Can you work with the systems we already have?

Nearly always, and it is usually the right starting point. Replacing working software is expensive and disruptive, and most of the value in an SME sits in the gaps between tools rather than inside any one of them.

The honest caveat is that how far we can go is decided by your vendors, not by us.

What actually determines it

Software falls into three groups, and the difference matters more than the brand name.

Open. A documented API, webhooks that fire when things change, and permissions you control. Anything sensible is possible. Most mainstream CRMs, accounting packages and helpdesks are here.

Partial. An API that covers reading but not writing, or webhooks with no history, or a scheduled export and nothing more. Plenty is still possible, but it is one-directional or delayed, and that has to shape what you promise your team.

Closed. No API, no export worth having, and a screen designed for a human. Older vertical software is often here. Automation is still possible but it becomes fragile, and we would rather say so than build something that breaks quietly every time the vendor changes a button.

The bit nobody mentions in the sales process

API access is frequently a pricing tier, not a feature. It is common to find a tool where the plan you are on has integration turned off, or capped at a request volume that will not carry a real workflow, or available only as a paid add-on.

This is the single most common surprise in scoping. It is not usually a problem, because the upgrade often costs less than the workaround, but it needs finding at the start rather than halfway through a build. We check licence tiers and API terms before quoting for exactly this reason.

When there is genuinely no API

There are still options, in rough order of how much we like them:

• Scheduled exports into a store we control, which covers most reporting and analysis needs.
• Email and document parsing, which works well when the system already emails out the thing you need.
• Browser automation, which we use sparingly. It works, and it breaks whenever the vendor changes their interface. Fine for something occasional, poor as the backbone of a daily process.

If a closed system sits at the centre of your operation and is holding everything else back, that is worth naming as a business decision rather than an engineering one.

What to check before you speak to anyone

For each of your main tools, find out whether your current plan includes API access, whether there are rate limits, and whether the vendor charges separately for integration. It is usually on their pricing page under a heading like developers or integrations.

Knowing that ahead of a scoping call saves a week, and occasionally it changes which project you should do first.