Business Central is a modern ERP solution with virtually an unlimited ability to integrate with other solutions. Most newly built integrations rely on a technology generally referred to APIs, which is a form of real-time communication between two systems. Because of the ability for most modern systems to support the use of APIs, I have seen a significant increase in the number and types of integration requests for Business Central - including everything from e-commerce solutions, to shipping or logistics systems, to real-time pricing and inventory availability requests from a Sales Quote or Purchase Order page. This increase is so significant that we now have a team of resources specifically trained for designing, developing, and deploying integrations with Business Central.
An integration can be very quick and easy to deploy if a complete and fully-tested integration has already been developed between Business Central and the other system. However, very often this type of comprehensive integration does not already exist and work is required in order to get the two systems to communicate with one another. It is at this point where I have seen mid-understanding or mis-communication about the true level of effort that may be required to build a new integration.
Depending on the complexity of the integration, is could take hundreds of hours and months of time to complete a new integration. For this reason, it is important to understand your starting point for completing the integration.
To clearly convey the situation many people find themselves in, I used a common analogy in a recent blog article called Building the Bridge for Business Central Integrations that uses the common analogy of a bridge to clearly explore the concepts of planning and building integrations for Business Central. I hope this article helps put you on the right path for successfully getting across your next bridge!
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