If your business software integration with Birdeye is broken, some of your automations could be suspended. It could interrupt the smooth running of your business operations, customer communications, and workflows such as review requests, auto-responses, etc.

You may encounter three types of CRM integration errors:

1. File-based broken integrations
2. API-based broken integrations
3. BE Connector (BEC) based broken integrations

To fix a broken integration, see the steps below:

FILE-BASED BROKEN INTEGRATIONS

Setup ‘File Scheduling’ at the aggregator CRM for each business

• Check with the aggregator system whether file scheduling is set up with relevant details for every business like the business number, siteId, etc. depending on the type of integration
• In a few aggregators, you can enable file scheduling setup after receiving an email from Birdeye in a specific format. Make sure that the email has been sent if required

Setup ‘File Scheduling’ within the CRM for each business

• If file scheduling is set up within the CRM, make sure that the files are set up for each trigger needed by the business for the required locations

FIXING A FILE-BASED BROKEN INTEGRATION

• Once the file scheduling is set up, check if Birdeye is receiving the files on the SFTP server corresponding to the aggregator CRM or the business SFTP.
• The file being transferred should have the correct naming conventions as per the requirements of the integration.
• The file should be in a valid format as specified.
• For broken integrations, which were working previously, check if the files are still coming to the corresponding SFTP server or not.

FIXING API-BASED INTEGRATIONS

• For integrations supporting OAuth-based authentication make sure that the authorization has been done by the client from Birdeye dashboard 
• To fix an integration broken due to a missing or incorrect mandatory property, provide the correct details for the integration.
• For integrations broken due to data missing for a long time, check with the client if there is data even been present for that period of time or not
• In the case of multi-location integrations make sure that there are correct and valid identifiers configured at each location to differentiate data for each location.
• CRMs having multiple locations should make sure that Birdeye has been granted access to all those locations where integrations are meant to be set up.
• Integrations that require the authentication of username and password, make sure that the passwords are correct and has required access to get the data from the integration

FIXING BE CONNECTOR (BEC) BASED INTEGRATIONS

• For integrations done through BE Connector, the BE Connector utility installed on the client’s machine, and its connection must be verified. Once verified, it is expected to run uninterruptedly as it is designed to report all potential problems at the time of setup.
• In case of broken integrations, the first step is to check what kind of error has been reported. No connection can be made because the target machine actively refused it

Some of the major cases are listed below:

Machine no longer exists, BEC has been uninstalled - “Integration is broken because either the server is down or the client application is not running properly. Please contact the client and check the setup”. This message indicates that BEC must be installed again. If the server is changed, BEC will allow the user to fetch configuration data at the start of the setup. It will auto-populate everything and the user can recast this connection.
Incorrect configuration or password entered - You can solve it by putting correct information like new/correct passwords. Eg: “401 Unauthorized,Invalid API key”, “Invalid PMS username or password.”

Network errors - Sometimes BEC is installed on one machine and data server is on another and connection is no longer valid. BEC must be moved to a server machine in that case. These kinds of errors can also be solved by restoring the connection between 2 machines. Eg: “No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.”, “Could not connect to the server.”

Integration software has been changed - In this case, you will encounter connectivity errors with existing connections. You need to open BEC and re-verify the connection with the new integration software.

• In the case of multi-location integrations, if data is not getting aggregated for a particular location, make sure that correct and valid identifiers are configured at every location to differentiate the data for each location. This can be done via BEC enterprise setup window.