Application integrations help connect different software platforms and data sets. Discover the many ways that removing data silos can increase the power and scalability of business software tools.
What exactly is an application integration?
The first question you’re probably asking yourself if you aren’t already in IT services is “What is an application integration?” Put in its simplest terms, application integration acts as a bridge of sorts to help disparate systems and platforms speak to each other. For example, many businesses run on legacy systems and software that, while powerful, aren’t fully integrated with some of the cloud-based SaaS offerings other departments at your business may use. This can make it difficult to use the information and data from one platform in another, since it generally involves the tedious process of exporting and importing data from one platform to another.
While this process works up until a point, it isn’t the seamless way you’d expect technology to work. However, without application integration, this is the situation you’re stuck in, since many times the disparate platforms you’re looking to use in tandem weren’t even developed with that sort of workflow in mind. That being said, application integration can solve this problem by integrating your financial systems, business intelligence software, CRM tools, e-commerce platform, and more together.
What are the benefits of using an integration within your business app?
One of the biggest benefits of application integration is the ability to work more seamlessly and help your staff become more productive. If your systems are fully integrated together, you have a lot of new capabilities and ways of working that can help you increase your revenue and use data in exciting new ways. This ultimately means that you can be more agile and respond to changes in demand more quickly and efficiently.
Another major benefit of application integration has to do with security and workflow in an age of remote work. With many people working from home currently, you’re likely putting your business at an increased security risk anytime data is downloaded or transferred on a user’s home network. With application integration, security tools and permissions can be layered into a user’s workflow, not to mention the fact that by connecting platforms in the first place, the likelihood that data will need to be pulled decreases as well. All of this means that your team can work more efficiently and securely, even adopting new technologies with ease.