Why application integrations matter
Software integration ensures that software can communicate to different data feeds across a client’s entire ecosystem. That might include backend systems, apps and websites. So, when you’re asking “why application integrations matter,” what you’re really saying is “why do applications need to talk to other systems?” Today, we’ll look at just that. As a technical development agency, a lot of what we do involves getting systems to talk to each other properly. We do this by ensuring data is in the right format to be usable but also by creating APIs that connect these applications together. But the core of why application integrations matter is really the business benefit, so we’ll dive into that too.
Application integrations in a nutshell
IBM provides an amazing video on this topic and also explains that “application integration helps bridge the gap between existing on-premises systems and fast-evolving cloud-based enterprise applications. Through seamlessly interconnected processes and data exchanges, application integration allows enterprises to orchestrate various functions across their entire infrastructure, enabling businesses to operate more effectively and efficiently.” All this added communication greatly increases the utility and interoperability of your various business process applications.
Benefits of application integrations
As a client, you’re probably not interested in how application integrations actually happen, just that they do. That’s because you’re keen to realise the benefits to operations and organisation that it enables. Here are just a few upsides to application integrations:
Universal access
First, and most obviously, in this fast-paced world, every business wants to access its data quickly, from the cloud, in real-time. The right application integrations will link your own proprietary business process applications with any SaaS or similar tools you use to process data. Linking everything together seamlessly means employees can access information quickly and there’s increased transparency across the business. When you have the right data at the right time, you’re also likely to make smarter and more accurate business decisions, so there is a knock-on benefit to overall productivity and ROI as well
Better retention
Indeed explains that running a business will “involve many tasks, especially data collection, that can be tedious and stressful for employees. Automating these processes means employees no longer manage company or customer data manually. This reduces their workloads and other work-related stress.” The bigger your business is, the more moving parts there are, so even more of them will be repetitive, stressful or tedious. Human beings don’t like doing that sort of work, but machines do. So, the more application integrations you have, the better chance of increased automation as more disparate parts of the business can talk to one another.
Tidier data landscape
One lesser-known benefit of doing an application integration project is a cleaned-up data environment. That makes all of your new software onboarding or future application development more straightforward and increases the insights you can get out of your data in general (because everything is in a usable format). Add to that, the simplicity it brings to regulatory and compliance realms – a surprisingly significant (but often underplayed) upside to application integrations.
If you’re starting to see the many reasons for application integrations, why not talk to us about your workflows today? We can help you understand where there are efficiencies to make and start you on a better, more unified pathway today.
