Many digital transformation initiatives are going wrong. In fact, 85% of digital transformations are slowed down or sabotaged by data integration challenges. Why?
Because multiple systems and legacy solutions are roadblocks. The pace of change is increasing. As a result, oftentimes, companies are often disconnected from the data that enables them to comprehend what’s happening with their customers, business workers, and partners. Add to those new regulatory requirements and the simple fact that not everyone has the right skills to meet emerging customers’ expectations. The degree of complexity is huge and increasing at the same time, and the need for speed and agility is compounding.
Traditional data integration solutions can’t keep up for a number of reasons:
- Custom code is brittle. That is to say, it breaks quite easily. And IT integrators always have to go back and fix it.
- Custom code takes time. IT integrators take weeks or months of calendar time to write custom codes and create extensive mappings in order to build data integrations.
- Custom code is a bottleneck because it’s hard to comprehend by many and lacks standardization.
- Custom code is rigid and extremely difficult to scale, so companies get stuck and can’t evolve.
Some Common Digital Transformation Challenges
With these realities in the way, the question is, where do companies start?
Data is at the centre of digital transformation. But currently, it’s very likely that data and processes are fragmented, stored in hundreds of multiple systems and apps – which makes it difficult to unlock that data’s potential.
When a company fails to integrate and unify data, it fails to deliver the value promised to customers and delight them. This is the reason why data integration is the main reason digital transformation initiatives fail.
When traditional data integration methods are used, it requires IT integrators to implement new data connections in weeks or months of calendar time. Meanwhile, customers are forced to wait to connect with business workers. Conversely, business workers fail to address and deliver the promised value to customers on time, putting them into the dilemma of leaving or switching. Consequently, it’s no surprise that business customers are often frustrated by the poor service they experience from service providers.
Drive Digital Transformation Using Self-service
Self-service integration solutions can help companies overcome these challenges and drive their digital transformation initiatives – at speed and scale.
Self-service integration enables non-technical business users to implement data connections in minutes instead of weeks or months. Users can leverage pre-built application connectors, shared templates, dashboards and intuitive screens, and AI-data mapping to integrate and use data faster, enabling companies to improve their ease of doing business and ability to drive value.
Non-technical users can leverage these next-gen solutions to onboard customers up to 80 percent faster. This means they can connect with customers much more quickly. Because non-technical users can connect with customers sooner, they can deliver the value promised to them on time. That delights customers in a way that these happy customers feel encouraged to buy more products or services from the company, thus creating new revenue streams for the business.
What’s more, IT integrators are freed from implementing heavy custom codes and running extensive data mappings flows, and instead focus on other priority projects.
Overall, self-service data integration solutions enable companies to reduce the burden on IT and bring non-technical users to the forefront, delighting customers and driving digital transformation initiatives without delay.