There might be better solutions, but then again, if what you have is working for you, that should be good enough, I think.
As for suggesting other options, we would need to know more about the gory details. There are plenty of ways to skin this cat, but the exact nature of the cat can mean that some ways works better or worse than others.
As for setting up transactional replication with a third-party system, this is something you need to discuss with the vendor. And if they say no, you should take that as an answer.