Integration is one of the most strategic investments a business can make today. Yet, it’s often the least thought out and most undervalued.
You’d have to wonder why. After all, IT system integration enables your business to gain a holistic view of your customers, business data, and operational processes. It creates a better customer experience and improves your internal workflow. When done right – you’ll be more efficient, productive, and profitable. So, what’s not to love?
To better understand the business case for system integration, we checked in with our integration engineering and architecture experts to hear their views.
Here’s their top 10 list of business benefits you’ll get from a fully integrated solution:
1. Improved security and authentication
Strategic and well-governed integration practices make it easy for your developers to set up secure authentication and authorisation across a complex application landscape. Enterprise application integration allows you to improve the security of your enterprise data assets, as well as a checkpoint for Zero Trust Architecture. Well-implemented system integration ensures security policies are consistently enforced across all platforms.
2. Access to disparate data for improved analytics and insights
You’ll never throw away data again. Instead, you can configure and integrate it in the integration layer to be processed, analysed, and put in dashboards to gain insights on productivity and opportunities. Enterprise application integration ensures this data is accessible across all platforms, enhancing the analytics capabilities across your entire organisation.
3. Get new products to market, more quickly
When you have an external facing API integration strategy powered by APIs, you can connect external web services or digital capabilities – and roll out products more easily and at speed. API integration accelerates the product development process by making it easier to plug into existing digital ecosystems.
4. Enrich innovation with data mashup and orchestration
With API integration, you can place organisations and solutions in Integration Platforms-as-a-Service. By sharing your data through APIs, you empower others to develop innovative solutions (e.g. faster warehouse processing or better digital health records). Enterprise application integration provides a foundation for building on existing solutions, fostering innovation and collaboration in areas that previously wouldn’t have been considered.
5. Connect the IoT dots
In the old days, enterprise application integration meant complex infrastructure, middleware, and back-end systems. Today, microservices and API integration strategies enable us to integrate all applications, including everything in the cloud layer and wearables. Innovative integrations between devices like Apple Watch, smartphones, and IoT devices are expanding the possibilities for digital services.
6. Unlock and access data for remote teams
IT system integration empowers remote teams by providing instant access to critical information in an instant, as well as supporting staff with company data online and offline. For example, integrating your CRM, OS, and product applications can enable field sales or technology teams to access sales or support material anytime, anywhere thanks to a robust system integration approach.
7. Scale, scale, scale!
Integration enables your business to grow and expand geographically, increase headcount, and boost revenue without overwhelming IT resources. By deeply integrating systems, IT system integration helps ensure that your customers can access information and data from anywhere in the world in real-time.
8. Impress stakeholders with data-driven insights
When executive teams, investors, or M&A teams seek company information, they’ll be impressed by your ability to aggregate data, analyse it, and act on those insights. These insights can include financial data, customer purchasing metrics, business intelligence, real estate information, maintenance insights, and how to improve operational efficiency. A strong system integration infrastructure supports the real-time analysis and presentation of these insights.
9. Improve the customer experience
Most organisations also want to find ways to impress their customers and keep them returning. Having a simple, integrated, and digital experience for ordering, support, and transactions ensures that customers don’t get clogged up on phone lines or so frustrated that you drive them into your competitor’s arms. API integration plays a crucial role in creating that seamless customer experience by integrating external services quickly and efficiently.
10. Open the door for partnering for innovation
Creating new ecosystems that reach new groups through partnerships with complementary organisations fosters innovation. API integration plays a crucial role in this – for example, many digital media services (such as Facebook or television channels) integrate their entire chain of digital media with artificial intelligence partners to continuously optimise revenue and personalise customer experiences. Another example is the integration of neo-banks with traditional banks to enable new and innovative digital banking services.
