Success

So, we are finally ready to look at integrations. Previously, we've discussed our approach - see the connected topic. This time, we want to outline how we are going to deliver integrations.

An integration is basically "when this happens (a trigger) in app 1, then do this (an action) on app 2". 

We're planning to support the following triggers. This means that other apps will know when these things happen and take some action on their own data.

• Contact changed
• Job status changed
• Step status changed
• Service catalogue changed

We're planning to support the following actions. This means other apps can do these things on your data in onkho:

• Add a contact
• Add a job
• Add a task
• Add a service
• Add time to a job
• Change the status on a job or task

We see that there are 3 types of integrations:

• API - this is where we allow other apps to exchange data with us by using a platform that we own
• Hosted - this is where we allow other apps to exchange data with us by using a platform that is owned by someone else e.g. Zapier, Tray, IFTTT etc.
• Logo - this is where we do custom integrations with specific apps 

We plan to target Hosted integrations first, starting with Zapier. Targeting Zapier gives us the widest range of integrations on day one including Xero, Quickbooks, Toggl and Practice Ignition. We hope to have all our triggers and actions ready and published to Zapier by the end of Jan 2020. To be clear though, our ability to publish depends on you! We need a critical mass of users to test the integrations before Zapier will allow us to publish them.

Logo integrations will come second. With logo integrations, we are thinking of going well beyond the norm! We think these should include things like branded widgets, insights and steps. That way you can literally integrate the integration (!!!) into your workflow! An example would be something like "when I click this step, send this Typeform to the client" or "when I complete this step, send this data to GoProposal" etc. We can even do something cool internally like "when I complete this step, the user needs to fill out this data" and we could route that to Inbox for action! Logo integrations will also be where we see apps that aren't available on hosted solutions, like GoProposal, VirtualCabinet etc.

Finally, the icing on the cake will be our API. Not only will it allow other apps to do a "logo integration" with us, it will also allow 2 very new and novel integrations:

• All apps will be able to send messages to your Inbox directly - no more looking for notifications across the whole of your ecosystem! It will put Onkho and Inbox where it adds the most value to you - at the very heart of your app ecosystem. This solves the evolving problem that we see with statuses being across multiple apps and you having to go to each one to find out what's going on. Better to just see it all in one place. We'll also make sure that you can click on a notification and go directly to the app in question. 
• We will centralise security. Instead of remembering that you need to remove ex-team members from every single app you use, they will access all apps via Onkho. That way you disable them in Onkho and you're done!

Does this all make sense? Comments, feedback, questions all welcome!

II came across this in the Xero Mastermind group. To my mind it's kind of a basic approach to proposals and quotes for accountants who use Xero for their own books and records. So a zero cost alternative to proposal apps. Does anyone have a view on this?

Hi Pamela

Practice Ignition integration comes out in a matter of days. That gives us a major footprint in Zapier to accept integrations for quotes/proposals, contacts and general notifications.

When I think of time sheet integrations, I think of the following scenarios:

1. Create a task in the time sheet app when I start an Onkho job
2. Update the time spent on an Onkho job each time I record time in my time sheet app (log the time all the way through)
3. Mark the Onkho job as complete when I say its complete in the time sheet app
4. Mark the time sheet record as complete when I mark the Onkho job as complete
5. Set the total time spent on an Onkho job when I mark it as complete in my time sheet app (log the time at the end)

I had a look at 2 time sheet apps in Zapier:

• Toggl (see https://zapier.com/apps/toggl/integrations) There's no Trigger for when a time entry is completed!
• PomoDoneApp (see https://zapier.com/apps/pomodoneapp/integrations) This does have a Trigger for when an item is complete.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the scenarios? It seems to me that PomoDoneApp is the one that will do the job :(

Our Zapier integration is now in beta. I will be emailing customers to help us publish the integration - we need 10 users to publish. Without that, we cannot.

We released the following integrations as part of this:

• Practice Ignition - you can get the services set up automatically as soon as a proposal is accepted as well as track changes in the proposal status itself
• All app notifications - you can post any messages you like into your Inbox using Zaps e.g. "alert me in ONKHO that something happened in this app" which means you don't have to keep checking other apps :)

Will post more details on each in a separate thread.

@pamela - timesheets are next :) Will be in 2 phases which I will post about shortly.