Sitecore's Data Exchange Framework is a good approach to building repeatable batch integration routines. And while it comes with a lot out of the box that make it easy to create and update Sitecore Items and Contacts, it doesn't give you a lot of out of the box connections that make it easy to get data from other systems.
Sitecore Foundation adds a number of additional tools to the toolbox, the most useful of which is a generic Database Provider which allows you to define endpoints that connect via SQL, OLEDB or ODBC connections and define pipeline steps that specify queries that you can then map to Sitecore Items or even Contacts.
Here is a video of it in action:
Sitecore Foundation has more DXF capabilties that just this. Other features include support RSS feeds, Files (Including Multifile processing, deleting/archiving steps) and some additional Sitecore processing steps to kick off publishing, register contacts in engagement plans and more.