Using xml-rpc to pull information into Drupal...

I am relatively new to Drupal.

I have a website that I am trying to build that synchronizes, or at least pulls data out of, another database.

This site has two main components: News Releases/Blogs and dynamically generated automotive catalogs. I am planning on using drupal to completely handle the news releases and blogs. However, I have a custom built application that is used throughout our office to handle building the automotive catalogs (each catalog is tied to an automotive sale in our area). The custom application is written in Delphi/C, and has an XML-RPC server built in. It can also natively handle SOAP requests.

I've considered making the cataloging application an online application written as a module in Drupal, but it needs be fast (the reason we wrote it in a compiled language) and it needs to have fairly tight integration with some custom hardware when we go to sale sites...and so we have written it in Delphi/C.

My question is: Is it possible to integrate the custom application into Drupal? Can I make a menu item that queries the external database (possibly via XML-RPC or SOAP) and returns the data to my template? Once I have populated the site with external data, can I dig further into the dynamically generated catalog and look at individual catalog items (again, possibly via XML-RPC or SOAP or some other similar tool) without leaving the site?

I've looked at Services, but I'm not certain that it does what I need.

Does anyone have any ideas? They would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jeremiah