Imagine a working environment where anyone – including non-technical users – can develop a new product, automate workflow and business process, or construct a single version of truth for an enormous dataset. Employees are more productive than ever and customers are better served because IT is no longer a bottleneck. Rather teams residing in the organizations and beyond can unlock value from mission-critical data to deliver projects at a breakneck pace and drive innovation at scale – all without IT support.
All this sounds so appealing but the question is, can it be turned into reality? And the answer is yes, absolutely!
With self-service integration solutions in the picture, empowering users to handle operations and deliver better value to customers without IT assistance is no longer a dream. Truth is, many companies have embraced this digitally transformative technology to create a connected working environment where users are equipped via a library of application connectors, shared templates, centralized dashboard, self-service portals, etc. and IT teams are freed to focus on governance.
In this blog, you’ll find out how self-service integration technology can make business users more productive so that the pressure on IT to intervene reduces.
Self-Service Bolsters Non-Technical Business Users
In the current digital transformation era – driven by increased consumer expectations and constantly changing market conditions – the demand for data integration with business user capability is unprecedented. Such solution distributes integration efforts beyond IT to encompass myriad business functions that depend on connecting applications, data sources, and devices for their day-to-day work. Therefore, the responsibility to streamline these functions does not entirely fall on the shoulder of IT which was the case earlier.
So, with the aid of self-service integration solutions, organizations can enable everyone to become a strategic driver of innovation. While it is clear that self-service solutions help organizations reduce IT dependency, one must know their differentiators and benefits in detail.
Why Self-Serve?
Self-service integration solutions allow non-technical users connect data, applications and services intuitively without putting a lot of burden on valuable IT resources. Besides, these tools bolster’s organizations’s ability to manage and monitor integrations on a centralintegration platform which allows them to maintain the quality and consistency of business demands.
Since IT no longer has to intervene in daily operations, they can maintain controlcentralized governance and security, proffer authorization to integrate apps, and streamline best-practice integrations from one safe place.
The self-service integration platform encompass user-friendly features components such as pre-built application connectors that help non-technical users build data connections and directly exchange information with these applications. These connectors act like braces for users as they can easily exchange data without external help.
Another component that proves useful for IT is pre-built integration template. These templates can be exposed through IT in a business application, without investing a lot of time manually building integrations. Consequently, integration development and implementation time shortens, freeing IT staff from the burden of building and maintaining connections.
Then, self-service integration solutions offer a centralized dashboard that again enables users gain easy, secure data access and view information in real-time without a hitch. Users don’t require specialized skills to gain data access, and they can easily use the information to make insightful decisions using a citizen integrator approach. As a result, IT becomes free from the burden of building integrations and their maintenance to focus on governance and monitoring, making companies easier to do business with.
Self-service solutions also offer support for a set of data protocols such as FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, email, commonly used data formats such as Text, CSV, Excel etc., data maps creation, and much more.
With all these features and functionalities intact, self-service integration solutions allow organizations deliver delightful experiences to consumers without succumbing to IT friction. Plus, self-serving integration needs enable IT to add value as they become equipped to overcome integration project backlogs and help companies’ drive digital transformation.
Customers no more have to wait for IT to acknowledge their demands. Instead, business users can access customer data and extract insights to deliver services accordingly. This whole process is much faster and efficient. Customers become much happier and satisfied. And through their positive word of mouth recommendations, businesses can fuel market expansion and streamline revenue.