Quick Guide to NetSuite OpenAir Integration With Only API Connections

Your OpenAir implementation contains a wealth of information. So do your other back-office applications. To get a complete picture of a client, you may need data from your accounting system, ticketing, and CRM, combined with the data you have in OpenAir. Manually pulling that data together is not only challenging and time-consuming; it’s also an open door for errors.

There is a better way. Using Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, it’s possible to create integrations between systems to access the data within OpenAir or from the other applications. Using APIs gives you flexibility in which systems you can connect to and the functionality you can invoke.

Setting up APIs in OpenAir to do what you need can be challenging. Just as challenging is choosing the right integration method. OpenAir offers some powerful integration options that can simplify the process.

Standard OpenAir Integrations vs. API Integrations

It’s important to understand the distinction between the standard integrations that OpenAir offers and API integrations to the platform.

OpenAir offers some integrations already available with the platform. These standard integrations provide connections to NetSuite, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Project.

There are a few other ways to get data from within OpenAir out of the platform for use by other systems. The Business Intelligence Connector, available with OpenAir, extracts data from reports but not from OpenAir directly. OpenAir’s Integration Manager (also known as OpenAir Professional Connector) product is another means of getting data in and out of OpenAir. Automated backups are another method of getting the data out of your OpenAir platform; however, this will give you the entire database and not just specific information or records.

Each of these methods has shortcomings, but probably the biggest concern for many OpenAir users is that these are add-ons to the system. If you don’t have access to these features already, it’s likely because you haven’t paid for them. There are also challenges with flexibility.

APIs, on the other hand, open an entire world of connection and data sharing possibilities. By building an integration between OpenAir and any system with its own API interface, you can create fine-grained and targeted access to data from a multitude of applications, from Salesforce and Slack, to Smartsheet and Quickbooks. Creating APIs, however, also comes with the need for close consideration to choose the right integration method.

API Integration Methods with OpenAir

There are basically three options to connect OpenAir to your other applications: you can use an integration software solution, you can build an integration from scratch, or you can use OpenAir scripting. Depending on your priorities and requirements, each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages.

Using a 3rd party integration software solution offers a robust and relatively straightforward means of integrating two separate systems. Integration platforms offer pre-built connectors that simplify the task of creating the appropriate APIs. Unfortunately, integration solutions can be prohibitively expensive. If you’ve already invested in integration software or are planning to, this may be a good solution for you. If integration software wasn’t something you were already considering, OpenAir integrations probably aren’t where you want to start.

One of the advantages that integration platforms offer is a leg up on API development – some of the work is already done for you. However, you certainly can develop an API from the ground up. This provides the ultimate in flexibility, but it comes at a price. Building an API from scratch can be a long development process requiring skilled software engineering talent. It will also require an OpenAir API key, and that’s an added cost.

OpenAir, however, offers an alternative to these two options. In the last year, OpenAir has begun to offer outbound scripting within the platform. This gives you an existing framework to connect to external APIs, and you won’t need an API key for the OpenAir side of the connection. You’ll still need a key for the system you want to integrate with, and you’ll need someone with JavaScript experience to build the script, but using OpenAir scripting engine eliminates many of the challenges present in the other methods. We talk extensively about the pros and cons of all three in our webinar on APIs in OpenAir.

Things to Know When Using OpenAir’s Scripting for APIs

There are a few things to be aware of when using OpenAir’s scripting to create your APIs.

JavaScript: We’ve already mentioned this, but it’s worth repeating. OpenAir scripting uses JavaScript. While the scripts you’ll create are small and lightweight, you’ll still need someone with experience in JavaScript to create them. Fortunately, that’s a widely available skill, and Top Step can help with these scripts, too.

Access and Security: You’ll need to be able to access the remote system, and those other applications may be using any one of a number of authentication methods, from simple basic authentication to OAuth 2.0.

Governance Limits: There are some limits on API usage from OpenAir. While it’s not common to hit these limits, it’s important to know that they exist and to design your API calls around them if you can. OpenAir will only allow a certain number of API calls a day. They also employ a detailed points system for API calls that your integrations must stay below. Of course, OpenAir offers the ability to pay for higher limits, but most companies can develop well thought out API service calls to avoid the need for this.

There are other considerations as well, which we discuss in our OpenAir API webinar. However, the bottom line is that OpenAir scripting gives you the greatest flexibility in creating integrations to your other applications with the least amount of overhead.

Integrations are powerful tools that reduce the amount of manual data collection needed by providing opportunities for insights that would be difficult to otherwise come by. There are several ways to create the data transfers you need, but in most cases, we highly recommend using the scripting ability within OpenAir. It offers the best of advantages of other integration methods with far fewer disadvantages.

If you have questions on using API scripting in OpenAir or setting up integrations to your other back-office systems, Top Step is here to help.