API & System Integration
Connects systems the business uses through their APIs, webhooks or supported exports, keeping records in sync. Choose it whenever a source offers an official way to exchange data.
AI, Automation & Data2 services
Data collection and integration
Getting the information your business needs out of the places it lives — connected systems, websites, portals and documents — and into the tools your team already uses.
The problem
Some of the information a business depends on sits inside its own software — orders in the store, contacts in the CRM, invoices in accounting — and is copied between them by hand. Other information sits outside: supplier prices on websites, public notices on government portals, details buried in PDFs. Both end up in spreadsheets that someone updates when they have time, so the numbers are often out of date or don't match.
The outcome
The intended result is that each source is connected using the most reliable method it allows, and data arrives on a schedule in a consistent format. Records from inside and outside the business land in the same places, matched and de-duplicated, with an alert when a source stops responding or changes.
In this group
The services, and what each one does here
Web Scraping & Data Collection
Collects publicly available or permitted information from websites, portals and documents that offer no suitable API, after checking each source's terms. Choose it when the data is published but can't be connected directly.
How they work together
Two ways in, one destination
API first, collection second
Where a source offers an API or export, integration is used because it is more stable and clearly permitted. Collection from pages or documents is reserved for sources that offer no such option.
One destination, one format
Both methods deliver into the same spreadsheet, database or CRM, using one field specification, so integrated and collected records can be compared and reported on together.
Shared matching rules
The same de-duplication and source-of-truth rules apply to both, so a supplier or product collected from a website matches the record already held in your own systems.
Monitored the same way
API failures, layout changes and missing fields all raise alerts to a named person, so a broken source is noticed before the data is relied on.
Select a part of the diagram to see what it does.
- Business systems that offer APIs or webhooks are connected through integration.
- Websites, portals and documents with no API are collected from only after their terms have been checked.
- Both streams are mapped to one field specification, matched and de-duplicated.
- The checked records are delivered to the agreed spreadsheet, database or CRM, with alerts when a source fails or changes.
Choosing
Which do you need?
Many projects use more than one of these. If the situation doesn't fit neatly, describe it and we'll suggest where to start.
Ask which fits- Should I use an API integration or web scraping?
- Use an integration whenever the source offers an API, webhook or export — it is more reliable and the access terms are clearer. Web scraping fits only when the data is public or your business has permitted access and there is no official way to retrieve it.
- Can you collect any data we can see on a website?
- No. IOPIA checks terms of service and robots.txt, does not bypass logins, paywalls or CAPTCHAs and avoids personal data. Your business confirms its own legal position before collection starts.
- What if we need the data in a warehouse for reporting?
- Collection and integration deliver the data; building and running a reporting warehouse around it is Data Engineering, and the charts on top are Dashboards & Business Reporting.
Talk to IOPIA about data collection and integration.
Tell us what you have today and what isn't working. One conversation can cover several of these services.