Why modern businesses need connected digital systems
Most businesses have plenty of software. The problem is the space between it: retyping, looking things up and chasing. Five examples from practice, and how to get your systems working together step by step.
Published 9 min read
In short
- The problem is rarely the software itself, but the manual work between it. In Harvard Business Review research, workers switched apps around 1,200 times a day and lost almost four hours a week refocusing.
- Connected means three things: your data is in one place, the next step happens by itself, and you can see what works.
- Build it in three layers: first a solid foundation, then automate, then grow. Start where most of the retyping happens today.
The problem sits between your systems
Most businesses aren’t short of software. There’s a website, a calendar or booking tool, an accounting package, a mailbox, a few spreadsheets and a WhatsApp group. Each of those tools works fine. Nobody just connected them. So people become the glue: they retype data, look things up and chase.
1,200
times a day, workers in a Harvard Business Review study switched between apps and websites1Harvard Business Review, 2022How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?Open the source
9%
of their working time, almost four hours a week, went into refocusing after switching1Harvard Business Review, 2022How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?Open the source
41%
of Dutch business owners spend at least half the week on admin2Visma & Kantar (via Accountant.nl), 2025Veel ondernemers besteden de helft van hun tijd aan administratieve takenOpen the source
Large companies have exactly the same problem, just bigger. An average large organization uses 897 applications, and only 29% of them are connected. 90% of organizations run into problems because data is stuck in separate systems3MuleSoft (Salesforce), Connectivity Benchmark Report 2025, 2025Harnessing the Future: Integration, AI, and APIs in Digital TransformationOpen the source.
- You type the same customer details into two or three places
- Your week starts with exporting numbers into a spreadsheet
- A customer asks about their order, and someone has to go and look
- You don’t know which ad brought in which customer
- You create invoices by hand from a booking or order
Recognize two or more? Then the space between your systems is already costing you hours every week.
What software integration means in practice
Integrating your software sounds technical, but it comes down to three simple things. Your data is in one place, and it’s right everywhere. The next step happens by itself, without anyone having to remember it. And you can see what works, because your numbers are no longer spread across five tools.
| Separate systems | Connected systems | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer data | In three places, never quite right | Entered once, the same everywhere |
| A new booking or order | Someone moves it into planning and accounting | Planning, confirmation and invoice follow by themselves |
| Customer questions | Looked up across different screens | The customer sees the status themselves, in a portal |
| Numbers | Exported and pasted on Monday | Ready every morning in one overview |
| Marketing | Clicks and likes, no idea what it brings in | You see which campaign actually drives revenue |
Five examples from practice
What it looks like differs per business. These five examples show where the win usually is. Four of them are running at real businesses today.
1. Hospitality: till and invoices connected to Exact
A franchisee of a well-known fries chain runs one location. Every morning, a small portal pulls yesterday’s figures from the till (MplusKASSA) and adds them to the Google Sheet the franchise already uses, with an alert if the cash count is off. Supplier invoices are simply forwarded to one email address. AI scans the supplier, amounts and VAT, checks for duplicates, and after one click to check it, the invoice is in Exact Online. And he can just ask the portal: “What was last week’s revenue?”
ResultIt saves hours of manual work and a lot of stress, and because nobody retypes anything anymore, the chance of mistakes is close to zero.
2. Staffing agency: applications and job alerts
Applications from the website land in one overview, an applicant tracking system (ATS) of its own, with the CV stored securely and a status per candidate: new, called, interview, placed. Candidates pick an interview time from the slots the recruiter offers, and get a reminder automatically. People with a job alert receive the new vacancies that fit them every morning, and each vacancy shows which candidates match, with a WhatsApp message ready to send. Personal data is deleted on time by itself, following the guideline of the Dutch data protection authority.
ResultNo candidate falls through the cracks, and the recruiter spends her time on conversations instead of admin.
3. Holiday rental: a direct booking website
A holiday villa on Aruba manages its bookings in Hospitable, which also keeps the booking platforms in sync. The villa’s own website shows the calendar and the exact price live from that same system, including tourist tax and promo codes, and new reviews appear by themselves. A chat assistant answers guests day and night with real dates and prices, in the owner’s tone, and hands the conversation to the owner when needed.
ResultNo double bookings, and more guests who book direct, at a lower rate and without commission to a platform.
4. A service business with subscriptions
A proposal is signed online. Then the project is created, the first payment set up and the subscription started. The client sees proposals, invoices and packages in their own portal.
ResultFrom yes to payment in a few minutes, without chasing invoices.
5. A webshop
Orders, stock, accounting and the product feed for Google Shopping are connected, and sales are measured on the server instead of only in the browser.
ResultStock is right, the books are up to date, and you see which campaign actually sells, so your budget goes there.
Build, automate, grow
You build connected systems in three layers, in this order. Start with the third layer and you’re building on sand.
| Layer | What it is | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Your digital foundation: a fast website and a portal or web app where your data comes together | One place where everything is right, for you, your team and your customers |
| Automate | Connecting your systems and automating processes, with AI where understanding is needed | Time back, fewer errors, faster to the customer |
| Grow | Measuring what works and steering your marketing on real revenue | Budget that goes to the campaigns that actually sell |
The order matters. Only when your data is right and in one place can you automate well. And only when you know where each customer came from can you steer your marketing on what it brings in instead of on clicks.
What it gets you
The win comes in four forms: time freed up, errors gone, customers helped faster and decisions based on up-to-date numbers. Work it out for your own business:
375 hours
a year, if three people each spend half an hour a day retyping or looking up data, over 250 working days. That’s more than nine working weeks.
And then there’s AI. An AI assistant can only do something useful when it can reach your data. 95% of organizations run into problems fitting AI into their existing processes3MuleSoft (Salesforce), Connectivity Benchmark Report 2025, 2025Harnessing the Future: Integration, AI, and APIs in Digital TransformationOpen the source. Connect your systems now, and you’re also laying the foundation for AI to prepare the work later.
How to approach it
- Draw the route of one customer. From the first click to the paid invoice, and every tool involved.
- Mark every place where someone retypes or looks something up. Those are your leaks.
- Pick the biggest leak. The process that comes back most often or causes the most errors.
- Keep what works, and connect it. Build custom only where your standard tools fall short.
- Make it visible. An overview that’s ready every morning, so you can see it working.
- Expand step by step. Every next process goes faster, because the foundation is already there.
The next step
Software that adapts to your business starts with systems that talk to each other. Why that’s the direction all business software is moving in is in the first part of this series: Is SaaS dead?. What you do with connected systems to turn attention into customers is in the third part: How to engineer attention with AI.
Want to know where most time leaks away in your business? See what automation can do for you, or how a customer portal or web app brings your data together.
Frequently asked questions
Systems that exchange data with each other automatically. Your website, calendar, accounting, payments and marketing work together, so you enter data once, the next step happens by itself and you see in one overview what works.
An API is the digital entrance to a software package. Through an API integration, two systems exchange data automatically, for example your webshop and your accounting: a new order is then ready as an invoice straight away, without anyone retyping anything.
Usually not. Your accounting package, payment provider and mailbox stay as they are. They get connected, and only where your standard tools fall short does a piece of custom software come in, like a portal or a planner.
Almost anything with an API: accounting like Exact Online and Moneybird, payments through Mollie or Stripe, till systems, booking platforms, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, and ad platforms like Google and Meta.
One connection or a first process is often live within a few weeks. Start with the process that costs the most time, then expand step by step. Every next process goes faster, because the foundation is already there.
That depends on the number of systems and what needs to happen. Weigh it against the hours it costs now: three people each retyping for half an hour a day add up to around 375 hours a year. The pricing gives an idea, and a first web app or portal starts at €1,450 one-off.
Yes, when it’s built well. Each connection only gets the access it needs, data is sent encrypted, and you choose services that process data in the EU. Also make sure the accounts are in your name.
Sources
- 1Harvard Business Review, 2022How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?
- 2Visma & Kantar (via Accountant.nl), 2025Veel ondernemers besteden de helft van hun tijd aan administratieve taken
- 3MuleSoft (Salesforce), Connectivity Benchmark Report 2025, 2025Harnessing the Future: Integration, AI, and APIs in Digital Transformation