Connectivity using Zapier – Manu Online is making a radical change in the availability and ease of making electronic connections to other systems.
We are doing this by joining the emerging industry giant of connectivity, Zapier.
Some of you have already been using our API which allows users to read and write data to your Manu Online account. The kind of projects that we have seen have been mostly for external reporting, for instance building dashboards to Microsoft’s PowerBI, but we have also implemented at least one complex integration into an external warehousing system. Building these applications is relatively simple from a programmatic point of view, but they still require a programming project.
Zapier changes everything regarding connectivity.
We are currently building a “front end” of our API into Zapier and from there it is possible to make connections of certain data flows between different system without having to program. For instance getting your prospects from your CRM into Manu Online or vice versa will be a whole lot easier in the future.
Zapier now has more than 2000 different applications integrated into their product, and several million users.
There are two ways of working with Zapier:
- We at Manu Online will make preformatted integrations (“Zap templates”) that you can use to connect specific systems.
- You can make your own connections to and from Manu Online to any of those other 2000+ systems. You don’t need to be a programmer for this but you will need to be clear of your own data flows and integrity.
First to be released will be integrations to Shopify (the e-commerce platform) and Shipstation (for printing shipping labels etc.). If you have a pet connection that you would like us to make, please contact us and we can see if there is sufficient requirement for so that we could make the template.
Zapier does cost something, but their plans start from free and the costs are just a fraction of the cost of traditional integration projects.
Watch this space
We are currently in “Private” mode with Zapier. As of 13/01/2021 we are in “Public mode”. Find us directly from your Zapier account.
As part of all the current developments, we have upgraded our API technology. The biggest change is a move to OAuth2 authentication (which means much more simple sign-in to apps for end users). We no longer open new accounts for our version 1 API but if you are currently using one there will be a few months where both versions 1 and 2 can be used in parallel. The end date for version 1 support is 31/3/2021.
