Blog | 07 October 2025
How difficult is it to integrate?
Ordering an integration may seem simple – but what does 'an integration' actually mean? And why can the answers from different suppliers differ so much? In this guest blog, Mathias Wrang from B3 – MVP – clarifies the concepts and shows with clear examples how integrations can vary from simple notifications to advanced sub-projects.
"How hard is it to do an integration? And what does it cost?" These are questions we often get as suppliers. They are also questions that you, as a customer, have probably asked – in a tender or in contact with a Sitevision partner. Perhaps you have wanted a price quote and been surprised at how different the answers can be. The reason? The question is interpreted in different ways.
First, let's clarify – what does "an integration" mean?
Let's take an example: a client says they need an integration with Google Calendar. At first glance, this may seem like a clear and concrete request. But what does "an integration" actually mean? Depending on how the supplier interprets the need, the answer can vary – from a few hours of work to an entire sub-project in a week.
The room for interpretation in the question makes it difficult for the supplier to estimate the time and for the client to make an informed decision, when the answers are diffuse or the cost estimates are scattered in different directions. To illustrate the challenge, we can use the example of "an integration with Google's calendar" to imagine three different levels of integration. All three fulfill the requirement of what an integration is, but they have completely different purposes and meet different user needs.
Three levels of integration
- 1. Simple level
At the simplest level, integration can be about showing a notification in the intranet when a new calendar event appears. By having Sitevision make a call to retrieve the number of calendar events and link the notification icon to the Google calendar, you have a working integration. - 2. Intermediate level
At the next level, the integration may involve Sitevision retrieving and displaying all calendar entries from Google. This requires more extensive communication with Google's API, detailed information about each calendar entry and a presentation of the content in a usable way. - 3. Advanced level
The most advanced level allows the user to create or modify calendar entries in Google Calendar directly in the intranet. For example, events can be viewed, meeting invitations accepted and new times suggested – all in one place. This involves not only reading information, but also writing data back, making integration significantly more complex.
Ready-made modules and plugins
"But... isn't the point of Sitevision that there are ready-made modules for this kind of thing?"
Yes, and this particular example has an extra angle. Both Sitevision, partners and third-party product providers often offer ready-made modules and plugins.
To integrate Google Calendar according to the first level in our example, there is a ready-made module in Sitevision Marketplace. Maybe that's what you were referring to in your tender – while a supplier interpreted the question as wanting something more advanced? Or the other way around: that you meant a full listing of calendar events, while someone else just saw it as an installation and configuration of the Marketplace module.
Tips for you as a buyer
In order to get more relevant and comparable answers, you need to think through what the integration is actually supposed to achieve. It's okay not to know all the technical details – that's why you bring in external help.
To support you, you can ask yourself questions like:
- What information needs to be displayed? Is an indication that something has happened enough, or do you need a detailed list?
- Should the system only read information, or also be able to write back to external systems?
- What should happen if the system you are calling is down? Should the surface be completely hidden, should an error message be displayed, or do you want to show the last saved data?
- Are there specific security, authorisation or logging requirements that must be met?
Conclusion – making the comparison easier
You may not have answers to all these questions. That's perfectly fine. The list may even raise completely different questions, depending on whether you want to integrate a time tracking system, a case management system, or perhaps something completely different, like displaying bath temperature.
The more clearly you can describe what you need, the easier it will be for the supplier to make a realistic estimate of both time and cost. And with an informed estimate, it will be easier to compare apples with apples – making your project both easier and, hopefully, more fun!