Introducing Crossfire AI: Next-Generation EDI & API Integration Platform

Crossfire AI is the next release of Crossfire, Sandfield's EDI and API integration platform. We've rebuilt the integration engine and interface from the ground up around a powerful AI integration agent that can take an integration from sample files to live in as little as 9 minutes.

If you run integration at any scale, your options haven't changed much in twenty years. You've had legacy EDI middleware or one of the big global platforms. Both do the job, and plenty of businesses have run on them reliably for a long time.

What makes integration hard today

The trouble is what it takes to run them. These platforms are complex to operate, and that complexity usually sits with one or two people. Every new trading partner, file change or system upgrade goes through them, so requests stack up in a backlog that can sit there for months.

That's a risk as well as a delay. If one of those people leaves, a lot of what they know about how your integrations work leaves with them.

Then there's the licensing. Licensing models typically climb with your message volumes or for minor changes, so the more orders, invoices and shipments you process, the more you pay. You're charged for being busy.

Put together, you end up paying for complexity three times: in licence fees for capability you never use, in the specialists needed to run it, and again every year your volumes grow.

How Crossfire AI solves integration complexity and cost

Crossfire has always been about making integration as simple as possible, and 92% of the integrations built on it so far have been done without code. Crossfire AI takes that a long way further.

We've rebuilt the Crossfire engine and interface from the ground up, centred on an AI mapping agent that builds and validates complex, high-performance integrations across any message format. The agent writes the mapping code in the background, so you don't have to. Because it generates real code, your custom logic isn't limited to what a visual builder can offer.

The redesigned interface also makes day-to-day management easier. A new integration tab lets you see and edit a workflow end to end, and prototype a new integration in the portal before you commit to it. When messages fail or get stuck, you can select every message that matches a filter and reprocess them in one go rather than picking through them one at a time.

How does the AI mapping agent work?

The agent can map, test and set an integration live in as little as 9 minutes, and building one works like a conversation:

1. Give it sample input and output files. It works with XML, JSON, EDIFACT and CSV, and it can learn a custom format from samples.
2. Talk it through your business rules in plain language.
3. The agent writes the mapping logic and runs your tests.
4. It keeps going until the tests pass, or until it needs a business decision from you.

A complex mapping that used to take real time and hand-written code can now be done in minutes. That means an integration backlog can be cleared in days rather than months, and changes that used to be projects can be done in an afternoon.

100 messages per second, on a fraction of the memory and CPU

The new engine compiles and runs mapping logic dynamically in the background, which is how it processes 100 messages a second while using a fraction of the memory and CPU of the previous Crossfire engine. It handles very large payloads without strain and runs comfortably at billion-message-a-year volumes, so there's plenty of room as your trading volumes grow.

How is Crossfire licensed?

For self-service users, Crossfire iPaas is licensed per connection, not per message, so your licence doesn't climb when your volumes do. It's a commercial model that doesn't punish you for growth. We own the Crossfire platform outright, which means we aren't tied to the licensing models the global vendors use, there's no third-party licence to pass on, and your pricing stays predictable as you grow.

If you've priced up integration before and decided it wasn't worth it, now is a good time to take another look.

Two ways to use Crossfire AI

You can have us run your integrations, or run them yourself. Either way you get the benefits from Crossfire AI, and the choice comes down to whether you'd rather hand integration over or keep it in-house.

Crossfire Managed 

Our team uses Crossfire AI to scope, build, and run your integrations for you, with 24/7 global support and monitoring. If you're already a Crossfire Managed customer, your terms and the way you work with us stay the same, and you'll see new integrations and changes delivered faster. All managed customers have access to the Crossfire Customer Portal for visibility and management of orders, invoices and products.

Crossfire iPaaS

Crossfire iPaaS gives your own team direct access to the platform and the Crossfire AI capabilities, so you can build and manage integrations yourself without needing developers. The Crossfire Portal gives you message-level visibility across every integration you run.

See it for yourself

The quickest way to understand what it changes is to watch the mapping agent build an integration, so get in touch with the Crossfire team and we'll show you.

Frequently asked questions

About Crossfire

Crossfire is the integration specialisation of Sandfield, an employee-owned New Zealand software company founded in 1989, with its head office in Auckland and team members in Sydney and Melbourne. Crossfire connects the ERP, inventory, warehouse and accounting systems businesses run on with their trading partners through EDI and API integration, delivered as a fully managed service or through Crossfire iPaaS.

Crossfire has been building integrations for more than 25 years and processes more than 1.4 billion messages a year for customers including Mainfreight, Foodstuffs, DP World and Linfox.

Crossfire customers trade with retailers and logistics partners across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, including Walmart, Tesco, Coles and Woolworths, and the platform supports trading partners in more than 30 countries. Support runs 24/7 with a dedicated team in the Australia and New Zealand time zone, and Sandfield is ISO 27001 certified across the business. You can find out more at crossfireintegration.com.