Introduction to integrated data solutions

In today’s world, there are multiple technological services at your fingertips, so choosing web scraping tools or APIs for your company can be tempting. However, all the hidden costs of choosing tools over contracting integrated data solutions that allow us to reduce these costs and make the value chain more efficient are unknown. In this post, we explore some advantages of web scraping services versus canned softwares, and the costs involved with each.

The information collected on the Internet every day acquires more meaning. If used correctly, the strategy can materialize improvements for companies and the services they provide. The data and information every day on the Internet are vast and have various uses. Its volume, ordered and outlined, offers great opportunities for companies.

At this point, web scraping is the technique that is revolutionizing the way of extracting and processing this valuable data. Gradually, this technology is developing and gaining value and trust because every day people see and obtain concrete benefits from it, not only because it allows them to better understand their customers but also to obtain valuable data on the competition and market trends, among many other usages.

A real problem is that the data on web pages are constantly changing and outdated data can lose its value. It is necessary that specialized professionals use the appropriate solution to monitor the information that really interests us and delivers the data according to the unique needs of each client. At this point, the complexities of learning, maintenance, and support are added, which require a professional team to provide the client with the necessary support.

Why do tools, APIs and canned softwares, have hidden costs that we often don’t see?

Using a web scraping tool or API can be tempting. However, the risk involved is that the usual (hidden) costs for the company will increase: this type of solution for the core business will lose meaning. The most common disadvantages of using a tool are:

1. Learning curve: Many web scraping tools have associated coding that takes time to learn and address general problems. Although an expert programmer could learn them gradually and manually, this would not only delay the solutions but many times they would not be oriented to the more strategic problems that need to be solved. It is not enough to have technical mastery of the tool, but rather a vision and strategic understanding of the business in the solution. Learning that may require years of experience and high costs of resources and data management.
2. Constant maintenance: If you wanted to hire an API, your own team would have to configure everything on their platform. This leads to wasted valuable time and resources, slower response times, increased downtime, and integration challenges. On the other hand, most APIs or web scraping tools offer limited support, which can be very frustrating if you run into technical difficulties or need help with any aspect of the process.
3. Scalability of the project: While web scraping tools give you data in a much larger volume than you could collect manually, a closed API or tool offers a fixed number of requests and the amount of data that can be processed. It wouldn’t be too efficient either, it would be unsustainable to work that way even if you have a tech-savvy human team since you would have to configure the tool adapted to each problem that needs to be solved. And, as discussed above, the tools tend to solve general problems, not personalized to each company. In this way, the final result of the process will be affected. It would not have the expected ROI.
4. Flexibility: Although you could create a workflow with several APIs running at the same time and web scraping scripts are highly modifiable, how flexible can you make the tool? Remember that these tools solve some general business problems and the requirements engineering of your business was not configured for them, you do not have the sources of information loaded or the thousands of sites that you need to scrape, nor is the tool going to understand your need to deliver clean, accurate data to you if it’s not 100% configured and integrated.

Scraping Pros: Web scraping solutions integrated into your business

Scraping Pros is a strongly focused service with a team of experienced professionals handling every step of the process for the client. Our team automates tedious manual processes, freeing your company time and resources for other tasks. When integrating this solution into your company, we will guide you through each step of the process without requiring learning time, computing resources, or other extra costs.

As a personalized solution, we carry out a data extraction tailored to each client, integrating the very specific requirements of each client and giving them absolute flexibility for their business. The main advantages of our service are:

1. Economic: Our operating costs are very low in relation to the potential benefits that you will extract from the solutions and the data that you will be able to monitor for your business.
2. Experience: We have more than 15 years of experience in web scraping and with our world-class technical capabilities and resources, we provide high-quality data scraping services.
3. Scalability without hidden maintenance costs: we have the resources and infrastructure to handle large-scale data scraping projects, both for large and medium or small clients, at a low cost.
4. Personalized attention, compliance, and project management: With our personalized service you will have the web data you need in real-time, and you will be able to make informed decisions quickly and safely. We extract the data you need for your business, tailored to each client and with a personalized delivery (including information about competitors and their products, prices, and promotions, among other types of data). In addition, we comply with all the ethical and legal standards of web scraping.

In summary, our solutions are custom-made, provide high quality data, and include unparalleled support and maintenance. You will not have to worry about the complexity and automation of the technology associated with data scraping, and you will free up time and resources to deal with your objectives and strategic goals, without neglecting the technical aspects to achieve them.

The CTO of one of our major clients (a Fortune 500 company) recently shared his experience working with Scraping Pros: “It was a great experience. His professionalism and experience made the entire process seamless and hassle-free. Your team worked with us to understand our needs and developed a custom solution that exceeded our expectations.”

Don’t waste time or money on expensive tools. Start strategically managing and optimizing your business through a custom web scraping solution.