Just as with everything else, the IT industry is growing all the time and with such growth, there is often multiple software being used for various purposes. The use of the right software for one’s business is often called “putting your business on steroids”. Or as any C-level executive would tell you, it is great to be able to bring ERP, e-commerce, CRM, POS, Shipping and other applications under a single interface. Yet, integrating all these using different models is great but for sure comes with certain challenges.
First, let’s determine what all this means and why is important
Software integration is the process of combining different software and subsystems to create a single system. The manual way of doing several things is now replaced with automation in a single system.
Integration improves business operations and processes, productivity, and quality of the final product. It enables easier communications among IT systems, thus speeding up the flow of information and reducing operating costs.
The software integration process is facilitated by Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). They are functions and procedures which facilitate interaction between different software intermediaries. Some reasons why integrating software is important:
- Improved accessibility of data – integrated software/systems that are forming a single system. All collected data is in one place and it’s easier to get through. Saves time and cost and improves accessibility.
- Error reduction – software integration minimizes errors due to synchronization which means more accurate and complete data. Additionally, the movement of that data is automatic in this integrated system and this itself minimizes errors.
- Quicker business processes – software integration ensures faster and more accurate business processes.
- Improves security – only employees can access data from an integrated system. As such there is better efficiency, better data flow and breaches are minimized.
- Reduction of costs – due to the automation of tasks, the cost is reduced when compared to manually handling the same tasks. Additionally collecting data from scattered unsynchronized database locations is costly and erroneous.
- High employee productivity – when there is software integration, employees won’t have to collect and move data manually with different tools and be looking for different tools to help them.
- Better data flow – with an integrated system there is no manual movement of data which is unproductive and time-consuming.
The main integration types today are iPaaS, aPaaS, and SaaS and each of these serves a different purpose.
iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) is a cloud-based integration solution hosted by a third-party software vendor service. The data integration is mostly happening between Cloud-to-Cloud Applications (eg. Shopify, Salesforce) or Cloud to On-Premise / On-Premise to On-Premise Applications (Hybrid) (eg. SAP Business One). Data is synced in real-time at both ends with the help of data integration. It’s the most profitable way to exchange data within a company internally or externally between an ERP and CRM/eCommerce or Marketplace applications.
The benefit is achieving efficiency and consistency on how quickly the data is processed between applications. The business runs smoothly as all data is updated automatically without much of human intervention.
SaaS (Software as a service) is being hosted by a vendor is made available to customers over a network, usually the internet. On-premise applications that are hosted can be integrated and allow for the free flow of data.
aPaaS (Application platform as a service)allows for rapid application development (faster way to build apps) and delivery with high productivity and high control. The coding process for platforms as a service can slow down delivery, but aPaaS brings automation for the application lifecycle.
A trusted provider of optimized data to brands, manufacturers, distributors, and resellers – that’s who we are. We use both automation and skilled resources to check for data compliance and our system uses automation to further smooth the process. We are providing the back office for global automotive industry data cataloging systems and customer service for your buyers both pre-and post-sale around fitment.
To find out more about how we can help you overcome technical integration challenges or if you want to get online fast and sell more contact us.
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