration South Africa is the work of making two or more systems share data so people stop retyping it. Describe which systems have to talk and compare what each provider would build and what it costs to run.
Describe the systems and get integration quotes. Every reply comes from a LEADERR APPROVED provider.
Get the Best QuoteWhat Usually Needs Connecting
- Accounting and operations. So invoices follow deliveries without being retyped.
- E-commerce and stock. Orders in, stock levels out, in both directions.
- CRM and accounting. A customer record that means the same thing in both.
- Payroll and time systems. Hours captured once.
- Logistics and courier platforms. Waybills and tracking returned to the order.
- Payment gateways and banks. Reconciliation that does not involve a spreadsheet.
- Reporting. One place where the combined picture lives.
How Integrations Are Built
- Native connectors. Where the vendors already support each other. Always check first.
- Integration platforms. Subscription services that connect common systems with little code.
- Custom interfaces. Written against each system's interface where nothing off the shelf fits.
- File exchange. Scheduled exports and imports. Simple, and fragile over time.
- Database level. Fast, and usually unsupported by the vendor. Avoid where possible.
- Middleware. A layer in the middle so each system connects once, not to every other.
Systems Integration Prices
Ballpark figures so you can check a quotation.
| Item | Ballpark price |
|---|---|
| Integration scoping and design | R18,000 - R85,000 |
| Simple two-system integration using existing connectors | R25,000 - R95,000 |
| Custom interface, one direction | R65,000 - R250,000 |
| Custom interface, two directions with reconciliation | R150,000 - R650,000 |
| Integration platform subscription, per month | R2,500 - R18,000 |
| Middleware platform implementation | R250,000 - R1,500,000 |
| Interface support and monitoring, per month | R6,500 - R45,000 |
| Changes after a vendor update, per occurrence | R12,000 - R85,000 |
Prices JUST UPDATED. Ballpark figures, rounded, excluding VAT. They reflect typical South African IT support and technology rates. They are not our prices or quotations, and no provider is bound by them. Confirm what each quotation includes, such as how many users or devices are covered, the response times, after-hours cover and licence fees.
Get a scoped price for your own systems rather than a range.
Get the Best QuoteWhat Affects the Price
- How many systems. Each one added is another interface to build and maintain.
- Whether they have proper interfaces. A documented API is a different project from screen scraping.
- One direction or both. Two-way synchronisation needs conflict handling and costs more.
- Data volume and frequency. Nightly batches are cheaper to build than near real time.
- Data quality. Mismatched codes between systems cause most of the overrun.
- Error handling. What happens to a failed record is where cheap quotes cut corners.
- Who maintains it. Vendor updates break interfaces, reliably.
What to Include in Your Request
- Which systems. Names, versions and whether they are cloud or on site.
- What data must move. And in which direction.
- How often. Nightly, hourly or as it happens.
- The volume. Records per day.
- What happens now. Usually someone retyping, and how long it takes them.
- Who supports each system. You will need their cooperation.
Before the Provider Quotes
- Check for an existing connector first. Many vendors already integrate, and it costs a fraction.
- Ask what happens when a record fails. A queue and an alert, not a silent drop.
- Ask about vendor updates. Who fixes the interface when a system changes, and at whose cost.
- Ask for monitoring. An interface that stopped three weeks ago is the classic failure.
- Agree who owns the code. You should be able to hand it to another provider.
- Avoid database level integration. It usually voids vendor support and breaks on upgrade.
- Start with one direction. Prove it, then add the return path.
Systems Integration FAQs
Do we need a custom integration?
Check for an existing connector first. Many South African accounting, e-commerce and CRM products already integrate with each other, or through an integration platform, at a small fraction of custom development. Custom work is for the cases where nothing off the shelf fits.
What is middleware and do we need it?
A layer in the middle that each system connects to once, instead of every system connecting to every other. With two or three systems it is unnecessary overhead. Past about five it stops the number of interfaces growing faster than the number of systems.
What usually goes wrong?
Data that does not match: the same customer with two codes, products named differently, dates in different formats. The technical connection is rarely the hard part. Budget real time for reconciling the data before the interface is built.
What happens when one of the systems is updated?
Interfaces break. It is routine rather than exceptional, so the question to settle before you start is who fixes it, how quickly, and at whose cost. A support arrangement that covers vendor-driven changes is worth more than it looks.
How do we know the integration is working?
Monitoring and alerting, which should be in the scope rather than an extra. The common failure is an interface that stopped silently and was noticed weeks later by someone wondering why the figures had stopped moving.
Can we build it ourselves?
If you have the skills in house, often yes, and it is cheaper. The thing to plan for is maintenance: an interface written by one person who then leaves is a liability. Document it, keep the code somewhere the business controls, and make sure more than one person understands it.
Integration work is quoted by several of the providers on IT Support South Africa usually alongside the reporting that becomes possible once the systems agree.
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